The Ins and Outs of Web Marketing
Quick Navigation
- What Is Web Marketing?
- The Benefits of Marketing
- 5 Reasons to Focus on Web Marketing
- What Is Web Marketing Strategy
- Different Types of Web Marketing
- How to Get Started With Web Marketing
- Drawbacks to Online Marketing
- Resources for Online Marketing Websites
In the digital age, attracting visitors to your website is vital to attracting qualified buyers to grow your business and increase your revenue. That is where web marketing comes into play. Web marketing is an essential tool in your marketing campaign, as it can help you reach a wider audience for a lower cost than other traditional marketing methods. Below we’ll look more closely at what web marketing is, how it can help your business, and how best to get started.
What Is Web Marketing?
Web marketing is the act of using the internet to market your business. This can include a wide range of marketing avenues, such as blogs, videos, webpages, search engines, emails, and social media. Web marketing is increasing in popularity as it is a relatively easy way to reach many people and connect with highly specified target markets. Under the web marketing umbrella, you will find marketing vehicles such as banner ads, social media sharing, and email promotions, to name a few.
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The Benefits of Marketing
Online web marketing comes with many benefits both in terms of the number of potential customers that can be reached as well as the limited cost required to get started.
It Is Cost-Effective
Traditional methods of marketing can be extremely costly, especially for smaller businesses that likely have a smaller marketing budget. Radio, television, and even print ads can cost anywhere from a couple of thousand to tens of thousands of dollars for a successful campaign. Social media and web banner ads are a fraction of the cost and tend to be more targeted than traditional methods. Additionally, you can easily expand your web reach without increasing the cost exponentially.
It Is Better Focused
Different forms of web marketing will let you target a specified demographic to help you drill down on your potential leads and boost your ROI. Targeting a specific demographic is simple online. You can advertise your business on websites, forums, and social media platforms that you feel your potential leads would likely visit. This can help you to target customers by their interest in a specific industry, their geographic location, and even their age.
It Builds Relationships
Online marketing is designed to provide your customers with the information they are looking to satisfy a want or a need. In fact, that is why many people turn to the internet in the first place, to get more information on a product or service. While it may seem like the web is filled with a lot of excess noise that consumers avoid, if you do your web marketing properly, you will be connected with the people you can help by offering the solutions they are in search of.
It Is Adaptable and Editable
With print, radio, or television ads, making changes can be difficult and extremely costly. With web marketing, changing an ad can be as simple as logging in, making the changes, and re-posting. This can be ideal to keep up with changes and make necessary tweaks to your marketing that you need to achieve your final goals, whether it is changing the pricing, adding products, or featuring a sale.
It Is Easy to Measure
To determine whether or not any type of marketing campaign has been successful, you will need to determine the ROI. The fact that online marketing is measurable is significant because it can determine what campaign is working and where your budget dollars may best be spent.
By using analytic tools, you will be able to see where your leads are coming from and how they interact with your site and what information they may seem to gravitate to.
5 Reasons to Focus on Web Marketing
While the benefits to online web marketing are clear, some important reasons are to put some of your marketing focus into the online space.
- It will help you to better connect with your customers.
- You can develop customer loyalty which can drive your brand image forward.
- You can set yourself up as an industry expert through strategic web marketing.
- Your message can reach potential customers no matter where they are or what they are doing.
- Web marketing can complement and give added energy to a current marketing campaign.
What Is Web Marketing Strategy?
Web marketing strategies involve similar components to a traditional marketing strategy, except that it will rely on digital marketing channels. You will need to define your target market and buyer persona and come up with content based on your company’s strengths and ways that you can solve problems that your target market likely struggles with. You will then define the digital marketing channels you plan to use to spread that message and deliver the content.
Different Types of Web Marketing
While there are many types of web marketing available, there are some more prominent ones that most marketers will focus on and can help provide a solid ROI. While these are just some of the types of online marketing, they are considered the most effective.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a widely-used marketing form that provides prospective customers’ information about products, services, and promotions. You can purchase email lists to fit your specific target demographic or use a signup method on your website for prospects to begin receiving emails.
This type of online marketing is considered highly targeted, which provides a better ROI. One dollar spent on email marketing can generate between $35 and $40 in ROI. The only drawback to this method is that people may receive a significant amount of emails a day and not take the time to open all of them.
Content Marketing
Another effective web marketing tool is content. The main draw for content is that most people spend their time online searching for something. Sometimes they may be looking for answers to a question, sometimes for entertainment, and other times to solve their problems.
Companies can create their own content to educate their visitors and guide them through their buyer’s journey. As long as the information is relevant, up-to-date, engaging, and easy to digest, it will draw in leads that may not have given your site a second look. In fact, companies that regularly post content to their webpages are likely to see four times more traffic on average.
Social Media Marketing
Social media engagement can generate a lot of traffic. With more and more social outlets and users signing up every day, it is becoming a popular option for targeting prospective leads. This form of marketing is less expensive, making getting started simple and making it the ideal option for companies with a smaller budget.
SEO
Search engine optimization, often more simply referred to as SEO, can help companies gain more traffic and achieve higher search rankings to be in front of more people. SEO involves structuring your data to follow the properties that search engines like Google look for, providing valuable reader content, and touching on keywords relevant to the content being presented.
Google Ads
Google Ads, also referred to as paid-per-click advertising, allows companies to pay to hold a position above the organically returned results in a search. This can be the ideal avenue for businesses in a highly competitive market where showing up first can help them get an edge on the competition.
What’s even better is the person will already be searching for information on your page, which means they will likely stop at your site early on in their search. The pay-per-click model allows this type of marketing to be effective as you will only pay for the ad when traffic actually clicks onto your site.
Display Ads
Display ads are a great way to promote your company by advertising on other web pages that your target audience is likely to visit. Typically the hosting site will charge a fee for you to place the ad. The amount you pay will largely depend on the ad’s size and where it is placed on the page. This type of marketing aims to capture the attention of your target audience and prompt them to click on the ad to take them to a landing page for possible conversion.
Re-Targeting
Buying decisions are not always made on a whim. In fact, most buyers will visit a website an average of two to four times before they commit to a product or service. Re-targeting is a marketing strategy that brings back leads that have shown interest in your site and clicked away without taking it to the next level. The purpose is to pull them back into the sales funnel.
Tracking cookies can help you to monitor visitors and their interaction with your site. You can then try to reengage them by prompting a banner ad for your company to appear on the other sites they visit, keeping a constant reminder of your company in front of them. The hope is that they will click on it and begin engaging with your website.
Re-targeting can be a very successful form of marking. It is estimated that 98% of users who didn’t convert on the first visit may engage a second time through re-targeted marketing.
How to Get Started With Web Marketing
When you have decided to go to the web for marketing, as with any strategy, the best starting point is coming up with a well-thought-out and solid plan. By having a strong plan, you will better stay on task, track your efforts, and measure ROI. Below are a few tips to help you get started with your website’s online marketing plan.
Determine Your Goals
Start by asking yourself what you wish to achieve with your online marketing. While for most companies, the end goal is to get more revenue, try to set some more specific goals as well. Do you want to increase the traffic to your website? Or perhaps you have the traffic but are looking to target more qualified leads. Maybe you want to start a more solid social media following.
Know Your Buyer
The key to connecting with your buyer is having insight into their wants and needs to help them find the solutions to the pain points that they might experience. Targeting specific buyer personas through online means is easier than other methods because their online activities can provide you with information about what they commonly search for. Take your time when drafting your buyers’ persona, being sure to create a well-rounded picture of the different people who could benefit and be interested in the products and services you have to offer.
Decide on Your Tools
Once you have decided on some goals and defined your buyer personas you can then choose which tools will be most effective for attracting your target audience and helping you to achieve your ultimate marketing goals.
There are many choices when it comes to tools and channels to implement your marketing campaign. Your best course of action is to determine which channels are most frequented by your target audience. Then determine which out of those can effectively get your message across. This will be a great starting point. Remember that you can always increase your channels but it is important to never take on more than you can develop and properly nurture.
Create Your Message
With your tools in place, it is time to focus on your branding message. A brand message should be consistent through all of your marketing, be succinct, and be designed to help build both brand recognition and loyalty. Start by determining what you most want your potential customers to remember and associate with your company. Then be sure to share the same message across all of your channels. Make sure that you focus on one message and it is clearly portrayed through all aspects of your online presence.
Get Organized
Your plan is in place, your message is crafted, and you are ready to make your foray into the online world. The next step is to get organized so you can deliver your message in a consistent fashion and keep readers engaged throughout the entire buying process. Start by determining who will be in charge of your online presence and marketing efforts. This could be someone on staff or even an outside agency.
Create a content calendar that will plan and organize your blog posts, social media, SEO strategies, and other online marketing information. After your calendar is in place, be proactive to get your content drafted so that you can stay on track with your posting schedule.
Check Your Progress
For marketers, this can be one of the most exciting parts of the process. That is measuring the results of all your efforts. Marketing online provides some of the easiest ways to track ROI. Determine which analytics relate to your goals and check in once a month or more frequently to see if you are hitting your goals.
If you have been successful, you may want to consider branching out your marketing efforts or continuing to promote your company as you have been. If you are falling short of your goals, now is the perfect time to review your plan, channels, personas, and content to find out what may need to be revamped to help get you back on track to meet your goals.
Drawbacks to Online Marketing
While there are many benefits and opportunities that come with marketing your business online, there can be some challenges when solely focusing on the marketing web. Some of the challenges that you may face when using the web for marketing include:
- It can become impersonal. The virtual nature of web marketing can make it seem less personal than other methods.
- Strategies require a knowledgeable facilitator. Random posting, poorly crafted content or a lack of a strategy can actually turn off potential customers. For web marketing to be effective, you will need to have someone handling it that can be consistent and understands the online marketing process.
- The online market can be extremely competitive. In some industries, the online market can be so crowded and competitive that it takes a lot of effort not to get lost in the shuffle.
Resources for Online Marketing Websites
Since it can take a lot of time to develop a web presence and effective web marketing plan, it is important to take advantage of available resources whenever possible. Below are a handful of resources that can benefit internet marketing websites by helping them to reach more leads via search or networking.
Google My Business
“Google me,” has become a common term when telling someone to find out more about you. While this works for businesses as well. In fact, most consumers’ first instinct is to Google a business that they are considering working with. When they find your company, the last thing you want is there to be wrong or incomplete information. Google My Business can help you to make sure that your information is updated from map location to hours of operation.
Facebook is becoming more and more a part of the online consumer experience as prospective customers look to it for reviews on products and services, advertisements, and answers to their questions. Make sure that your Facebook page provides visitors with a wealth of information that they will likely find valuable and that the page is clean and contains all the needed information about your company. Facebook is also a great place to share your posts, videos, and company and product updates.
Yelp
One of the most popular sites that consumers go to when looking for reviews is Yelp. In fact, when you Google a company, if they have reviews, Yelp is likely to pop up in the search results. Review sites can sometimes give business owners anxiety, as they never know what to expect from customers. But by waiting around to make use of these sites, you may be wasting an important opportunity.
Go to Yelp and claim your listing. Then be sure to direct your satisfied customers there to leave you a favorable review. This will be vital if you ever have a poor review as the good ones will outweigh it and will show the positive side of your company. Nothing is worse than having a Yelp page with only one or two reviews that are both negative.
Twitter is not only a good way to help you network with other industry members, but it is also becoming a popular channel for business promotion. By signing up on Twitter for Business page you will be walked through the simple steps of developing an effective Twitter presence for your company.
Once you have set your account up you can use your online marketing plan to gain followers. The more followers you have, the more times your content and message will be shared, so posting to the channel regularly is the key to gaining more leads, and in turn, more conversion.
Utilizing these online resources to your advantage can help to increase your visitors and social media following and hopefully lead to a higher rate of conversions. Also, take the time to focus on networking sites that are specific to your industry as they can be greater resources for potential leads already in your target demographic. What’s even better is that all of these resources are free, which will allow you to improve your online marketing plan without putting a strain on your budget.
Living in the digital age website and online marketing is becoming a must for any type of business, but with so many businesses taking advantage of digital mediums it can sometimes be hard to stand out in the pack. Focus on your online marketing plan by clearly defining goals, personas, content, and internet channels which will help provide you with a more robust plan that can be effective in even in the crowded digital space.
CopyPress writer
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