Online marketing involves using various web-based platforms to promote products and services. Because there are broader marketing elements available online, marketers and advertisers take advantage of them to increase brand awareness and sales.
The different techniques used in online marketing include search engine optimization or SEO, Google AdWords, social media, email, display advertising, and more. So, it’s time to learn the best online marketing tips from the expert.
In this post, you’ll learn more about using online marketing strategies to grow your small business.
Power To Rank: Embrace SEO Online Marketing
Search engine optimization or SEO helps improve your online presence and website ranking in search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. It’s a valuable marketing strategy that can be combined with other online marketing methods, like social media marketing and email marketing, to drive higher organic or unpaid traffic to your website.
By using an SEO competitive analysis tool, you’ll be able to monitor your website’s metrics, which would then enable you to come up with sound business decisions. The more clicks on your website because of greater visibility online, the more people will explore and engage with your business, which is a great advantage for small businesses.
Here are the reasons why you should implement SEO online marketing in your small business:
- Targets Your Audience: With the right keyword research, you’ll be able to create the best content that is intended for your target audience. For example, you can target an audience in Dallas, Texas, by adding this location on your title, subheadings, or body of your article. Also, you can target the audience by their gender, shopping patterns and behaviors, and other parameters.
- Online Users Tend To Ignore Paid Ads: While paid ads directly impact your sales, a lot of people nowadays ignore paid ads because they are annoying, most especially in mobile devices. By making your website user-friendly, SEO-optimized, and mobile compatible, you can gain more customers for your small business, which would eventually help your business to grow.
- Helps Improve Conversions: The conversion rate of SEO is higher than that of traditional marketing methods. According to a report, SEO has a conversion rate of 14.6 percent, while traditional outbound marketing methods, like direct email or cold-calling, only has a 1.7 percent conversion rate. It means that small business owners can use the power of SEO to drive their business without paying much for paid ads and traditional marketing methods.
Love And Nurture: Build Your Social Media Presence
While it may seem challenging for small businesses to hit the mark on social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it’s a very powerful online marketing strategy you shouldn’t miss. Mind you, a lot of small business owners made it big through social media, like Rachel Dunston of Rachel Bakes More Cake via Instagram.
Also, this year, social media is still considered as one of the best online marketing techniques for businesses. Social media can help you achieve your marketing objectives and avoid wasting time because it’s like a megaphone for any business, telling the online world that your business exists.
Here are some helpful tips to boost your small business sales by nurturing your social media presence:
- Be Active: Did you know that Facebook removes paid ads that don’t have conversations or comments? That’s why you always have to ask questions and be responsive to social media users.
- Connect And Show Appreciation: Thank your followers and customers by also giving recognition to their comments, tweets, and posts. You can also follow, share, and like their messages, a great way to show your appreciation.
- Stand Out So You’ll Be Remembered: In social media, it’s a perfect venue to get personal, to stand out, be unique, inspire, and share your story. It’s not a good place for overly advertorial posts.
Choose Email Marketing: Withstands The Test Of Time
The drawback of most marketing trends is that they’re merely trends but cannot withstand the test of time. While email marketing is not as sexy as social media or as loud as content marketing, the data you obtain from email marketing is actually a powerful marketing force.
Nothing beats customer data and being able to contact them through their email directly. That’s why in any online platform, whether it’s YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, or any other social media channel or website that requires you to sign-in, an email address is always a requirement.
Here are some helpful email marketing tips that will boost results for your small business:
- Increase Email Readability: In the “sender” field, you should use a real person’s name (as one of your employees or managers) instead of your brand or company name. It will make your email more friendly and less advertorial in nature, thus enticing the receiver to read it than putting it in the trash right away.
- Personalize Your Email: Whether you’re sending an email to a few or several people, make sure to personalize the content. The key is using conversational words instead of stiff, formal sentences.
- Use Power Words: These words are specifically used to inspire or catch the attention of the receiver. Some examples of power words include the following: back in stock, congratulations, last chance, top stories, 24-hour giveaway, exclusive, and expiring soon.
Serve Your Best Menu: Content Marketing
Even before the Internet was discovered, content marketing was already thriving. It’s a classic form of traditional content marketing. And, with the digital age, content marketing still plays a vital role in the success of a small business. While content marketing doesn’t provide instant results, like SEO, it’s a very effective way to gain organic traffic and gain customers’ trust and loyalty.
Conclusion
The best online marketing strategies for small businesses include search engine optimization or SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing. These three techniques, when combined, create a mighty marketing strategy for any small business without wasting too much time, money, and effort.
If you want your small business to be highly visible online and earn higher sales every month, you have to embrace the most effective online marketing strategies that are suitable for your business niche. Learn what your target audience needs and wants, and use online marketing as a great tool to achieve your business goals.