Internet has taken the world by a storm due to the advantages and features it provides to everyone. Whether you want to search for a product or you wish to sell your products or services to people, internet is the best medium available today. No matter what is the business size, a start up or established brand, everyone is utilizing internet for selling their products or services. Internet today provides anything to everything of your need.
Putting your business online has a large number of advantages as your outreach becomes global because a great percentage of world population uses internet. If you are a businessman, you will also love if your business that reached to thousands of people, now will reach millions of people. Online marketing is the ultimate solution available for you as it can provide your business with a large audience base and enhance your business sales. There are a lot of marketing techniques available today, which can confuse you a bit as to which ones you should go for. All these techniques offer fruitful results to you business and we are going to have a look at the top marketing techniques to make the process of selection of perfect online marketing technique easier for you.
Online marketing has seen an explosive rise with the wide-spread popularity of e-commerce in the past few years. Businesses that are absent online are virtually non-existent and practically local in their coverage. Even small businesses need to make an online mark in order to gain credibility.
With a live internet business comes the responsibility to promote it to wider demographics. Gone are the days of door-to-door sales and publicity. The internet has now become the grandest tool to help businesses flourish and create new ecosystems. Online marketing has established itself as a necessity for businesses to reach newer heights.
Here are six strategies trending in 2020, for online marketing of your business:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is basically an online marketing that involves optimizing your website and its content in such a way that you website is shown in the top results of search engine result pages (SERPs). SEO is one of the most effective methods of promoting your business as people love to search for products and services online using popular search engines like Google.
With SEO, you can make sure that your business website is shown in the top search engine results whenever a keyword is searched online about a service or product your website has. Therefore SEO optimization is really necessary for your business as better ranking results in better rates of lead conversion and enhanced business sales.
Search Engine Optimization includes-
- Optimization of content, keywords and website design
- Building links to ensure better traffic and advance conversion rate
- Optimizing good quality images, graphics and infographics
- Link social media accounts
- Analytics and Reporting to keep an eye on the audience engagement
2. Email Marketing
One of the oldest ways of online communication is Email and it still stands strong in the world market. Email was firstly used for just communicating but in past few years the idea of Email Marketing has changed the way businesses are done. Email marketing helps you to reach directly the inbox of your potential customers.
In a survey, it was found that emails are one of the most checked things online. So you can just send promotional offers, newsletters of your company, product listings and discount offers & coupons directly on the email of users, which increases the chances of lead conversion and business sales. Emails can easily demonstrate your business products and services.
E-Mail Marketing includes:
- Categorisation of e-mail lists of customers based on gender, age and search history.
- Incorporation of personalized preferences and language to make the e-mail more personal and intimate.
- Use of high-quality images and graphics to make it more attractive.
- Inclusion of weekly or fortnightly newsletters for giving updates about new products and services.
3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media has become an inseparable part of maximum percentage of population around the world. Because of such a large user base, Social Media Marketing has become the ultimate platform for business promotion online. Social Media not only helps you to stay in touch with your potential customers but also helps in building a huge customer base for better sales and enhanced lead conversion.
SMM has become the de facto of online business promotion as it helps in creating brand value, reputation, customer services and enhanced trade chances on a global scale. With the increasing marketing competition, integration of social media promotion in your online business promotion has become quite important.
Social Media Marketing includes:
- Building brand value by creating official accounts on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
- Incorporating social media platforms in business websites encouraging the customers to share your products.
- Advertisement and paid promotion on social media channels.
- Regular engagement with customers by posting new social content regularly.
4. Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)
PPC is a paid marketing technique in which you have to pay for every click made on your link and thus you only have to pay for relevant visitors. PPC helps in increasing the rate of relevant traffic to your website very efficiently. Another advantage of PPC is high return on investment or ROI, which helps in gaining more profitable results for your business. PPC has proven to be fruitful and effective for many online businesses and with industrial experience, you can easily earn online more than you ever thought of.
PPC helps in getting the most relevant targeted traffic to your website increasing the chances of sales by a great amount. You can even decide to have extra-effective filtered promotion i.e. according to age, demographics, area and time. PPC can be a great add-on to your already undergoing SEO, making it more effective and profitable. The cost of keywords and how much you want to spend can be decided by you to take care of your budget as well.
Pay Per Click marketing includes:
- Google AdWords helps in increasing online traffic to your website.
- Display advertising, which includes- display of banners and ads with high-quality graphics.
- Paid social media ads for promotional campaigns.
- Google Shopping ads and Bing ads- display your business ads on top of the search results page to secure more clicks from potential customers.
5. Videos as an Online Marketing Tool
Videos have become the new trend for online promotional campaigns as audience have become more visually driven rather than simple text or images. Surveys even show that the websites that have incorporated videos into their websites have shown a rapid increase in the audience base as well as in the conversion rate. Whether it is YouTube or Facebook, all these platforms are showing video ads which have proven to engage the customers better because static images don’t explain or demonstrate the products or services as videos do.
These videos can even be shown according to various attributes like age, gender, area or trends etc, making these more effective. Thus, this is one of the finest techniques for online marketing of your business available today.
Video Marketing includes:
- Informational videos regarding the products or services.
- ‘How to’ videos on the correct usability of product or services.
- Feedback and review videos.
- Unboxing videos featuring products, showcasing their specialities.
6. Tie-ups and Influencer-partnerships
Influencers are the biggest marketing instruments a business can find in recent days. They have millions of loyal followers that can translate into a huge market for brands. Partnership with the right influencers can bring a sizable increase in the profits.
Tie-ins with similar businesses and brands for promotional offers and discounts attract a wider demographic and possible returning customers. It is a wise idea to keep some marketing budget aside for this strategy in your complete plan and organization.
Tie-ups and Influencer-partnerships include:
- Promotional campaigns with one or more than one social media influencer for a fixed duration.
- Discounts kept for avail, especially for the followers of the influencer-partner.
- Tie-ups with complementary products to either provide discounts, or free products or services for promotional practices.
Conclusion
All these techniques have been formed after years of surveys and improvements. Most of these techniques work best for small scale, medium scale as well as large scale businesses. With the increase in the number of businesses shifting online each day, the competition has reached its peak level. To stand tall in such a crowded market, build your loyal audience base by utilizing these marketing techniques and strategies.