When it comes to online marketing, do you feel like you might as well be learning a foreign language? You know you need to be incorporating this type of marketing into your business initiatives, but you feel confused or overwhelmed, even wondering, “Where do I start?” Not to worry, no matter where you are in your digital-marketing know-how, this basic overview will have you up and running in no time.
Learn the language of online marketing with these 5 tools to kick-start your marketing efforts:
Engaging Website
Unfortunately, the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” doesn’t apply to every situation. The truth is, people will begin forming opinions about your company from the second they find you online. Therefore, the very first thing you need to do is develop an appealing website that reflects your business, services, and personality. Make sure the website is easy to use and can be quickly understood by a typical customer.
Consistent Blogs
Once you have developed a perfectly tailored website for your business, you’ll need to feature consistent blogs and content. Not only can an engaging blog draw in more viewers, but it can also increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts … it’s a double whammy! Blogs should reflect topics related to your business or current industry trends, and integrate keywords. To start, shoot for posting a minimum of one new post a month. And if you’re really looking to catch your readers’ attention, infographics are a key tool to engage readers and increase SEO.
Social Media Engagement
There is no better way to directly reach your customers than with social media engagement. By building a community on social media platforms like Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook, you can create relationships with existing customers and attract new business. But simply creating accounts and profiles isn’t enough: you have to be active! .
Email Marketing
Believe it or not, email marketing still remains a strong and viable marketing tool, despite the attention given to social media and blogging. Email allows your business to develop a valuable database of contacts. These contacts can be segmented into different groups (like new customers, prospects, etc.) for sending interest-based marketing campaigns. Regular emails keep your company fresh in the minds of your customers … especially when exclusive offers are included.
SEO
Can you even remember the last time you looked past the first page of Google after you conduct a search? Our guess is you probably can’t. This is why SEO is so important for your company, as it increases the chances that a potential customer will visit your website (versus clicking on your competitor’s website). There are simple things you can do to increase your SEO efforts, but if you want to increase sales and take your business to the next level, consider hiring an outside source.
While organizing and implementing an online marketing campaign can be complicated, these tools will help get you started. Still have questions, or do you need assistance kicking your efforts into gear? We’d love to help. Request a free consult.
