Talking about building internet marketing strategies for businesses is one of my favorite things.
54 percent of businesses view email as the most effective form of internet marketing, according to a study from Ascend2. However, a number of other types of internet marketing tactics aren’t far behind.
Also, more than 40 percent of the businesses surveyed believe optimized websites and blogs, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media are among the most successful online marketing tactics.
Therefore, are you making the most of the opportunity of online marketing?
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With so many potential buyers actively using search engines, websites, apps and social media to decide on the best product or service, you have to be visible and provide the best experience to help them choose your brand.
But online marketing is not easy, competition is tough, with many online marketing tools and techniques to choose from, so you need to make the smart online marketing strategies.
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You may have email marketing campaigns, newsletter marketing campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, online advertising campaigns running parallel to each other, but it is important to ask a few questions about your internet marketing strategies before continuing in the same old direction.
In the long run, the goal of a successful marketing strategy is to make it entirely self-sustaining. Without a proper internet marketing strategy, you potentially stand to lose out on online market shares, online value propositions, online customers, resources such as time and money.
You also stand to lose out on optimization opportunities and opportunities for improvement. Consequently, you should try to measure the effectiveness of your strategies against certain fixed goals and achievements. You could, for instance, see how you stack up against your competitors and evaluate your rate of growth accordingly.
Ask yourself, and answer, some questions about the brand’s value proposition, goals and strategies of growth, marketing channels that are currently under-utilized by your company. Check which of these fits best with your profile and requirements.
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As internet marketing is becoming more and more necessary for a company, not understanding the best way to drive your business forward can really hurt your chances of success especially in Nigeria.
In a world where attention is currency, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to attract the eyes and ears of your target market.
Not only are you up against larger companies with nicely funded marketing departments, you’re also competing with social media and a multitude of other distractions for the attention of your prospects.
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But that doesn’t mean your marketing efforts have to cost a ton of money or be overly dramatic in order to stand out from the crowd.
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In order to achieve all of their goals, there are a number of challenges businesses are facing. The most challenging obstacle to success is clearly the lack of effective internet marketing strategies.
Among the other challenges business must overcome to achieve better internet marketing results include a lack of training and expertise, an inability to prove a return on investment and increasing competition.
Therefore, if you are looking for a way to improve your internet marketing efforts, here are 10 of the highest performing internet marketing strategies that can bring more people to your website, allow you to connect with new or returning customers and make sales.
Use the right web design
We don’t often think about web design as a marketing tactic, but it can influence the amount of time and attention a user will spend on your page.
Your website is the center of all your digital marketing efforts, so if your page is not clean, easy to read, and interesting, it won’t matter how much time you put into strategy development – you’re still going to lose customers.
Create a website that is up-to-date, attention-grabbing, and most of all, mobile friendly.
Although most businesses have websites, it’s necessary for owners to take a step back and review the website through the eyes of a consumer.
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Too often people assume that website visitors have a certain level of company knowledge, or that they speak the same jargon’s. That’s not always the case.
For example, a financial company writes about their services using insider jargon that neither target audience will understand the company’s mission. How do they expect
A company website is useless if it doesn’t have the information your target audience need. On the most basic level, this should include what your company does, in-depth product or service information, prices associated with your services, and contact information.
It’s actually astonishing how often companies, both large and small, don’t do this.
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Oftentimes, we get so wrapped up in our industry that we forget that others, especially customers, don’t necessarily use the same terms as us. By using terms that are different from those of your target audience, your organic traffic will suffer and your website won’t be nearly as effective.
Use keyword research to validate your findings and use this language on the website.
Remember that your brand position is at the heart of this language and content. You want to talk about your core competencies in a language that’s accessible, but through the lens of what makes you different.
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The content and language need to be there for your audience, but use the defining aspects of your brand to spice it up.
Utilize search engine marketing and optimization
Search engine optimization allows your name and website to appear on a list of search engine results.
With a strong SEO strategy, your company website will become associated with the keywords used to find your services.
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This increases your chances of being the company an individual chooses to work with when selecting a company that offers your services or products.
Use email marketing as part of your internet marketing strategies
It isn’t enough to just send out emails. You will want to consider various email lists that cater to the specific needs of each individual and can present a personalized approach to your campaign.
Take a hard and clear look at the purchasing habits of your customers and use that information to develop your internet marketing strategies.
An opt-in email list allows customers to come to you and sign up to receive email campaigns and correspondence. This allows you to connect with new customers or clients.
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Email marketing isn’t an effective method of gaining new customers, but is a great avenue for businesses trying to increase retention or brand loyalty. If this is your goal, make sure your emails contain value.
For example, you open email from your doctor’s office reminding you about an appointment or from a local ice cream shop that offers discounts because these emails contain value.
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When people open these emails, their lives get easier or they’re given something that gives them tangible value. It’s vital that your email marketing communications do the same whether it be content or deals.
Use articles or news stories
Alongside a competent marketing strategy you also require a good content strategy. The three important ideas behind it are: content type, the time of day, and the number of posts per day/week.
Having your name and information listed in other locations on the web can help you grow your company and business.
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This makes your name visible in an area where customers and clients are already looking and also allows you to become a trusted source of products or services.
In the online marketing world, content is king. Google wants you to deliver value to your site visitors and unique content is one way of going about this.
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Building a content strategy isn’t easy though. You don’t want to write the same thing that everyone else in your industry is writing about.
There’s no unique value in that, and because your site likely isn’t strong from a domain authority perspective (yet!), you’ll usually find it difficult to rank against the big sites who are writing the same content.
Instead, you’ll need to take stances on issues or solve your clients’ unique problems, giving them a reason to keep coming back to your site. If you can do this, great, but don’t just write content for the sake of it.
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Write online press releases
When you use online press releases, you’re getting your information out there in a formal setting. This allows newspapers, blogs, or other media sources to see your information and write posts about your company without you needing to put in the effort to connect and claim a story.
Use contests and giveaways
People love contests and giveaways. Anytime you can encourage marketing from your customers in exchange for a free product or service, you will usually see a surge in purchases or connections.
Maintain a blog as your internet marketing strategies
Your blog should be used for a number of reasons, including allowing you to consistently post new keywords and optimize your search engine strategy.
More than that, your blog becomes somewhere you can offer advice, share bits of information, and really connect with your customers. A lasting relationship begins with trust and your blog is a great way to build that.
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Strong online marketing strategies will help you boost your business and start seeing more customers, connections, and clients.
Talk to your customers
Ask your customers, what do you like about our company? What don’t you like? Why did you choose us over our competitors?
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What are your pain points? When you listen to customers talk about your business, you’ll have a better understanding of the aspects of your company that resonate with people and what should be reflected in your brand messaging.
Do competitor research
Take a look at your competitors’ websites. Ask yourself what are they doing well? What aren’t they doing well? How do they talk about their company? You’re looking for holes in your industry, a way to make your company different than your competitors.
Platforms
Here’s a simple example, LinkedIn is for professionals. Consider your target group, and choose whether you want to advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
Time is also important e.g. Facebook users have 32% more engagement on social media on Sundays over any other day, with the best time for posts being between 12 and 1 pm.
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Social media can be a really effective way of engaging consumers and building brand loyalty, but I normally only suggest starting a social strategy once a company has built out their brand and website.
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You’re going to need unique content, images, or deals in order to have a social marketing strategy. It’s often easier to start in other areas and build a catalog of resources before you launch into social.
Once you have content to share, decide which social platforms best fit your company’s mission. For example, LinkedIn and Twitter are usually better for B2B while Facebook is better for B2C.
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Just like you don’t have to chase every marketing strategy, you don’t have to have a social campaign for every platform. Concentrate on the one or two that will best reach your audience. Make sure the content you’re sharing will do well on that platform.
For Facebook and Pinterest, you’ll need image based content while Twitter and LinkedIn will be best for article-based content or quick updates.
Conclusion
A successful marketing strategy is based on various metrics including target group, medium of advertising, and consequent testing mechanisms. The process is constantly growing and changing with time, making it essential to adapt as the days go by.
However, keeping these pointers in mind, any marketing consultant can identify the ways of tracking online marketing strategy effectiveness.
Consequently, they can also discover parameters on which to align business goals and help their businesses grow furthermore.
Therefore, start by figuring out what makes your company different and communicating that. In my experience, this alone will put you ahead of many of your business counterparts.
Then it’s time to think about your customers’ needs and how you’ll address them. Having content that’s valuable to your customers and their problems, content they’ll actually want to consume.
Now that you’ve got the content, decide which marketing strategies will be most likely to help you reach your target audience.
Just remember that you don’t have to over extend yourself and use every possible marketing channel to do this.
Tell me about your business internet marketing strategy adventures in the comment box below.
The post 10 incredible internet marketing strategies that work for businesses in Nigeria appeared first on NATIVEDGE.