7 Proven Online Marketing Strategies
Are you wondering how to make your online marketing strategy work? Many businesses struggle. They are not sure on how to advertise their services or products so that they can get enough conversions. They also often think that this is not effective. Here are some of the best online marketing strategies.
With the right online marketing strategy, you can get plenty of conversions, wider reach and many more benefits
Invest in a good web design
One of the first few things your potential customers are going to see of your business is your web site. Now just imagine - someone has heard of your business, googled you, clicked a link, or found you in some other way. They enter your website looking for a solution to their problem. Yet, when they open, they feel so confused that they just want to leave.
Many websites leave this kind of first impression because they didn’t invest in a good web design.
So, does your website look like it came straight from the 00’s? Is it responsive - because, chances are that your visitor is using a mobile device? Is the navigation familiar? Does it look appealing?
If at least one of the answers is no, your web design isn’t good enough for the modern user.
For one, the most important thing about your website is that the navigation needs to be familiar and simple. While you may want to strive for the quirky and unique, that won’t work well if the potential customer can’t find the most basic things. Your menu needs to be understandable and it should be at the top or the side of the page where the reader can almost instantly spot it. Remember - your website doesn’t have to perform any magic tricks, it only needs to be functional.
When it comes to overall design, you should aim to make the content readable. So, make sure that the contrast between your letters and background is big - black letters on white background is a combination that can’t miss. The opposite may be good as text-on-image or certain parts of your site, but not the entire thing because it strains the eyes more.
Any web design colours should also be compatible with your brand. Think color psychology - pink is perfectly fine if your brand is feminine, dealing with fashion, beauty and so on, but completely incompatible if you deal with finances, IT services and so on. Of course, there could be exceptions to every rule, but sticking to what your audience expects to see is your best bet.
Make sure that you use plenty of relevant imagery - a beauty product site would likely have images of beautiful faces, makeup etc., an IT site would likely have images of computers or code and so on.
Update your website so it looks straight from the 2019. The best thing you can do is hire a web designer that understands your business, has some experience in the niche and understands basics of modern website design. Generic WordPress themes might work for a while, but you want to be professional and unique on the market.
Advertise on social media
Advertising on social media is one of the best ways to spread the word and increase your reach. Most people have social media profiles and you can engage with them there in a simple, yet powerful way.
On facebook, for instance, it’s barely noticeable that it’s an ad and not just another post. You can also design it in such a way that it looks like a post and invites the users in. It’s also very simple to target your specific audience - select which countries you want to advertise in, even specific locations, people demographics and preference options and so on.
Your ad could go straight to the person who will be interested in your product. While you can design this ad yourself - the process is very simple - there are people who specialize in writing and creating ads and who can really persuade people to act.
Brands with strong visual aspect should try Instagram ads as well, since that’s the best platform for imagery. Pinterest is also a great place to start.
Use Google AdWords
Google AdWords is another excellent way to advertise your business - one of the best ways, really. There are more than 40000 searches every second, and you better bet that at least one of them will lead Google users to your website.
All you need is a few effective words of copy and a compelling title offer. It’s very basic yet effective in its simplicity. Again, hiring someone with expertise is the best way to go but you can give it a try yourself.
You do need to work on SEO as well, as Google still wants to deliver relevant results to their users. The more high quality your ad is, the less the ad will cost.
Host webinars
A webinar is an online seminar - you can create it in any form you want, whether it’s a presentation, a discussion or anything else. It’s used to build credibility and boost your lead numbers.
Webinars are engaging, provide useful information and entertain the viewers. It’s basically the same as the video, yet it provides more value as the users will be able to ask questions, enter a discussion and so on.
For this, you’ll need a compelling speaker who’s also an expert in your niche and the right tools to create a structure and visuals that people would love to see. Of course, you could share a screen with your audience so they can see what you are doing.
Webinars can be a standalone product which draws attention. They work especially well in certain niches, especially in the service niches because it offers a unique insight into what you really do. For example, if you offer IT services of some sort, you can host a webinar on maintaining the firewall or something similar.
Hire a digital marketing specialist
Another thing you could do that could bring you plenty of revenue and result in wider reach is hiring a consultant - or, because it’s a better term, a specialist.
“These professionals understand how digital marketing works and the best ways to make digital marketing really count. They can help you in all stages of your process and guide you through the most important parts. They can teach your team how to do certain things and leave you with the right tools to continue well without them,” says Autumn Summers, a business owner at Researchpapersuk and Last Minute Writing.
On the other hand, you could offer consultant services yourself as well. If you are somewhat of an expert within your niche, you could offer advising services to small businesses in your niche or those that just started out. This is a great income source as well as a way to establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
Host contests and giveaways
Contests and giveaways are a great technique to achieve wider reach and get more engagement from your users. Both have similar rules. When it comes to contests, you can host them on both your social media or your website. Set up some rules - users have to share your page, website link or something similar - or ask for something like users sharing a themed picture as an entry to the contest. Then use a random number generator and get your winner or, in the case of themed contest, offer a reward to the person who gets most likes or has the most creative entry.
Giveaways could work in a similar way, but are in most cases done with a random number generator.
Have a blog
“Blogs are an excellent way to start your content marketing strategy. Add a new post page to your website and start posting content on a regular basis. This means creating stories from your own industry and establishing yourself as an expert. Provide useful tips on various topics and remember to use plenty of visuals,” says Rowena Simpson Torres, a digital marketer at Draftbeyond and Writinity.
Having a successful digital marketing strategy is all a matter of how willing you are to invest your time and money in it. Some of these methods are free, of course, but some require money. However, you shouldn’t just focus on one of them and forget the rest, but rather integrate them all into your marketing strategy and watch the results happen.