Online marketing, digital marketing, Internet marketing, and social media marketing – even with several different names, they all provide the same service: creating an online presence for businesses.
Since online marketing is still a relatively new trend to nearly every business owner, many have yet to jump on the bandwagon or even recognise its importance in 2017 and beyond.
With the excellent opportunities that marketing provides, it serves as a tool that allows business owners on a budget to advertise, promote, and build their businesses without spending millions.
Along with being cost-effective, online marketing offers even more irresistible benefits.
1. Access to Products and Services 24 Hours A Day
With many brick-and-mortar businesses limited to being open during normal working hours only, it can be impossible for consumers to get what they need or want due to schedule interference’s. Thanks to online shopping, though, customers with busy schedules are able to shop whenever they want. By promoting your business’s products and services online, consumers can access your website 24/7. You can also reach more people, such as night owls, by creating a business website.
2. Budget Friendly
Through social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, you have access to free tools to promote and advertise your business. Not only do you get to put your business name out there – you can also build customer loyalty by staying active on social media networks. Along with free social media marketing tools, you can use advertising tactics, such as pay-per-click, to boost your website’s traffic and stick to a set budget.
3. Reach a Larger Audience
Through online marketing, reaching more of your target audience has never been easier. With the Internet connecting billions of people around the world, this provides you with an opportunity to offer goods and services internationally to gain more clients. By using online marketing for your business, you can also discover other markets to include in your target audience. This allows you to brainstorm new ideas for upgrading your product or service or even to create new items for other markets.
4. Increase Product Awareness and Sales
Many businesses wonder why their sales have grown stagnant, and there are a wide variety of reasons why sales aren’t rolling in. One of the main reasons is that nobody knows that a product or service exists. With Internet marketing, information about what your business offers is readily available for anyone who searches for it. Not only does having an online presence increase product awareness, but it can also increase sales as more people notice what your business brings to the market.
5. Established Exposure
With SEO being one of the most important factors of creating an online presence, your website will be permanently established in search engines as long as the website never gets shut down. However, to maintain an effective online presence through SEO, appropriate keywords are necessary. Choose keywords that relate to your business. To help you choose, think of what customers would type into search bars that relate to your business.
You can also use these keywords or phrases for pay-per-click ad campaigns if you plan to go that route. Valuable and unique content is another factor that plays into SEO. To increase your chances of higher ranking on search engines, provide helpful information to your visitors and clients. For example, you can create a blog on your website or on a hosted site that offers information on how to use your products or tips on related topics. Always focus on ways to help your clients instead of focusing too much on stuffing keywords on your web page.
6. More Traffic
Social media sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, offer you space to link back to your official business website. The more platforms you have, the more exposure you can get by linking back to your website. This strategy can also increase traffic to your website, which improves your page rank on search engines and helps you to gain more potential clients and sales.
7. Ease of Tracking Marketing Progress
With analytics tools, you’re able to track every part of your marketing campaign and see each element’s progress. By using analytics, you can adjust your online marketing strategies to bring more traffic and, ultimately, more sales to your website.
Before entering the Internet marketing world, be sure to create an online business marketing plan. Do your research and decide which social media tools would benefit your business the most.
Most of social media marketing is trial-and-error, so you may have a few failed attempts before you find a social media marketing strategy that fits your business perfectly. With patience and proper planning, you can start building your business brand online and reap the benefits that online marketing offers.
More Resources To Help Your Business Grow In 2017
Let’s face it — online marketing is hard. It involves weaving together a complex set of intricate and highly-technical knowledge across a wide array of skill sets. We’re not just talking about search engine optimization here.
So where does the average entrepreneur turn to gain visibility online and reach new customers without having to spend a small fortune? Clearly, marketing any business and making traction is going to either take a lot of time or a lot of money.
And every entrepreneur … 7 Cost-Effective Ways To Market Your Business Online – Forbes
If you plan to run a business in 2017, you need an online marketing strategy. And if you plan to up your online marketing game in the new year, you might be able to benefit from some advice from members of our small business community.
If you sell products online, then garnering trust between your business and potential customers is a must.
Here are some of … 10 Ways to Improve Your Online Marketing Game in 2017 – Small Business Trends