The Key to Internet Marketing

Marketing is an increasingly changing field. From the first person traveling by wagon across the country to share the new invention they created to today’s digital marketing experts, it is clear that the way we share ideas and information changes every passing day. Today we are ambushed with catalogs, emails, social media, and adds on every internet page we click on. How does one enter this world of marketing in order to efficiently and effectively grow a business? Darren Ross, the founder of Problogger, said it best:
“There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks, and no secret handshakes that can bring you immediate success but with time, energy, and determination you can get there.”

There are an incredible amount of myths about online marketing circulating. This kind of information ambush can make it difficult to hone in on what will unlock a business’s potential. It is important to take another business’s experience with a grain of salt and create a personalized marketing platform. In order to do this it is best to evaluate all of the options available and create a tailored plan. We will take you through many of the options available with Internet Marketing and evaluate their effectiveness.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Cocktail parties and company sponsored trips aren’t the only way to get people buzzing about a new business. The options are limitless with social networking sites. They make it simple and extremely affordable to throw a launch party for people all over the world just by logging online. Maximillion surveyed event organizers about how they use social media for their jobs, and: 75% said it was “very important” to use social media for event promotion. Facebook was the most popular channel for doing so, at 78%, followed by Twitter (56%) and LinkedIn (49%) June 2015.
Here is an infographic representation of the results:

We will take a moment to look at these top three sites individually to see how they work.

FACEBOOK created on February 4th, 2004 has improved immensely from its original days. What started out in 2003 as a “hot or not” website is now a multi-billion dollar company used to connect with friends, family, coworkers, and even potential customers. It was in 2007 that they allowed business’s to have a page of their own. A business owner can not only advertise events and promotions on their page but they can host online events and promotions. A great feature available through Facebook is the ability to see when their fans are online and schedule events and posts accordingly. It is important for a business to understand their target audience and not overload them with unnecessary posts at unnecessary times.

TWITTER, which came in second as the most popular channel, is a great resource for communicating with customers. A business can easily share current news about the company and have it appear directly to their target audience. It also provides an excellent avenue for customer service questions and answers. A business can respond quickly and directly to the concerns of their customers. This can help to build a strong reliable rapport with clients.

LINKEDIN, also a top site, connects a company not only to potential clients but other industry and news media leaders. This is all part of the goal to not only insure an online presence but make companies their most accessible. LinkedIn also has great resources for market research. It enable companies to create surveys for their customers. Companies can also see what other companies in their industry are doing and be sure to keep up with the changing market.

No matter which social networking site, or mix of, a company decides to utilize, it is always important to have a direct goal in mind. Aimlessly posting on every page will get them nowhere and ultimately be a complete waste of their time. Study the target audience and set up a strategy to match their needs.

WEBSITE
A personalized website can be much more effective and informational for a customer as opposed to a social media page. A company has a wider variety of options to create a page that is specific to their needs. While design is an important aspect, functionality of a website is essential. If the information is there for the customer, then the customer also needs to be able to find it easily. Accessibility is not only important, but many studies have shown how speed is a major factor as well. Rick Whittington, an inbound marketing consultant, wrote an article explaining how a slow website can be costing a business sales. This graphic shows how a slow webpage has been directly correlated with a loss in revenue.Unless those videos and cute graphics have a definite purpose, the less clutter means the faster customers can get to browsing through products.

PAY PER CLICK

This can be a great tool to get advertisements on the web without spending a fortune. By only being charged when an ad is clicked on, a business can save on unnecessary advertising. It can also provide a lot of feedback and vital information about which ads are receiving the most clicks from which pages. This can help a company fine tune their marketing plan and develop more efficient marketing techniques.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SEO is a great way for a business to get their website at the top of Google’s search results. While this can be a daunting task there are exceptional books and online articles to get started. We hope we aren’t starting to sound too redundant but the key here is to show up in the correct searches, not all the searches. Dedication to analyzing the target audience and understanding how they would go about finding information is crucial.

From one professional to another, we understand how having so many marketing options available can make it difficult to determine what is right for a particular business structure. The myths, of how “online marketing is not effective” or to the other extreme is “guaranteed to work no matter what”, need to squashed and replaced with “Dedication is Key!”.