Whether you want to run a casual blog or you want to sell goods more effectively, you need to have a good website. The problem is that you can’t simply buy a domain name, pay for hosting, install WordPress, slap on a nice theme, and then call it a day.
Attracting visitors to your website, and especially the kind of visitors who will actually convert and do business with you, requires some careful planning and constant work. There are a few very important things about online marketing that every artist, blogger, service provider or entrepreneur needs to know, but first, let’s look at what makes online marketing methods different than traditional methods.
Why does it function differently?
Attracting customer to a regular store relies on several factors. First of all, location plays a vital role. Being in a location with high foot traffic is the best way of getting noticed. The second important thing is the amount of money invested in signs, pamphlets, ads and so on.
In the online world, you can go down the paid ad route, but natural search also plays a huge role. This means that you want people to find you when they type certain keywords related to your niche, products and services into a search engine. If your website doesn’t pop up near the top for a given set of keywords, preferably phrases containing several words, then you are not going to get a lot of visitors, let alone paying customers.
So, what should an aspiring online entrepreneur focus on? Here are the six most important points that you need to cover.
1. Identify your audience
This is the first and crucial step. You have to know what the interests of your customers are and what they are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for the type of service that you offer. This will allow you to target your marketing strategy directly to the people who are willing to commit to a purchase, sign up or contact you directly.
There are various excellent online tools that can help make your marketing strategy much more effective, and you can use the basic tools that Google offers to find out what people search for the most, and which keywords don’t have a lot of strong competition, so that you wouldn’t have to fight a lot for a good position in SERPs.
2. Where you could reach your customers?
Most people use social media fairly regularly nowadays, which makes this the perfect place to search for customers. However, it is very important to be present on several different social media platforms. This will help you promote your website in different ways, from sharing blog posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to pinning pictures on Pinterest, posting videos on YouTube and engaging fans in the comments. This also depends on the product/service you are offering.
For example, if you are running an online clothing store, it is much better to reach out to your audience on websites such as Instagram and Pinterest than on Facebook. This is a very important thing to research and experiment with this. The best way is to test multiple social media and analyze the data you’ve acquired. This will give you a clear picture of where you can reach the majority of your customers.
3. Build a base of loyal customers
Whenever a new user visits your website, you can offer the possibility of adding them to your mailing list. This is a good way of notifying people about new products, upcoming sales or any news being published on your website.
A mailing list is good for creating a solid base of loyal customers. Increasing the amount of people who trust your products or services is crucial for your business, and email marketing is a great way to do that.
4. Create quality content
Creating a blog for your website will make it rank better in SERPs and it will passively increase traffic flow to your website. Creating content is a very important part of SEO.
The point is to create a strong internal linking structure that will keep the user’s interest and offer a lot of content for them. It is also important that you create new content regularly, as this will both keep regular visitors engaged and show search engines that your website is alive and constantly updated with new information.
5. Hire a good team, but know all the steps
All other online marketing strategies can be very effective, but it is hard to achieve your goals when you are working alone. Not only will it take more time out of your schedule, but it will also take much more time to reach your potential customers. It is important to hire a team of professionals who know what needs to be done.
A well-organized professional team can create the perfect marketing campaign for you, but it is equally important that you know as much about SEO as possible. This will ensure that you and your team are on the same track, and that you understand what you can and cannot expect from them.
Luckily, there are plenty of online sources that will allow you to learn about the most powerful SEO tactics. Having a basic understanding of online marketing principles will allow you to coordinate the team in best way possible and understand whether they are taking the right steps.
6. Always analyze
The best thing about online marketing is that you can take advantage of numerous online tools to get incredibly accurate data about the effects of your campaign. You can easily check how much time users spend on your website and how many of them actually make a purchase. Based on this data, you can easily adjust your website and your marketing campaign, to make it more effective. Every single change you make should be followed by a detailed analysis.
These online marketing tips are going to make your business blossom. However, you can always turn to sponsored posts on other blogs, ad campaigns and other available forms of paid advertising.
Even though it takes a little bit of investment, by following detailed data about your marketing campaign, you can maximize your ROI. The choice is yours – whatever you decide to go for, pay attention to the little details and you are certainly going to improve your business.
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