Amy PowerThere’s a lot to learn when it comes to marketing online. So much – and it changes so quickly – that it can feel overwhelming, leaving a small or mid-sized business owner reeling from all the strategies and tasks “that must be done.”
So we’ve put together a very short online marketing primer. Look at is as something akin to “Online Marketing 101.”
Many online marketing strategies from previous years remain: pay-per-click, social media marketing, social media advertising, and search engine optimization.
But in 2015, when it comes to online marketing, content rules.
Known as inbound marketing or content marketing, using digital content (blog posts, videos, infographics, white papers, news releases, case studies, podcasts, etc.) in online marketing today works to grab the attention of a prospect online and help her want to learn more about your services and/or products
The ultimate goal of your online marketing is to attract the attention of prospects so that they come to trust your services/products and buy from you.
It’s best to create and distribute the content you create via a content strategy, one that allows you to plan the production, distribution and presentation of your digital content to your prospects, clients and past clients. You’ll use different kinds of content at different times, depending on whether you just want to raise awareness of your products/services to prospects, motivate prospects to become clients, or if you wish to create loyalty from current clients.
As you plan your content strategy, you need to keep the following two things in mind: you need to make sure the content is useful (it provides relevant information) and it’s engaging/entertaining (you need to capture and keep prospects’ attention).
You then broadcast your content where your prospects are: social media, news release distribution sites, iTunes (for your podcasts and videos), and on your website in the form of blog posts, news releases, e-books, case studies, and white papers. (Pro Tip: allow site visitors to download the case studies, white papers and ebooks for free in exchange for their e-mail address) You can also market your content to prospects via e-mail in the form of newsletters.
Your content – particularly those on your own website– should still be optimized for the search engines with judicious use of keywords (not too many – no keyword stuffing) so that your content will appear higher in search engine rankings.
Don’t forget to make sure your website’s content is optimized for viewing on a phone and tablet – more and more of your potential customers are accessing the Internet on these devices instead of via a laptop or desktop computer.
And that’s it – online marketing in a nutshell. Good luck in 2015!
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