You’ve seen the striking ads that draw you in, the copy that makes you laugh, and the images that capture your attention. This is the kind of successful online marketing we all dream about.
And, you’ve seen the confusing jargon that turns the world of marketing into a murky and hopeless endeavor. Ad copy. SEO. Searchable blog titles. Strategies and campaigns. Email marketing and newsletters. And, of course, there’s the pressure to become an expert on every social media outlet you’ve ever heard of.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Your brand can have successful marketing campaigns without leaving you to sigh in frustration. These 5 tips will help you take the next step toward a thriving online presence that grabs attention and transforms prospects into customers.
What do we mean by Online Marketing?
It’s easy to get lost in the overwhelming scope of what online (aka digital) marketing entails. So let’s take a moment to reel it in and define what it actually is.
When we think of the word “marketing,” we think of promoting products, services, and ideas. However, great digital marketing requires more than promoting a company or product. It includes driving attention and traffic to a website, a social media page, or any kind of platform.
With Social Media marketing, you can use paid options (i.e. paying to promote a Facebook post). You could also take advantage of organic marketing with likes, shares, and comments. Similarly, Search Engine marketing can be paid (through sources like Google Ads) or it can come about as the result of optimizing your content. Maybe you prefer Email marketing campaigns through newsletters, Display Advertising through banners, or using Video content.
Whichever platform you choose, it all comes down to doing it well. That is where we can help.
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1) Learn from People who Promote Well
Everything we know in life, we first have to learn. It’s the same with online marketing.
Sometimes that means studying the work of the marketing masters. Other times it might require a formal class or an online course. Either way, we can’t say enough for the advantages of having a good teacher.
Through observation and research, you can learn to promote in a way that engages an audience response.
There are dozens of industry experts out there who want to share their knowledge in digital marketing and optimization. All it takes is a willingness to listen and the wisdom to seek out those who will guide you.
To succeed in your efforts, you might pursue an online resource through an advertising platform. Alternatively, you could choose to network with those in your sphere and find referrals.
Do you know anyone who has been in the same place you are now? Have you heard about local business conferences discussing this topic? You need people around you who will teach you how to drive site traffic and gain customers.
Effective marketers are willing to learn new things and that starts with admitting what we don’t understand. If we follow those with experience, we just might gain a new tool to channel success our way.
This is your path to reach your goals to market your business. Don’t let a shortcoming stop you from success.
2) Listen to Potential Customers–Social Media Reach
When it comes to online marketing, it’s time to listen to customers instead of telling them the benefits of what you want to sell.
From comments and messages to analytics, it has never been easier to learn what drives interest and response. Ultimately, your goal is to transition impressions to clicks to sales, which means your digital impressions better be… impressive.
This can be a free and easy way to help your business grow, but it requires patience and time.
Do you know anyone who is a long time customer of yours? Have you ever thought to learn from them? Have you wondered what they do when they’re visiting your website?
Indirect Listening
The internet makes researching this easy. There is a ton of information you can discover about your customers that you may never have thought to consider.
Sometimes you need to find out what your customers needs but don’t have the ability to engage with them directly. That’s where indirect listening comes into play.
Let’s go over some of the key ways to indirectly listen to your potential customers!
Social Listening
Your customers are publicly sharing huge amounts of valuable information that can help you understand their needs better. Where are they doing it? On social media.
Social listening is a method of monitoring the entire internet for people mentioning specific keywords or phrases that relate to your business. Using sophisticated software you can be alerted any time someone mentions your brand name, a competitor, or any keyword or phrase you choose.
Here are a few online tools that help you perform social listening:
By utilizing this tactic you can gain valuable insight into the conversations happening around your business.
Analytics and Customer Engagement
Another indirect way to listen to your customers is through analytics. Tools like Google Analytics, Fathom, and Hot Jar are just a few examples of data gathering analytics tools. These tools help you get a picture of how customers are interacting with your web properties. Social media platforms also offer varying degrees of analytics for business accounts that, which you can use to gain more insight.
Let’s say, for example, you created a blog post with a call-to-action at the end. If your analytics show a low conversion rate, you know that the post didn’t resonate with your target market. Maybe it was the image used, or maybe it was dull writing.
If, however, your conversion rate is decent, but the impressions are low, you may want to do more research into search engine optimization.
Either way, paying attention to what has and hasn’t worked for you allows you to get feedback without directly engaging your prospective clients.
Direct Feedback
Obviously, speaking to customers directly is the best way to get to know them. By speaking directly with your customers you can ask more specific questions and understand them more intimately.
So what are some ways to gather direct feedback from your customers?
Online Polls
Polls present a great option to gather customer feedback. They’re simple to interact with, and therefore are more likely to be interacted with.
If you want to know which type of image generates a higher interest, you can show followers and simply ask which they like better. You can do this with any type of content as a means of learning from the prospect, so they soon become a consumer.
One of the best places to create polls is on social media. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter make it very easy to create and distribute your polls to your customers.
Customer Surveys
When you need to gather more comprehensive feedback from customers, surveys are a great option. This gives you the ability to precisely capture
Live Chat / Messaging
We’ve all been to a website and seen the live chat window pop up in the bottom of the page. More social-thinking websites may even have a Facebook Messenger chat box instead.
This offers your audience a direct way to get in touch when they have a question or concern. Interacting with customers in real-time builds rapport quickly and serve them on their terms.
Whichever live messaging method you choose, be sure that the design is mobile friendly.
Contact Forms
Every website owner knows they need a contact for, right? Of course. But don’t take this common practice for granted. Utilize your contact forms to gather precise information about your customers that will help you serve them better.
3) Practice Your Campaign Strategy
We can skip the old adage and accept the fact that there is nothing more important to improvement than actually working at it. This is especially true with your marketing.
While some may be stronger at copy and others with engaging images that bring intrigue, even the best marketers had to start somewhere. You, also, have the opportunity to grow your skills. Try some different exercises to draft potential content before deciding which ones to follow-through with. Refining this content may take time, but by setting up your own metrics, you can measure your improvement.
There are many different systems for practicing and evaluating your online marketing content. A simple way to test it is to start with 4 or 5 different headlines that go along with your post. From there, ask a variety of people you know which is the most intriguing—maybe even do a poll!
After choosing what to post online, you can measure your progress by watching click-through rates from those lines of copy. With each post, evaluate whether or not that content worked to help you achieve your goals. If not, learn why it didn’t work, so you can avoid those mistakes next time.
Even the biggest online brands had to trial and error different marketing strategies before consumers learned to trust their products. Through practice, they succeeded. You can too.
4) Hire a Strategy Coach or Consultant
This goes beyond the first point of learning from others and takes you on a journey where you are no longer working alone. By hiring a coach or consultant, you are effectively giving up control. It will require work on their part as well, to make you into the online marketing master you want to become.
Be ready for ups and downs. You will have to work with them on what you will and will not put out there for the world to see. That requires trust and confidence.
A coach can be another set of eyes and provide you with the feedback you need. They can also guide you through the ever-changing landscape of online marketing. From new technology to opportunities you didn’t know about, having a guide throughout the process is invaluable.
A coach helps you in two very important ways. First, they help you identify the gaps. They show you where you are missing something important. Then, your coach will guide you as you work to fix it. Together, you will overcome the weaknesses in your online marketing and turn them into strengths.
The best thing is that you still have those metrics available to you. By watching the response to your new content, you can evaluate if your coach is helping you. In turn, the coach can show you what you still need to work on until your goals are met.
5) Hire an Online Marketing Expert to Market Your Business
Maybe you don’t have time to research lessons from marketing gurus. Perhaps conversion rates are a number you glance at only when the bottom line is impacted. Or maybe marketing just isn’t your strength. And maybe a coach can only take you so far.
In that circumstance, the best option for you might be hiring an expert.
What benefits can an expert provide you? First, they are your source of consistent content creation. They use firsthand knowledge of what makes a prospective client take a closer look at your content. This closer look leads them to give you their business. And all of it was done without any stress or pressure on you.
And really, isn’t that the most important thing?
An expert can free up your time to focus on what matters most to you and your business. Instead of trying to learn new skills that don’t match your strengths, you can focus on other needs. You can manage your employees or interact face-to-face with your customers. Or you can come up with new ideas for product designs, or even go home early to put your feet up and relax.
This is exactly the peace of mind that Planify offers.
Turning to marketing experts truly enables you to prioritize your own efforts. You can trust that your company’s digital presence will be impactful, without having the pressure of success or failure on your own shoulders.
How Will You Get Better?
Which of the 5 tips for online marketing most resonate with you? Are you hungry to learn new skills? Do you love interacting with clients? Is practice a virtue in your life? Do you appreciate a good coach? Or do you prefer to delegate to the masters?
No matter how you intend to move forward, don’t do it alone. Marketing is all about people. One man’s weakness is another man’s strength. Be smart, be savvy, be strategic, and be confident with the power of a good digital marketing strategy.