Online Marketing Strategies for your Startup

The aim of Marketing is to get to know & understand the customer so well, that you are confident your product or service is ideal for them and sells itself; good Content builds relationships. Relationships built trust. Trust drives $$$ Revenue.

Topics: using Social Media, adding a Blog to your Website, Content & Email Marketing, Paid Ads, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Plan?

There are hundreds of online marketing strategies that you can begin implementing today, but we’ve taken the time to highlight some of our favorites. We see a great value in many platforms and different ways to spend on advertisements and other campaigns, but we wanted to touch on a few strategies that have worked well for our team at Websites Made Easy!

1. using Social Media. Building your Social Media channels is a way to put your name in front of millions of people. Social Media is really the marketing of today’s digital age. The days of billboards and magazines are diminishing due to their great cost for businesses. Social media is free! You have opportunity to invest a very small cost amount in ad, in exchange for a rather large number of impressions. One thing to always be aware of is the type of audiences that are on each social platform. All the major platforms display content in a way that is unique to their user’s preferences. Therefore, you must display your content in a way that respects that specific platform. Use hashtags in your Twitter and Instagram posts and use high quality images when posting to Pinterest.

2. Adding a Blog to your Website means creating a place where you share your latest news. Your Blog Posts can be news about your company, latest industry trends, tips and tricks for something unique in your niche, any announcements you may have, or an area to highlight certain aspects of your business. A Blog is a place where you can leverage your content to gain new customers through your various conversations and a place to keep your current customer base happy.

Building a Blog enables a place for conversation and a steady stream of news for your readers. Once you have a steady stream of quality posts going out, you’ll be able to gain followers and begin inviting guest Bloggers to write on your Blog. You’ll be continually building your community and leveraging your trusted audience for additional events such as webinars, contests, and further dialogue. This audience will become your Core Followers who you can ask questions of and to whom you can essentially conduct free market research. You’ll also be able to continue growing with their help through word of mouth marketing.

3. Content Marketing. First of all, be self aware of what your strengths are and multiply those strengths. Also become aware of your weaknesses and try to find help for those areas – if you see a definite need for them. Whether its through hiring a team member or out-sourcing projects, you’ll need to be sure to build your business in all areas. There are plenty of content strategies you can implement, but consider all the possibilities from video Blogging and video Tutorials to Pinnable images or Info-graphics. You can be a great writer for articles on LinkedIn or build out your Podcast following with great guest interviews, for example. You can have guest Bloggers from various industries and audiences or write content for your Blog in exchange for added exposure to their audience. You can pitch your latest news to a Journalist or PR agency for a press release and continue to engage with key contacts in your industry. Understand their specific needs and build a relationship with key contacts.

4. Email Marketing. Email isn’t what it used to be, however, it’s still a really great way to communicate your latest news and offers. You have a direct line of communication straight to their inbox, which, in today’s world, leads straight to their phone. Any possible way that you can remain top of mind is the goal and to build on your communication to an eventual sale.

a) How do you build a list of Emails? Create a lead generation offer. This lead generation acts as a magnet to draw people into a free or discounted offer, in exchange for their email. Once you receive their Email, you’ll send them what you’ve promised and for the months and years to come have a direct line of communication all because of a simple PDF eBook download or an awesome report that you put together that shares your absolute best tips and strategies.

b) Email Marketing process is simple enough in concept, but can be optimized to 10X the potential with the proper tweaks. With Email Marketing, it’s also important to get your Subject Line just right. You’ll need just the right amount of attention-grabbing to instill curiosity and the urgency to get them to open your E Mastering the Subject Line will really ensure your Click-through rates and open rates are maximized to their highest numbers. Once inside your Email, they’ll need a quick progression of your major points and why it matters for them. What kind of value are you providing with your message and are you setting them up for their very next move? Should they now click the Link to your Website or are you directing them to a particular Blog post? Are you closing on a sale right there or encouraging them to another type of call-to-action (CTA)? And lastly, don’t Spam your audience. Only send Emails if you have announcements such as a new product, new service, event, contest, sale, etc.

5. Paid Advertising. Whether it’s through Social or Search Engines, even the slightest amount of paid advertising could go a long way. With today’s transparency on Social channels, your ability to target specific audiences can be incredibly effective.

Facebook has an incredible advertising platform through unpublished or “dark” posts. You can target to an incredibly specific level and have a decent conversion rate as a result.

Promoted Tweets are also a good way to obtain immediate traffic in a truly real-time way.

LinkedIn advertising also has a great ability to connect with a certain audience who may be capable of making a higher level of decision making. Especially if you’re in a business to business (B2B) type market, you’ll be able to reach a certain audience that’s specific to this platform.

Pinterest advertising is a newer ad platform that has a great potential. Pinterest has experienced a very rapid growth that continues to quadruple year after year. This platform is definitely something to begin experimenting on and see what kind of value it can bring.

Google Ads. Advertising on Google has potential to reach millions of people. Whether you pay per click or per impression, you have potential to apply different strategies to each campaign you decide to run. The numbers don’t lie on this ad platform and Google has, in my mind, the absolute best analytics platform available. You’ll be able to track exactly how many people click on your ad, from which country or city, from what kind of device, and even the internet browser they were using at the time. The potential for insight is amazing and rather in-depth.

6. Marketing Strategies. There are hundreds of marketing strategies that you can implement online. We’ve only covered a few of the major areas here thus far, but there are a few others we would like to cover briefly.

a) Word of Mouth Marketing is a great way to spread news about your company and has the ability to go viral. The greatest way of building trust is by using other customers to advocate for your brand to all of their friends. This is similar to testimonials, however, they’re sharing your content on their own page or acting as an influencer in your industry to share with everyone they know.

b) Creative Marketing includes any sort of “outside the box” strategy. To truly make an impact, you’ll often times need to go beyond your competitors and blow expectations away. You may fail, but whether you succeed or fail in this strategy, you’ll be sure to gain attention like never before. Often times you’ll see thought leadership fall in this area. Leaders often take risks and think outside the box.

7. What should be your Marketing Plan? These strategies only scratch the surface of the potential for marketing online. Hopefully they’ve given you some insight into the world of online marketing and have given you some direction for future campaigns.

Comments: What do you think? Have you seen any marketing strategies that have worked for you in your business online?

from Linked In 25 June 15 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz

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