In the last decade, the world of online marketing has evolved tremendously. While there are still a few general guidelines to follow, the rules of engagement have shifted significantly. It’s all about engagement and building a credible brand community. Here, we’ll discuss 7 tips for online marketing success.

1. Focus On The User Experience (UX)

According to HubSpot Blogs research, consumers said they’re most interested in getting an online experience that’s “easy to use, efficient, and entertaining.” That’s certainly a tall order, but you can bet marketers will be looking for ways to achieve this. In today’s world, consumers have incredibly high expectations, and they’re more likely to leave a bad experience behind than a good one. You can bet your company’s brand reputation is on the line whenever a consumer has a bad experience. This is why it’s all about the user experience (UX) and creating a good one. When it comes to attracting potential customers, you can’t underestimate the importance of a good UX.

For example, when you log in to your email account on a device, the UI (user interface) should be easy to navigate and the experience should be smooth and problem-free. The same goes for the mobile app or website you’re using to access your account. A good UX makes the whole user experience more enjoyable. When you’re building a brand, your goal is to create an emotional connection with your audience. A good UX is a key component to achieving this.

2. Measure, Measure, Measure

While we’re aware of the importance of good UX, we must also measure the results of our efforts and know if they’re paying off. As a marketer, you’re always looking for ways to improve the results of your online marketing campaign. That’s why you measure and track everything you do, from online marketing to social media. You can use a variety of tools to track the results of your online efforts, from click-throughs to site visits and more. These tools allow you to see how many people are interacting with your content, how many times that content is being shared, and more. The more you track, the more you can improve.

When you’re developing a marketing plan, you need to know exactly what results you’ll achieve. That way, you can determine whether or not your efforts were in vain. Measuring the results of your marketing campaign can be quite the challenge, though. To make matters worse, you often need someone else to help you analyze the data. That’s where a market research firm like SurveyMonkey come in. They’ll help you get the data you need into a spreadsheet so you can analyze it and determine the efficacy of your campaign. You’ll get an overall marketing score, as well as sub scores for every area you tested, tailored to you.

Measuring, measuring, and more measuring. That’s the key to a successful marketing plan. You’ll be able to tweak your strategy and improve your results time and time again.

3. Use The Right Media

The catchphrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” is especially true in the world of digital marketing. It’s well-established that images hold a tremendous amount of weight when it comes to getting a message across. This is why brands need to harness the power of images and videos in their marketing.

You need to focus on creating quality content that will engage your audience and compel them to take some sort of action. To do this, you need to leverage different digital marketing platforms, targeting a variety of devices and channels.

4. Be Genuine

Nowadays, people are more likely to discover your product or service through social media. This is why you should always be active on social media channels, engaging with your audience and showing you’re open and available to help. When you’re posting regularly and building a community, your customers will feel as though they know you and can trust you. This is what creates a genuine connection and makes your audience feel as though they’re part of the family. You build trust by being genuine.

5. Measure, Measure, Measure

Even when you have an excellent strategy and a well-oiled machine with which to implement it, you’ll still need to measure the results of your efforts. This is why we mentioned measuring, measuring, and more measuring earlier on. The key takeaway is to be sure to measure the results of your marketing campaign. The more you measure, the more you’ll know if your strategy is working or needs adjustment. Measuring data allows you to determine the efficacy of your plan, allowing you to continually drive for improvement. This is the only way to ensure you’re always providing the best possible experience for your customers.

6. Personalise

While you need to have a plan in place in order to be considered a marketer, you don’t need to be too closely associated with your strategy. This is especially important when personalizing content or ads. Rather than having the same piece of content served to everyone who visits your site or sees your ad, you can choose to tailor the content to the person viewing it or clicking on it. Doing this makes a world of difference and will boost engagement levels and interest in your content or product. Tailoring content means making sure your ads and articles are relevant to the person viewing or clicking on them. This brings us to our next point.

7. Be Relevant

The last 10 years have seen the rise of content curation, forcing people to find content relevant to them. While traditional news sites publish content that’s mostly relevant to everyone, specialized content aggregators and curators like Buzzfeed can tell their audience what exactly they want to read. This is why you need to keep up with the times and make sure your content is relevant to your audience. When Buzzfeed decides your content isn’t relevant to their audience, they’ll simply ignore it even if it has high engagement markers.

This brings us back to measuring. The better your measure of content curation, the better you’ll know if your content is being ignored or drowned out by the noise. To make matters worse, content curation isn’t something that can be easily measured. This is why, as discussed above, you’ll need someone to help you analyze the data so you can determine the efficacy of your strategy. If you’re looking for a more specific niche, you can bet your company’s search engine rankings will take a hit as a result of your ignoring of relevant content.

Always keep in mind that relevance is a key tenet of good digital marketing, and it’s definitely not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You need to make sure you offer content that’s relevant to your customers, and you can’t simply settle for being “big” or “famous” enough to have people come back for more. Being relevant means you need to have a strategy in place to continually attract, engage, and convert potential customers into paying customers. In today’s world, relevance is critical.