Although the Covid-19 pandemic has only just begun to ease, online marketing is already back. People are searching for products and services as they were before the pandemic with some tweaks, such as finding online marketing businesses that are open for business, or have reopened, especially in light of the limitations that some marketers may have experienced due to Covid-19.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is all about attracting, engaging and delighting people to grow a business. While other types of marketing may get you fans on social media, inbound marketing attracts leads, grows your email list and engages customers to become long-term paying customers. Inbound marketing doesn’t rely on pushing products or services at people, it relies on providing value and solving problems to earn the trust of customers.
Since the beginning of this year, the need for inbound marketing has been clearer than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a dramatic reduction in economic activity and travel, which in turn, decreased the amount of people searching for products and services. As the economy slowly begins to rebuild, the demand for inbound marketing is growing.
E-commerce
E-commerce represents the collective term for buying and selling online. Essentially, it’s buying and selling over the internet. While other types of marketing may help you to gain a few sales, by themselves, e-commerce businesses can be quite lucrative. Since the majority of the world’s population has access to the internet, it’s a great place for businesses to reach potential customers. If you’ve ever shopped online, you know the importance of user experience, which is why most online stores are built with usability in mind.
What makes e-commerce even more appealing is the ability to target the right audience. Thanks to the digital sphere being so vast, businesses can reach consumers with content that is specific to them. For example, if you’re selling luxury goods, you may want to create an online store that is designed to look like a luxury brand’s website. The key to e-commerce’s success is in the data that businesses can collect about their customers. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics and KissMetrics can help companies measure and analyze the success of their online store. By understanding what consumers like, find out what resonates with them and use this to your advantage, you can create a more engaging experience for your customers.
Social Media Marketing
Whether you choose to call it social media or digital marketing, the fact remains that social media plays a crucial role in any business’ marketing strategy. As the name would suggest, social media marketing is all about using social platforms to gain attention and engage with potential customers. While other types of marketing, such as e-commerce, focus on attracting new customers, social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, allow businesses to engage with existing customers and encourage them to spread the word about your brand, product or service.
In the case of Instagram, for example, businesses can choose from a variety of ad strategies to reach their target audience. With a simple click of a button, businesses can choose between running regular ads, such as “sponsored stories”, “sponsored hashtags” or “sponsored ads” and “live videos”. These ads don’t cost much, if anything at all, and can be highly effective. In fact, some studies suggest that “live video” is the most effective form of digital marketing on social media platforms such as Instagram.
Digital Marketing/Analytics
The importance of digital marketing cannot be stressed enough. Like social media marketing, digital marketing focuses on engaging with audiences on the internet. However, in this case, businesses reach people with online ads, such as text ads, banners and emails. Thanks to the prevalence of internet-connected devices, such as smartphones, users have an easy way to find and engage with businesses they’re interested in.
The difference between digital marketing and analytics is that, while the first focuses on getting people to click on ads and engage with content, the second focuses on measuring and analyzing these interactions. Thanks to the vast amount of data that social platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, collect about their users, companies can gain valuable information about their target audience and how to engage with them. Marketing analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics, help businesses measure and analyze the success of their digital marketing efforts. For example, a business using Google Analytics could see how many people saw their website, how long they spent on the site and what actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, led them to visit the site.
Reputation Management
Reputation management is all about protecting and promoting your business’s online reputation. Simply put, your business’s reputation is defined as the sum of all the positive and negative things that are said about your brand, product or service in the digital sphere, such as reviews, blogs and social media posts. The tricky part is maintaining a positive reputation while addressing any negative remarks.
To do this, businesses must have a clear understanding of how their customers and potential customers perceive them. Tools such as Google My Business and Yelp can help businesses manage their reputation by providing them with comprehensive answers to any questions about their business. A business’s digital reputation is also closely tied to their brand. The more you invest in building a good relationship with your customers, the more they will trust your brand, and vice versa.
Building a good relationship with customers is key to business success. However, due to the immense amount of online noise, it can be hard to stand out amongst the competition. That’s where a business’ brand identity comes in. Simply put, a brand is a company’s unique identity, which can be its logo, tagline, colors or anything that gives it a distinct identity. When customers see your brand, they will instantly know what it is and whether or not they trust you.
PR
Public Relations, or PR, represents all the propaganda that a business does to gain fame, recognition or a good reputation. Essentially, it’s about gaining visibility and encouraging people to mention or link to your business, all without paying for the attention.
Since the beginning of this year, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for PR. When a business hires a public relations agency, they are typically looking for someone who can help them to gain fame, recognition or a good reputation within the industry. However, even individual bloggers and journalists can do a fantastic job of PR for an entrepreneur or business that is lacking the budget, or doesn’t have the connections, to get the publicity that they deserve.