There’s no question that online marketing can be extremely effective. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 96% of American homes now have access to the internet, and 69% of those people use the web  seriously. Additionally, 69% of those people have downloaded a mobile app, and 58% of those people use the apps frequently.

This makes it easy for businesses to market their products and services online. You no longer need to rely on old-fashioned newspaper ads or rusty metal signs hanging on trees to attract customers. You can target audiences where they are—in their smartphones.

1. Build A Brand For Yourself

If you’ve ever opened an internet browser and typed in the address bar “www.homeopathynow.com” or “www.drhomeopathy.com”, you’ll notice that you’re taken to a login page, where you’re asked to enter your email address and password. This is because both websites are owned by the same company, Homeopathy Now, and they want to ensure that you’re not a fake, automated visitor, and they want to keep you as a loyal customer. If you visit either of these sites, you’ll see that they’ve built a brand for themselves by creating an experience that’s consistent across all their platforms (websites, apps, and blogs). They’ve also taken the time to ensure that the content on each platform is consistent and fresh.

They’re not using flashy graphics or pop-ups to grab your attention—they’re creating content that’s useful, educational, and draws you into their world, while entertaining you.

2. Generate Leads Using SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a form of online marketing that can be highly effective. This form of marketing focuses on getting your website or blog to show up in search results when potential customers are searching for the products and services you offer. Google and other search engines give higher ranks to websites that are informative, use relevant keywords, and don’t contain too much content.

The great thing about SEO is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get started (just a few dollars a day), and you can use free tools to get started (in fact, all the tools mentioned in this article are free). Additionally, you can use tools like Google Analytics to see exactly how visitors are interacting with your content—whether you have a blog or website—and determine what’s working and what needs to be updated or changed.

The better your SEO, the more likely people will come to your website or blog when they’re searching for products and services related to your niche. To get started, simply take a look at how other websites are doing in your niche and try to emulate those methods.

3. Build Trust With Your Audience

You’ve probably heard the saying “you can’t please everyone”, and that’s usually true, but you can certainly try. When it comes to marketing your products or services online, you’ll rarely be able to please everyone, but you can certainly try. While some businesses prefer a direct, sales oriented approach, others may prefer a more “saltwater flowing into the sea” approach, meaning they prefer to interact with as many people as possible without pushing any one specific product or service.

Regardless of which approach you choose, the important thing is that you’re able to generate leads and grow your business. As mentioned by HubSpot Blog Lead Gen Expert, Clay Bavor, “The more you can do to create an environment where your prospects and clients feel comfortable, the better off you’ll be.” You can also use your website, blog, and social media platforms to establish your credibility as an expert in your industry—whether you’re an attorney, doctor, or financial advisor.

4. Conduct Regular Market Research

Whether you have a website or blog, you’ll need to know how to effectively use the platform to its fullest potential. One of the keys to doing this is by regularly gathering data on what’s working and what needs to be changed. To get started, create a survey or poll to see how others in your industry are performing, and make necessary adjustments based on the results of that survey. For example, if you notice that your competitors are gaining a lot of traction with a certain strategy, but you’re struggling to find the same results from your side, it might be time to revisit your strategy and try something new.

Also, don’t be afraid to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Sometimes, what seems like a quick and easy fix on the surface can snowball into a much bigger problem down the line. Be sure to have a plan before you dive in.

5. Focus On Multi-channel Marketing

As mentioned by HubSpot Blog Lead Gen Expert, Clay Bavor, multi-channel marketing is “the practice of promoting products or services using various platforms and tactics, such as social media, email marketing, and SEO.” To get the most out of your multi-channel marketing efforts, you’ll need to set up automated email campaigns across platforms—meaning you’ll need to have an email marketing strategy that spans multiple platforms (e.g. HubSpot, MailChimp, and others).

Additionally, you can use tools like HubSpot to create automated social media posts based on keywords, Instagram, and Facebook Ads.

Keep in mind that not all multi-channel marketing is created equal. You can have a Facebook ad that leads to a sales page, and that sales page can have a few links to other platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, but you don’t necessarily need all of those platforms to be effective. Before you embark on a multi-channel marketing strategy, make sure you know what you’re doing and can execute on it.

6. Use Video Marketing

If you’ve ever been on YouTube, you’ll notice that the majority of videos there are advertisements. This is because advertisers pay YouTube to have their ads shown on the platform, which makes it a valuable tool for marketing.

You can use video content in a couple of different ways to grow your business, but probably the most effective is by using short videos, like teasers, to attract potential customers. These short videos can be used as stand-alone content or incorporated into blog post to help drive traffic.

The better your content, the more valuable it will be, which means more chances for your videos to be found. If your video teasers are any good, there’s a chance that viewers will want to see more. That’s valuable information for you as a business owner—especially if you want to continue generating traffic and leads for your website or blog.

7. Use Infographics

If you’re unfamiliar, infographics are visual depictions of information. These images are usually designed in a way that’s easy for everyone to understand, regardless of their level of knowledge. The reason why business owners usually enjoy using infographics is because they’re relatively easy to create and can be used to highlight key information about a niche or industry—like the one below highlighting the types of financing available to small businesses.

Additionally, you can design infographics to highlight specific products or services, or you can create them to simply show the data behind a particular topic (like this awesome infographic designed by Simply Measured about online marketing metrics).

Though infographics can be extremely effective as an information or data visualizer, they’re probably most useful in helping businesses establish credibility—especially in a competitive or niche industry.

8. Measure The Results Of Your Marketing Efforts

Every marketer, salesperson, and entrepreneur should be familiar with the concept of measuring the results of their marketing efforts. Simply put, you can’t determine how effective your marketing strategies were without some kind of benchmark to compare them to. To get started, you’ll need to identify a specific goal you want to achieve through your marketing efforts, such as getting more website traffic, making a sale, or boosting your social media presence. Once you’ve set your goal, you can determine how effective your various strategies were by measuring their results against it. For example, if your goal is to generate more leads, you can use a tool like LeadScout to track the results of your efforts.

In order to effectively use the internet and various digital platforms to its fullest potential, you need to remember that it’s a living thing, and it changes, and often, that change is for the better.