As a marketer, having a solid understanding of digital marketing is essential. But, being task-oriented when it comes to learning, sometimes it can be difficult to remember everything you need to know. That’s why I’ve put together this quick guide to help you easily remember the most fundamental marketing rules and concepts you need to know to effectively market an online publication.
Focus On The User
When it comes to marketing online publications, you should always be thinking about the user. What are they looking for? What are they trying to achieve? The answers to these questions will guide your strategy towards effective marketing.
You should always be looking to offer the best possible user experience. Does your website load quickly? Does your copy communicate what the visitor needs to know in a clear and concise manner? When you optimize all these factors, you will notice that your conversion rates increase and your bottom line improves.
Measurement
Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is critical. Without reliable metrics, you’ll never know if you’re making progress or if you’re wasting your time and money. To this end, you should be utilizing both performance-based and habit-forming metrics.
Performance metrics are ones that can be directly measured. For example, let’s say you’re running a paid search campaign. You can measure the amount of calls that come from Google Ads versus Facebook Ads versus organic searches.
Habit-forming metrics are metrics that dictate how you behave. For example, if you run a paid search campaign and you see that 80% of your clicks came from outside of the U.S., you may decide that international marketing is your best option.
Conversions
What does conversion mean in marketing? It can be thought of as an action taken by a user that leads to a particular result. For example, if someone visits your website, reads an article, and then decides to purchase a product that you promote on your site, that was a successful conversion.
To optimize for conversions, you should always be asking the question, “What will make my visitors most likely to take the action I need them to take?” Once you know the answer to this question, you can craft a strategy to get the desired result.
User Retention And Behavior
Just because a user has visited your site—converted or not—that doesn’t mean they will always behave in a particular way or remain engaged with your content. That’s why you should always be thinking about user retention and behavior when deciding on a marketing strategy for an online publication.
Retention refers to keeping users coming back for more content. So, if you notice that your visitor base is growing but declining after a few months, you may want to consider testing different approaches to retaining your users.
User behavior refers to how your visitors act on your content once it’s been delivered to them. If you notice that a majority of your visitors are doing something specific when on your site—like spending tons of money, visiting specific pages, or filling out a form—you can bet that you’re onto something. You can experiment with different approaches to see what works best for your specific audience.
Build A Community
One of the most effective ways to market an online publication is to build a community. You can do this by engaging with your audience on social media and by encouraging them to participate in forums and groups related to your content.
The more you engage with your audience and the more you allow them to have a voice in your content, the more they will trust you and look to you as an expert in your field. As a result, your marketing efforts will be that much more effective.
Monetization
Having a steady stream of revenue is essential for any business. While advertising provides a necessary function by bringing in new customers, the true value of a business is the ability to generate revenue from existing customers.
For this reason, you should always be looking to monetize your content. There are many different ways to monetize a blog, from affiliate marketing to display ads. However, the most basic and effective monetization method is to sell and display ads.
By monetizing your content, you provide an important service to your customers. You allow them to reach a wide audience and promote their products or services. In exchange for this service, you get paid.
Pro-Marketing
This final tip on our guide to marketing an online publication will remind you to always think about the bigger picture. Rather than focusing on getting people to visit your site or take a specific action, you should be looking to foster long-term relationships and turn your visitors into loyal and dedicated customers. How can you do this? By being strategic about your marketing and using the right platforms.
You should partner with other companies and groups in your industry to expose your content to as many potential customers as possible. Pro-marketing is all about getting the right people to notice you and your content. To that end, you must be vigilant about where you spend your time and energy. Make sure you’re always looking for the best possible ways to engage with your audience and to encourage them to consume your content. You never know when a casual conversation about your blog may turn into a chance to pitch your product or service.
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