In 2016, with brand new year, new beginnings, and fresh ideas,
marketing online can look and feel totally different to
previous years. Here’s how you can make the most of the
newest tools to market your product or service online.

Content is King

The content you use to attract and retain customers will
continue to be important, but so will the tools you use to
publish and distribute it. With more channels and more
approaches to marketing opening up, your content will reach and
engage new audiences and compel new customers to interact with
you.

In terms of content, video content is growing in
popularity, with consumers watching short videos with their
browsing history often. Snapchat has grown from being a
distinctively mobile app focused on the sharing of short
videos to a content-led platform with the ability to reach
millions of users with engaging stories, live Q&As, and
video commentating. YouTube, too, has shifted from being
primarily a place for creators to share their content to an
ambitious online media hub with billions of views per day.

Social Media is Growing

In the past, social media was seen as a place for
marketing, with businesses paying to have content promoted
across platforms. While this is still a common approach,
marketing teams are beginning to understand the value of
consistent, engaged audiences across various platforms and how
to build relationships with consumers to encourage them to
convert, retain, and love your products or services.

If you want to grow your business in the right way, it’s
essential to have a strategy that integrates social media
marketing and digital marketing. This way, when you
communicate with your customers, they’ll experience your
marketing message across all the platforms you utilize.

Content is Local

In the past, content came primarily from
national and international news publications, with
international newspapers dominating the content available
within newsrooms. As newsrooms have diversified to include
niche publications and local news, marketers have had to adapt
to reach audiences wherever they are. The rise of digital
marketing has enabled brands to create content that is
accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, depending on
where they are located.

More and more businesses are creating content that is
localized for international audiences. For example, the UK
government is publishing a lot of valuable content online that
is accessible to anyone in the world. However, if you’re a
business that operates only in the UK, you may not have access
to these valuable resources unless you pay for them
(subscription or in some cases, pay-per-view). Similarly,
local news publications and blogs are an increasingly vital
part of the media landscape, with many brands and
individuals using platforms like Medium to broadcast
interesting, valuable content to a global audience.

Product Awareness

Product awareness can be described as a
consumer’s understanding of a product, its purpose, and how it
works. The more a consumer knows about a product, the more
likely they are to enjoy it and value it. The simplest method
of increasing product awareness is via marketing
education.

Product awareness is significantly higher among younger
consumers than among older users. As younger generations lead
the way in digital technology adoption and social media usage,
e-commerce marketplaces have shifted their approach to digital
marketing, investing in content creation, mobile marketing, and
analytics to gain a competitive advantage. To maintain
relationships with customers, businesses must constantly
evaluate their digital marketing strategy, refreshing content to
keep users interested.

Interactive, Engaging Content

To retain customers and gain
trust, businesses must provide valuable
content that is of interest to the audience. This is
where differentiation and quality matter. To gain trust,
businesses must provide an experience that is engaging,
informative, or entertaining. This means creating original
content such as videos, infographics, or providing valuable
tips that the average person can benefit from.

Creating
interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, or competitions
where users can engage with you through your content, is a
valuable technique for boosting product awareness and
generating leads. If done right, consumers can have fun while
learning about a product or service, gaining trust and
becoming regular customers. Quizzes can be used to find the
information users want, while surveys enable businesses to
gauge whether or not a product or service is interesting or
appealing to potential customers.

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a
seemingly endless source of information and inspiration for
marketing professionals. This is thanks to the fact that it
is focused on attracting and engaging potential customers, via
content that is valuable and of interest to the person
reading it or watching it.

Outbound marketing,
on the other hand, is a very traditional approach to
marketing. In this model, a marketer will search for
influencers, celebrities, or other prominent figures to
approach with a marketing offer. These marketers will then
create content such as advertisements, email promos, or
blogs to attract audiences and encourage them to take an
action – such as purchasing a product or service – that the
marketer represents.

The main
difference between the two is that outbound marketing is
focused on reaching as many people as possible, while
inbound marketing is designed to reach and engage with
potential customers who are already interested in your
product or service. This level of interest might be
demonstrated through their actions on websites or social
media.

Marketing Channels

With new media venues
emerging almost every month, it can be difficult for
marketing professionals to keep track of all the platforms and
approaches to marketing.

To make matters worse, the
marketing channels are constantly evolving as businesses and
organizations discover the power of multichannel
marketing.

What are the marketing
channels available to my business? How do I integrate these
channels into an effective marketing strategy?

The
multichannel approach to marketing can be quite a bit
more complicated than simply checking off the various media
approaches available to you. You have to consider how you
want to approach each channel, what objectives you have
for each channel, and what platforms you are using.

For example, if you have a blog
that you use to attract potential customers, you may want to
consider integrating Google Ads, retargeting ads on
Facebook, and email marketing, as well as creating videos to
embed on your blog. Each of these approaches is quite
different from the others, but when combined with
multichannel platform such as HubSpot, which can sync and
integrate all your marketing and sales data, you can see the
value in this strategy.

Pay-Per-Click Vs. Cost-Per-Registration

When you’re just starting out, it
is very tempting to just opt for the cheaper of the two
approaches to digital marketing –
pay-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-registration (CPR).

The
key difference between the two is how advertisers pay for
ad placement. In PPC advertising, advertisers pay for each
click on their link, while in CPR the advertiser only pays
after a certain number of consumers have registered
for an account with their email address. The advantage of
CPR is that it is generally cheaper, as the advertiser only
has to pay once to achieve the desired response.

The
disadvantage of PPC is that advertisers have no guarantee of
how many people will actually click on their ads. While there
is no guarantees in online marketing, there are numerous
strategies you can use to maximize the potential for
conversions – be that a purchase or an email sign-up.

Personalized, Interactive Content

With so much
competition in today’s digital world, it’s essential to
make each communication with a customer – whether that’s an
email, a retweet, or a like on Facebook – as
personal and unique as possible.