As more and more consumers move online, so do businesses. If you’re not prepared to market online, you’re handicapping your ability to succeed.

The good news is the digital marketplace provides plenty of innovative ways to market your business. Whether you’re a vendor selling your own products online or an e-commerce store, you have many opportunities to market your business.

In this article, we’ll discuss five tactics to market your business online.

1. Create compelling content

If you’re selling a product online, your customers will only be interested in what you have to say if you can prove that you know something about the subject matter. With that in mind, you need to make sure that the content surrounding your product is informative and entertaining.

To demonstrate my point, I’ll use a situation you may be familiar with: a consumer is searching for a flight to Atlanta and lands on your website. While your website is impressive, with all its moving parts and various information, the customer has zero interest in what you have to say. They’re only interested in finding the cheapest flight to Atlanta.

The key to effective content marketing is to ensure that the information your target audience finds valuable and relevant is presented in a clear and concise manner.

2. Use keywords in your title and tags

While they may not seem significant, keywords are vital to ensuring your content is found by the right audience.

When a consumer is searching for a product or service, they may enter a variety of keywords into the search bar. As you create content for your website, you must determine which keywords are most relevant to your content.

You can use tools to find the right keywords for your content or use tools like Google Keyword planner to create a list of keywords and phrases you should incorporate into your content.

3. Build trust

The opposite of compelling content is unreliable or untrustworthy content. When potential customers visit your website, you want them to feel comfortable browsing the site and making a purchase. To establish credibility, you must provide objective information about your company and its products or services. If you want to market your online store, your first port of call should be establishing your credibility as an e-commerce store.

You can do this in a number of ways. For example, you might choose to establish trustworthy reviews by featuring an independent reviewer source with an Honest Review badge on your site. Doing so will help establish your legitimacy as a review site.

4. Use social media to gain credibility

With each new generation that comes online, marketers must always adapt their methods. The basics of marketing haven’t changed; you simply need to find a way to reach your target audience where they are. If you want to market online, you should use social media to reach millions of people.

Now, more than ever, consumers have an array of choices when it comes to their media consumption. As much as we may want to see content published in traditional forms, we can’t ignore the reach and influence online media has.

When used sensibly, social media can be an invaluable tool for gaining credibility and establishing yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry. For example, let’s say you’re a legal firm that specializes in intellectual property law. Traditionally, you would have marketed yourself using traditional print and TV channels. But, with the rise of TikTok and other platforms, you might decide to try your hand at marketing on TikTok.

If you’re going to market on any social media channel, it’s essential to have a presence on multiple platforms. Having a robust Twitter account with hundreds of thousands of followers is certainly impressive, but you’re only as good as your last post. The same rule applies to all social media.

5. Use paid advertisements

Once you’ve established yourself as a legitimate and trustworthy source of information, you can look to monetize your content. One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to do so is to target your ads to people who are interested in what you have to say. You don’t need to be limited by only paying for ad space in big publications; there are numerous ways to target ads to precisely the right audience.

You may want to consider using platforms like Google Adverts or Facebook Ads to draw in potential customers. Keep in mind: not all paid advertisements are created equal. Make sure you choose a reputable advertising partner that uses reliable metrics to determine the success of your campaign. If you have enough content that targets a specific niche, you can also use content marketing to drive brand awareness and collect email addresses.

The choice of where to place your ads is also important. You don’t want to waste your money advertising on a site that isn’t relevant to your target audience. Using Google Adverts, you can choose to advertise on YouTube, Blogger, and a variety of other sites. Keep in mind: your audience is much more likely to engage with the content on the sites they already frequent. This is why it’s important to place your ads on these platforms.

Now that you’re equipped to market online, you may want to consider your strategy. What do you intend to do with all this content? Are you planning to publish articles every week? Or are you looking to create something more long-term?