You’ve probably heard the saying “Content is king.” Well, what if we told you that you could become king or queen of content, without being a professional writer? Enter: the online marketer.

In the same way that you would use a digital assistant to help you run your business, you can use an online marketer to grow your business and brand online. We’re not talking about spammy link building or overusing social media platforms to grow your audience; we’re talking about using organic content strategies to attract, engage and delight your customers.

To achieve this, you need to have a clear understanding of what makes for good content and how to create content that will engage and delight your audience. Here are seven effective online marketing strategies you can start implementing today.

1. Establish Yourself As An Authority

You can’t expect your customers to trust you or your brand blindly. You need to earn their trust over time by providing value and consistently showing that you can be trusted. To establish yourself as an authoritative source for your audience, you can start by sharing industry insights and other valuable information that you have on your blog or social media platform.

For example, if you’re on social media, you could share tips on how to grow your Instagram account. Or if you have a blog, you could write an in-depth piece about the importance of mobile responsiveness in attracting and retaining customers. Doing this shows that you’re a credible, thought-provoking source of information and establishes you as an expert in your industry. This is much more valuable to your customers than just another brand. Your customers will appreciate your efforts to provide value and will be more likely to trust you.

2. Use Videos and Animated GIFs Effectively

Since video content is (almost) always popular and accessible, you should certainly use videos to market your product or service. However, videos alone aren’t enough. To truly engage and delight your audience, you need to use other digital marketing platforms like blogs and social media to complement your videos.

For example, if you have a YouTube channel about graphic design, you could add value by creating blog posts about the same topic. Then, you could use infographics, graphs and other visual content to engage your audience on social media.

Videos are great because you can upload them directly to your blog or other social media platforms and they instantly appear to be “live.” When combined with other content, videos can be a powerful way to generate interest and gain potential customers.

3. Build Relationships With Industry Leaders

In digital marketing, we talk about relationship marketing. This is the process of establishing and maintaining business relationships with customers, potential customers, vendors and other stakeholders. By creating and nurturing a growing network of these relationships, you can gain access to valuable information, events and people who can provide you with an advantage or enhance your standing in your industry.

To start, you could reach out to existing customers on your email list and ask them to share their thoughts about your product or service. You could also reach out to well-known individuals in your industry and pitch them about your product or service; this is known as “relationship marketing.”

Establishing and maintaining business relationships is essential in today’s marketing world. If you want to generate interest and gain potential customers, you need to take the time to build relationships with those who have an influence in your industry or a potential to influence your industry.

4. Use Data To Improve Your Marketing Efforts

The saying “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is incredibly valuable in business. Unfortunately, many companies neglect this principle and assume that just because they have a marketing budget, it means they can use any metric they want. This is a mistake. To truly succeed as an online marketer, you need to take the time to measure the results of your marketing efforts and adjust your strategy accordingly. Once you start measuring and analyzing the results of your efforts, you will see opportunities to improve.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to create key performance indicators (KPIs) for each phase of the customer life cycle. Once you have set these KPIs, you can use the data collected to track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, if you see that your target audience is highly engaged on social media, but you don’t have any web pages or blogs devoted to educating people on the importance of mobile responsiveness, you might want to shift your focus to attracting this audience through organic channels.

5. Use Blogs And News Aggregators To Attract, Engage And Delight Your Audience

Blogs and news aggregators can provide a steady stream of engaging content to complement your videos and establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Many big businesses put a lot of effort into their blogs, publishing valuable content on a regular basis. A large portion of this content is designed to attract, engage and delight their audience. To create content that will do the same for your brand, you can start by looking at what your competitors are doing and trying to do the same.

For example, if you look at American Express’ blog, you will see that they publish a blog post about once every two weeks. These posts typically act as a complement to their advertisements and are aimed at convincing potential customers that their product is the best in the industry. Therefore, this type of content is often referred to as “influencer marketing.”

In today’s world of digital marketing, content is king and videos are the kingmakers. But, it’s not just about having a large amount of video content; it’s about using this content to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and provide your audience with valuable information that they can’t get anywhere else. To truly succeed as an online marketer, you need to have a combination of video, written and other digital content to attract, engage and delight your customers.

6. Use Personal Branding To Build Trust

If you’re someone who operates under the misconception that using your personal name in your marketing is the same as “no brand awareness,” then you’re going to struggle with establishing credibility. Your customers already have a perception of you before they even encounter your brand, so it’s important that you use different identity models and communicate the right message to promote yourself as an individual, not a brand or company.

To do this, you need to conduct consumer research and create customer personas. These personas will help you to identify the types of content that your target audience might appreciate and allow you to craft an identity that resonates with this audience.

The more that you can do to put a human face on your company, the more that your customers will relate to you. Using storytelling through videos, blogs and other content will give your content credibility and make your customers more willing to believe in your brand. Additionally, using your personal name in conjunction with a brand will generally increase your credibility with customers. For example, if you’ve been conducting successful business under the name “Dan Smith,” having “Dan Smith’ as a personal brand might make you much more attractive to potential customers than “the generic brand’s” CEO. In this case, the generic brand might seem like a brand name in theory, but in practice, it’s just another name for the same organization. Using your personal brand can help to combat this issue and give customers a reason to believe in your brand, even if your company has been around for a while and has many other brands under it. Your customers will appreciate the extra effort you’ve put in to create an identity that’s all about them, not about your company.

7. Be Pro-Active On Social Media

If you’ve been running your business for a while and have amassed a significant audience on social media, it’s time to promote your business online. To do this, you need to be active on social media and use your influence to help grow your audience. Additionally, you can use your social media accounts to conduct consumer research, get feedback on your products and services and engage with potential customers.

To get started, look at successful brands in your industry and see what they’re doing on social media. Then, look at what YOU could do to take advantage of this medium. Start by creating a Twitter account for your brand and using this platform to engage with customers. Then, build out a blog or other platforms to create engaging content and encourage sharing. To be effective, your social media content should be shared, liked and commented on to establish your brand as an authority in your industry.