A huge part of any business’ digital footprint is represented by their web content, both externally and internally. Having a strong web presence is critical to establishing a business as a potential brand, connecting with potential customers, and demonstrating how the business operates. While there are plenty of platforms to create and distribute content online, the majority of businesses operate within WordPress, as it is one of the most popular and flexible Content Management Systems available. With just a few clicks, you can have a professionally designed web page complete with blog and social media integration for free. While it might seem daunting to set up and maintain, nothing could be further from the truth. Setting up a WordPress website is actually incredibly easy and, with the vast majority of web hosting providers offering one-click installation, it takes minutes rather than hours to get up and running. That’s literally all there is to it!
Why Should You Consider An Online Marketing Strategy?
The fact of the matter is that even the most established brands and businesses must continually adapt in order to survive. This is especially relevant when competing in a global marketplace, where establishing a beachhead in one region can often prove highly beneficial from a marketing, branding, and business development perspective.
While we might like to think that the internet and social media have rendered all forms of traditional marketing obsolete, this simply isn’t true. After all, what was once considered “traditional” email marketing is now considered “digital” marketing, simply because it occurred online. The term “marketer’ even became obsolete, as companies like HubSpot and Marketo transformed how marketers operate and how they work. That’s simply the way that the internet and social media have changed everything.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Put simply, digital marketing can be defined as the use of digital tools to actively encourage individuals to interact with a business or brand.
Due to its interactive and engaging nature, digital marketing is perfect for attracting, engaging, and inspiring audiences – whether they’re existing customers, potential customers, journalists, or bloggers. At its most basic level, digital marketing involves getting online, creating content, using social media to distribute that content, and measuring the results of your efforts. As a business owner, marketer, or marketing manager, you’ll undoubtedly be responsible for formulating a digital marketing strategy, identifying performance metrics, and measuring the success of your efforts. The more you know about digital marketing, the better you’ll be able to formulate an effective strategy and the more you’ll be able to measure its results.
What Is Online Marketing?
Put simply, online marketing can be defined as the use of digital tools to actively encourage individuals to interact with a business or brand online.
While some people still prefer to receive print advertisements, for the most part, online marketing involves getting online, creating content, using social media to distribute that content, and measuring the results of your efforts. At its most basic level, online marketing involves getting online, creating content, using social media to distribute that content, and measuring the results of your efforts. As a business owner, marketer, or marketing manager, you’ll undoubtedly be responsible for formulating an online marketing strategy, identifying performance metrics, and measuring the success of your efforts. The more you know about online marketing, the better you’ll be able to formulate an effective strategy and the more you’ll be able to measure its results.
There are three important things to note about online marketing:
1. Interactivity
Unlike traditional marketing, where the majority of the effort involves just spreading out a bunch of magazine cut-outs in the hope that someone picks up one and decides to buy a product based on the image alone, online marketing involves participants. This means that instead of passively reading an article or watching a video, the consumer must interact with the content.
The better the content, the better the chance of interaction. Whether it’s taking the form of a question and answer session via Twitter or posting comments on a blog, engaging with your customers and potential customers in this way is crucial to establishing yourself as an authoritative source and thought leader in your space. That way, when a person is searching for information about your niche, they’ll find your material before others, giving you the opportunity to prove yourself as a thought leader.
2. Performance Metrics
In a world of fake news and clickbait, it is important to establish yourself as a source of truth. While you don’t need to go overboard and confuse your customers with overly complicated metrics and numbers, simply being transparent with your audience about the results of your efforts will give your marketing campaign a level of credibility that your competitors probably won’t be able to match.
In a nutshell, performance metrics can be defined as the measurable and testable results of your efforts. Obviously, this will vary depending on the type of content that you’re creating and the type of audience that you’re trying to reach, but in general, the better your content, the better your metrics. As a digital marketer, you’ll be held personally responsible for the results of your efforts and will be expected to provide feedback on trends, performance, and areas for improvement. That way, you can continue to refine your strategy and optimize your results.
3. Measurement And Analysis
Being able to measure the results of your marketing efforts is essential if you want to know whether or not those efforts were successful. Of course, this will vary depending on whether you’re trying to grow your audience, increase web traffic, or simply boost your sales figures. In the world of digital marketing, the goal is to improve the behavior of your target audience towards your brand or product – whether that’s a physical product or service, such as a clothing brand trying to increase their customer base or a web hosting provider trying to attract more customers to their platform.
The better your strategy, the better your results. And the better your results, the better your strategy. It’s a simple yet effective way of thinking about marketing.
As a business owner, marketer, or marketing manager, it’s your job to come up with a comprehensive online marketing strategy and then to measure the results of your efforts. To do this, it is essential that you have a clear idea of what your objectives are and how you’ll measure your success. For example, if you’re trying to increase brand awareness and sales, then your strategy might involve creating blog posts that are highly relevant to your target audience and then tracking the results of those efforts using marketing analytics tools like Google Analytics. In order to benchmark your results, you’ll need to setup regular analysis sessions to track the progress of your campaign and identify any trends or deficiencies in strategy. While this might not seem obvious, the truth is that even the most experienced marketers and business owners can be easily distracted by the latest shiny object and can lose sight of the bigger picture. By sticking to the basics and keeping your strategies simple, you’ll be able to avoid many of the common pitfalls that so often prove fatal to businesses that fail to adapt and grow along with the ever-changing digital world.