While social media has changed the game for marketers and entrepreneurs, especially in digital marketing, the way organizations market to consumers has changed little. If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop for online marketing training and tools, you’ve found it. Here, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the new Online Marketing Group, a Facebook-based community that was founded by HubSpot and Hootsuite co-founder Ryan Holmes and designed to help marketers grow their business using social media and digital marketing.
Why An Online Marketing Group?
The concept of the Online Marketing Group is to bring marketers and social media gurus together to provide education and tools for marketers who want to grow their businesses using social media and digital marketing.
In the past, marketers had to learn digital marketing the hard way, through trial and error. With the emergence of blogging and social media, the internet has opened a whole new world of potential customers for marketers, as well as increased the number of choices for consumers. This has created a brand blindness, where people aren’t as interested in what a brand has to offer, they’re interested in what they can get from a well-known brand.
As a result, marketers find themselves overwhelmed and unable to effectively communicate their value proposition to consumers. There are simply too many choices for consumers, and they don’t have the time to become familiar with all of these platforms.
The Online Marketing Group aims to solve this problem. In the words of Ryan, “Many marketers become paralyzed by choice, afraid to commit to one platform for fear of limiting their reach with certain audiences. We want to change that, helping marketers embrace life in the digital world, find their voice, and build a marketing strategy that works for them.”
How Does It Work?
To sign up for the Online Marketing Group, you will need to create a Facebook account. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to log into your account and click on the “Create Group” button at the top of the page.
When you click on the button, you’ll be taken to a page where you can enter a name for your group (e.g., “MarketingCharts.com”) and choose how you want your group’s members to be organized (e.g., “People You May Know” or “By Topics”).
You’ll then need to make a decision about whether you want your group to be open to the public or just to members of your company (e.g., if you work for Ford, you could make your group open to employees only).
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be given the option to add people or businesses to your group. You can add people you know or find online and invite them to join your group. You can also choose to add a business you’ve vetted or an industry leader you’ve heard of. When you add someone, they will receive an email invitation to join your group.
You can then begin to build your group’s community. To do this, you will need to engage with your members. You can do this in a variety of ways, including posting content that is relevant and interesting, hosting live chats, or simply inviting people you know to join your group (and encouraging them to engage with you).
Once you’ve got a few members, you can then invite people you find or know on the internet to join your group. You can also choose to make your group “closed”, which means members will need to request to join. If you’ve got a sizable group that is still growing, you may want to consider making your group “closed” as this will help you control who has access to group content (and protect your business’s intellectual property).
A Step-by-Step Guide to Digital Marketing
A typical retail store would have a person dedicated to online marketing, which means they would be responsible for generating website traffic and establishing strong online relationships with potential customers, as well as social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.
The role of the online marketer is changing, as social media management has become a full-time job in and of itself. Today, the role of the online marketer requires them to be tech-savvy, social media savvy, and savvy about marketing communications.
Being able to establish meaningful connections with customers and potential customers via social media is a critical component of digital marketing. A 2018 report from MarketersEye states that 70% of respondents use social media to gain customer trust and build stronger relationships with them. Further, 55% use social media to understand a product better and to see how others interact with it. Finally, 49% of respondents say they use social media to gain inspiration and ideas.
The Importance of SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website to show up in the search results for relevant keywords. When a consumer searches for a product or service, the search engine will display the websites that are optimized for those keywords. For example, if you are selling shoes and you want Google to display your website when someone searches for “shoes”, you would want to optimize your website for the term “shoes”.
SEO is a fairly basic concept and you can learn it in just a few hours. However, implementing an SEO strategy on a website can be quite complicated. There are a number of different factors you need to take into consideration, including establishing the right kind of content for your target audience, creating unique and relevant meta tags, and doing comprehensive keyword research. If you’re looking to get started with SEO, the best place to learn is from an experienced SEO expert. You can also find and connect with local SEO consultants through online marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr.
The Changing Role of PR
Public relations (PR) is a type of marketing that does not use paid advertising; rather, it uses traditional and digital media to communicate a message about a company, product, or service to the public.
While traditional public relations was focused on having journalists write articles about a brand or product, modern PR is much more than that. Digital PR is a combination of marketing and communications, and it involves creating content (e.g., blogs, images, videos) to attract and retain customers, build credibility, and establish thought leadership.
Customers today expect to find relevant content when they search for products or services, whether that’s through social media, an online news website, or even a search engine. As a result, PR efforts that don’t involve content will likely suffer.
The Essential Role of Brand Awareness
Branding is a critical aspect of any business, and it’s particularly important for marketing, sales, and business professionals. To ensure your marketing efforts are brand-safe, it’s important to establish brand awareness among your target audience. This means that you need to make sure that everyone in your target audience knows what your brand is and how it differs from your competitors’.
To begin, you will want to look at how your competitors are branding their companies. Are they using catchy slogans? Are they using logos that are similar to your own, but with slight differences?
Then, you can decide what your own corporate identity will be. This will depend on many factors, including what you want to project (e.g., luxury vs. practicality), whether you want a solid base in corporate America, and whether you want to follow the latest trends or set them.
Once you’ve got your corporate identity figured out, it’s time to take a hard look at your branding strategy. How will you choose which slogans, logos, fonts, colors, and so on to represent your brand?
You’ll also need to develop a brand voiceover, which is the way you want your customers to think of and remember your brand. Does your brand have an identifiable voice that others can associate with?
Lastly, you’ll want to establish brand loyalty and encourage customers to become advocates of your brand. To do this, offer special deals and discounts to anyone who promotes or talks about your brand. Create contests and giveaways that are associated with your brand. Finally, when a customer does something wonderful for your brand, don’t forget to acknowledge them. A simple “Thanks!” will go a long way.
Being able to effectively utilize social media to grow your business is a critical skill for marketers, sales professionals, and business executives. If you’re looking for a place to develop and grow your skills, consider checking out Online Marketing Group. They’ve got you covered on all fronts, from SEO to PR to content creation, and they aim to teach you everything you need to know to succeed in the digital world.