You’ve probably heard of online marketing, but do you really know what it is? In a nutshell, online marketing is all about marketing your business on the internet. It can be quite an intimidating subject, especially since there are so many different ways to do it. To help you get started, here are five of the most common types of online marketing technologies.
Paid Ads
Paid ads are pretty self-explanatory. Sometimes you’ll pay per click or per impression for ads to appear on a website or for people to see an ad when they visit a particular website. For example, if you’re looking for a web hosting company and you know that Google AdWords is a paid ad platform, you may decide to try out their hosting service as an alternative to pricey shared hosting.
Display Ads
Display ads are basically the same as paid ads, but they appear on websites and mobile apps that you choose to display them on. Essentially, you are paying for the right to display ads on your webpages or mobile apps. You can choose to display ads for product sales or to promote a specific event or initiative.
Social Media
Did you know that about one-third of all American adults use social media? That’s a lot of people! In a nutshell, social media is a type of internet marketing where you use social platforms (like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) to share and comment on content that is generated by others (often companies). Social media allows you to connect with others and learn about news, events, and things going on in your local community.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a form of internet marketing where you tweak the content on your site (usually the text contained within your articles) to maximize your chances of appearing on the first page of a search engine’s results for important search terms (i.e. keywords). Depending on your budget, you may decide to hire an expert SEO company or to learn the basics from scratch. Luckily, there is an easy tool that can help you get started called Yoast SEO. With a little bit of knowledge and some dedication to learning, you can get the hang of SEO in no time.
Email Marketing
Did you know that email marketing is one of the most effective forms of online marketing? A whopping 85% of adults in the U.S. use email, and a whopping 68% of those people use email to discuss consumer products. With that in mind, your emails may end up in the hands of a lot of people. If your product or service is associated with something trendy, you may decide to try out email marketing to reach a broader audience. For example, let’s say you’re the CEO of an e-commerce store selling trendy women’s clothing. You may decide to send out an email touting your brand’s latest styles and offering special discounts to those who subscribe to your email list.
Affiliate Marketing
Did you know that about 70% of the sales on Amazon (one of the world’s largest online retailers) are made through affiliate marketing? Essentially, affiliate marketing is a type of online marketing where you earn a commission (typically 15% to 30% or more) when someone clicks a product link or buys a product that is promoted on your site. If you’re looking to get started with affiliate marketing, you may decide to try out a tool like affiliate marketing software, which can make the process a lot more streamlined. With affiliate marketing, you don’t necessarily need a big budget to get started. You can literally start making money online almost immediately.
As you can see, there are several ways to market your business online. To help you figure out which is the right fit for your business, consider the type of content that you produce and how you plan on distributing that content. Are you looking for a more traditional approach where you simply push out a bunch of articles? Or are you looking for a more digital approach where you try to get as many people as possible to see your content? Consider what is working for your competitors and choose a course of action that will help you be more effective.