The Evolution of Online Marketing

Back in the day, convincing people to buy your products mostly involved handing out flyers at the shops or hanging up posters on storefronts. But these days, your audience is more likely to be found online.

In fact, according to HubSpot Blogs’ research, 75% of consumers visit brands’ websites instead of picking up a phone to call to action. With the rise of mobile phones and social media, simply putting up a website isn’t enough.

So if you’re looking to engage with your audience online, where do you start?

Modern Marketing Is Personal

Traditional marketing approaches may work well for broadcast media—like radio or television—but they don’t scale well when applied to online marketing. That’s because people prefer to use the digital sphere to learn about brands and products.

To succeed with online marketing, you need to approach the process as if it were personalized to each individual user. This means tailoring your content to match that user’s interests, activities, and segmenting your lists based on what they’ve interacted with already.

You can use a tool like HubSpot to develop a brand voice and gather feedback throughout the marketing process. With HubSpot, you can assign a marketing person to work with you throughout the project. This person will listen to your feedback and provide guidance on which direction to take the content in.

Marketing Materials Online

Although the method for distributing and receiving marketing information has changed, the format itself hasn’t. That means you can still use PDFs, glossy pages, and print ads to reach your audience.

For instance, if you’re looking to promote a new product line, you may want to consider creating a few simple landing pages to serve as your source of inspiration. You can use tools like Squarespace to build and host these pages for free.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to attract customers to your store, you may want to consider creating a commerce-focused blog. This type of blog would be a great place to develop content for shoppers who are interested in your product line but don’t know where to find it.

Get Inspired

As a marketer, it’s your job to come up with innovative ideas to engage your customers. But in order to do that, you need to be open to new ways of interacting with your audience. One way is through marketing materials, such as infographics, web banners, and slide decks. Creating these materials can help you discover new ideas that will engage your audience and boost your sales.

If, for example, you’re looking to create an infographic of popular products, you can use an online tool like Canva to easily make it with the information you have available. That way, you can ensure your infographic includes only the most relevant data and doesn’t contain any errors. Plus, you can add colors, fonts, shapes, and more. So instead of throwing together a messy powerpoint presentation, you can simply create a neat, informative file that will look great on your desk—and maybe even be worth something someday if you ever decide to sell it.

Customers Vs. Audience

In some ways, marketing to customers is similar to marketing to the general public. You’re still trying to gain the trust of people who will eventually become customers and include them in your future plans. That means you need to be careful about what you say and do, as well as present yourself in a way that appeals to the masses.

However, there are several key differences. First, customers are already aware that they’re potential customers. This means you can directly appeal to them with offers and discounts, as well as engage with them on a more personal level (i.e., get to know them a little better).

Also, since customers are already a part of your target audience, they’re more likely to appreciate innovative marketing tactics that you might not even think of. For example, a clothing brand might use the holiday season to launch a clothing line for older men. This could be an innovative way to attract a certain type of customer that wouldn’t usually consider buying clothing for men. By tailoring your content to appeal to a more sophisticated audience, you can increase your odds of converting these individuals into buyers—and ultimately, help your business succeed.

As you might imagine, generating leads and converting them into paying customers can be quite the challenge. Fortunately, you can use tools like HubSpot to gain a better understanding of what is and isn’t working when it comes to your current marketing efforts. For example, if you notice your Google Adwords are pulling in significantly fewer leads than you’d expect for a niche product like yours, it might be time to re-evaluate your strategy and try something new.