If you are reading this, I assume you are either an entrepreneur looking to grow your business or an individual contributor trying to establish yourself in the world of online marketing and digital marketing.
I also assume that you have a business, whether established already or you are looking to establish one.
If that is the case, you have probably considered doing some online marketing to attract potential customers to your site. However, maybe you aren’t sure how or where to begin.
If that is the case, continue reading.
Why Online Marketing?
I think it is fair to say that most businesses have considered, or are considering, doing some form of online marketing. For many businesses, establishing an online presence is a key aspect of their marketing strategy. However, for some businesses, the transition to online marketing has proven to be more difficult than expected. For instance, if your business operates in an industry with very high barriers to entry, establishing an online marketing presence can seem nearly impossible.
For those looking to establish an online marketing presence, one of the first things you will need to do is to decide which platform to use. This decision will largely depend on your target audience and your existing resources. If you are considering using a content management system (CMS) for your site, take a look at some of the best news websites and consider what they have in common. Furthermore, if you have a team of content creators, consider using a content management system to enable collaboration between team members.
If your target audience is largely made up of people in other countries, using a platform like WordPress or SquareSpace, which are both translated easily into multiple languages, can prove extremely beneficial. Consider using these platforms to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Should someone from England, France, or Germany come across your content, they will have the ability to read it in their native language.
What is Digital Marketing?
If you aren’t sure what digital marketing is or how it relates to your business, read on.
Digital marketing is essentially the combined effort of marketing and sales professionals to generate interest in a product or service in the online community and drive action (e. g. conversions into sales, leads, or signups.)
Marketing and sales professionals work together to achieve business objectives, satisfy customer needs, and create growth and value for the firm.
In other words, digital marketing is everything online that isn’t “traditional” marketing (i.e. advertising), such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (social media marketing), and PPC (pay per click.)
What is SEO?
If you are reading this, I assume you are either an entrepreneur looking to grow your business or an individual contributor trying to establish yourself in the world of online marketing and digital marketing. SEO, short for search engine optimization, is the process of improving your web content in such a way that improves your search engine rankings on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yandex.
The better your SEO, the more likely your content will appear in the results of a Google search.
There are four main components to successful SEO:
- On-site SEO
- Off-site SEO
- Content
- Link building
On-site SEO is the process of ensuring that your website is optimized for search engines. This includes things like having the right title for articles, using relevant keywords in the content, and creating a user-friendly website.
Off-site SEO is basically doing the same thing but outside of your website. If your website is hosted on Google, their algorithms will consider off-site optimization. Essentially, off-site SEO is what enables your on-site SEO.
Content is probably the most important part of any SEO strategy. The content on your site, in the form of articles, videos, etc., should all be relevant to your target audience. Having relevant and valuable content will help establish your site as a reputable source of information.
Links are basically “votes” for your website from other websites. When another website decides to link to you, that is known as a vote of confidence. When other websites link to you, that is called “link building.” When other websites link to you, that is called “link building.” Having a high number of links is a sign of trust and respect. If you want to be considered a reputable source of information, you should do your best to gain more links than your competitors.
How Do I Start My Online Marketing Campaign?
As mentioned above, if you are reading this, I assume you have either an existing business or are looking to establish one. If that is the case, you will need to consider how you want your business to appear in the search results for key words and terms related to your industry. This is called “SEO” (search engine optimization.)
To get started, create a basic SEO strategy and implement it. Some entrepreneurs choose to hire an expert to help them with their SEO strategy. For larger businesses or those looking to establish an existing business, an in-house strategist with expertise in SEO can be an affordable and an effective solution.
Once you have your strategy in place, begin implementing it on your website. To get started, you will need to take a few steps. First, find the right keywords and phrases. Next, write content for your webpages around those words and phrases. Finally, promote that content on social media sites and forums.
If you want to establish your website as a go-to source for information in your industry, you should consider doing some forms of guest blogging. When a blogger posts an article about your industry on their website, they are technically doing you a favor by lending their name to your business’ blog post. Furthermore, if the article is well-written and includes valuable information, this can easily generate interest and traffic for your site.
What is SEM?
If you are reading this, I assume you are either an entrepreneur looking to grow your business or an individual contributor trying to establish yourself in the world of online marketing and digital marketing. SEM or social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Like SEO, social media marketing is a combination of marketing and sales. Social media marketing is essentially the combined effort of marketing and sales persons to generate interest in a product or service in the online community and drive action (e. g. conversions into sales, leads, or signups.)
On social media sites, your profile is considered your business’ “digital” storefront. Therefore, your profile picture (i.e. the image that will be attached to your every posted tweet, LinkedIn update, and Instagram story) will play a large role in establishing your credibility as an online marketer.
Your profile picture should be consistent across all platforms and should represent your business in a professional manner.
What is PPC?
If you are reading this, I assume you are either an entrepreneur looking to grow your business or an individual contributor trying to establish yourself in the world of online marketing and digital marketing. PPC, or pay per click, is another form of digital marketing that is used to generate targeted traffic to a website. In general, you will pay per click for individual contributions (i.e. links, articles, or videos) that are focused on your product or service.
PPC allows businesses to target individual consumers who are searching for their product or service in a particular location or through a specific search term. Furthermore, the more you spend on PPC, the more you will see results.
Because it is considered “pay-per-click,” you will generally only see results once you have spent a certain amount of money on PPC advertising. Furthermore, if you want to be considered a reputable source of information in your industry, it is suggested that you spend at least $100 per day on PPC promotions. (Some people in the industry refer to this amount as a “daily budget.” If you are unfamiliar with the term “daily budget,” it essentially refers to the amount of money you will spend each day on PPC advertising.)