When it comes to marketing, there are many practices that work and many that don’t. However, there is one that almost all marketers can subscribe to: experimentation. Just because a practice doesn’t always work doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try it. With that in mind, let’s explore five of the best online marketing practices and how you can use them to improve your own marketing initiatives.
1. Use Search Engine Advertising
Most people are familiar with traditional forms of advertising, like billboards, radio ads, or newspapers. However, the way we consume content has changed dramatically over the past decade. Today, most people discover content through search engines, such as Google and Bing.
Think about the last time you searched for something on Google or Bing. You probably used a couple of keywords in your search, right? That’s because most content providers (e.g., Google, Bing, YouTube, etc.) use a similar keyword technique in their ranking algorithms. When you see a bunch of purple text on a screen, that’s usually a good sign that you’re looking at a search engine advertisement (SEA).
Why should you use SEA in your marketing efforts? The best answer is that you shouldn’t. At least not yet.
Just like with most things in life, there’s a right time and place to use SEA in your marketing efforts. When you’re starting out, it’s not the right move to focus on advertising on search engines. Instead, use organic search or paid search to find potential customers. Once you have a small number of leads, you can experiment with paid search ads or social media marketing to drive more traffic to your site.
2. Measure Your Success With Analytics
Keeping track of your success as a marketer is hard. There are so many factors that could affect whether or not your marketing efforts are working. However, if you want to know for sure, you should turn to analytics.
Analytics give you the detailed reports that you need to know for sure. For example, you can see exactly how many people have visited your website since you launched it, what keywords they used to find you, and how long they stayed on your site before leaving. There are many other useful reports that you can find in your analytics dashboard, such as traffic sources, conversion rates, and a lot more.
Using analytics to track your website’s performance can be as simple as signing up for a free account. However, if you want to get the most out of your analytics data, you should be using a tool like Google Analytics. Not only will it track your site’s performance, but it will also give you the ability to segment your data and track specific events, such as a click or a conversion.
3. Experiment With Digital Marketing Channels
With the explosion of mobile technology, the number of platforms where consumers can connect to share content has increased. This has led to a boom in digital marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, and mobile marketing.
You should use all of these channels to reach your target audience, but you shouldn’t just plug away at one channel and expect results. Instead, try different approaches in each one and measure the success of your experiments. For example, did a particular ad campaign on social media increase your web traffic or sales? Did a blog post contribute to a particular sale? You can use tools like Google Analytics to track the results of your experiments and determine which channels are providing the best return on investment.
4. Use Both Traditional And Digital Marketing
The best marketers know how to leverage both traditional and digital marketing to get the results they want. Why should you do this? Traditional marketing, such as advertisements on TV, magazines, and newspapers, provides you with a wide audience that you can target with digital marketing. For example, you can run advertisements on social media to target consumers who are interested in your product or service. Likewise, you can target potential customers who read your blog with a coupon code or special link that encourages them to visit your site.
The important thing to remember is that both forms of marketing work together. You should never use one form of marketing to gain an edge over another. Instead, find a way to use each one for the best results.
5. Be Genuine
When someone finds your website, you should give them the best experience possible. This means using quality content, simple design, and relevant calls-to-action (CTAs). Essentially, you want to ensure that your visitors feel satisfied with what they find and continue on your site instead of going to a competitor’s website. This is much easier said than done, but it’s all about practice and good ol’ fashioned hard work.
To begin with, you should set up your website with a landing page. This is a static page that you can link to from various places on social media and the web. This page should contain the same essential information as your homepage, but in a condensed manner. The goal is to draw attention to the most important aspects of your business while creating a solid foundation for your marketing efforts.
In addition to a landing page, you should have an about page that provides visitors with key information about your business, such as your website URL, your company’s slogan, a short bio about your team, and a large picture of your logo. On this page, you can also include some of your best work, whether it’s an award you won, an article you wrote, or a case study that illustrates your product’s or service’s effectiveness.
To further encourage visitors to stay and engage with your content, you can provide them with a great user experience by including videos, blogs, and webinars on your about page.
By establishing a presence on the web with a landing page, you can use various platforms, like Google Adwords, to gain visitors to your site. From there, you can experiment with various marketing methods, such as SEO, to drive more potential customers to your site.