Your online marketing campaign represents your company’s virtual presence, which can be used to attract potential customers to your site, gain credibility with existing customers, and demonstrate the value you provide.
What is a marketing campaign and how is it different from marketing materials? Well, a marketing campaign is a set of methods used to attract, engage, and convert potential customers into paying and returning customers.
Your marketing efforts may include advertising on social media platforms like Facebook or Google AdWords, creating content to post on your website, or using a third-party platform like HubSpot to build and manage digital marketing campaigns.
Depending on your industry, the platforms you use may vary, but as a general rule of thumb, the more involved you are in the marketing process, the more effective it will be. For example, if you are looking to target consumers in North America with your luxury goods website, you may want to consider using Google AdWords for marketing purposes since the majority of your target audience can be found on the platform. Your ads will appear at the top of search results on Google, and if someone clicks on your ad and lands on your site, you know you have successfully engaged that user, drawing him or her into taking a further action, potentially leading to a conversion, or a sale.
The Focal Point Of Your Online Marketing Campaign
While your advertising may reach potential customers, your landing pages, webpages, and social media platforms connect with existing customers, brand advocates, and other interested parties, which is how you gain credibility, and eventually, revenue.
The best landing pages, webpages, and social media platforms are those that establish you as an expert in your industry, and allow for easy interaction and “clicking” through to the next action in the funnel – converting that potential customer into a paying customer.
Where Do I Start?
Creating an effective digital marketing campaign takes time and planning, so don’t expect to be able to pull off a successful internet marketing effort without first creating a plan and collecting the proper tools.
You may find it helpful to approach marketing analytics with a fresh set of eyes and an open mind. As a beginner, you may think that more traffic implies more business, but taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture can help you determine the actual effect that organic and paid traffic have on your bottom line. If you use Google Analytics, you can easily see how many visitors you have attracted to your website, and how many of these have become paying customers. This information can help you determine how effective your paid and organic marketing campaigns have been, and if either one is proving to be more valuable than the other.
Why Should I Focus On Organic Marketing?
If you’re new to digital marketing, you may be thinking about focusing solely on organic marketing, or at least partially relying on organic traffic to drive sales. While there’s no denying that organic marketing can be very effective, you should also consider pursuing paid advertising, or PPC (pay-per-click) marketing.
Paid marketing allows you to target groups of consumers who are more likely to be interested in your product or service, and allows for more flexibility when it comes to executing your online marketing campaign. For example, if you are running an ecommerce store, paid marketing provides the ability to target individuals based on their previous online purchases, enabling you to serve them with personalized product recommendations, or offers tailored to their interests. This can help you drive more traffic to your site and boost your revenue in the process.
The Different Ways To Market My Business Through Online Channels
If you’re looking to market your business online, you may wonder what channels to focus on and which ones to avoid. Depending on your target audience, you may want to consider running ads on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, or creating content to post on your website.
Each channel has its perks and downsides, but if you want to have the most beneficial impact, it’s best to utilize multiple channels, experimenting with various platforms, and continually evolving your strategy to fit changing consumer preferences, behaviors, and technologies.
Become A Subject Matter Expert (SME)
SMEs can help you establish your expertise in a particular area. For example, if your area of expertise is luxury goods and you want to market your expertise to people searching for luxury goods, you may want to consider creating a blog focused entirely on luxury goods, or joining a professional society, or community, that is related to your industry. By doing this, you can easily show your expertise in the area, and when people come across your content online, they will know exactly who you are and what you offer.
Get A Website
If you don’t have a website yet, it’s time to get one. Having a website not only gives you the ability to conduct business online, but it also builds credibility and authority, effectively allowing you to market yourself as an expert in your industry. Website builders like Squarespace make it easy to get started, and once you have a basic website up and running, you can add content, like blog posts, to build a strong foundation for your online marketing efforts. Additionally, having a website allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, setting you apart from others, and enabling you to gain credibility with customers and potential new customers, who can then learn more about your company and your products or services.
Build A Twitter Following
If you have a limited amount of time to invest in marketing, then it might be smart to focus on building a solid base of followers on Twitter, alongside other social media platforms, to take your brand’s social media presence to the next level.
If you can add more value to your network, you can drive more traffic to your site, and eventually, boost your revenue. When someone follows you on Twitter, they will see your latest tweets, which can then be followed by others, encouraging more people to learn about your business, and giving you the ability to have a much larger impact online. Additionally, having followers on social media platforms like Twitter will allow you to have an authoritative voice in your industry, and gain credibility when speaking about topics related to your business. Simply make sure that your Twitter identity is consistent with your niche, and try to add value to your content by sharing industry news, events, or relevant stories.
Create Great Content
Another important factor to consider when marketing your business online is the content you create. People search for products and services online, using search engines like Google or Bing, which present the content in order of relevance, so if your website ranking is high on a search engine, you can rest assured that your content is easily found by potential customers.
When creating content for your site, make sure that you are consistently applying what you have learned about SEO, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing, otherwise, your content may not perform well.
Additionally, make sure to keep your content relevant, useful, and high-quality, and avoid anything that can be deemed as “scammy” or overly promotional, trying to gain popularity just for the sake of attracting potential customers, or even existing customers.
Creating and publishing great content will not only help you attract potential customers, but it can also be used to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. People in your industry will appreciate your efforts, and you will begin to see organic traffic steadily increase, pointing to the success of your content-based marketing strategy.
Use Paid Traffic To Maximize Impact
While it’s great to gain popularity and credibility through organic marketing, if you want to quickly and effectively market your business, then you may want to rely on paid traffic, or “paid strategies” to do so. Paid strategies give you the ability to target consumers who have expressed an interest in your product or service, and allow for more flexibility when it comes to executing your online marketing campaign.
If you have a budget, then you may want to consider investing in paid traffic since it can often times be more effective than organic traffic, helping you drive more leads to your website, and eventually boosting your revenue and impact. While it’s not always the case, particularly with businesses in niches where it’s difficult to rank well organically, having a steady stream of paid traffic can greatly improve your online presence, and make a difference in your bottom line, helping you to become more profitable. Paid strategies can take the form of an ad campaign on a social media platform, a pay-per-click (or cost-per-click) campaign on search engines, or an email marketing campaign, among others.