You’ve probably heard of online marketing, but you might not know exactly what it is. If you’re not sure, don’t worry – we’re not going to waste your time going over the basics of marketing or what online marketing is. We’re going to tell you why you should care and how you can use online marketing to reach your full potential.

1. Established Client Base

Let’s be honest – you’re reading this blog post because you know you need help with SEO, right? If not, well, you should read something else. We’re going to teach you how to do SEO and get you ranking for the important keywords you’ll be targeting in the near future.

The thing is, if you’re not doing SEO, you’re losing out on a potentially huge market. As we noted above, you’re probably reading this post because you know you need help with SEO, but that’s only part of it. You see, search engine optimization is a form of marketing that you can use to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, and getting ranked on the search engines is the best way to do that.

Since the development of Google, SEO has always been an important part of digital marketing. However, in the last few years, SEO as a standalone strategy has declined in importance. Why? Because as more and more people turn to the internet for information, the capability of search engines to deliver that information has improved – and the competition to get that information has become stiffer.

Since the beginning of 2020, Google has gotten so good at delivering information that simply ranking for keywords isn’t enough. You have to stand out among the competition, and new SEO tactics, such as content marketing and social media optimization, have arisen to help you do that. But whether you’re doing this through SEO or another form of digital marketing, you’ll find that having an established client base that’s regularly consuming your content is a great way to prove to the search engines and your audience that you’re an expert in your industry.

2. Earned Media

You know when you go for a walk and come across an article you really like in your local paper? That’s earned media. When you leave a comment on a blog post that adds value to the conversation, that’s earned media. When your friends and family talk about you or your product on social media, that’s earned media. When someone suggests you try a new product or service and you hop on the phone to make a purchase, that’s earned media.

The thing about earned media is that you have to earn it. You can’t just wake up one day and decide to start creating content just to see which articles trend on social media and whether or not they bring in the page views. You have to be actively posting, participating in conversations, and providing value to be considered “earned media.”

This is where understanding the psychology behind the digital consumer comes in handy. If you can identify the key influencers in your industry and get to know them, you can begin to understand the decisions that they make and find the spots where you can interject to get attention and make them notice your brand.

3. Increased Website Traffic

Getting a spike in website traffic is fantastic, but keeping it is another story. Once you’ve established yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry, you’ll start to see a decline in traffic as people find you online and decide that it’s best to visit your site rather than the one of your competitors. However, you can take steps to prevent this and keep that traffic.

If you’ve ever tried to grow a blog, you’ll know how hard it is to get the first few views. Once you do get a few, however, things change. Suddenly, getting that 500 view per month won’t seem so bad. But before you hit that magical number, you’re already beginning to see a decline in views. Why? Because people have found your site and are using it regularly – so if you want to keep that traffic, you’ll need to make sure that your content is valuable.

You can do this by creating more content of value. As we noted above, getting that first few views is really difficult. Anything from 1-2 million is considered a big spike. After that, it’s all downhill. But if you can get that first million, things can start to grow from there. More and more content that’s valuable to your target audience is what’s going to propel your blog or website forward.

4. Brand Awareness

If you get to the point where you have a significant audience, whether it’s on social media or on your blog, you’ll notice one trend – people will always know what brand they’re purchasing from based on your name alone. More and more people are becoming brand experts, and understanding what makes a brand unique and how to communicate that is a powerful tool for anyone looking to grow a business.

If you want to build a brand, you have to consider earned media. It’s all about making sure that people are aware of your brand. But in order to do that, you have to be consistent. You can’t have one post, tweet, or Facebook update that’s brand-related and then another one that isn’t. You have to build up a reputation for being an authoritative voice in your industry, and by doing that, people will start to associate your name with quality.

5. Increased Engagement

Now, this one might seem like it’s out of this world when you consider the other benefits that come with online marketing, but it’s actually not that far-fetched. When you have an audience, you have the opportunity to engage with them through your content. The key is to make sure that your content not only provides value, but that it’s of an educational nature. While it would be great to simply throw out a bunch of affiliate links and make a few sales, getting people to subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on social media isn’t a bad way to go either. People want to feel like they’re learning something new and valuable, and the more you can provide in that regard, the more interested you’ll draw in the audience.

6. Better Understanding of Customer Behavior

Have you ever shopped at a store and wondered why some products or brands appeal to you and some don’t? That’s where consumer behavior comes in. Marketers can track consumer behavior and patterns, from what they buy to how they behave, which allows brands to have a better understanding of how to interact with future customers. That improved understanding allows businesses to craft customized marketing strategies that will appeal to that specific audience.

7. Improved Productivity

Productivity is important in every workplace, but it’s made even more important when you’re working remotely. Since working remotely can be difficult, especially if you’re not used to it, staying organized and having all the right applications and teams in the right place at the right time can be a major boost to your productivity. Having all your marketing materials in one place, ready to go at a moment’s notice, can help you get the most out of the time you spend working.

Content management systems make organizing and maintaining a blog or website much easier. Not only do they help you keep track of the numerous drafts and versions of your posts, but they also make it easy to access any of your content from any device. That means you can access it from your phone, tablet, or computer – which can be a major productivity boost.

8. More Targeted Marketing

With more individuals accessing the internet than ever before, it’s more important than ever to be able to target the right audience. Even if you’ve got the best content in the world, it won’t do any good if you’re not reaching the people who could benefit from it.

Targeted marketing can be extremely powerful when used correctly. Once you’ve got a good understanding of who your audience is, you can craft marketing campaigns that will appeal to them specifically. Instead of just throwing out generic advertisements and hoping that people discover your product or service by chance, you can take the time to find out what resonates with your audience and use that to your advantage.

9. Better Chance of Converting Leads Into Sales

In order to grow a business, you’ll inevitably have to convert some amount of leads into sales. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 situation since you can’t grow traffic but you can’t generate enough leads without having tons of traffic, but once you do have plenty of leads, you’ll need to find a way to close the deal.

Having an SEO strategy will allow you to target the right audience and increase the chances of converting those leads into sales.