Looking for some online marketing tips to grow your business? Well you’ve come to the right blog. Marketing to customers online is 10 times easier than using traditional marketing tactics.
Online marketing is cost-effective, it’s easier to reach your audience and you know exactly who you’re reaching. You have the ability to optimize campaigns and websites if they are not performing the way you want them to. You can clearly see how many people have opened your emails and clicked a link. You can even target who you want to when you want to. Stop wasting time and money on traditional marketing and go digital!
Let’s dig in to some of the best online marketing tips out there starting with…
1. Know your target audience and knowing how to target them
These two online marketing tips are key. If you’re not targeting the right group of people, you’re going to lose money. It’s as simple as that. You will need to aggressively research your target market, or hire an online marketing company to do it for you.
What are their demographics? Their buying habits? What does your typical customer look like? After you know who to target, now you must figure out how to target them. An easy way to do this is to build a lookalike audience on Facebook. This targets users who “look like” your target audience whether it’s age, gender, interests, or other demographics.
2. Optimize your Site
Most business owners know that their websites need to be optimized in order for search engines to find them and rank them. If you don’t know, that’s okay. You can learn all about SEO here and then you’ll be up to speed!
Optimizing your website includes making sure you have an H1 tag, a title, meta description, relevant keywords, alt text for your images, and the appropriate amount of text. You can do this organically or you can pay for it.
3. Google AdWords (PPC)
Just like optimizing your site to rank for keywords, you can use our online marketing tips to pay to run advertisements on Google so that your business is shown on the first page of search results. Ranking this way is instantaneous where as SEO takes some time before you will be able to see your site on the first page of search results. It certainly pays off to be at the top of the page.
Google Ads take up the first four positions on a search results page. Those results are the first ones people see and as you can imagine, get the majority of clicks. It sounds simple, but Google AdWords can be quite complicated especially with all of the settings and insights it offers. But if you do it right, all of those clicks will lead to conversions.
Here’s a simple search in Google for basketball shoes. As you can see, four ads come up with the brand Adidas being number one. These first four positions are all targeting the keyword “basketball shoes” and paying each time their ad is clicked by a potential customer.
The position of your ad is determined by several factors that give your ad a score based on the quality of your ads and how much you are willing to pay per click. Even if other brands are competing for the same keyword as you are, it is possible to rank above them and pay less per click, but Google must see your ads as highly relevant in order for this to happen.
4. Advertisement Congruence
If your business is running ads this is one of our most important online marketing tips! Ad congruence is when your ads and landing pages look alike or have the same message.
Have you ever clicked on an ad and been taken to a page that looked nothing like the ad?
When your ads look like the web pages they lead to, customers will feel like they are in the right place. If your ad is radically different from the page it is linked to it’s likely that customers will be confused and exit out of your site. If you want those conversions, make sure your ads and landing pages are congruent.
Take Indique hair for example. This is one of their Facebook ads for their product of the month which is for premium hair extensions. When a customer clicks on this ad they are immediately taken to this landing page for the product of the month. Both the ad and landing page tell the customer the same or similar information and say that there is a discount.
This is one of the best online marketing tips to have in your back pocket. If your ads aren’t leading to conversions, it could be because your ads don’t match their landing pages. Make sure you double and even triple check this!
5. Write Blogs
A blog can help out your SEO immensely. Writing longer blogs that are full of relevant keywords and rich content trigger a response from search engines to rank your site higher. It also adds value for your customers.
If they have a question and you write a blog about it, you have just answered their question and become a reliable source for information. You’ve created a connection before you have even met them. Nurturing website visitors is what turns leads into conversions and creates lifelong customers.
6. Backlink
Backlinks can make a huge difference for your website’s SEO. A backlink is when another website links to a page on your site. When you get a backlink from a site that has a higher domain authority than you do, it sends a signal to Google that your site is credible which can improve your rankings. Think of it like one of your superiors at a previous job writing a recommendation letter for you. That’s how the search engines see it. The more recommendations or backlinks you have, the more likely you are to move up in search rankings!
7. Internal Linking
Internal linking can strengthen your website and increase your rankings. It can also aid in site navigation, building page hierarchy, and it helps distribute page authority throughout your website. The more content you have the better so make sure you learn about the importance of content marketing for your business.
8. Google My Business
This is one of those online marketing tips that should be a given but some businesses still don’t have a Google My Business account. When you search for your favorite restaurant on Google there’s a bunch of information that comes up on the right hand side of the search results page. It displays the businesses’ address, phone number, hours of operation, photos, questions and answers, and even customer reviews.
This is a Google My Business listing – a top priority when you first open a business. This allows you to stand out and can help draw purchasing customers in if you optimize it correctly.
9. Keep your content fresh
Updating the content on your website gives search engines a reason to keep ranking your site. Having fresh and current content also keeps your potential and returning customers coming back.Search engines are constantly crawling sites. You already know that fresh content will keep them coming back for more but stagnant content could hurt your websites rankings. The more you change or add to your site, the better your chances of maintaining a higher search ranking.
10. Update your website
Not only is it important to update your content, but if your website looks like it’s from the 1990s it’s time for a total makeover. Website design is constantly evolving, so it’s important to keep up with the current trends so that you can compete in your market. Old website design can give out spammy vibes to customers who will quickly leave your site and move on to one that is more aesthetically appealing.
11. Have a cool website design
Engage your potential customers with web design that is up to date and exciting. Use cool features like parallax scrolling and make sure the user experience is on point. If your website looks clean and is easy to navigate, you will be able to build trust with potential customers. If customers land on your site and don’t understand how to navigate or can’t find what they’re looking for, you have just lost a sale.
12. Make sure your website is responsive
What’s the point of even having a website if it doesn’t look nice on every device? 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing. If your site is not responsive, those potential customers will find another business. More and more people are making purchases through mobile devices so make sure that your website is mobile friendly.
13. Utilize website pop-ups
A pop-up on your website allows you to collect information such as email addresses, from people who visit your site. You can also use a popup to offer a coupon code or discount to first time customers to further entice them to continue to your site or buy your product or service. Combine them for the ultimate popup: A coupon in exchange for an email address. Popups are so helpful because once you create them, they do all the work for you.
14. Integrate social media into your site
If you’re not already doing this, you should be. Having a social media presence is immensely important for growing your business and increasing engagement. Not only should your business be on social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (to name just a few), these social media icons should be visible on your website.
This is an easy way to potentially gain followers. Once potential customers are following you on social media you can then reach them with tactics like boosted posts…which leads us to one of the most popular online marketing tips.
15. Boost Posts
Organic reach on Facebook can be unpredictable. Facebook only shows your content to a very small percentage of your followers and there’s a good chance your content will get lost in between all of the memes and Happy Birthdays.
Facebook is a pay to play platform. This means that in order for your content to be seen by a large audience, you have to pay for it. Boosting your posts can increase engagement and help promote your products or services. It ensures that your content is in front of your audience.
16. Google Analytics
If you don’t know what Google Analytics is, on a surface level it’s an automated way to gather data on your potential customers. It will help you answer questions like “How long are customers spending on my site?” or “Why did they get all the way to the checkout page and not make a purchase?” Google Analytics has the power to track every movement on your website that a customer makes.
If your customers are making it all the way to your checkout page with items in their cart and not making a purchase, something is wrong and Google Analytics will let you know. There could be a number of reasons that people are abandoning their carts, but figuring it out on your own could cause even more problems. An online marketing expert will be able to help you solve this problem quickly and prevent it from happening again.
17. Email marketing
Email marketing is still vitally important to businesses no matter how big or how small they are. Sending emails to your customers is a cost effective way to market to them directly. It’s like snail mail but better. You can include graphics and photos and calls to action. You’ll know who opened and clicked and when! You can even track revenue.
Email marketing and social media go hand in hand. Don’t have an email list? Set up a campaign to capture emails. Already have an email list? Use it to create a lookalike audience so that you can better target potential customers. The possibilities are endless.
18. Email automations
Here are three online marketing tips in one. Email automations are for lack of a better word, awesome. Once you create them you can sit back, relax and let them do their thing. Welcome automations, abandoned cart automations, and retargeting automations are three of the best ways to reach your customers.
A welcome automation greets your customers once they sign up to receive your emails. As a business you want to put your best foot forward so greet your customers as soon as they give you their email. Abandoned cart and retargeting automations are both great ways to get that sale that might otherwise be lost forever.
19. Give away free stuff
How does this compare to the other online marketing tips out there? How is it even useful? How am I going to make money if I’m giving away free stuff? Giving potential customers a taste of your product or service is one of the best online marketing tipsthat gets people hooked on your brand.
Customers who receive a free product are 20% more likely to spread the word about the free product than they are about a product they paid for. By giving away your product for free you’re essentially paying for word of mouth advertising.A great example here is Spotify. They offer a free version to customers but also offer a free 30 day trial of premium ad free music. Once their customers are hooked and see they can get more with paid features, it’s really a no brainer to upgrade to a premium account especially after the 30 day free trial.
20. Use social media to engage with your customers
Customers love to engage with brands and they really love it when a brand reciprocates. Take Wendy’s for example and the famous case of #NuggsForCarter. Carter Wilkerson tweeted at the major fast food chain and asked how many retweets he would have to get to receive a year of free chicken nuggets. Wendy’s replied with 18 million. Your brand doesn’t have to go all out like Wendy’s did, but replying to customer questions on social media platform is a sure way to put your brand above the rest.
21. Figure out which platforms your business should be on (B2B vs B2C platforms)
If you’re a B2B or business to business company, you will want to make sure you are using social platforms to better your relationships with other businesses. We recommend using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you’re a B2C or business to consumer company, you will want to be on all of the social platforms that your customers are using. We recommend Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Consider also using Yelp and Google as these platforms help build social proof. When your target audience is in the ‘consideration’ phase of the Customer Buying Cycle, your brand has established trust and legitimacy.
22. Utilize video
Use video as often as you can to showcase products and solutions. By next year (2019), video content will be king and will drive 85% of search traffic in America. In other words, video is huge and your business needs to have captivating video.
Posting a video on a social media platform is an easy way to showcase your product and how it works. Video ads generate more engagement and higher click through rates than traditional static advertisements. They also allow your potential customers to understand your product or service before they land on your site. With videos, customers are better informed about your product or service which can lead to higher conversion rates.
23. Checkout optimization
This is a major problem for ecommerce stores, so if you have one, this one of the online marketing tips you won’t want to miss! Most business don’t even think about optimizing their checkout process.
Customers abandon their cart all the time for many reasons. They could be second guessing their purchase or maybe they don’t trust your website to handle their credit card information. How do you build trust on your checkout page? How do you make your customer feel safe when they give you their credit card information?
You can start with making sure your check out page looks legitimate and secure. Be as transparent as possible and make sure that there are no hidden fees. It’s a bummer for customers to get all the way to the end of the check out process only to be hit with a large shipping fee. Make sure your check out process is optimized from start to finish. The less abandoned carts, the more sales for your business!
24. Reputation Management
Your customers can become ambassadors for your brand if they had a good experience and share it on Google or social media sites. They can also become your worst nightmare if they leave a bad review. It is immensely important to thank customers who leave good reviews and to communicate with customers who leave bad ones. Reputation management is a key online marketing tip and can humanize your business and help it grow immensely if it’s done correctly.
25. Remarketing
Out of all the online marketing tips we could possibly give you, remarketing is one of the most important. This tactic targets potential customers who have visited your site but maybe didn’t make a purchase. With remarketing, your ads will appear on other sites that those potential customers visit making it so your brand name is in front of their eyes even though they’re not on your website. Thus reminding them of your products and services over and over again, which encourages them to return to your site and make the purchase they didn’t make earlier
Wrapping Up
Digital marketing has changed the way businesses can market to their customers. With all of the data we can now gather on potential customers, we can customize their buying journeys, increase conversions, and keep customers coming back. With online marketing tips like these, it’s all about execution.
You as a business owner can set up your own email automations, design your website, retarget your customers, and optimize your site with keywords but do you have the time to do it all?