Online marketing is a great way to advertise your business and drum up web traffic. However, there are certain considerations that everyone should understand about online marketing. By learning and implementing the 5 important facts below, you can create a well-defined and measurable online marketing plan.
You Must Define Your Target Audience
As with offline marketing, it is important to know your target audience. This helps you determine whether your online marketing efforts are directed to make the most impact. While you may have already done market research to determine who your target audience is off-line, rules are a bit different when it comes to your online reach. For example, if your off-line efforts are primarily focused on women ages 20 to 25 and minimally on men ages 20 to 25, then you may find greater success in focusing on both audiences online. This can be achieved by placing an ad on a website that receives a high amount of traffic from men in this age bracket. While women may continue to be your primary buyer, the internet allows you a far greater ability to expand your smaller target audiences too.
Mobile Compatibility Is A Must
Every ad you place, every landing page you design, and every website where your information is advertised, all must be mobile compatible. It has been estimated that 87 percent of all internet access will be via mobile devices by 2017. Presently, most websites receive approximately 40 percent of their traffic from mobile devices.
Data Must Be Analyzed
All of your online marketing efforts must be organized and measurable. Each ad you place should be connected to analytics to help you clearly gauge what is working and what is not. You also need to be able to gauge when an avenue that used to work well is no longer working.
Content Is More Important Than Ever
Quality content has always been key, but as online marketing continues to evolve, content is more important than ever. If you post keyword-heavy articles and repetitive content with the sole intent to build backlinks and drive traffic, you will find that your lack of quality will actually hinder your success. Instead of posting many fasts and highly optimized articles, focus your energy on putting out relevant, valuable, and well-written articles.
Social Media Creativity Makes You Standout
Social media is a must for all businesses, but getting creative with the way you market and interact on your social media sites is imperative. Mostly likely, you use an automation tool to schedule many of your posts in advance, but if you spam and post for the sake of posting, your social media marketing efforts will likely be ineffective. Instead, look for creative ways to attract attention on your social media sites, which focus more on increasing social interaction and less on sales efforts. The posts and content you share on your social media profiles should be industry-related; avoid the temptation of posting all ads and promotions. Find a way to connect with your customers by making it personal, eliciting an emotion, or becoming a valuable resource.
The 5 tips above will help your online marketing campaign achieve its desired results. Keep in mind that the world of online marketing is highly competitive, so trends and marketing efforts that work well today may only find fleeting success. This means you have to constantly be looking on the lookout for new areas of opportunity and growth.
Christopher Bellamy is a freelance writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For further information on business website design, online marketing and CGI design in Houston, Texas Chris recommends that curious readers visit FuelFX.
Image credit goes to bizzibiz.