Marketing is a fundamental aspect of business growth. Whether you realize you are using it or not, marketing strategies are what build clientele, expand businesses and increase sales. However, not all marketing methods are the same. What works for one business isn’t going to work for another. To help your business grow you will need to find the form of marketing that is right for your business strategy so that you obtain the greatest possible return on your investment.
There are several factors that are taken into account during any successful marketing campaign. These factors include one’s audience, the sale objective and the perceived demand of the item or service being provided. A marketing campaign will need to appeal to the perceived audience in the correct way to lead to a sale. This includes finding the best way to connect with your audience, often by playing up aspects like serving a cause, fulfilling a need or heightening demand by emphasizing limited availability.
Content Marketing
The world of marketing is huge, but when it comes to marketing practices on the internet there is one thing that each of these hold in common: use of content. Content marketing drives online sales while building web presence for brick-and-mortar institutions. A strong content marketing campaign can build your brand, increase awareness about a product or service and create a network through which a company can communicate and build a relationship with prospective clients.
Here are the four core types of content marketing and how to use them:
- Blog posts. well-kept blog is a great way to hand out valuable information and build a trusting relationship with clients while driving up your websites placement and reaching more eyes and ears than ever before. Your blog should be keyword driven and filled with quality information that will encourage the reader to come back for more.
- Case studies. These are detailed examples that outline how your product or service is successful. Your case study can be long or short, but should detail a problem, how the problem was addressed using the product or service in question and what the final outcome was.
- Video. Video is a wonderful platform that you can use to your advantage. How-to episodes, informational seminars and product introductions and descriptions are all great uses of internet video and will give your customer base something valuable to turn to.
Content marketing is only valuable when the content is of high quality. Remember that poorly written content can actually hurt your marketing goals, not help them.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Pay per click is one of the most popular forms of online marketing. This type of campaign uses banner ads and sales tactics to persuade internet users to click on a small advertisement in the side panel, top or footer of the screen. The banners generally have only a small snippet of text on them and are made to appear alluring with the use of stock images or custom photography.
PPC marketing uses the allure of advertisements to drive visitors to your website. The PPC advertisements use tracking software to gage interest in your services among internet users, and then use that information to target your ideal audience. Visitors will only be brought to your website if they physically click on the PPC advertisement. Every time they do click you pay a premium, hence the name pay-per-click.
Social Media Marketing
Social media networks are one of the largest hubs of activity on the internet. Giants like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have hundreds of millions of monthly users, with Facebook reporting numbers closer to the billions. If you are looking for attention for your website then you need to bring your website to where the activity is, and the way to do that is through social media.
Social media marketing is unlike other forms of marketing in that it is driven by the concept of sharing information, not building sales. To use social media effectively you will need a strong content strategy with high quality content that is worth reading and sharing. Social media networks are not suited well for traditional advertising ploys, but if you provide a service, such as offering a reliable and interesting resource that can be freely shared, then your website can gain serious traction in the social media gambit.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO uses many of the aspects detailed above, but does so in an overarching strategy with the goal of increasing visibility in the search engines. A strong SEO campaign uses deliberate keyword placement and internal links to drive up the perception of your website in the eyes of the search engine algorithms.
The search engines favor websites that have certain features. One of these features is backlinks, meaning links coming from other websites directing people to visit your site. The other is keyword placement. You want your website to have the exact phrase that the user has typed into the search engine. Each of these factors provides your website with added validity and increases the reputation of your website to the search engines. SEO uses as many avenues as possible to attain these two tactics, which often includes the creation of quality content for blogs, social media networking, directory presence and PPC campaigns.
There are many different forms of web marketing, but each hold a common goal. This goal is to drive up the traffic directed to your sites and to convert visitors into customers. To do this you will need to use a well-balanced combination of the above tactics. A web marketing expert can help you determine the best marketing strategy for your website and business goals.
