How should a business seek to grow their business online? Or perhaps a more important question, why should a business owner seek to grow their business online?
The answer to this fundamental question will also govern the internet marketing strategies you choose to employ to grow your sales,
gain wider distribution to customers you cannot reach offline, display a wider product range than in-store, or offer better prices. I propose some possible reasons to adopt internet marketing strategies for your business:
• The right internet marketing strategies will help you add value - give your customers greater benefits and guide new product developments through online dialogue and feedback
• By adopting the right internet marketing strategies you can get closer to your customers - reach your customers with new online tools such as search tracking them. Create a two-way dialogue, ask them questions, conduct online interviews, monitor chatrooms, and forums and social media to learn more about your customers
• Internet Marketing is a great way to help your small business save money - you could for instance provide a virtual customer service and use online transaction administration and track your success at little or no cost
• Using internet marketing, extend your brand online - provide a new position and a new experience for your customers online whilst retaining your brand’s familiarity
The web is a marketplace in its own right. When shopping or buying a product, most consumers will look to the web as a primary influencer and decision tool. Even in the non-digital world, it is quite common to go into a store and find prospective customers surfing the web on their smart phones in search of lower prices at competing stores. In spite of the many advantages of internet marketing, it remains true that the failure rate of businesses with internet marketing is high. So how can you be better placed to succeed? Here are a few best practice internet marketing strategies to help you grow your business online:
Content Marketing Strategy
Spend any amount of time on the Social Web (Social Media) and you will invariably come across the oft-repeated maxim ‘Content is King’. It’s true. But what is this mysterious ‘content’?
On the internet, marketing is is less about pushing out messages and more about pulling in customers and potential customers. It is done through material that entertains, amuses, informs, serves a function, but also answers a need. In some way the material must provide added value to such an extent that it is welcomed, asked for again and shared with others.
The traditional model of advertising – of promotional messages - has been used since the genesis of time by marketers and is based on this premise: in exchange for subsidizing content produced by a third party broadcaster, publisher etc., the advertiser earns the right to interrupt the consumer’s experience with adverts.
This is the case with television advertising. Online however, through annoying pop-up screens, home page ‘take-over’ ads this method of advertising spurs people like me to look for the ‘skip this ad’ button. Online, customers simply click it away. They are becoming increasingly resistant and hard-to-win-over to advertising messages of this sort, resulting in a gradual erosion of trust in the advertisers themselves.
Online, it is the best material which will pull in the right people; those who are most likely to buy your product or service and tell others about it, eventually becoming your advocates. In a crowded market place your content must be outstanding to … stand out.
Search strategy
Simply put, your search strategy allows potential customers to find your content online. Most of the ‘clicks’ are made on the front page of Google. This, therefore, is where you need to be through the keywords you have chosen.
Sadly there are still too many people in business who believe all they need to do is build a Website and let their Web designer get the site into the search engines. ‘Can’t I just pay someone to register the site with lots of search engines?’ is a question I have been asked on many an occasion. The short answer to this is ‘no’. The proliferation of advertising offering to guarantee top ten placements in a gazillion search engines – no doubt aimed at the very people likely to ask the question just mentioned – has given rise to this misconception.
Search engine optimisation - the practice of getting your outstanding content found online - isn’t rocket science, but unfortunately neither is it child’s play.
The overwhelming majority of sites do not have a chance in the search engine rankings, simply because they make…simple mistakes. Their designers need to make their websites easy for search engines like Google.
Performance Measurement Strategy
“You cannot generate sustainable improvements without measurement”- is one of my best loved maxims.In our knowledge-based societies, information is power. Tracking the elements of your business that lead to sales is important: the Internet fortunately gives you many metrics to choose from. Whilst for some the abundance of choice may indeed be a blessing, for others it is the opposite. The top reason cited by small businesses in particular for not tracking their key performance indicators include ’too many metrics’, ‘confusion’, and ‘not knowing how to do it’. Most people know they want a return on investment but are not sure how to measure this return. A good performance strategy is one which will
enable you to track your ability to :
- being able to reach the right audience- engage them with the material they want- motivate them to take action (of some kind)- being efficient with budget- Delivering a good return on investment.
