The real secret formula to digital marketing, is simply good practice and consistent effort. Thus, here is a 5 point online marketing success formula, that will ensure you’re covering the basics for your business.
5 Point Online Marketing Success Formula
1. Your Website
Website design is probably one of the most important aspects of online marketing success. However for now, let’s just say your website should be the foundation, of your digital marketing strategy. Equally, your website must be designed and optimised correctly, to work as the important tool that it needs to be.
So, what to consider with your website?
Does your website have a great UX (user experience)?
This isn’t just about ensuring that your website is user friendly. Although, that is an important part of the user experience. Equally, it is important that your customers take action on your website. Moreover, that they take the desired action, which you have intended for them.
Can your website be found?
So, your website has great UX? However, if no one can find you, then a great website is pretty pointless! Therefore, if you want to get found in search results, you must optimise your website so that it is search engine friendly. Again, SEO or search engine optimisation, is a huge topic and we’ll cover this in a later article. However, here are some brief pointers that must be addressed:
- Investigate Search Engine Results Pages (SERP), to see what comes up for the keywords that you intend to use. Next, make sure the content in SERP is similar to your own.
- Plan your Primary, Secondary, and Related keywords and optimise your content accordingly
- Ensure that you link build with authoritative websites
- Create effective title tags and meta descriptions
- Optimise your website pages for optimum speed
- Amplify your great content across social media and other publications
Presence
Social Media is everywhere in the 21st Century. Governments worldwide, Celebrities, World Leaders and little old Janice at number 5, all have their own social media accounts. So, as a business owner or professional, you are missing out on large revenue potential, if you’re not actively engaging customers on social media. Therefore, social media marketing is an integral ingredient to any online marketing success formula.
You might be wondering, which Social Media account is best for your business? In general, we’d recommend having an account with all the main Social Media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Pintrest etc. However, if you’re a startup or even an established SME, managing all your social media can be a time heavy task. Therefore, we’d also suggest using apps/software which are available to lighten the workload. Personally, we are real fans of the app Crowdfire, that we recommend to our clients, for social media management.
Furthermore, you will likely find that particular social media platforms, are a better match for your business than others. For example, a Sales Consultant might be more active on LinkedIn. Whereas in contrast, a Hairdresser or Nail Salon, may find it better to engage customers on Facebook or Instagram. By all means, test and analyse which platforms are better suited to your business and then spend your efforts and budget in those places.
3. Email Marketing
Now that your website is optimised and you’re engaging customers via social media, it’s time to create your next touch point. Indeed, email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with customers and generate repeat business. There has been plenty of talk in recent years, stating that email marketing is dead. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In order for your business to benefit from the power of Email Marketing, we suggest following these basic principles:
- Grow your email list organically, do not buy email lists
- Send regular emails but don’t over do it. There’s a fine line between just enough and too many
- We’d recommend sending no more than 2 or 3 emails per month
- Create compelling content that the reader will find value in
- Write an enticing subject line
- Beware of using too many spammy words, or a high image to text ratio. As Spam Filters may send these emails to your customers junk folder
All things considered, email marketing is also a vital ingredient for our online marketing success formula
4. PPC Advertisements
If your budget permits, pay per click (ppc) advertisement is a fantastic investment. There are a variety of PPC platforms, including; Google Adwords, Facebook Adverts, LinkedIn Adverts and many more. The beauty of PPC, is that it does exactly what it says on the tin! You only pay each time a customer clicks on your advert. Therefore, your advert can be served thousands of times. Yet, you will only ever spend your budget, when a potential customer interacts with your advertisement, by clicking on it.
The other wonderful thing about PPC, is that it is highly targetable. Meaning you can easily pinpoint your target market and thus, justify your spend, with in-depth analytics. Therefore, any serious online marketing success formula, will include PPC advertisements.
5. Support Your Online Marketing Offline
This is our final point and a very important one, for overall marketing strategy.
On the whole, it is imperative to support your online marketing efforts, with offline marketing activities. Likewise, it is a basic marketing principle, that for a buyer to feel comfortable to buy from a seller, there must be 7 points of contact. Therefore, we must reach out to potential customers via as many channels as possible. For example, let’s say a prospect views your Facebook advert for the first time. This alone, may not be enough to convince them to purchase from you.
However, if the prospect has previously found your website (1), saw your brochure (2), spoke to your sales representative (3), connected with you on LinkedIn (4), read your blog (5), watched your youtube channel (6) and then finally, clicked your facebook advertisement (7). Then, you have a much higher chance of converting that interaction into a sale.
Online Marketing Success Formula – Conclusion
So to conclude; first, build a great website that is fully optimised and has a great UX. Second, engage socially and build your social media following. Third, stay in touch with your customers. Email is a great way to do it. Fourth, invest in PPC advertisements on the platforms that suit your business. Fifth, support your online marketing activities with your offline marketing and remember the 7 points of contact, to convert a potential customer into a sale.
Lastly, we hope that you have found these 5 points useful and that you can now apply them to your own business, with great results. If you wish to discuss any of the areas mentioned above, or require any assistance with your overall marketing activities, we’d love to hear from you.
To your business success!
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