Over the past few years, we’ve wit­nessed the bal­ance of pow­er shift from tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing to online mar­ket­ing.

Of course, it was nev­er a mat­ter of if, but when this was going to happen.

Online mar­ket­ing is more cost-effi­cient, and it allows you to reach your tar­get audi­ence more quick­ly and effectively.

Your busi­ness should be mak­ing an invest­ment in online mar­ket­ing – not only in terms of the dol­lars you spend but also in the work you do to ensure you’re up-to-date with the ever-evolv­ing mar­ket­ing trends.

Here’s a basic 4‑step guide on how to get start­ed online!

Step 1 – Build a Memorable Website

A great web­site is always the first step to mak­ing your company’s pres­ence felt online. It’s sup­posed to be the hub where peo­ple learn more about your brand, con­sume your con­tent, and make purchases.

When lay­ing out your new site, there are few key areas where you need to deliver:

Domain – The name and URL should be clear, con­cise (short tail vs. long tail), and memorable.
Design – Make sure you have fast host­ing, an attrac­tive user-friend­ly desk­top and mobile lay­out, and sol­id tech­ni­cal SEO.
Con­tent – This has become essen­tial for small busi­ness­es. You should be pro­duc­ing con­sis­tent con­tent that is rel­e­vant, engag­ing, and useful.

Step 2 – Use Social Media to Engage Your Target Audience

It’s no secret that social media is the lat­est and great­est fron­tier in online marketing.

Where else can your com­pa­ny engage mil­lions upon mil­lions of active users in a sin­gle space?

But social media is no longer just an oppor­tu­ni­ty. It’s also a responsibility.

Con­sumers use social media to voice their con­cerns, offer feed­back, and engage with your brand. So, for the sake of your business’s rep­u­ta­tion, you should be active on social media and using it to its fullest potential.

Social media lis­ten­ing is a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of any brand’s abil­i­ty to hear its cus­tomers and devel­op bet­ter prod­ucts and services.

But not only that – social media also allows you to mar­ket your con­tent effec­tive­ly. There are so many dif­fer­ent chan­nels that you can uti­lize, and this is anoth­er rea­son why con­tent repur­pos­ing has become so impor­tant today.

Your business’s con­tent and mes­sage should be able to trans­late into an info­graph­ic, a 3‑minute video, a blog post, and even a 140-char­ac­ter tweet!

Step 3 – Design Effective Digital Marketing Campaigns

Now that you have an eye-catch­ing web­site and com­plete social media pages, you have every­thing you need to start build­ing mar­ket­ing cam­paigns in the dig­i­tal space.

You have so many tools at your dis­pos­al. On-page and off-page SEO, pay-per-click adver­tise­ment, con­ver­sion rate opti­miza­tion (CRO), Google Ads, and Face­book Ads are all proven ele­ments of online mar­ket­ing campaigns.

Next, be sure to iden­ti­fy your val­ue propo­si­tions and put them on dis­play. Use these to tai­lor your next campaign.

Are you look­ing to increase sales? A well-exe­cut­ed fun­nel cam­paign can help you devel­op and nur­ture leads, and con­vert prospects into customers.

Are you look­ing to build your email or newslet­ter lists? Design a free prod­uct that has sig­nif­i­cant per­ceived val­ue, assur­ing a con­sumer that offer­ing an email address is a rea­son­able exchange.

Step 4 – Send Emails

Email’s not dead. Not yet!

Brief and rel­e­vant emails can help your brand leave an imprint (no pun intend­ed!) on the minds of your tar­get audience.

Con­sis­ten­cy is key here. Don’t feel as though you have to always hit a home run with your emails. Over time, you want to increase brand aware­ness, nur­ture your leads, and prime your prospects for tak­ing the next step – becom­ing pay­ing customers!

Always view your emails as con­tent, because if you hadn’t already noticed from steps one, two, and three, con­tent is what dri­ves your brand’s message.

And at its core, that’s real­ly the secret to online mar­ket­ing – cre­at­ing killer con­tent that will make your brand’s pres­ence felt in the dig­i­tal world!

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