Whatever the size of your business, internet marketing is the most economical way to reach your target market. Now, what is it, really?
Internet marketing (a.k.a. online marketing) is the process of brand or business promotion, its products or services, over the internet — using tools that help drive traffic, leads, and sales.
It’s a broad term encompassing a range of marketing strategies and tactics — content, email, search, paid media, and more. These days internet marketing has become interchangeable with “content marketing.”
“A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” — Content Marketing Institute
Consider this: content marketing (inbound) is the antithesis of traditional advertising (outbound) — and it’s compatible with the patterns and habits of today’s generation.
Content marketing vs. Traditional advertising
Selling is less effective now (traditional advertising). Why? — It’s intrusive, interruptive, and obstructive.
Traditional ads are persistent. To get them to buy, it focuses on pushing messages at the consumer. You know, the ads that you’re bombarded with everyday.
Ads may still work sometimes. But, according to a PageFair report, 615 million devices in use today employ ad blockers.
With content marketing, brands and marketers publish content to guide, solve problems, or inspire the target audience — who can find content on the web without it being pushed at them.
The interaction with the brand is more organic. The audience may even share the content on social media. Eventually, these followers can then be converted into leads and sales.
Key factors of internet marketing
You have to understand the key factors of successful internet marketing. They include:
Content marketing strategy
Content marketing strategy is a direction, a plan, the right tools, and ways to measure your progress if you expect to get anywhere. Here are the fundamentals involved — goals, brand persona, target audience, keywords & research, and content creation & promotion.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The goal of good SEO is to get your site pages ranked on the first page of Google. This means people can find you just by looking up some topic they’re interested in or need help with.
Here are some basic SEO techniques — strategically-placed keywords, a well-designed & organised site, clean page URLs.
Paid Methods
Paid search can increase your visibility in ways that organic search cannot. Investing in paid search (e.g. Google Ads) can give you a boost.
You can use paid search to remarket to visitors who found your site through organic search, then tailor ads for them based on their experience.
Organic and paid traffic can be combined for higher visibility and better results for driving traffic.
Provide value for big returns
When content is really good, it can be amazing! Here are some content types that can knock content creation out of the park.
Blog posts & articles
As it gives you a foundation for lots of posts, pages, and content that all point back to your site, a blog is a great content platform. The result: loyal followers and customers.
Infographics
Infographics are visual ways to present valuable information. They’re fun too!
You can use pictures, graphs, charts, and illustrations to explain varying concepts. It’s easily digestible and shareable.
Case Studies
A case study is an in-depth look at some action a brand or business completed, with measurable results for success. Evidently, this content is an awesome trust-builder.
Podcasts
Podcasts are similar to storytelling and news radio shows. But the episodes can be downloaded and listened to whenever you want.
This content format can be great for sharing valuable information with your audience. So, if you’re a good speaker or interviewer, try to make this content.
Videos
Speaking of hottest content type right now, videos are in and it’s easy to see why!
Videos are simple to consume, entertaining, and appeal to the current attention-span deficit that everyone practices now.
Small business loans in Australia
Get help and information on small business loans from Cigno Business Solutions. You can allocate the funds to your marketing efforts when you get approved.
CBS makes the terms and conditions of every loan very clear.
With an online application process that’s as simple as possible, you can apply quickly for a loan that’s tailored to suit your needs.
