For anyone unfamiliar with building for the web, there is a belief (perhaps based on past experience) that building a website alone will draw traffic. In 2016, you no longer have that option. Millions of users daily are online, surfing Facebook, Googling, and Bing-ing the hours away. And guess what…they aren’t seeing your billboard on the other side of town. So you build a site – and it might be a great one – but don’t assume that guarantees you business! It’s just one part of the formula. You need more than a website to promote your business.
Creating a strong Online Marketing Plan will require a solid web platform, clarity on your goals, and a few different techniques to help you reach new markets. With a solid base in place, site owners can start to tackle tasks like building links, content marketing, optimization of content, building ‘campaigns’ to attract specific customer types, or paid marketing opportunities to drive additional traffic.
Online marketing comes in several forms:
- SEO (On site Search Engine Optimization.)
- Social Media Marketing (Unpaid and Paid effort on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.)
- Search Engine Marketing (Paid ads on Google.)
With the exception of Pay-per-click advertising, anyone motivated can see some benefit from efforts to share and expose content, leaving potential budget for Paid advertising. Ultimately though – it comes down to work. Unique, high quality content that goes viral and promotes a website involves research and a lot of experimentation to create the best headline and text to attract people.
You need an online marketing strategy to leverage what you have so others can discover it. Forbes has a nice article on why businesses need online marketing as well as SmartInsights, which basically shows you that if you don’t have an online marketing strategy, your competitors will beat you.
In a world that is constantly evolving and transforming, businesses need to change and adapt as well.