Online marketing has become a necessary part of every businesses marketing plan. Given its importance, it is critical that planning and research goes into your online marketing campaign, and your business is represented in a way that is consistent with its offline identity. Here are five fundamentals to help drive a successful campaign.
1. Quality website
The importance of a good website is often not taken as seriously as it should.
Think about it, whenever people search for information on anything these days they first turn to the web. Therefore, a company website may be the potential customers’ first impression of your business – and we all understand how first impressions last.
It is shocking how many websites you see that display out of date information. It seems in many cases a business will create a website, leave it alone and expect it to generate more sales without putting any work into it.
A website needs to be updated regularly, with changes made to try and keep it as engaging and interesting to its viewers as possible. It needs to be easy to navigate, the last thing you want is for potential customers to be turned away from your business due to an impossible to navigate website.
2. SEO
You may have the best website in the world but what is the point if nobody is ever going to view it.
This is where SEO comes into place. Seeing as 90% of all Google visits do not progress beyond the first page of results, it is very important for your website to do so. Research what keywords best describe your business and make sure these are included.
As mentioned in the previous point, your website needs to continually be updated with regular engaging information in order to gain a dedicated readership.
A domain name needs to be purchased that most accurately describes your business and is short and concise. This increases the likelihood that your site will be linked, digged, stumbledapon, etc.
3. Start a blog
Starting a blog providing informative topics relating to your business is a great way to draw traffic back to your website and gain a solid online reputation.
When websites include legitimate content; without sales copy, they are more likely to return higher search results and therefore generate more leads for your business. It also gives you an opportunity to showcase your expertise, developing your reputation amongst the community.
4. Social Media
Who could ignore the incredible phenomenon that is social media?
There are currently over 10 million Facebook users in Australia. So it is very important to try and take advantage of these platforms and try and generate discussion about your products.
The beauty of social media is it allows you to get involved with your target audience, hear what people are saying and respond accordingly.
You can initiate discussion about your products and draw large amounts of traffic back to your website. It also helps develop brand awareness and build trust with potential customers.
5. Coherence
It is important to realise that while each platform you choose to use in your online marketing strategy is separate in its own right, the same message needs to be conveyed.
The business needs to portray the same personality, values and message to the general public, maintaining the reputation of the business.
Marcus Holder works for 1house – a full service agency providing businesses with everything they need to promote their business; online and offline, specialising in web development, branding, SEO, social media marketing, business systems, copywriting and PR.
Photo by Garry Knight
