ONLINE MARKETING
BIT-BY-BIT
If you’ve heard of guys like Neil Patel, Gary Vaynerchuck, Chandler Bolt, you are aware of the riches of Online Marketing. These guys have made thousands of dollars from Online Marketing. But one wonders, how did these guys do it? Did they just get lucky? Or were they rich this whole time? To your surprise, no they were not. Some of them even dropped out of college.
What’s their legerdemain? Drum rolls- TaDa! Networking. They had no big office space, employees, but, they had ‘networking’ written all over their couches.
What if we say that networking coalesced with online marketing, is your kick at the can. If you think you should get a say at online marketing and its riches, read on.
What is Online Marketing?
We couldn’t agree more with what TN Media says, “any tool, strategy or method of getting the company name out to the public. The advertisements can take many different forms and some strategies focus on subtle messages rather than clear-cut advertisements.” Here, we’ll put a cheese on it for you. “Online Marketing is anything you do to make your company’s name online.”
It is everything you do to create and enhance your brand’s online visibility and it includes a whole lot of marketing jargon. SEO, Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Content Marketing, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Email & SMS Marketing and other forms of Online Marketing which we might discuss later on.
Now, what is in there under the Online Marketing Umbrella. To start off with, let’s talk about one of the major facets in the game of Online Marketing- SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which basically, is the art one can learn if he wants his website and content to rank better online. Then, comes SEM (Search Engine Marketing), a.k.a. paid SEO and this is where you pay Google to make sure you rank better.
Next up, Content Marketing. Now Content Marketing is what you see the most. This is where brands put out a profusion of content to attract eyeballs – also, to augment sales.
And of course, you must be acquainted with Social Media Marketing. You got to be! Instagram, Facebook and any other platform where advertising can be done. Social Media Marketing is essentially used to develop relationships with customers and provide them with products and services.
Affiliate Marketing is like collaboration, but with constant exchange of mutually agreed benefits. You come to terms with other marketers to share audiences and market each other’s products.
And then comes, Email & SMS Marketing which is relatively ancient when paired up against the new artillery of online marketing. Email & SMS Marketing is when the customer has agreed to receive insights, information about your brand. This doesn’t stop here. There are other important forms as well, but we’ll to that in a minute.
You already have the idea of how dynamic and powerful online marketing is. You know it. We know it. Let’s learn about online marketing blow by blow.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ever heard of Quick Sprout? Yes, this is probably the best place if you want to enumerate the impact of SEO. Everyone drops his/her tanks in the marketing war to achieve one single thing, more ‘Traffic’. Everything you do on the internet is to gain more traffic and to top the website rankings on SERPs.
Now here are some tips to absolutely kill your SEO rankings.
- Post a badass Infographic
- Use effective link prospecting
- Make your infographics visible
- Lure prospects in for Free Content
- Gather your contextual links
Don’t get it twisted though, as easy as it may sound, this thing can be a real problem when you actually begin to do it. This is exactly why some get the results they want and some don’t. Execution matters.
On Page SEO
The word has it that Google changes near to 600 algorithms in a year. That’s just Google outgoogling Google. It is because of this incessant changes that marketers find it really hard to keep up with the inevitable changes. But what does remain the same, On-Page SEO. Onpage SEO comprises of meta descriptions and title tags. The whole shizzle is not just using as many keywords you know but, then if you do get some keywords in there, you may get a better Click Through Rate (CTR).
Here are some elements to jot down for Onpage SEO:
- Crawl errors
- Speed
- Page optimization
- Keyword research
Note- Top performing websites have better functionality and better loading time than others. So, if you are not getting enough traffic on your website, you may want to recheck your website’s speed. We’ll say it again. Fast Page Speed – Better SEO Results. Not to mention, you can often use tools to test your page’s speed and optimization and tweak in some changes when required.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is just SEO done offline. There are no algorithms involved (on the surface at least). Things like online content, blogs, videos, articles, podcasts fall under this umbrella. From content syndication to link building, everything can improve your Off Page SEO.
Well, if you can learn the art of link building, you sir, have mastered half the Off Page SEO. Here’s an example of how you can establish links – mention influencers in your content. This does the magic like no other. Not to mention, it also makes your content more engaging and authentic and gives influencers something to share too.
Social Sharing
Social Sharing is one of the best ways to invite more backlinks to your website. One of the best examples of social sharing is sharing social content on Linkedin. Linkedin is a targeted networking portal and if you share articles, blogs and posts on Linkedin with links to your website or page, you’re doing yourself and your brand a favor.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Paid SEO. We couldn’t have put this any shorter and better. Did you know you can actually pay for your content to be at the top floor? Yes, you can. To your total astonishment, there are certain keywords that you can buy and push your content in a short span. That said, this may cost you more than a dime. Call it a daylight robbery, but if you have the digits and your advertising budget is huge with a capital H, nods to you. One thing though, many reputed companies have flushed their money in the sink in Google Adwords without knowing the real map of SEM. Make sure you offer a paid product or a service before you go head first in SEM.
Content Marketing
A common problem with content in general today is that good content doesn’t get the traffic it deserves. It’s very hard to see great content out there go unheard and basically just go unnoticed. Now, why content marketing is crucial? One word- SEO. Content Marketing is SEO. Google says, if your content is up there with the best and if your content is authentic, your chances to generate more traffic and leads are higher. Researches have shown that if you are not putting up 15+ pieces (per month) of content for your brand then complaints about less traffic don’t cut any ice.
You can see here, the more brands that pushed blog content gained more traffic overall. Brands that put that more than 15 pieces of content were able to generate 3.5 times more traffic on their website.
Types Of Content
Do you see how many forms of content can be used to effectively generate more pieces of traffic? Here are some important forms of content pieces that brands use to announce themselves time after time.
The trick is to keep creating content, branded or unbranded or any type of content that has a thing or two to do with your brand. Once your content is out there and you still want better engagement or traffic out of those pieces, time to syndicate your content on multiple content platforms. Not to mention, you can boost and promote your content as well as boosting gets you more eyeballs of targeted audience which eventually means more leads. Content has leads written all over it. Right from the get-go, a content piece not only brings you traffic but conversion also. Content pieces build awareness, provides social credibility and drives sales.
Social Media Marketing
You know this one. The best place for marketing, there is. Every social media behemoths are a part of social media marketing such as, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Linkedin, YouTube and what not. The growth rate on this one is never going to stop. That’s something we are sure of. Like as sure as eggs is eggs.
Moving on, if you want to learn how to make the best use of social media, you have to check out Gary Vaynerchuck. He has three bestsellers under his belt where he wrote about decoding social media in every way possible. Gary, in our opinion, is the best. He also does some motivational content for your sad and nondescript mornings. Again, if you notice, the content is the king. He puts great content out for us to see and engage. Exactly what social media asks you to do. Well, got to give props to Gary though for understanding social media better than the rest of us. His battle cry is “Content is king, but context is God.” This means if you don’t understand and respect the context of each social media platform, you’re bound to take a spill.
The Brands Take On Social Media
Brands absolutely love social media. And the reason is quite obvious, customers, attraction, engagement, sales, loyalty and of course the financial part of the social media. Ever since Instagram witnessed a huge ballooning of its users and content, brands decided to make a killing out of Instagram and social media in general.
Instagram is more tinseled with visuals whereas, platforms like Hubspot are very mature and market related and Hubspot does it in style as well. Snapchat, however, despite being not in the same bracket as Facebook and Instagram, has managed its content quality quite meritoriously. Snapchat has been using its existence for brand and social awareness lately. Furthermore, we think Snapchat can be a great platform for some brand insights, highlights, BTS or event coverage as customers will be able to relate to the brand a bit more.
Paid Advertising For Social Media
Though, the majority of platforms that offer paid social media ads, have the same approach and working, but the reach can be different. For instance, Facebook has the most precise audience targeting options, so much so, you can even target the right kind of job profiles you are looking for. Then there is LinkedIn. This one is a bit different but equally interesting, if you know the route. LinkedIn offers high-end audience reach. You can target all the who’s who from any industry.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Exactly what the name says, you have to pay for each click you get on your ads. PPC is best formulated on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords. With PPC, untargeted and unwanted ads are history now. You can actually let people see what they should be seeing. For example, a grown man doesn’t need to listen or watch some kindergarten jingles. What PPC does, it allows you to target audience in a more accurate and relevant way. Thus, shooting up your conversion rate within the same budget.
Before you dive into Facebook Ads headfirst, check these out:
What I Learned Spending $3 Million on Facebook Ads
How to Create Facebook Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Facebook
Google Ads – What do you know?
Talking about PPC, there’s no place better than Google AdWords to take your business to the moon. Here’s a fact, the revenue generated by digital ads in the year of 2019 is expected to reach a whopping 45 billion dollars. Amazing, isn’t it?
Everyone knows how enormous Google’s power and user-base is. And it is no secret that almost every entrepreneur, brand, company wants to advertise on Google. If you want to get started with PPC, Google AdWords is your best buy.
The functionality of Google AdWords is based on bidding. Let’s say, you bid on a specific keyword against the likes of the other advertisers who too want to rank first. Also, note that, keywords can cost you around 1$-600$ depending upon the industry you’re in. If a company bids $200 per click, which is a really high bid, that means they can afford such high bids because of the amount of profits they make.
Elements of Google AdWords
Search Network – It is the place where multiple advertisers can publish text-based ads based on a keywords that may help them rank better. Search Network is perhaps the most appropriate and the most effective PPC advertising platforms out of all. If you search, ‘Best carpenter in LA’, the results will show you nothing but accurate results with the information you need.
Display Network – You’ve seen this one. Ever noticed those clingy adverts whenever you visit a site of your interest? Ring a bell? Yes. That’s exactly what Display Network is. Display Network allows advertisers to advertise on keyword related sites that a person visits.
Adsense – This is a whole new animal. But, just about the opposite of Display Network. Here, publishers allow Google to show those ads on their website to make money.
Remarketing – Who doesn’t want previous customers/visitors on their space back again? Nobody. Remarketing is all about retaining visitors or inviting visitors who have previously engaged with your website. With Remarketing, you can call out visitors that were on your website, but didn’t take any further action. Let us tell you, Remarketing is of utmost importance as about 95% of your potential clientele doesn’t want to engage with your brand. But if done right, it may encourage a couple of potential visitors to make the decision.
The Google AdWords Display Network is one of the best options to perform to a T. If you are planning to get right on with Google AdWords, here’s something that should help.
Affiliate Marketing
Most of us want to make money out of affiliate marketing but don’t know the correct approach. Wait, Affiliate Marketing? Need a quick description? When you refer some brand’s product or service and that referral actually sells, the commission you get because of the sale is what makes affiliate marketing and makes you an affiliate marketer.
How Does The Money Come In?
As mentioned above, every time your referral sells, you get the commission. We are guessing you are aware of the blogger community. What bloggers do with social media is actually a great example of affiliate marketing. Creating content and promoting a product and getting paid- smells like money, doesn’t it?
Email Marketing
There are a lot of ways to engage with your audience/visitors, but the most effective and direct mean has to be Email Marketing. The only way to directly tell your plans to visitors.
Email brings in more leads than Facebook or Instagram. If you want to know more about Email-Marketing, read these.
How We Started An Email List From Scratch And Got 205 Subscribers In 48 Hours
The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing
Remember, the most important thing is to know – ‘Who to send’. Not ‘What to Send’. Because, Email is the best to drive in sales without spending a fortune on fancy advertising platforms. Not to mention, marketers get the highest ROI from Email Marketing.
Current Email Marketing trends have two very crucial facets, Personalisation & Segmentation.
Personalization – If you want the reader to keep reading your stuff, you have to personalize your email according to the reader’s interests and activities. This makes brands look more believable and genuine. Here’s why you need to personalize –
- Personalized emails are relevant with no jargon and relative content
- Personalized emails are likely to be opened and read on
- Personalized emails improve customer experiences by offering them the content they want to read
Here are some interesting facts about Email Marketing –
- 66% of marketers are working toward securing internal resources to execute personalized marketing programs. – Conversant Media
- When asked to prioritize one capability that will be most important to marketing in the future, 33% of marketers answered: “personalization.” – Adage
- 74% of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement. – eConsultancy
- Only 39% of online retailers send personalized product recommendations via email. – Certona
- Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. – Campaign Monitor
Segmentation – This allows the marketer to further narrow down specific audience sets which makes for better targeted emails. Segmenting audience on the basis of interests, age, previous purchases, age, gender, location and whatnots. You can read more on segmentation at email Monday.
Tools You Can Use For Email Marketing
We all can agree that you can’t ace email marketing without the correct tool. Email Marketing tools not only saves you time, but are ridiculously helpful. Tools like MailChimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact, AWeber, GetResponse, Drip and ActiveCampaign are some of the most talked about email marketing tools. If you insist suggesting one. MailChimp – Exactly What You Need.
In totality, there is a monstrous number of opportunities waiting for one, if you happen to know how to use email marketing, you can be just like those who did it – Gary, Neil & Chandler. So why not, get online and get on-line.
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