MN Interactive

Top Online Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies have been used since ancient times, when chiefs enticed warriors into their clans with promises of a bright and golden future, and tradesmen displayed their goods on carts in a bid to sell their wares.

Not much has changed since then- a good marketing strategy continues to be essential to any business. Without one, any efforts to attract customers and brand products and services will be ineffective. Before you write your marketing plan, you need to know the difference between a strategy and plan. A marketing strategy has been defined in many ways, but simply put, it’s one that’s shaped by your overall business goals and supports your end needs. Its sole purpose is to identify and communicate the benefits of what your business has to offer your target market. It outlines the approach you’ll use to meet your objectives.

A marketing strategy should include a description of your products and services, a target profile of potential and current customers, and your company’s stand with regards to competitors. It should also define strategies you’ll be using to build your business such as ‘improve online communication’ or ‘build brand awareness’ etc.

A marketing plan or a marketing tactic as it’s sometimes known, is a practical application of your marketing strategy. You have the means in place via a strategy, now all you have to do is apply them via a plan. A marketing plan cannot exist without a marketing strategy. In the above instance, your plan could be ‘sign up to social media sites and discussion forums to improve online communication’, or develop a newsletter to build brand awareness’.

A good Internet marketing strategy can do the following for you:

• Improve market visibility
• Build brand awareness
• Promote your services to the right target
• Gain customers
• Brand you as an expert
• Make your products/service more trustworthy

Before you begin drawing up your strategies, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is our industry going through any changes? Can I take advantage of them?
• What are the company’s strengths and weaknesses as defined by a SWOT analysis?
• What do customers really want?
• How can I target the right audience?
• Can I improve my customer service?
• Can I adapt or modify my products or services?
• Is the price right?
• Are my distribution channels enough, or do I need to explore further?
• Do I have tracking tools in place to ensure my campaign is being carried out correctly?

Running an online marketing campaign is obviously quite different from running one offline in say print on television. In some ways however, it’s easier as there are plenty of tools to help you do the job effectively and cost efficiently. Online marketing strategies follow traditional marketing campaigns in that they have to be both short term and long term.

• Short term strategies could include forum discussions, signing on to search engines etc.
• Long term strategies could include a well crafted website, blogging, social networking sites, opt-in lists etc.

A credible Internet marketing strategy focuses on where consumers are – in most instances, Google search engines can help you identify this. All searches start with a single keyword or key phrase, and your website’s ranking will be determined by Search Engine Optimization (SEO). So the bottom line is to know what your customers search for and tailor make your campaign around this search criteria.

The following are some of the top Internet Marketing Strategies adopted by successful online companies over the past two years. In the great wide world of online marketing, things move fairly quickly and what’s new today might be very old news tomorrow. Having said this, the following strategies stand the test of time, and are easily adaptable to new technology which may arise.

Organic search results: Organic searches are results by indexing pages based on content and keyword relevancy, rather than from advertisements or from those who’ve paid money to gain rank, such as with overture.com. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are the top search engines, which provide both organic and non-organic search results.

Keyword research: There’s no getting past it; keyword searches are vital to the success of your online campaign. If you enter the wrong keywords, chances are customers will find it hard to find you. By targeting wrong keywords, you’re not only throwing away your money, but also the chance to gain a higher rank.

Social media like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn: more and more companies are putting top dollars into social media with remarkable results. In 2009, results showed over 150 million active users on Facebook, 76 million for MySpace, and 50 million for LinkedIn.

Video marketing: In a recent blog post I wrote, I mentioned 90% adults, 18-30 years explore video-sharing sites like Youtube. If this is your target audience, can you really afford not to use video sites?

Public relations sites: You might have heard the saying ‘any publicity is good publicity’. While this is not always be the case – negative publicity can hurt your business – free publicity is another marketing strategy worth researching. And press releases rank pretty high up when it comes to free attention. Use the many public relations sites available to push your release forward and draw attention to the particular theme you’re promoting.

Blogging : There’s not much to say about blogging which this post, Is Corporate Blogging Right For Your Business? doesn’t already cover. The best part about blogging is that it allows you to built up a steady stream of loyal readers who will be willing to act on your advice.

Link building: Search engines adore popular sites, and one way to build popularity is by linking to other relevant posts and sites.

Web design: A good web site is designed around attracting and keeping audience attention on it, and allows visitors to be guided to choices they may make. It’s easy to make mistakes while designing a site so in this instance, investing in the services of a professional is a good idea.

PPC: Pay per click has become one of the most important online marketing tools, to the extent hundreds have  built businesses around it. The key to PPC advertising is to use attractive key words and key phrases; and the benefit in doing so? An easy and convenient solution to your marketing needs, with high returns.

Newsletters and email marketing: And last but not least, newsletters or ezines have blasted onto the scene allowing even the smallest of businesses to attract a large client following. Their main purpose is to keep clients and potential clients informed about products, services, and the latest happenings in the industry, but they also use to subtly guide the client into making well informed decisions such as investing in an ebook, buying a newly launched product, or signing up for a new service.