The number of internet users has long surpassed 4 billion. That’s more than half of the world’s population on the Web.
Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
Now imagine if you could reach all those people and steer them towards your business. It would be an incredible opportunity.
That’s digital marketing, and many businesses are already doing it. Can you imagine, there are over 3 million advertisers on Facebook alone. And that’s not it. There are other platforms and strategies to choose from.
Are you interested in expanding your business outreach?
Let’s dig in!
Definition and Effectiveness
We’ve probably given you a rather clear definition already. Digital marketing, quite simply, is any activity that promotes your online presence.
You might be wondering:
“How effective is it, and how much does it cost?”
Here’s the answer:
If you are creative enough, you don’t need to invest any money before you start making some. Blogging alone can increase customer engagement by 72%. Besides, companies that publish 16+ blog posts a month get 4.5 times the usual amount of traffic.
What if you want to invest, though? How much should you expect to spend on marketing?
It depends on you. You choose how much you’re willing to invest You can place ads for as little as $1, or you can sink in millions into promoting your business online. It doesn’t matter how much you have to spend.
Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash
What does matter are your earnings? Whether you purchase ads or spend money on content creation, digital marketing gets three times higher return on investment than traditional marketing. That means digital marketing campaigns are three times more effective than any offline marketing.
Clearly, digital marketing is the way to go when promoting your business. That’s why we’ll give you a few good places to start in 2019.
Build Your Website and Brand
Having a quality website is the first step towards establishing your online presence. You should make it appealing. You can create a blog that engages the users and designs strong landing pages that lead to more conversions. The more time and effort you invest, the greater the payout.
There’s more:
Once you’re out there, you can start building your brand. Your brand is more than just your business. It is your story—a mantra you repeat to the users so they remember you.
Building an online reputation like this is crucial. You’re no longer just another business – you become something people recognize and discuss. This is more powerful than any advertisement and will help you grow your business like never before.
Content Marketing
That being said, having a website and a good story is not enough. You should still advertise yourself in some way.
Let’s start with the free stuff:
Content marketing is a big part of establishing a brand identity. It involves creating online content that isn’t directly aimed at selling a product.
This is the thing:
Content marketing provides value to the consumer. It attracts users, and the attention alone is enough to eventually generate sales and create a loyal following for your brand. You draw them in with the content and leave it up to them to discover your brand.
Having a good content marketing strategy is surprisingly effective. It is a must when establishing yourself online.
Using Organic Search Traffic
Search engines like Google are the most powerful driver of traffic. If your website appeals to Google’s search system, you can expect an incredible boost.
Best of all:
There are plenty of resources online that can help you do SEO for free.
That’s why doing search engine optimization is one of the best ways to get new customers. You can try it yourself or find an SEO expert to help.
At least familiarize yourself with the basics of SEO. Make your website fast, responsive, and secure. This alone is enough to give you better search results and generate more traffic.
Using Social Media
There are approximately 3 billion people who use social media every day. It would be ridiculous to miss the opportunity to connect with all these users.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
That’s why it’s a must to have a page dedicated to your business on all relevant social media platforms. This allows you to connect with users and update them about promotions, new content, or anything else they should know. It builds a more personal relationship between you and your audience and helps build brand awareness.
Needless to say:
Users can also use social media to share info about your business with their contacts. This makes social media a great tool to reach new customers and re-engage the old ones.
Email Lists
Building an email list is another free, yet effective way to keep interested customers coming back for more content and more products.
The idea is simple:
You let users who like your content and business subscribe to your newsletter. You then send out emails to update them about new content and products, just as you do on social media pages.
Of course, you can always try to sneak in. While it might be difficult to find a quality email list, it can sometimes be an effective way to get somebody else’s users to subscribe to your own email list.
You should definitely familiarize yourself with email marketing and implement in your own marketing strategy. It is an invaluable tool that can yield incredible results.
Paid Ads
Finally, you can pay for ads. Paying for advertisements comes in many forms—search engine and social media pay-per-click, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, push ads, and myriad other variants. There’s no shortage of options.
Photo by Will Francis on Unsplash
There is a reason paid ads are so popular and all over the place —because they work. When used properly, they can quickly drive a lot of traffic to your business.
But there’s a downside:
You stand to lose money if your strategy fails. A good tactic is not to spend more money on paid advertising than you’re willing to part with.
That being said, paid ads actually have a decent ROI. You just need to find a strategy that works for you. This comes down to testing out the options and seeing which one gets you the best results. You can then tinker with it and see how you can maximize your ROI.
It’s not all flowers and unicorns:
You will probably lose some money at first, but you’ll earn it back once you figure out how you want to market your brand and how to get the interest of your target audience.
Conclusion
All in all, promoting your brand online comes down to experimentation. We’ve given you a place to start, but you must now find the best way to promote your particular business. We wish you good luck in succeeding on the Web.
About the Author
With years of experience as frontline support and system administrator, Nick wants to improve the web hosting industry as a whole.
Through impartial reviews and detailed case studies, he helps people find the most suitable hosting provider. In the rare moments he unplugs from the digital world, Nick enjoys hiking and cycling.