In our daily lives, we are under a constant waterfall of content consumptions put in place by the companies around us. This is even more prevalent online, where these brands have unlimited access to our attention. It is accessibility and omnipresence, has thus made digital marketing a very important tool for any business; for this, business owners need to be aware and take online marketing into account if they wish to develop their brand. Here's an exhaustive list of what you have to do in order to develop your business' strategy.
Why is Online Marketing Important?
A lack of an online presence can mean missing out on many professional opportunities. Online marketing regroups the tools of the Internet which you can then use to expand visibility of your company. If you your goals are to develop your online presence, increase your notoriety, improve your sales, or grow your team, online marketing becomes unavoidable as most people get their information from the internet. But before you go into launching your online presence, create your website, or begin working your social media accounts, it’s necessary to build a establish a brand identity and devise a strategic plan, in order to have a clear and coherent that is able to effectively represent your business.
Building a Brand Identity
A brand’s identity represents the personality of the business. It’s the name, the logo, the tagline, the values, the story, etc... This will be the way that your brand wants to be perceived by consumers. In order to increase your company's place in the marketplace, and differentiate yourself from your competitors, it is important to have a strong, unique and memorable brand. Carefully pick out your colours, your fonts, and everything that will be representing the identity of your business. Additionally, an online presence needs an editorial charter to bring coherence to the way you will use different tools of communication (i.e. social networks, website, email campaigns, etc...). This will play the additional role of reassure your customers of the seriousness of the brand, by proving credibility.
Define Your Marketing Goals
Before creating social media content, it’s important to have a plan. You must define your objectives and then, use different tools to set up your strategy. The goal is not the same for all the online tools, especially with social networks. By defining your strategy in relation to your business goals, industry, targets and so on. Your objective might be to increase sales, promote products or services, lead generation, and often you might have several objectives that can change in the long-term, so it is important that you continually update your marketing plan and re-evaluate your strategy so that it remains fitting and up-to-date. To help you, you can use the famous SMART method and tailor your objectives to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. This will in turn make your strategy easier to follow and attainable.
Use the Online Platforms
A good strategy on social media is based on three things: posting, engaging, advertising.
Multiplying your presence through the use of different platforms is necessary, with your first and most important platform being your website. A businesses's website is basically the tool that you are bound to use. Any prospects will want to look you up on the Internet and visit your website if they want to buy something from your company, and if you don't have one they might not see you as a credible source.
In any strategy, you also need to think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which consists of positioning the company’s website in the first results of requests on search engines; this is the best way to guarantee your visibility. To have a good position, between your competitors, you can define a strategy and think about your objectives, focus on your activity, and be conscious about what you represent and how potential customers will come across you on the Internet.
If you have a website, a good tool to have is a blog. Blogging really helps improve your ranking on Google search results and give potential costumers insight into what you offer and who you are. Some things that you can write about are you and your inspirations, what you know, tips that customers learn from you, anything which your audience might find interesting.
Secondly we have social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest, to name a few. These are websites used by millions of people around the world, almost everyone has at least one account on one of the platforms. Consequently, you can reach a lot of prospective costumers through social networks; they represent the easiest way to get traction for your business. To give life to your brand, increase your followers number and grow your business, it’s necessary to post regularly and share attractive content. Because constancy and organisation are key, it’s recommended to have a schedule to post on social media, this can be done manually through the scheduling features that many of these sites already have or with an external source such as HootSuite. Social media advertisements are something you can also consider spending money on to have more visibility online, if you have the resources for it.
Email campaigns can also be important since they give you the opportunity to keep in touch with your prospects and clients. You can send to them informative content, like news or events, promotions etc. Through email you are also able to put forward a more personalised messages depending on who you reach out to.
Press releases are also very good way to get people talking about you, in media and at local, national, or international scale! You can share news about your company, like a newsworthy event, the opening of a new store or even the launch of a new product. Press features are also a good way to give credibility to your company as you get external validation from an already established source.
Build a Community
Improving engagement on social media is one of the biggest ways to grow your business. Aim towards building strong relationships with your followers! When someone like your content, they are giving the impression that they are also a fan of your company. Social networks, have also facilitated the company consumer relationship and opened up communication between the two through comments and private messages. Plus, your customers present on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn can publish posts about you, with your products or when they are in your shop for example, bringing you additional exposure. Your clients are, after all, your best ambassadors! They can talk about you to the people around them, promote your brand, your products or services. They represent your community and in exchange you can offer quality product and services and share content with them like your news, your vision, your values so that they establish a sense of proximity to the company.
If you need help for your business, please contact us, we will be happy to help you!
