The Ultimate List of Web Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Small Business. The internet is a huge place that reaches a ton of people. Because it is the perfect platform to gain exposure for your company, online marketing is used by most businesses. As a result, there are a plethora of web marketing techniques to choose from.
1. Display Advertising
The first type of advertising is the one that comes to mind first when thinking about marketing. Display advertising is basically the picture banners or side ads seen on relevant websites. There are other formats as well, but the main idea is to advertise your small business visually, sometimes with audio, in order to gain more visibility. Some display ads can be pay-per-click or PPC, which is when you pay the sponsor of the ad (website, blog, search engine) for every click the ad receives. This is effective in increasing traffic on your company’s website.
2. SEM & SEO
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the broad umbrella of techniques to market online, specifically through search engines. The point of SEM is to achieve more visibility when people search for items related to your brand.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very important branch of SEM, a way to manipulate the waves of the broad ocean that is the web. The goal is to increase traffic to your website, but naturally, without having to pay for placement on the first page of a search. To do SEO, you can work on the content of your website to incorporate certain keywords that are based on what your target audience commonly searches for. It’s about using the algorithm of search engines to navigate more potential customers to your site.
3. Social Media Marketing
Marketing on social media is huge today. What better place to promote your company in a space that millions of people utilize day-to-day, hour after hour. It usually involves reaching out to social media users who have access to a large target demographics (read: an influencer with a lot of followers). Selected users can then create their own content related to your company, either giving a review or giving information about it. People are more likely to trust those who they look up to, follow on a daily basis, whose opinion they care about.
4. Email Marketing
Emails might sound a little outdated, but email marketing is still very common. Essentially, you can use the information from previous or current customers to send mass emails containing company ads and related content. Therefore, it’s valuable to utilize an email list on your website or blog, where-in you persuade viewers to sign up to receive information or updates. People receiving regular emails from the company they purchased a service or product from can increase loyalty and overall awareness. Customers won’t forget about you.
5. Content Marketing
This type of marketing is exactly what it sounds like. You make business-related content on online platforms. Marketing like this requires a lot more creativity, time, and effort, but this strategy can be extremely beneficial. The types of content can range from publishing regular blog posts to posting videos, photos, podcasts, etcetera.
The target audience can view you as a personable company – you seem more trustworthy and approachable. It’s engaging because it allows consumer comments, reviews, and feedback. Nowadays, having a successful small business is not just about selling a lot of a product. Prospective consumers expect companies to have values and character, and if it aligns with their own values, they are more likely to be loyal and promote that company. By making content that shows your values, you can really build a sort of relationship with your audience.
6. Referral Marketing
Before online marketing, the way that new businesses increased in their sales was usually by word-of-mouth. Someone decides to try out the product or service, and if they like it enough, they tell everyone they know about it. Then there will be at least one other person who also tries it and raves to the people they know. It can go on forever. That’s called referral marketing.
Digital referral marketing must be more deliberate. Natural referrals don’t happen enough in the real world, so you must suggest customers do so. The most common way is to offer incentives if customers invite friends to your company. You can also influence referral if you incorporate some creative, viral content like a jaw-dropping video. Usually, if people find a video amusing or interesting, they share it on their social media platforms. There’s a lot of ways you could go about this.
Marketing is a creative process, and despite all these options, it’s about how you do it. You could try every strategy, but putting in a lot of thought, time, and effort into is a great deal more important.