3 Components of Online Marketing Success | Business 2 Community

You know you need to market your business online, but the process can feel daunting and overwhelming. It doesn?t have to be that way! Think of your website, your content and social media as a three-legged stool supporting your business growth.

Web Design

Your website should be the hub of your online activity. It is like a salesperson that both generates leads and builds relationships for you around the clock. A good site will make it clear who your business serves, what products or services you provide, and the talents and expertise that you have to offer. A clean, professional, and appealing website design creates a good first impression and builds trust with your prospects (a poorly designed site may, of course, do the exact opposite!).

Your website should also be optimized for search engines and online marketing. In this day and age, this includes understanding what your users are searching for, making sure that your site can be viewed on mobile devices, and ensuring that there?s strong social media integration. Unfortunately, many websites that look good miss many of these marketing basics and therefore don?t function as effectively as they can.

The goal with the content and structure of your website should be to attract visitors, provide them with relevant content, encourage them to connect with you, and then take the action that you want them to take, whether that?s contacting you for a consultation or signing up for your newsletter.

One of the most important components necessary to make your website an effective online marketing hub will be your content strategy.

Content Marketing

Content marketing consists of creating and delivering content that is relevant to your prospects and helps to meet your business goals. Content can be any medium including video, podcasts, slides or text. The goal of your content strategy is to create information that encourages prospects to build a relationship with you. Your content should be actionable and shareable; it should ask the reader to do something (like fill out a form) in order to learn more from you and be easy to share on social media. You should make it interesting enough to encourage others to share your posts and spread the word about your website.

One way to think about the content that you can develop is to reflect on the questions that your current and prospective clients continually ask you. What are the questions that come up frequently? What are the issues that people struggle with? How can you share your knowledge and expertise to address these questions and issues? All of this will feed into your content marketing.

When you write for your business blog, think about addressing one specific issue per post. You should also give some thought to the keywords your audience will be searching for (a good website will have Google analytics set up, which will show you the search terms that people are using to find you already!). Choose one or two keywords or phrases to focus on in each blog post or resource. Don?t try to cram every keyword in every article. You should also be adding new content regularly.

Social Media

As you create new content, let people know about it by sharing it via your social networks. Social media is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website. Aside from your latest content, you can update social media sites with quick tips and links to more information on your site. The goal for your social media activities is to connect with your audience and drive traffic back to your website; this could come from both current clients who continue to learn from you and from qualified leads who may be likely to hire you or buy from you.

Social media marketing will qualify traffic for you. Joining groups and participating in conversations around a specific topic will ensure that the people you are interacting with are interested in what you have to offer.

Using social media, you also create an opportunity for others to share their experience with your company and drive traffic. People are far more likely to trust a peer recommendation than advertising. According to a Neilsen study, 90% of consumers trust a testimonial from a peer. Compare that to just 14% of consumers who trust advertisements. Use that to your advantage by encouraging interaction with your company on social media.

Don?t let overwhelm deter you from creating an effective online marketing presence! A solid website, good content and targeted social media usage will support your business growth. If you need help creating the website and social media strategies you need for success, hire a professional. Your business is worth it.

Would you like help with these three key areas? Contact me for a consultation.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/3-components-of-online-marketing-success-0311546

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