Last updated: Sept 30th 2016
Online marketing covers a range of possibilities. Some of your online marketing plans will make demands of your web design ambitions. Others will cover the potential of social media marketing. There are literally dozens and dozens of tips out there that are yours for the taking. Your responsibility, which some might call an unenviable one, is to choose amongst all the suggestions and concepts to find the ones that are right for you.
It’s not an unenviable task by any means. Although online marketing has become increasingly elaborate and complex over the past few years, it is by no means impossible. Whether you’re looking at online marketing plans in a broad sense, or if you’re considering your options with social media marketing specifically, you can find tips that are viable in your situation.
One thing is for certain: Great web design is really only the beginning.
The Future Of Online Marketing
The future of online marketing is actually quite exciting when you think about it. Social media marketing is getting bigger and bigger. The algorithms of search engines like Google and Bing are becoming increasingly smarter. While it’s true that these things are becoming a bit crowded with possibilities, it’s still a fairly straightforward matter to develop strong marketing tactics for your website and business. Website design is no less important now than it was ten years ago. It’s just that there are more things to consider as you build your website and prepare for it to go live.
As stated before, some online marketing tactics can be implemented as you’re designing and building your website. It’s just commonsense in this day and age to let your visitors share things from your page on their favorite social media sites. It’s a good idea to research your SEO (search engine optimization) possibilities ahead of time, and have content on your site ready to go on launch date that keeps your SEO options in mind. Is blogging something you’ll want to incorporate in your online marketing strategies? You’ll certainly want to keep that in mind.
The list goes on. The possibilities are not quite endless, but they’re certainly going to feel that way.
Essential Online Marketing Plans & Strategies
If you’re new to the world of online marketing or social media marketing, the following suggestions are worth keeping in mind as you research and learn. If you have an established website with a good social media presence, it never hurts to see if your online marketing strategies could use a little tweaking or enhancing:
- Look for social media outlets that are ideal to your marketing: Twitter is perfect for businesses that are keenly interested in establishing strong human connections. Facebook is an established social media entity that allows you to share content and interact with your audience. Those are just two possibilities. There are dozens and dozens of others out there. Pinterest has become extremely popular with companies that sell furniture, clothing, or jewelry. Instagram allows you to connect to followers who are eager to share their stories (and pictures) with the world. Are you starting to get the picture? Research your social media options. Find out which ones are going to generate the kind of attention you’re after. Don’t overextend yourself. Focus on four or five that have the strongest potential.
- Build a dedicated following: While building an audience, keep in mind that you want to build what is called a proprietary audience. This refers to an audience that is only going to be interested in what you have to say. Your content, offers, and level of personal interaction should be peerless.
- Don’t publish just because: Steady content on your website, your blog, and your social media outlets are certainly essential. However, strong online marketing or social media marketing emphasizes the importance of quality over quantity. Don’t publish just because you feel as though you need to. Publish because you have something genuinely compelling to share. That means you’re going to have to work hard to create that content.
- Look for outside help: If you can afford it, you may want to consider a social media manager or online marketing company. In the same way that an expert can help you with your web design, these individuals can help you focus your online marketing or social media marketing strategies.
- Prioritize: A good rule of thumb for many websites lists content, the user’s experience, social media, links for traffic, and basic search engine optimization on-page material as being the order in which you should focus your priorities.
- Value organic over non-organic: Avoid any opportunities to build your audience in non-organic ways. Buying Facebook likes is a small but important example of this. It won’t do you any favors in the long run.
Build Your Audience
Never forget that your audience is indeed out there. Even if you’re a smaller company, you can still compete with the bigger fish.