3 Critical Elements of a Successful Internet Marketing Strategy
Building a business using various online attraction methods is challenging and often overwhelming for business owners and marketing managers. Putting together an internet marketing strategy involves an intricate balance of content creation, an email list, and some social media.
Content creation is an absolute must to find new customers online. A business starting essentially from nothing needs to promote their brand or product through a combination of written articles and videos. Posting content on a website or blog makes it easier for both customers and search engines like Google to discover the business exists in the first place.
With the power of the internet, consumers are smarter than ever before. Potential customers do nearly endless online searching and study to be sure they are making a good decision before committing to a purchase.
Consumers buy immediately after this research has ultimately led to a belief that a specific product or service not only solves a problem but is also the right decision. Posting important, timely, and relevant information about your product and business will guide a potential customer down the path to familiarity and self-assurance, passively convincing a consumer to buy from you.
However, posting great content is usually not enough to get a consumer to pull out a credit card and click the buy button. An effective follow-up strategy is just as important, if not more so, as creating content.
Having a solid follow-up strategy involves email marketing. While some proclaim email marketing is dead, it still remains a crucial step in building trust, credibility, and brand awareness. Email marketing has been a part of successful sales campaigns almost as long as the internet has existed.
After creating compelling content and attracting visitors to your company’s blog or website, a method to capture information about the visitor is critical; it is how you build an email list. Using a call to action can capture prospect information, making follow-up a smooth and efficient process for sending new information or product promotions to them.
The call to action is merely a form or pop up on a website that promises something of value, like exclusive information or invite-only webinar, in exchange for a personal email address. By willingly giving up an email address, prospects are showing interest in what you have to offer and fundamentally asking you to keep in touch with them. Over time, you will build a list of thousands of future customers.
By providing an email address, the person is open to learning more and probably wants to buy from you, but the timing is not quite right yet. It is entirely possible the prospect does not fully trust your company or is not completely convinced your product will solve their problem. This is where consistency and relevance become key.
At this point, sending regular emails to your list will build long-term relationships between you and future customers. Emails communicate new and pertinent information about you and your products. Simply by clicking open an email, customers are reminded of your company and the interest they have in your products. Promotional campaigns explicitly related to prospects on your email list can offer them exclusive discounts or other incentives to buy now, generating quick sales for your company.
Also, part of a follow-up campaign is maintaining a presence on social media. Having active social media accounts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are vital.
Even with engaging website content and a strong email campaign, it is highly likely a prospect will try and find more about your company by exploring Facebook and Twitter. If a person sees you interacting on social media and posting information on a consistent basis, then they will have a sense your company is real and will be around for the long-term. Future customers can also read feedback and comments from others that relate directly to your products and services, which boosts confidence that they are making a good decision to buy from your company.
Many new companies start out the gate by marketing to consumers through social media. Contacting people directly with Facebook and Twitter without an established relationship is likely to fail and quickly disappoints many marketers. Simply put, people do not want to talk to strangers, including your company. Social media is only part of an online campaign, not the whole.
Internet marketing works when a mixture of content creation, an extensive email list, and social media are employed in a single approach. Using these critical tools together to attract new customers is a winning strategy any size business can use to find success now and into the future.