Almost all companies make use of online marketing, and for good reason. The online world is where most of their customers will be, and a business that doesn’t make the most of online marketing will find itself at the back of the race, unable to catch up. Therefore, if you have just started up your business or you want to ensure that you are doing everything possible to remain in the race and even come out on top, here is a guide to five of the most important strands within the field.
1. SEO
A huge amount of traffic flows towards businesses via search engines like Google. Search Engine Optimization – or SEO – is the practice of altering an online presence so that key pages rank highly on search engines. There are plenty of methods used to improve search engine performance. Backlinking, content alteration, metadata optimization, and many more tactics are popular and effective.
2. Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click online marketing is a relatively new method of cost-effectively improving a company’s performance. Instead of paying for a campaign regardless of results, a company will pay on a sliding scale based on the proven amount of traffic that reaches their website. Companies like the Amazon PPC agency – Nuanced Media specialize in eCommerce Pay Per Click. Seek out experts like this if you want to ensure you nail PPC the first time and every time after that.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of internet marketing. Promotional emails can be great tools for spreading the word, but the days are long gone when unsolicited email marketing was considered effective. Unsolicited emails typically get dumped in the spam folder. Instead, companies should be more concerned with directing email marketing materials to people that have actively signed up to receive updates.
4. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is an extremely significant development that has evolved in parallel with the role of the internet in people’s lives. Influencer marketing is not exactly a new concept. In the early 1900s, the Author Mark twain promoted a brand of pen – making him one of the first product influencers. With the rise of social media, however, influencers have become a more prominent force in society. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram became breeding grounds for people to create networks of followers. Influencer marketing is the practice of paying or offering free products to influencers in exchange for them advertising on behalf of a company.
Influencers typically speak to very specific audiences. They can be extremely useful for advertisers: direct links between a brand and its intended audience. Market research is important when trying to set up an influencer marketing campaign. Finding an influencer that speaks directly to a target audience can yield incredible results. There are strict laws governing influencer marketing in many countries. Influencers typically have to divulge their relationship with a brand in some fashion.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a powerful way for companies to make use of media outlets. Bloggers and news websites typically accept affiliation requests in exchange for a fee in order to continue publishing content for readers free of charge. Affiliate articles are commissioned by the advertising company. They usually consist of an informative news piece that serves as a vehicle for outbound links to the advertising company. Publishing websites usually have to notify readers when the article they are publishing contains affiliate links. Unless the actual content of the article is good, readers will not spend the time perusing it long enough to reach the affiliate link.
