MightyRecruiterExpert Advice on Creating an Online Marketing Strategy
These days, digital marketing is huge. Larger companies devote entire departments to marketing, so what’s a small business to do The good news is that even small organizations with limited resources and time can play with the big boys and girls. That is the beauty of online; everyone has equal opportunities. As for the bad news, there really is not any, as long as you listen to expert advice on creating an online marketing strategy.
Take Your Time
You read that right; take your time. There’s no need to start online marketing tomorrow. What is more important is being patient and developing an effective plan. Jump in right away without firm plans, and you risk chaos and appearing unprofessional.
Determine Your Audience
Who do you predict will engage with your online marketing efforts Of that set, who are your ideal customers Figure out what makes them tick, what their needs and wants are, and what problems they need solved. What do they use get online
Include Social Media
For the most part, social media is free and has tremendous outreach. What’s not to like about it Well, for one thing, effective social media marketing does require time investment, but the returns are priceless: a strengthened brand, word of mouth, a larger talent pool and search engine optimization (SEO). For this part of your strategy, enact measures for ongoing social media marketing. For instance, set up a calendar for how often you plan to post; perhaps on Facebook three days a week, Twitter two days, and Instagram once a week. You may want to go further and include themes; perhaps 20 percent of your posts should be photos and 10 percent inspirational sayings, for example.
Get into Content Marketing
Expert advice on creating an online marketing strategy calls for taking advantage of blog posts, articles, white papers, podcasts, videos and other pieces to create usefulness for your brand. If you run a plumbing business in Roanoke, Virginia, and someone in that city types in ïplumber, Roanoke, VA,ï content marketing establishes you as trustworthy and credible. The prospective client sees that you care about helping people. So, even if you have a few plumbing do-it-yourself articles on your site, you don’t need to worry about losing customers overall. Plus, content marketing boosts your SEO (more on that later).
Always be sure to polish the content you put out. Proofread for typos, and double check your facts. Use high-quality equipment for photos and videos.
Design Accessible Websites
Forget about flash, an abundance of exclamation points and lots of colors. Design a streamlined, accessible and user-friendly website. You may want a separate mobile website for tablet and smartphone users, but if you do not have one, there are still ways to make a regular website more mobile friendly. Never forget mobile friendliness, as it’s possible the majority of your prospective customers are accessing your online marketing efforts on handheld devices.
The number-one aim of your website should be to serve as a resource, according to expert advice on creating an online marketing strategy. Any sales pitches or calls to action should occur naturally. Organize information easily and logically; folks will navigate elsewhere if they cannot find what they want. To this end, design your website so that no matter what browser or device someone uses, he can get an optimum experience. Remember that people have varying levels of ability; caption your YouTube videos, for instance.
Master SEO Basics
Your online marketing does not mean much if people cannot find you. Think about something: when is the last time you clicked on the second page of an online search Odds are that you do not remember. For this reason, mastering SEO is part of expert advice on creating an online marketing strategy. Build targeted keywords into your content marketing and social media marketing. Share your content, which should be diverse (videos, images, text), and pepper backlinks from reputable and popular websites throughout your content. Also design your website so that it loads quickly.
Contribute Near and Wide
Say your roofing business is in Memphis, Tennessee. To gain a wider audience, write content for Memphis -centric websites and blogs. What you write need not necessarily be roofing-related, but include that information in your author box as well as a link to your website and Facebook page.
Enlist Outside Help
If the above seems like daunting work for your small business, never fear. Many companies, small and large, turn to online marketing companies and content marketing companies for help. These businesses provide good bang for your buck. They can coordinate all aspects of online marketing or just focus on the content partïwhatever you need.
As you work to gather more expert advice on creating an online marketing strategy and on making all-star hires, turn to the tools here at Mighty Recruiter for guidance.