Have you been struggling with getting customers for your business? You have a small shop on a major road and you’re wondering why no one patronizes you?
Maybe like me, you’re looking for ways to make money off the internet and you’ve been hearing about digital marketing but you don’t know what it is. Or you think you’re too introverted to talk to strangers and that is exactly what marketing is; talking to strangers.
If you fit into any bill above, congrats! You’re in the right place. In this article, you’ll learn everything there is to know about online marketing and how to use it in your business (or get all the basic knowledge you need about digital marketing to help you advance in it if it’s a skill you want to learn).
First, let me tell you what it is, and what it isn’t.
What is Online Marketing?
Table of Contents
Online marketing (sometimes called digital marketing) is exactly what it implies; marketing online. It involves advertising your products or services with digital, internet-based channels. It is the process of making use of the internet to publicize your product and reach your target audience.
This is directly opposed to the regular traditional marketing that we know. Rather than use television or radio jingles, billboards, and word of mouth, we now leverage the web, which is limitless in its reach and coverage.
Who Uses Online Marketing?
Now, who is online marketing useful to? What kind of businesses should make use of online marketing? Is it for everyone or is it just for big companies that can afford to pay a digital marketer?
The answer? Anyone and everyone. Just about any business can benefit from taking their marketing efforts online.
We all see the big banks and major telecommunication companies like Airtel pay huge amounts for YouTube ads. On the other hand, we also see smaller retail companies or even the local garri seller that sell on their social media pages and WhatsApp status.
You could try to reach other businesses or target customers directly. It’s all online marketing.
Why Online Marketing?
As the title of this section says, why choose online marketing over the traditional marketing that we’re all familiar with? What do you need a website for when you could just run an advert on the radio? Let’s get into it.
1. Wider Coverage:
This is the most obvious reason. The garri seller we mentioned above might make money selling in a physical market but think about how much more she’d make with good advertising on her WhatsApp, a lot of contacts, and a delivery man.
With the internet, distance is not a barrier anymore. People nowhere near your vicinity can be aware of the products and services you’re offering, allowing you to make more sales.
2. Reduced cost of Marketing:
Running ads on the radio or paying for a page in a magazine can be costly. Worse, you’re not sure that ad will get to a lot of people.
On the contrary, there will always be people on the web. Rather than pay so much for a radio jingle which will only get to a few people, why not invest in the internet where your money will get to a significantly larger audience?
3. You Can Track Your Marketing Success:
As you’ve read above, marketing traditionally can’t be guaranteed. There’s no way to know who listened to your radio jingle and who didn’t or who read your newspaper ad.
However, on the internet, using analytic tools, you can keep track of your marketing endeavours know what works and what doesn’t, and know-how to target your efforts to achieve better results.
4. Easy Communication with Customers:
Without the internet, a customer would have to locate you physically for every little question. This can be very inconvenient, for both you and your customer.
Keeping in touch with your customer is easy with your online marketing strategy. Using email, social media direct messages or even just giving answers to frequently asked questions on your website is a fantastic way of keeping your customer updated without having to stress either them or yourself.
5. Versatility:
Online, you have so many options to choose from. Your ‘old school’ kind of marketing is usually strict and will only give you limited variety. On the internet, you can tailor your marketing to specifically suit your business and reach your specific target.
For example, a party planner and an accounting firm paying for ads in a magazine don’t have the luxury of choosing their target audience, but online, a party planner could choose to run Instagram ads/promotions where pictures and videos can be displayed to a more fun audience, while the accounting firm would prefer a platform targeted at professionals like LinkedIn.
Types of Online Marketing:
As we’ve seen with the last benefit, the internet is broad. We have business websites, social media, and search engines like Google and YouTube. The list is endless. So what tools are available for marketing? How do you know what channel to go for to get maximum returns for your business?
In this section, we’ll look at each online marketing type and discuss it briefly.
1. Content Marketing:
This is a very popular type of online marketing. It is using different types of content like blog posts, infographics, ebooks, whitepapers, videos, etc, to publicize your business, enlighten people about what you do, turn these people into leads, and eventually, return customers.
It is usually targeted at a certain audience to make this audience your customers. It is used by virtually every business type.
2. Search Engine Optimization:
Known as SEO for short, it involves increasing your website’s visibility on search engines. This implies that you have to own a website to use SEO strategies. It helps both humans and search engines find you.
It can be done by using specific keywords on your website to help the search engine recognize your content when that keyword is searched for, or by using backlinks (this is when another website links to yours.
For example, if your website is an online GPA calculator, use words related to this in your website to help your page rank high on the search results list when someone searches for “Online GPA calculator”.
3. Email Marketing:
This is a more personal, direct form of online marketing. It entails sending out emails to your customers or potential customers to give updates and pass across the information. Usually, such emails also contain links that direct the customer back to their website to increase traffic, but if you don’t have a website, don’t worry, you can still use this.
This method allows you to build a relationship with your customer, get their opinions and feedback and even personalize different messages.
4. Social Media Marketing:
As the name implies, this is using social media for your marketing efforts. It is used to increase your company’s general online presence. We all know how important this is as practically every brand now has a social media handle. Anybody trying to find more information about a brand will probably look it up on Facebook or Instagram first.
This method makes your brand relatable and gives it more credibility.
5. Affiliate Marketing:
This has grown more popular of late. Not only is it a way to gain more customers for your business, but it is also a good way to make money for someone looking for a side hustle.
The general idea behind affiliate marketing is, to get someone to advertise and lead a customer to you and pay the person. It is a win-win situation for both parties, especially because unlike a hired marketer that you have to pay irrespective of the results, you pay an affiliate marketer per sale, so no sale equals no pay.
How to Start Online Marketing:
How do you begin online marketing? What steps do you need to take? To make things easy, I’ll list them out in simple steps:
- Create a social media page.
- Build an interactive website; this could help you get email addresses from your leads.
- Integrate keywords into your website. A good place to find keywords is Semrush.
- Utilize email marketing.
- Write blog posts on related content.
Of course, this can be very daunting if you have zero marketing experience. If you’re that person, don’t stress. Oparawhite Global is here to give you all the digital assistance you need.
Share this article if it helped you and leave a comment below.
