7 Highly Effective Online Marketing Strategies to Promote Any Business
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
If you’ve ever tried to market a business on the Internet then you know just how much effort getting something out there truly takes. From social media platforms, to viral videos, to blogging, and beyond, just what types of online marketing strategies will work to get your Website or Online Business in front of the eyes of others?
Well, as I’ve been in this industry for quite some time, I can definitely say for certain that online marketing is a lot of work. In fact, it’s so much work, that some companies pay tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for effective online marketing strategies and campaigns. Of course, these are your larger companies, but smaller companies are partaking as well with a mixture of hired work and their own personal sweat equity in implementing online marketing strategies.
My personal online marketing strategies have been developed over the course of several years of doing search engine optimization, coding, video marketing, press release issuing, and strategy development for countless sites, blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, and more. These online marketing strategies that I’ve implemented on a consistent basis are founded on my real world experience of trying (and sometimes failing) different things in different ways. Now I’ve filtered down my top 7 most effective online marketing strategies here, just for you.
Now, you’re probably looking for online marketing strategies that will help you get your Web presence off the ground. Maybe you just launched a Website recently, or maybe it’s been a while and you’re frustrating because you’re having a tough time driving traffic. Well, you’re not alone, as there are countless others who are fairly overwhelmed by the amount of effort it takes to implement some even the most basic of online marketing strategies. For this reason, I wanted to take the time and help educate you guys and list my top 7 most highly effective online marketing strategies to help you with any Online Business you’re trying to promote.
Please Note: If you find these online marketing strategies effective, please make sure you either Tweet this article, or share it on Google Plus for me as I would be forever in your debt.
A Primer on Online Marketing Strategies
Depending on your level of experience in the field of Internet marketing, you most likely have used one or more of the types of these online marketing strategies that I’m about to cover, even if you haven’t really realized it at the time. We’ve all taken to Facebook at one time or another to promote some product or service that we’re peddling, or to rave and even complain about other products & services that we’ve used. We do this without really understanding that we’re using online marketing strategies that fall in to the social media platform realm; it’s just something we do because we’re “social animals”.
Nonetheless, implementing only one, two or three of the 7 most highly effective online marketing strategies will not be as effective as combining at least a minimum of five of the online marketing strategies below. And, while there are dozens (if not hundreds) of different online marketing strategies that can potentially be used when promoting a site, the seven listed below have worked the best for me in marketing personal Websites, customers’ Websites, blogs, and Facebook Pages on the Internet over the course of the past few years.
It’s important to note here that all of these online marketing strategies take time to implement. Whether it’s time invested in creating blog posts, time invested in sharing videos, time invested in sending emails to prospects or whatever it may be. This is not to mention the time involved in allowing sites like Google and Bing to fully index your site to get you the highest possible listing on search results based on your work. So, be patient, and be diligent… in the world of the Web, online marketing strategies may take time to implement, and some things will work better then others, so you’ll just have to learn as you go along, but when your online marketing strategies do come to fruition, your business (and potential profits) will explode exponentially.
Please note, that these online marketing strategies already take into account the fact that you have SEO in place, and have already optimized your Website or blog for search engines. Without SEO some of the online marketing strategies discussed in this article may go to waste.
If you want to know more about my top SEO techniques, be sure to check out my other article located here.
Online Marketing Strategies #1 – Article Blogging
The importance of having your own blog is absolutely paramount in being one of the top online marketing strategies that goes above and beyond having your site properly SEO ready. The reason for this is that blogs offer unique content that’s updated often (that is as long as you write in it often). There’s nothing the search engines like more then unique content that’s not only original, but also informative and non-spammy. Furthermore content that helps people solve problems, or answer questions on various topics will get you an immense amount of traffic once the search engines find your site.
Article blogging is certainly one of the best online marketing strategies for effectively marketing your business. Not only does article blogging allow you to put out unique content related to any topic, it also allows visitors to your blog to interact with you in the form of liking blog posts or commenting on them. This interaction is key as it also shows Google that there is significant interest in the content that you’ve put out there, which, at the end of the day, earns you big points with the search engine giant.
Don’t have a Blog Setup on your Website?
If you don’t already have a blog setup on your Website, then you have a few different options. If your Website address is new (say you registered your domain within the past year) then you need to setup a blog on what’s called an “aged domain” (which I discussed in my last SEO article).
You need an aged domain because since your Website is so new, Google’s algorithm will actually penalize you for that. For that reason, the best thing that you can do is setup a blog on a domain that already receives a lot of traffic (high page ranking site) in order to drive more traffic to your site. Once you link your blog posts to your Website from a highly trafficked site, your SEO ranking will soar. If you’re ready to setup a blog on an highly traffic domain (also known as an authority domain) that is also well aged (over 5 years old), then click here to join now and set one up (you’ll need to enter your email address first, then watch a video presentation prior to joining).
By signing up to this blog system, you’ll get a pre-installed blog with a professional design on an aged domain that’s already ranked in the top 500 Websites on the Internet. To build your online marketing strategies quickly, there’s no better tool then this. Click here to learn more about this article blogging platform for these online marketing strategies.
Online Marketing Strategies #2 – Youtube & Video Blogging
Besides for just article blogging, as discussed in online marketing strategies #1, Youtube & video blogging is a crucial part of online marketing strategies. When posting articles & writing blogs, the best method to add relevancy an prominence to them is to search through YouTube for videos that are related to your content, then to embed those videos in your blog or article (this also works for Web pages that are informational pages related to a topic or subject, but more so for blogs). Implementing these video blogging online marketing strategies will double, if not triple the traffic you can expect from a single blog post or Web page that’s well written and well SEO tested.
In addition to embedding other people’s YouTube videos into your own blog posts, video blogging online marketing strategies should also involve some element of the creation of your own YouTube videos that are tagged, titled, described properly, and are highly related to the content of your post or page. You should create videos that are informative, on topic, and average about 2 minutes in length. This combined with online marketing strategies #1, discussed above, will do leaps and bounds for helping to promote your business organically on Google’s search engine ranking results pages.
One of the most popular types of YouTube videos for video blogging’s online marketing strategies are YouTube video tips & reviews. If you’re a good talker, and you’re comfortable in front of the camera, then providing these types of reviews are priceless. You could also setup an Amazon Associates account and link the products to Amazon, and earn commissions on those sales. These are just some of the online marketing strategies being using by the top income earners in Internet Marketing to make an absolute killing in profits on a daily basis.
Once you’ve created your content, publish and share the video on Facebook & Twitter in order to build some more high PR (page rank – more about that in my SEO article here) links to your site or blog post.
There’s a lot more to video blogging, however, then just this. Topics such as how to create a viral video, how to leverage existing videos on Youtube to build more search engine awareness for yourself, and more are discussed in my latest SEO eBook, entitled, Building an Effective Online Presence with Guerrilla Marketing Tactics, by Randi Walsh.
Online Marketing Strategies #3 – Social Media Platforms
These days, without online marketing strategies that extend into the vital social media platforms, you’re dead in the water. However, developing effective online marketing strategies for these social media sites can be somewhat tricky, as it’s easy to get lost in the sea of self promoting business owners out there. Differentiating yourself through specific online marketing strategies related to social media marketing is critical if you plan on making a dent in your search engine presence.
The first thing that, of course, you’ll want to have are a Facebook account and a Twitter account. Most people have these but you would be surprised that in this day and age how many people still don’t have one or both setup. For these social media based online marketing strategies to be effective, you’ll need to either market your product or service through your existing Facebook account, or create a Facebook (Fan/Business) Page and/or dedicated Twitter account.
The key to effective networking with these online marketing strategies on a platform like Facebook, is to not only setup a Facebook Fan Page to promote your product or service, but also to have private conversations in chat or via private email messages with people that could potentially be the right quality prospects.
While you can of course purchase PPC (pay-per-click) advertisements to promote your Facebook Page, you can also do free marketing on Facebook by searching for anyone doing anything with any types of interest. This works great if you know your typical customer. For example, let’s say you run a child day care in Boston, MA, you may begin your search by typing in “home maker” or “stay at home mom” in the search bar in Facebook. Once you have your search results, narrow them down by using Boston, MA as the area then scroll through and search for women who recently had children. Now, while this may take a little bit of extra work, these online marketing strategies are highly targeted, but you need to ensure that when contacting these people you don’t come across as “spamming”. You may address why your day car would be such a perfect fit for them, or just simply engage others on their walls and carefully insert your product or service. Whatever it may be, be sure you promote with tact and care as to not piss people off.
When communicating on social media platforms, it’s important that you don’t look like you’re doing too much of a “hard sell”. This is a mistake that many business owners too often make. What does this mean? Well, the purpose of social media platforms is for communication and entertainment. People want to be entertained by what’s going on out there in both other’s people’s lives and in the world. For this reason, when implementing social media platform online marketing strategies, it’s best to be about 65% entertaining and 35% informative or educational.
You don’t want to be all business all the time. If you do this, you’ll lose your audience’s interest quickly. This means that along with your message, you should be using these social media online marketing strategies to entertain, and not just inform. What does this mean? Well, let’s just say you want to promote the latest widget your company has produced. Well, you don’t want to just try to shove the widget down your friends’ throats. No, in fact you’ll want to relate the widget to some everyday problem people have… maybe it fills a void in the marketplace, maybe it solves a problem. You may also want to relate it somehow to pop culture. Maybe the latest celebrity was seen purchasing a similar widget for their kid, or, well, you get the picture…
Want some more examples about online marketing strategies when it comes to social media platforms? Check out my eBook entitled Building an Effective Online Presence with Guerrilla Marketing Tactics, by Randi Walsh. The book also covers topics such as how to use Facebook Fan Pages to promote your business, how to leverage Twitter to market your product and services, how to get more Twitter followers, and so on.
Online Marketing Strategies #4 – Email Marketing
Ah, the coveted crown jewel of Internet Marketers across the globe, email marketing is a cornerstone in the online marketing strategies wold. However, how do you make sure that your email campaigns actually work? How do you track the opens and clicks? What type of content should you send and how often? With so many questions in the field, it’s hard not to get lost. Through trial and error, however, I was able to build up a pretty large list and now this is one of my most highly effective online marketing strategies for marketing products & services that I’m offering or involved in. But, if you’re a “newbie” it’s easy to get lost and confused. Sometimes it’s best to hire someone to assist in this realm, but if you’re a control freak like me, then you’ll want to do this yourself.
Want to build effective online marketing strategies through email marketing?
So, to build effective online marketing strategies through email marketing, the first thing that you’ll need to do is ensure that you sign up for an email system that will help you not only opt people in (i.e. allow them to enter their email address to receive your messages), but also be able to design, send & analyze your campaigns in real-time.
There are a couple of good solutions for Web-based systems in email marketing, and those are either GetResponse.com, Aweber.com, or ConstantContact.com. I personally like to use Aweber.com, however, both of the other options are very viable ones, and there are more beyond those, but it’s important to find one that you’re comfortable with and go from there.
In the field of online marketing strategies for email marketing, there really is so much to learn here. For example, what’s a solo ad and when are they effective, what’s a sales funnel, how many times a week should you communicate with your leads, and so on. The answers to some of these questions is, however, beyond the scope of this article, and if you want to learn more about online marketing strategies when it comes to email marketing, please check out my eBook entitled Building an Effective Online Presence with Guerrilla Marketing Tactics, by Randi Walsh.
Online Marketing Strategies #5 – PPC Campaigns
If you’re new to business and you’re serious about getting it off the ground, there’s nothing better then to implement the online marketing strategies of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. While you will need to ensure that you have a marketing budget for this, no matter how small that budget is, it will assist you to target prospective customers, track impressions (number of times ads are shown) as well as clicks and potentially ones that lead to sales. These online marketing strategies through PPC advertising are used by the top Internet Marketers to “scale out” their marketing and really make hefty profits on a consistent basis. Once you find a winning formula through online marketing strategies through PPC advertisements, it’s very easy to increase your budget, and thus scale out your results to increase your profits (as long as you’re turning a profit at the smaller budget in the first place of course).
You can implement these online marketing strategies for PPC campaigns on many different platforms. The most popular platform for these types of online marketing strategies are the Google Adwords platform, which serves all the Google sites and content across the board. In addition to Google Adwords, the online marketing stratgies for PPC ads are available through Facebook as well. With these two platforms you can target somewhere between 60% – 85% of all Internet users. Now, that’s a lot of people.
If you’re looking for more details about running an effective PPC campaign and for other information related to these types of online marketing strategies, be sure to check out my eBook as I go in depth about them. The book is entitled eBook entitled Building an Effective Online Presence with Guerrilla Marketing Tactics, by Randi Walsh.
Online Marketing Strategies #6 – Crowd Sourcing
Ah, the power of the tribe. The online marketing strategies involving crowd sourcing are some of the most powerful out there. There’s only so much you can do as a single person but combined into the power of a group, or a crowd, you can literally move mountains. Now that’s what the Internet is all about right? It’s all in the power of crowds.
So how does crowd sourcing work? If you’re blogging or promoting a specific product or site, then you can use the power of crowds through Websites like TribePro.com. This site allows you to syndicate your content across hundreds (if not thousands) of marketers that will automatically post your content through your feed and it gets instant authority because it’s shared through dozens of social networks by hundreds and even thousands of content syndicators. These social media sites are high PR (important in the eyes of the search engines) Websites, that, when linking back to your site, will increase your rankings, thus making this one of the top online marketing strategies. Now, that’s the power of the tribe.
There are other crowd sourcing Websites available out there as well where you can launch some guerrilla type tactics for getting your site or blog in front of countless visitors. A site called OnlyWire.com will aggregate your data across up to 47 different social networks. You can use the feed from your blog to have EmpireAvenue.com and OnlyWire.com aggregate your data periodically. Usage of these types of online marketing strategies allow you to take a more auto-pilot approach to content syndication. In addition, TribePro.com utilizes the OnlyWire.com API for it’s tribe based auto-syndication.
Other ways of using the power of crowd sourcing is through Websites such as EmpireAvenue.com which use the power of crowds to make people do thinks like share your tweets, like your Facebook Page, check out your Website, sign up to an email list, and so on. They use a social system built on the site’s currency, or Eaves, to make payouts for members to perform certain task (or missions) setup by any person with a high enough rating on the site.
Online Marketing Strategies #7 – Reverse Marketing
Reverse marketing, while not one of the top online marketing strategies, surely is an effective one in both cost and efficiency. The reverse marketing online marketing strategies involve signing up to email lists from different marketers that may be in the same industry as you.
This is in effect, a type of reverse engineering in online marketing strategies, as once you sign up for these lists, you’ll begin receiving different emails that you’ll be able to read through, and gauge the language and potential effectiveness of then duplicate and change it to fit your own needs (also called “spinning”). These types of online marketing strategies also involve engaging the marketers by communicating with them by responding to their messages and trying to get them to “pitch” you further to sign up with them. I’m not sure about you, but the reverse marketing online marketing strategies have taught me invaluable lessons in how to market to my prospective customers.
Online Marketing Strategies… so what Next?
Now that you have a bit of a handle on the different kinds of online marketing strategies that are available to you, your best bet will be to being to develop a plan and take massive action. By trying different approaches to different versions of these online marketing strategies, you’ll be able to come up with a plan on what will work and what won’t work for you. When you do find the right mixture of online marketing strategies that work, it will be simple for you to scale it out once you’re turning a profit.
As a closing note, I just want to say that in this industry, nothing comes easy. Internet marketing involves weaving a complex Web (no pun intended) of online marketing strategies together in order to yield a final result that pans out. Don’t give up, keep pushing and remember that some of these online marketing strategies will take time to “stick”. But always remember to stay positive and take massive action and you’ll always reach your goals.
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Topics Discussed:
* Online Marketing Strategies
* Internet Marketing Strategy
* Web Marketing
* Online Marketing Services
* Online Marketing Strategies