Online marketing is a vital tool for your business in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape. The main purpose of online marketing is to implement a cost-effective strategy that maximizes profit, drives traffic to your business, increases visibility, and expands your company’s reach.
There are several methods you can use to optimize your online marketing efforts, including a well-designed website, engaging social media accounts, a proper SEO strategy, and an attention-grabbing landing page, among others. The first step in creating an effective online marketing strategy is to understand the various types of mediums available to you.
Below is a guide to the different types of online marketing and an overview of why online marketing is beneficial for your business.
What are the different forms of online marketing?
Digital marketing has expanded exponentially over the past decade and has grown to encompass a variety of tools and methods. What once was a simple company website, online marketing has evolved into various mediums that will help drive traffic to your business.
Among some of the types of effective online marketing include:
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
Whichever method(s) you choose, Internet marketing can be beneficial for business when executed with a strategy that makes sense for your industry, niche, and ideal client.
Why is online marketing so effective?
1. Meets your customers where they are
Over 4.2 billion people use the Internet to search for information, products, and services. Your customers are online and internet marketing exposes your business to more leads and with more opportunities to reach them. As a business, your goal is to reach potential customers who are searching for what you’re offering.
Companies that specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are able to place companies at the top of major search engines to expand their reach and increase their visibility. A successful online marketing strategy puts your company in front of your customers.
2. Increases engagement and fosters trust
With commercials, print ads, and radio, communication is one-way. You leave your traditional advertising to chance, hoping that your audience will resonate with it. Online marketing opens up the door for two-way communication that can cultivate trust between your business and your ideal clients.
Building this relationship with your audience is significant in making your customers feel valued and that their business matters to you. Engaging with your clients becomes less about ‘selling’ and more about helping them find a solution with your offer or as a source of reliable information about the product that they’re searching for.
3. Warms up your cold audience and converts your warm audience
People choose brands that they are familiar with. Exposing them to your business with consistent content helps guide them to conversion. An effective online marketing strategy can warm up your cold audience (potential customers who don’t yet know about your business) and can persuade your already warm audience (customers who have never heard of you before) to purchase your offer.
The goal of brand visibility is to get people more familiar with your business. Whether they purchase from you right away, increasing the awareness of your brand means you are at the top of their mind when they are ready to purchase.
4. Online marketing is cost effective
When compared to more traditional forms of advertising, digital marketing methods are relatively more budget-friendly and affordable which positively impacts your bottom line. When you invest in a good online marketing strategy that works for your particular industry, the return on investment is high.
5. Advanced analytics
Internet marketing allows you to monitor metrics, such as your click-through rate, views, reactions, impressions, engagement, and more. With advanced analytics, you can tweak and improve your marketing efforts by seeing what’s working and what’s not.
When you can monitor the analytics of your marketing, you can understand your audience better and accommodate their needs quicker. In the long run, this helps you save on marketing costs by creating better campaigns that actually move the needle in your business instead of producing content that doesn’t work.
Type of online marketing: which one to choose?
The world of online marketing can be a point of constraint or a place of opportunity. When choosing your medium, consider your resources, tools, and time available. Investing in online marketing can reap great benefits and a high ROI for your business.
If you’re looking to grow your brand, reach your customers, and increase your sales, we can help.
Article by Queenie Wei
Queenie loves to challenge the status quo, whether in social media or social change, she is always on the hunt for more efficient ways to optimize existing structures. As part of the 2017 cohort for Global Student Entrepreneur Awards and the 2019 cohort for Startup Canada’s Global Entrepreneurs Challenge, Queenie (the Chaos Harmonizer) loves to explore boldly and implement change on a global scale.
