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08/01/2013 by
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3 Ways To Improve Your Online Marketing

Today, it’s all online. For a business to succeed, they have to embrace this fact. So here are 3 ways to improve your online marketing.

3 Ways To Improve Your Online Marketing

Image by shutterstock.

Let’s start with small business tips: Why Small Businesses Need Online Presence.

Maybe your company already has an online presence. Maybe it’s a ‘straight-out-of-the-box’ template that costs very little.

There’s a reason they don’t cost the Earth. And that reason is simple. They won’t get you the numbers you need because you haven’t put the time or the effort in. The internet is a living, breathing entity. It will not tolerate a lazy, unfocused approach.

Let’s assume you’ve got some form of online presence. But it’s a little sketchy. It can be improved certainly. Let’s take a look at some of the quickest, easiest and most effective methods to make your marketing a lot well….quicker, easier and more effective.

Be More Sociable
You’ve probably heard this on a million different sites from a million people. But if a million people are saying it, there must be something in it. Using social media is important. That’s pretty much it.

Case study Google+ and Google Hangouts on ViralBlog

It’s a low cost method that can generate a lot of business for you. Like I said, with a little time and effort working on your platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google +), then you can really improve your standing online.

Here’s an example of a case study recently released about an online business. They really embraced social media, in this case Google+.

Through the case study you can see that they created a series of media rich posts, competitions and Google Hangouts to engage people, not customers.

It’s been massively successful.

– Through hangouts, the company gained more than 1,000 additional followers.
– 33% CTR uplift
– 8% CPA decrease
– 300 new followers per day as result of competitions

Social is important. This cannot be stressed enough. It should not be used to target customers however. Instead, the use of social should let engage those people, earning their trust. In time, when they need your particular service or goods, who do you think they will turn to?

Pretty, But Substantial
You might have heard of content marketing. Here’s a video of the hostory behind it:

YouTube Preview Image

But the basic dictionary definition states that content marketing is the:

“…technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience.”

This is what people want. They want to read, listen and look at things that actually interest them, not what you think they should be told. People skip things all the time now. Think of satellite TV. People can just fast forward over the ads.

Think about it. It makes sense really. People have been told what to do, what to eat, what to buy for decades. It’s about choice. Give people content they can choose to ignore or to share and make that interesting and engaging, then they are more likely to do the latter.

Analytics
Knowing is half the battle. You win by having information the other guy doesn’t have. This is why analytics is so crucial to a marketing campaign.

Use Google Analytics, ViralBlog.com

And it’s so easy to set up. Software like Google Analytics is free and can provide a comprehensive report on who is searching for you, how effective your marketing is and what the ‘gaps’ are that you can take advantage of.

By knowing exactly what your audience wants, then you can give them exactly what they want, saving you effort and costs.

The Final Word
Of course, these are only glossing over the methods you need to take to effectively improve your marketing online, but they are a great start that will give you instant results and make the journey a lot less bumpy.

What About You?
What online ways worked very well for your business? We’d love to read your tips in the comments below.

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About The Author
Gerald Heneghan wrote this story on behalf of Custard, an online marketing company specialising in both online and offline campaigns.

 

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