Like most small business owners, you likely have a business website to maximize your online presence.
However, you may have noticed by tracking your site traffic and conversion rates that having a website is just the beginning of your internet marketing journey.
Having a strong internet marketing strategy will separate your brand from the 71% of small businesses with some form of an online presence.
That’s easier said than done. Internet marketing is a broad field with diverse, time- and labor-intensive subcategories.
Online marketers need industry know-how to understand and apply the many aspects of a digital marketing strategy. In addition, the time and effort it takes to stay abreast of online marketing trends may overwhelm small teams.
The good news is that internet marketing is easy to implement once you understand it. There are many online tools to automate most recurring processes, eliminating the need to do everything manually.
In this article, we outline the top internet marketing strategies your business can implement today to ensure your website ranks higher on search pages and attracts the right customers to your business.
What Is the Difference Between Internet Marketing and Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing and internet marketing encompass different components.
Internet marketing falls under the broader umbrella of digital marketing. It refers to marketing efforts that utilize the internet, including:
- Websites to showcase your products and services
- Email marketing to subscribers
- SEO to improve organic traffic to rank higher on search results
- Social media marketing to attract customers
Digital marketing, on the other hand, refers to all that falls under using digital channels to reach customers. This includes internet marketing, as mentioned before, and others such as:
- Mobile marketing strategies – using marketing tactics to reach customers through tablets and smartphones
- Video marketing – creating and sharing content to promote your products and services
- Influencer marketing strategies – utilizing content creators and social media influencers to promote your brand
Here are 5 Tips To Successfully Use Internet Marketing To Attract Customers
We could write a small book on all the internet marketing strategies. However, there are some fundamental ways to optimize the channels you choose to engage your customers online.
These include creating value for your visitors to ensure they want to stay longer on your page, engage, buy, or sign up for your products and services.
If you do an outstanding job at this, they will share your content with their friends and followers, helping you reach an even wider audience.
The most important aspect of internet marketing is understanding your brand’s target audience and catering to their needs using your unique brand voice. You can learn more about these three main aspects of internet marketing to ensure you are on the right track.
Here are the five insider tips you can implement today to attract more customers to your site:
1. Create Optimized Blog Posts
Anyone who has ever dabbled in online marketing knows the assertion “Content is king.” Even though there are endless debates on their original meaning, such as this hot take on content vs. context, the statement is true.
Search engine optimization on blog posts is a tried and true tactic to generate organic traffic to your website and attract new customers.
It’s easy to create a blog on an existing website to post engaging content to help your business page or site rank higher on search engines. Here are some ways to develop SEO-optimized blog posts:
Choose the right keywords
Writing blog posts without keyword research is like fishing without bait; it’s not worth your time. Fortunately, keyword research is simple via online tools that automate the process and save you time.
To start your keyword research, brainstorm relevant topics you want to write on. For example, for a fitness center, broader topics such as “health,” “fitness,” and “workout” could be included.
After identifying your topic, you can use tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner to research relevant keywords. These tools help you understand what your clients are searching for and type into search engines for information related to your chosen topic.
By analyzing volume, competition, and competitor keywords, you can tailor your content to clients’ existing customer needs and search intents to attract them to your site.
Lastly, monitor and update your keywords to ensure your content remains relevant since search trends and algorithms change.
Write quality content
As the debate for content vs. context rages on, the consensus is that both are equally important since they are interdependent.
Context is the information in blog posts, such as statistics on your chosen topic. In contrast, content is the knowledge presented in the blog post.
Good content is researched, presented, and written well and provides value for the reader. Therefore, creating a healthy balance between content and context in your blog posts increases cohesion and gives your reader a reason to stay on your site.
The secret to loyal customers is consistency and value. So as you create your keyword-enhanced blog posts, ask yourself, “What will the reader gain by reading this article?”
When you eliminate fluff and ensure your reader’s time is well invested, you can create a loyal customer base that keeps returning for more.
Don’t forget your CTAs
CTAs or call-to-action statements encourage your readers to take specific actions. For instance, at Sigmategy, we are a small, locally-owned digital marketing and consultancy firm. We focus on growing the leads of large, small, and medium-sized business organizations.
Our CTAs focus on adding value, such as guiding beginners to our educational materials on digital marketing strategies or our tailor-made solutions for brands looking to attract customers online.
Your blog posts can facilitate the success of your business goals by intentionally creating content that includes specific and strategically placed calls to action to tell your readers what to do next.
You can utilize bold fonts and contrasting colors to ensure your CTA stands out from the rest of the text. Remember to test and optimize different variations of your CTA to see which ones perform best.
Promote your blog posts
Share your blog post on social media platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin to increase its visibility and drive traffic to your website.
You can create massive traffic to your site by encouraging customers to share your blog and social media posts with their followers.
For instance, you can join or initiate creative trends on social media using some of the tips we outline in the next section.
2. Join Creative Trends on Social Media
Duolingo has become the envy of many brands trying to make it on social media. Through a series of witty yet strategic tactics, the language app has managed to amass an impressive 6.1 million followers with a whopping 123.3 million “likes” on its content.
The result? Duolingo is the number one language app on Google Apps and has an impressive 19% engagement rate on TikTok.
Brands can leverage the power of social media marketing through creative and engaging content. Here’s how you can choose trends for your brand to join and interact with on social media:
Start by selecting an appropriate social media platform
There are several social media platforms to choose from. Knowing where your clients spend their time online is crucial in selecting a venue.
Your target audience will guide your choice. First, determine the age range, gender, location, interests, and online behavior of your target audience. Second, identify the strengths of each platform.
For example, TikTok relies heavily on video marketing. Duolingo identified this strength early on and utilized its green bird mascot, aptly named Duo, to hop on viral trends and use humor to engage with followers.
Align your platform choice with your business goals.
Whether you want to improve customer engagement, generate leads, or drive website traffic, there is a correlating social media platform best suited to deliver your marketing objectives.
Consider the time and effort it takes to create content on the platform.
Do you have the resources to hire a team to manage your social media marketing strategies, or will your existing team be responsible for these efforts? Choose a platform that aligns with your available resources.
Choose a trend to join
The tricky part of participating in social media trends is that they constantly evolve. Therefore, knowing user perspectives, your preferred social platform, and the target audience is essential when choosing trends to join.
For example, many communities on TikTok, such as MomTok, BookTok, and Cottagecore, have niches within them. A good example is the Young Adult Fiction niche in the larger Booktok community.
To identify these niches, it helps to be an avid user of the social media app you choose and a part of these communities. This way, you can quickly identify new trends that suit your brand.
Additionally, by constantly engaging these communities, you will have a command of the unique acronyms and slang that your target audience uses on these platforms. You can utilize this knowledge to create trust in your followers and a loyal follower base.
Test and measure
Lastly, test and measure. Determine what content resonates with your audience, and test and measure your performance.
Auditing your internet marketing strategies is a wise way to ensure spending aligns with marketing budgets and key marketing objectives are prioritized.
3. Create an Online Challenge or Quiz
A significant advantage of internet marketing for small businesses is that you can spend little and still see results. Undoubtedly, a large marketing budget speeds up the processes.
However, internet marketing campaigns that are ultimately successful have more to do with informed decisions and proper timing than having a dream marketing budget.
The purpose of internet marketing is ultimately to reach clients and create engagement. Whether signing up for newsletters, clicking the follow button, or buying a product or service, internet marketing strategies aim to gain followers’ attention and help them along the sales funnel to achieve desired results.
One of the best ways to create engagement is through fun or educational online challenges and quizzes. A great example of this is the Sephora Virtual Artist.
Sephora is a beauty retailer that sells makeup, skincare, and fragrance products. The Sephora Virtual Artist utilizes a quiz that asks users about their skin tone, skin type, and makeup preference. The Virtual Artist then uses this information to generate personalized product recommendations.
Sephora Virtual Artist successfully drives traffic to the brand’s site by providing customers with a personalized, interactive experience.
As a small business owner, think of fun bits of information, product knowledge, or trivia in your niche that you can share with your audience. Utilize interactive mediums such as fun questionnaires and quizzes that are easily shareable on social media.
You don’t need to possess award-winning graphic design skills to get started. With a free plan, you can easily create a quiz, questionnaire, or interactive post on sites like Canva.
The site is easy to use, with templates for various social media sites and free tutorial videos to teach you the ropes.
4. Partner With An Influencer or Content Creator
Influencer marketing is part of the wider online marketing strategies to create brand awareness and ultimately attract new customers to the business.
There are many success stories of influencer marketing successfully promoting small brands and exposing their products to a broader client base.
The main advantage of influencing is that it creates trust in the brand. Most influencers have many followers who trust their product or service recommendations. By partnering with these influencers, your business gains credibility and acquires loyal customers.
Here’s how your brand can identify and partner with the right influencers to match your core values, business goals, and marketing budget:
Define the target audience
As with any marketing strategy, a clearly defined target audience will determine your brand’s influencer. Likewise, your target demographic should align with that of the influencers’ followers.
Look into the influencer’s demographics, locations, interests, and engagement rates. The higher the influencer’s audience engagement, the higher the chances they will engage with your product.
Identify your potential influencer
Ideally, influencers have content that aligns with your brand’s values and message and a solid social media following. Check the influencer’s content, tone, style, and aesthetic to ensure it matches your brand’s image.
As a local business, partnering with a locally known influencer rather than a more “global” influencer is ideal. In addition, you can use apps such as Heepsy that help companies find influencers more easily than sifting through multiple social media platforms.
Set clear goals and objectives
Once you’ve identified potential partners, reach out to them with a personalized message on why you think they’d be an excellent fit for your brand. Be clear about expectations, deliverables, and budgets.
Before working with any influencer, set goals to outline both sides’ expectations. After defining your goals, determine how efforts will be measured to gauge success and the role of the influencer in attaining the objectives.
Track and measure performance
Once the influencer marketing campaigns are underway, track and measure the performance of your partnership. Identifying the ROI of your strategy is vital to gauge success and pinpoint room for improvement.
Utilize these online tools to measure specific performance trackers such as reach and engagement, and use the collected data to optimize your campaign over time.
5. Create an Online Educational Series In Your Niche
The modern age of access to information has transformed how we learn, communicate, and interact with the world.
It has empowered people to educate themselves and be part of a global community, creating new opportunities for businesses to reach and engage with their audiences.
Hubspot Academy is an excellent example of a brand utilizing the full potential of online educational series. Hubspot provides software solutions for inbound marketing, customer relationship management, and business sales tools.
The Academy also provides free online courses and certifications that teach users how to use their tools and inbound marketing strategies.
By offering free educational material, Hubspot has strategically placed itself as a thought leader in the industry, building a community of loyal customers.
Your brand can position itself as an industry leader by utilizing educational materials to build brand loyalty and generate leads.
Here are three popular options to host your educational series for the best user experience:
1. Youtube
Undoubtedly, YouTube is the world’s largest video hosting platform with a massive audience that can help you reach more viewers and increase brand awareness.
Additionally, YouTube is very user-friendly. You can create a branded YouTube channel and upload your edited videos there.
2. Vimeo
Vimeo is a popular video hosting platform many business owners use to upload educational series for their internet marketing strategy. Vimeo offers a professional layout that enables businesses to showcase their products and services.
Vimeo offers a free plan with limited features and a paid version with advanced analytics and customization options.
3. Zoom for Webinars
Webinars are interactive online events hosted to create a learning experience for attendees. They typically have an expert or team of experts sharing knowledge from their areas of expertise and are great for knowledge-sharing, product launches, and gaining real-time customer feedback.
Your brand builds relationships with its clients by engaging them directly. Webinars can facilitate a rapport that builds a loyal community that converts followers into active customers.
Get Started With Sigmategy’s Internet Marketing for Small Business Owners To Grow Your Client Base
Regardless of budget restrictions, your small business marketing strategies can profit immensely from sound internet marketing.
You can craft a winning strategy to attract customers and achieve your marketing objectives by understanding your target audience, their needs, and how well your business is suited to address them.
Ready to get started? Check out our experts in internet marketing strategies for small businesses. Our experienced team is dedicated to helping you grow your client base and increase revenue.
So take advantage of this opportunity to boost your online presence and stand out. Contact us now to get your internet marketing strategies up and running.