15 Ways to promote your business online

Here are 15 ways to promote your business online

1. Develop a strategy for success (SWOT analysis)

You must have a winning online strategy before you start aggressively marketing your business online. The most effective method for doing this is to conduct a SWOT analysis, which is a popular marketing strategy for evaluating four crucial components of your company: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

“Strengths and Weaknesses” refer to the internal factors of your business, including its assets, processes, people, and anything else relating to the organization.

“Opportunities and Threats”, on the other hand, relate to external factors, such as those arising from your competition, market, and the wider economy. 

To perform your SWOT analysis, brainstorm and answer the following questions:

Strengths

• What do you do well?
• What unique resources can you draw on?
• What do others see as your strengths?

Weaknesses

• What could you improve?
• Where do you have fewer resources than others?
• What are others likely to see as a weakness?

Opportunities

• What opportunities are open to you?
• What trends could you take advantage of?
• How can you turn your strengths into opportunities?

Threats

• What threats could harm you?
• What is your competition doing?
• What threats do your weaknesses expose to you?

2. Define your marketing goals

Have you ever heard the phrase “start with the end in mind”? This statement couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to advertising your company online. Knowing your aim, or more particularly, what you intend to accomplish through your internet marketing efforts, is the first stage in any effective online marketing campaign. This aids in deciding which key performance indicators (KPIs) you should monitor to assess if the result was effective or not.

A good trick is to remember your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

To help you define your ‘SMART goal,’ answer the following questions: 

Specific

• What is it I want to accomplish?
• Why is this goal important for my business?
• Who does this involve?
• Where will this take place?
• Which resources are involved?

Measurable

• How much do we want to make (i.e. amount generated from sales, profit, etc.)?
• How many do we want to achieve (i.e. number of subscriptions, sales, visitors to the website, etc.)?
• How will I know when these figures have been achieved?

Achievable

• How can this objective be achieved?
• How realistic is this goal when considering possible constraints, such as finances, resources, etc.?

Relevant

• Does this align with our other business needs and efforts?
• Is the project worthwhile?
• Is the timing right, considering the current socioeconomic environment?
• Am I (or specific people within the business/outside assistance) the right person to achieve this goal?

Time-bound 

• When will we start and finish the promotion?
• How long will it take to achieve our desired results?
• What can I do today to work towards this goal? In 6 weeks? In 6 months?

These three typical web marketing goals may meet the objectives of your business:

#1. To present information. An online campaign’s initial stage is to educate potential customers about a product or service, including what it is, where to get it, how it will help them, how much it will cost, and why it is superior to rival offerings. Digital marketing is an excellent technique for achieving this because consumers like to feel educated when they make purchasing decisions.

#2. To increase demand. Demand is the desire of a customer to buy a good or service, especially when they have the means to do so at a reasonable price. Discount coupons, competitions and giveaways, product samples, celebrity endorsements, and rewards programs are among promotional tactics that can be promoted online. The goal is to increase client demand by creating excitement and buzz about a good or service.

#3. To generates leads and sales. Lead generation, according to 85% of B2B marketers, is their top priority when advertising a good or service. A lead is any individual who expresses interest in a business’s goods or services by providing personal information in exchange for a free trial, email subscription, survey, or download, for example. A great purpose for web marketing is to generate leads, especially since the more leads you have, the more potential sales you have for your company.

3. Check how your top competitors are doing

Prior to commencing your marketing strategy, researching your competition might provide your business a significant advantage. It lowers the likelihood of failure while assisting you in identifying any potential shortcuts to success (i.e., what has proven effective for them). Second, by doing this, you may evaluate your business’s advantages and disadvantages in relation to the competition.

When analyzing your online competitors, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your competitors’ unique selling points (USPs)?
• What types of products or services are selling best, and at what price points?
• What traffic sources (i.e. direct traffic, referral URLs, search engines, campaigns) are they using to acquire customers?
• Are they using paid advertising? If so, what websites or social media platforms do they advertise on?
• What search queries do they currently rank for (or are trying to rank for)?
• How are their marketing funnels structured? How are they trying to capture leads and generate sales?

4. Identify your target audience

Your marketing efforts won’t be as targeted as they should be if you don’t know exactly who you want to promote your brand, which could result in dissatisfaction and ineffective marketing campaigns.

Your target market is a certain set of people who are most likely to purchase your goods or services, frequently sharing a number of traits (such as age, interests, etc.). Understanding how and where to contact your greatest prospects will be easier the more specific you are about your target demographic.

Asking yourself these questions can help you identify your target market.

• Is my perfect customer male or female?
• What age group do they belong to?
• Where do they live? (i.e. in a particular city, country, or hemisphere? In rural/urban areas?)
• What profession do they hold? What kind of job might they have?
• How much do they earn? Are they low, middle, or high-income earners?
• What level of education do they have?
• What are their interests or hobbies?
• What is most important to them in life? What specific goals might they have?
• What challenges do they face?
• What influences them to buy a product or service? What objections must they overcome first?
• Where does my target audience spend the most time online?
• How would my target customer use my product/service? Would they buy it for themselves or as a gift for a loved one?

5. Consult with a marketing strategist 

It will be much simpler to engage with a digital marketing expert to determine when, where, and how these goals might be accomplished after you have clearly stated your objectives for marketing your company online.

The finest inbound marketing approach for your company should be determined by the marketing strategist, who should also create a comprehensive digital marketing plan that addresses all facets of the promotion, including:

• online channels
• sales funnel
• strategies
• KPIs that will need to be measured to determine a successful outcome

The best person to contact if you want to promote your company online is a marketing strategist because they are very educated about both paid and unpaid inbound marketing tactics. Not only do they create the most effective online marketing strategy in relation to your business’s specific goals, but they also do so while considering important factors such as budget and how to achieve the highest ROI in the shortest amount of time. Furthermore, they are able to point you in the direction of what specific experts you will need assistance from to reach these goals.

6. Define your marketing budget

There isn’t a “one size fits all” number when it comes to figuring up your marketing budget because every firm is unique. Because of this, setting a budget is frequently regarded as the most challenging part of creating an online marketing strategy plan, but it doesn’t have to be if you have the right support and knowledge.

Recall how we talked about the value of a marketing strategist in the preceding action. Your marketing strategist will give you a better notion of how much you can expect to spend on these promotional strategies and how you should divide your budget across various channels when you discuss your business goals for your internet promotion.

According to research, total marketing expenditures typically range between 8 and 16% of a company’s annual revenue, with 45% of that amount going toward internet advertising.

The required budget for online promotion will be determined by a marketing strategist by taking a number of elements into account, such as:

• the price of creating the necessary material, like blog posts, landing pages, or banners for SEM
• the cost-per-acquisition of target keywords
• hidden expenses such as outsourcing work to freelance experts or purchasing required software or tools

The other element of keeping your budget on track, in addition to working with a marketing strategist, is to keep your campaign straightforward. Online promotion methods such as SEM, retargeting, and social media ads are becoming increasingly complicated, with campaigns costing thousands (or in some cases, millions) of dollars. A much more affordable form of online promotion, for example, is SEO, which largely only requires the cost of hiring an SEO expert.

Once more, a marketing strategist will provide you with advice on which advertising strategies are not only the most cost-effective but also achieve your objectives and yield the highest return on investment in the shortest amount of time.

7. Define the KPIs for your various channels

The effectiveness of your campaigns is gauged using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). The most popular KPIs for the various incoming channels are mentioned below.

#1. Social media advertising

1. Number of clicks
2. Number of likes
3. Number of shares
4. Number of comments
5. Number of active (and new) followers

#2. Mobile advertising

1. CPA (cost per acquisition)
2. RR (Retention rate)
3. Sales revenue
4. Return on ad spend (ROAS)

#3. PPC/SEM

1. CPA (cost-per-acquisition)
2. CTR (click-through-rate)
3. Conversion rate
4. CPC (cost per click)

#4. SEO

1. Number of Pageviews
2. Keywords rankings (both, increases or decreases)
3. Average session duration
4. Number of natural backlinks
5. Click-through-rate (CTR)

#5. Email marketing (retargeting/remarketing)

1. Total clicks
2. Click to conversion (CTC) rate
3. Return on ad spend (ROAS)
4. Total conversions
5. Click-through rate (CTR)

#6. Affiliate marketing

1. Number of new affiliates
2. Number of new customers
3. Average order value
4. Average earnings per click
5. Click Traffic

8. Start a blog

Make sure you have a well-designed, expert website that you can refer potential consumers to, as well as a blog with articles that will keep them reading.

Businesses that blog see a 55% increase in web traffic and a 67% increase in leads. Blogs give your audience valuable, shareable material and help your company become an expert in its field. Also, blogs enhance the likelihood that your website will show up in Google search results, giving potential clients another way to locate your company.

9. Leverage the power of social media

An incredible 55% of buyers do research via social media before making a purchase, Hence, you should also make sure that your company is marketed on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. A social media marketing specialist can help you tailor your advertising techniques to each of the platforms where your target audience is most engaged.

10. Launch Email marketing campaigns

With 91% of consumers preferring to hear from the businesses they do business with via email, email marketing is still one of the most efficient internet marketing strategies. The most popular CRM (customer relationship management) tools are emails, which allow businesses to connect with their customers through targeted email campaigns, recurring newsletters, and other kinds of demand-increasing advertising like offers and giveaways.

11. Promote your business through videos

When done correctly, video marketing is regarded as a very powerful internet tactic. Videos frequently address specialized subjects and have enthusiastic, involved viewers. Making a strong first impression can help you position your company as an authority in these industries, which will help you draw leads and turn them into clients.

12. Answer questions, and give solutions

Users can respond to community members’ questions on websites like Quora and Reddit. The idea is for consumers to notice your excellent, authoritative responses and click on outbound links to visit your website, where they can find additional helpful content as well as your connected goods or services.

Help a Reporter (HARO), which connects journalists with reliable subject-matter experts in a range of industries, including small business owners, is another useful Q&A site. To establish yourself as a leader in your speciality and possibly spread the word about your special goods or services, all you have to do is respond to a HARO request that relates to your area of expertise.

13. Optimize your website for SEO

Your website functions as your online storefront in today’s increasingly digital environment. About half of the customers will look at a company’s website before making a purchase, so make sure it is free of spelling and grammatical errors and has a professional, eye-catching, and engaging design.

All of your website’s pages must be optimized for SEO if you want it to be found, draw visitors, and generate leads. If not, search crawlers won’t have any chance to find, index, and rank your website. Hiring a professional SEO expert to find the important keywords that your website should rank for and carefully place them in your pages’ Meta Tags for search engines’ relevancy is a good idea to help you save money and time as SEO is now a highly technical online strategy that requires specific knowledge and skills.

14. Grow your traffic with forum marketing

When done correctly, forum marketing is regarded as a highly successful internet tactic. Forums typically have a dedicated, active audience and address specialized topics. Making a strong first impression can help you position your company as an authority in these industries, which will help you draw leads and turn them into clients.

In particular, search for forums that don’t contain a lot of spam and have at least 1,000 members, 10,000 posts, and a few fresh posts every day.

15. Monitor and analyze your KPIs

The last step is to evaluate the outcomes of your marketing effort, including tracking KPIs, to decide whether or not it was effective. Your KPIs will be based on the kind of campaign you ran and the particular objectives of your company. Think about it:

• Did we meet our KPIs?
• Did we succeed in our intended objective(s)?
• What was the ROI? Is this higher, lower, or the same as we expected?
• Where did we excel?
• What could we have done better?
• Overall, would we deem this campaign successful or unsuccessful? Why?

Conclusion

There are many ways to market your company online, but they all share one thing in common: digital marketing is a highly efficient approach to enlighten your target audience, boost interest in your goods or services, and produce leads and sales for your company.

When it comes to promoting your business through online campaigns, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The online promotion methods you choose should be specifically catered towards your business, including your goals, target audience persona, and budget, in order to meet your KPIs and provide an excellent ROI.

Online marketing may seem complicated, but happily, you’re not the only one. You’re well on your way to success with the support of a variety of marketing professionals, as well as our comprehensive and detailed guide on marketing your company online in 2020.