Online Marketing Begins with a Website
Your website is your online identity and the foundation to online marketing. This real estate on the web can be a global storefront or office that represents you, your company and brand. Your design and structure should be focused on sales funnels, lead capturing and optimization for search engine marketing. Create your website to rank higher in search engines than your competitors by combining creative keyword marketing with pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Review your competition, analyze your products and services and do it better than the rest. SEO involves structural and technical components of the website. The architecture of your website and the written content are part of your SEO score. Integrating relevant keywords into written content on your website will help you rank higher in searches. If Google thinks your content is relevant and important, you will be at the top of search results. You should create a blog on your website for SEO, sharing on social media and for use in email marketing campaigns.
Google Business Listing and Yelp
Google and Yelp are search engines that create a directory of content. Your goal is to be found wherever a potential consumer is searching for services and products like yours. A Google business page is an opportunity to list your business and location on Google Maps and local search results. You can add a list of services and a link to your website. You can also post links to articles and events. Even if you do not have a physical location, you should have a Google business page. Search queries are geographically specific and algorithms consider user location and intent. Yelp is a directory that can be searched through the Yelp website or with apps on smart devices. Listings are filtered by geographical location, price and search terms. Yelp and Google have a strong social aspect that encourages reviews, images and ratings. You can purchase ads on Yelp and Google. Even if you do not purchase ads, you should create a free listing to help users discover your business.
Social Media
Social media engages a crowd of more than a billion active users every month. Social media has the power to form meaningful relationships, share information with billions of users, increase brand awareness and enthusiasm, gain supporters, and generate feedback in the form of reviews. Building a social media presence is intrinsic to growth and online marketing. Create regular posts with a gallery of images, videos, creative content, products and written text. Users engage with carousels of visual content and develop a relationship with your brand. Blogs can be shared on social media to drive traffic back to your website where site visitors can become a lead. Use relevant hashtags and build an audience. Relevant ads can drive traffic back to specific landing pages on your website. Beyond clicks to your website, lead forms on an ad can capture a lead without ever taking the user away from the platform. Posts can also be boosted directly from the post to share content with followers and extend your audience beyond the following. Ads can be optimized for engagement or brand awareness, depending on your social media marketing goals.
Online Marketing with Google
Almost everyone is using Google. It is estimated that about 5.6 billion searches per day are performed with Google. Creating search campaigns can place your content on the front page of search results. Search ads appear when your potential customers are typing in search terms to find content like yours. Display ads appear on multiple sites all over the internet where your potential customers are visiting. Google claims the Display Network reaches over 90% of global internet users on over 2 million sites. Very few will ever look beyond the first page of results; therefore, first page placement is the goal of every online marketing strategy. Create effective Google search and display campaigns for first page placement.