“I’m drowning, I’m drowning.”

Just a decade ago, I can still remember myself owning a Friendster account with lousy usernames such as BrokenHeartedPrincess_143. Today, Friendster barely exists anymore. That’s basically how online marketing works. If you refuse to learn how to swim, you’ll definitely drown.

What is Online Marketing?

Online marketing is a combination of art, science and strategy. There are a lot of elements attached to online marketing. Unlike traditional tactics, online marketing deals with a web-based audience. Some of the main goals include: (1) awareness, (2) communication, (3) connection, (4) service and (5) sales.

Awareness

Every meeting starts with introducing yourself. Unless you’re an established brand such as Coca-Cola, Google and Facebook, you need to get your name out there. You may have invented the cure for cancer, but if no one knows, does it necessarily make a difference?

Communication

There are a lot of ways you can communicate with potential clients, either by educating them, or sharing valuable information, you’re letting the people know who you are as a business and what you want to achieve. Why would people want to work with you? Why are you the best?

Connection

Connection is all about building authority. Now that you met your audience, you have to build your reputation. What are the ways that you could get in touch with them? How do you increase the chances of them visiting your site again?

Service

Probably the most overlooked, but essentially crucial part of marketing is service. While not necessarily the fun part, service includes being responsible, answering questions, helping the customer with basic instructions, giving a refund when needed.

Sales

Of course you didn’t do all of this for nothing, right? While your humanitarian acts may be heartwarming, everyone needs to thrive. To complete the puzzle piece, we all aim in an increase of sales.

Online Marketing Strategies

As the web evolved, so did our marketers. There are a thousand strategies out there that will get your site more traffic and more clients. Here’s a list of the most commonly used techniques.

Online Advertising

In the real world, they’re called billboards, posters and other forms of hard printed material. But in the virtual community, they come in the form of banners, pop ups, audio ads, videos and several others.

Search Engine Marketing

This broadly involves researching, paid ads, as well as the careful study of your website’s position in search engines. It mostly deals with how your website can get more traffic through the use of search engine websites such as Yahoo, Google and Bing!

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a part of SMM. It deals with structuring your website to become more readily understandable by search engine algorithms. SEO alone requires strategy building, SEO tools and elements.

Email Marketing

Email is one the most fundamental ways of communicating through the web, and still is one of the most used tools in list building. There are a lot of ways to boost your content through email. Mailchimp, Infusionsoft and Aweber are among the best email marketing tools in the web.

Social Media

The playing field just got switched as smaller businesses are learning to use social media to compete with big companies. With Facebook advertising costing from 0 to just $100, people have found a way to make a voice online without spending too much. Other popular social media channels include Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Google Plus.

Content Marketing

Blogging, Article Writing, Video Compilations. Call them whatever you want, but in the web, it’s generally described as content. It’s what keeps search engines alive. Without information, the web would simply be just a collection of websites who I doubt anyone could visit without the help of Google.

Web Analytics

Figures are what keeps us on track. Web analytics to be specific help us predict the movement or activities of our target audience. It helps us measure our progress and the return in our investments. Remember that SEO and most elements are intangible assets, and are therefore quantifiable only if we get results.

Online Public Relations

To succeed, you must learn to network with other virtual entrepreneurs. PR marketing is one way of connecting with other business owners and helping each other out to get more traffic. Being in the computer all the time can get a little lonely, so interact with others and share your experiences!

Mobile Marketing

Do you know why Google changed their logo’s font? To become more responsive to mobile users of course. After breaking search record history last 2014, with the number of mobile searches exceeding more than half of traditional search, lots mobile apps have emerged in the market.

There is no success formula to online marketing. It will entail a lot of risk, research and serious analytical data. The trick is to not to overwhelm yourself with all these elements. In this case, if you don’t know all these things, then delegate. It’s about choosing what works best for you instead of getting washed away in a sea of information.

If you don’t know how to swim, buy yourself a boat ticket!  Schedule a free consultation and get started on building a solid online marketing foundation for your company!