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Online Marketing Basics for 2018

Online marketing is a system of reaching out repeatedly to people wherever they are using the Internet and putting your brand in front of them. Note the word “repeatedly.” In any marketing strategy, the message must be delivered over and over to create familiarity in the minds of your target audience (your buyers). Compared with other forms of marketing, you can achieve the best ROI through Internet marketing because the technology gives you access to millions of potential customers that are online right now anywhere on the planet, searching for your products and services.

This information on this page is for entrepreneurs and business owners that are ready to grow their business, to become highly visible online and to become the ultimate resource in their industry. Do it right and you can become financially successful branding and selling online.

The Cornerstones to Building and Marketing a Business Online

 

Build Relationships

There are 2 types of customers – new customers and repeat customers. Both require nurturing. But why put a lot of effort in hunting down new customers when your current customers can do it for you?  By creating a valuable environment that supports the needs of your customers, you keep pulling them back. They will become your best salespeople by spreading the word about their satisfaction with you.

  • Treat them with absolute respect
  • Provide them with the best answers for their questions
  • Commit to giving them a high-quality experience
  • Know what matters to them and talk about it
  • Communicate with them through the channels they already use
  • Give them the solutions that work
  • Offer products and services worth the money they pay

Stay on Top of the Game

Search engine marketing moves at the speed of light. It consists of multiple interactive components that endure rapid changes inside an aggressive industry. You must be flexible, adaptable, quick to respond and highly creative.

Your customers are the lifeblood of your business so build your web marketing strategy around them. Above all, you must understand what they want.

  • Who are the people using your product?
  • What do they value?
  • What are their emotional triggers?
  • What inspires them?
  • What products are they currently using?
  • What will it take for them to become your paying customers?

Remember the goal is not so much driving massive volumes of traffic to your website as it is to convert visitors to customers. You must have the self-discipline to cater to the desires of your customers. They are looking for something to transform their current state to an improved state. Developing a system that makes this a priority puts you light years ahead of your competition.

Build an Online Marketing Framework

Do not randomly throw a campaign for marketing online out into the vast digital ocean and wait to see what comes back. Hoping has nothing to do with planning. Channel your marketing efforts into a clearly focused direction, otherwise you are wasting time and money. Effective ROI is based on a blueprint that can be repeated and expanded upon. Remember that things like click-through rates and social media shares are not impressive without sales dollars. The money in hand is what counts. When executed correctly, an Internet marketing system works.

Multiple digital marketing tactics are available for reaching your audience – search engine optimization, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click ads, content marketing, sales funnels and so on. In the end, your customers may not recall exactly how they learned about you if you are communicating with them through several channels. What matters is knowing what triggered their decision to buy and the process they went through to make the purchase. You must listen to their feedback and put yourself in their shoes, constantly. Design a system that is user friendly for your customers and you have given them a map they can navigate. Build your system on what works for your customers. That is where your online marketing will give you the best results in 2018 for profits and revenue.