The online marketing world is as vast as the print world. So many options. So many types of online marketing! With this in mind, your job as a business owner is working out which type of online marketing option best suits you and your business. This is where we come in! We love creating custom marketing plans for our clients. And watching the online campaigns succeed.
Here are seven types of online marketing options available to you and your business.
Social Media Marketing Platforms
Social Media marketing is one of the most popular options in today’s online marketing world. Todays’ consumers are highly reliant on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. This is why it is essential that brands are active across these accounts.
Businesses use social media platforms to engage with customers, build relationships, and then send them to their products and services on their website.
There is also a pay per click advertising option on social platforms. With Facebook having the most successful targeting options. See below in the PPC section for more information.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is done via social media channels. Once you engage with customers and build relationships, you can find influencers in your industry/ target market. Influencers have medium to large following base and promote your product on their platforms. Usually this is done with either free products or paying the influencer a fee per post or mention. Depending on your budget and industry you may be able to find an influencer that is willing to trade product for post AND is worth worthwhile. The majority of influencers these days are paid as it is their main source of income. So you may find it tricky to get a product-per-post influencer as they can’t pay the bills with products! Finding micro influencers in your industry or target market may allow you more scope to negotiate a long term relationship or try via product.
Email Marketing
Building your subscription list is super important in building your client base. If you think about your client base most people are proud of their social media accounts and the number of followers. Now think about a situation where all social media accounts stop working. (Unthinkable I know!) Maybe it is one of those nasty hacks where they take control of your social media accounts? Now how will you reach your current customers? Whilst this is not necessarily something that is likely to happen, it is a reminder why it is important to build a subscription list. Do you want all of your clientele to be in control of someone else? Or would you rather have control of the list yourself?
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process by which a person (aka affiliate) earns a commission for marketing another person or company’s products. The affiliate promotes a product they love and then earns a piece of the profit from each sale made from their traffic. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another. Additionally they are tracked by an affiliate code which customers use at the time of purchase. These codes sometimes provide discounts for the customers, depending on the code setup. For example, the affiliate may post on their social media platform stating ‘use this code to receive 15% off your next purchase’. This code links to the affiliate and they receive payment for driving the sale.
The affiliate contribution may be measured via different methods. It doesn’t always require a sale. Other options include pay per click and pay per lead.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, focuses on improving organic visibility in search engine results. There are two types of SEO; On page SEO and Off page SEO. On page search engine optimisation refers to work completed on the website – ie ON PAGE. Similarly, Off page SEO is work completed OFF the page that boosts your rankings organically. An organic result in a search engine are the websites that do not have the word ‘AD’. Therefore, they are the non-paid search engine rankings.
SEO is about understanding what your customers are searching for online, the words they are using and aligning your content to these searches to give people solutions to products and services you offer.
Search engine Optimisation is one of the only online marketing channels that can continue to work for you over time. If you provide great content that deserves to rank for the right keywords, your website traffic can snowball over time. Whereas Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising needs continuous funding to send traffic to your site.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
SEM is a popular online marketing option.
Search engine marketing is a term that refers to any tactic used to increase a company’s visibility in search engine results or get a brand to appear more frequently in search. It may include a PPC campaign, an organic SEO strategy, or both.
The main difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO focuses solely on ranking a website organically. On the other hand, SEM combines SEO work with paid advertising (PPC). Some people believe SEM uses only paid advertising (PPC) to achieve online marketing goals. Either way, they work hand in hand. The aim for both is to be found in search engine results and to drive traffic to your website where you can convert a visitor into a sale.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
Pay per click marketing is exactly what the name suggests. You pay for each time someone clicks on an ad that you create. For example you create an advertisement on Google AdWords and select where it is shown, when, to who and how much you are willing to pay per click. As well as this, you can select a spend limit on each campaign.
The difference between SEM and PPC is that you are not limited to Google and their competitors. Another option of PPC is on social media platforms. They offer PPC campaigns that can work amazingly depending on your product and target audience. Social media platform Facebook allows you to target your audience to scarily specific levels. For example, you can select 24-35 year old females on the Central Coast that own small businesses. Creepy, for the average user, but also an impressive tool for business owners looking to target their audience.
Hootesuite Statistics
Australian Business News Statistics
Bloomtools Statistics
Summary
And there you have it. Seven great types of online marketing options for your business. Whether you are a small business, local business or nation wide business there is an online marketing option for you.
Want to know how we can help you get started? Contact us to discuss your options and the types of online marketing that will suit your business the most.
