The Keys to Creating an Effective Online Marketing Strategy

Online marketing is referred to as the use of powerful medium and methods for promoting the products and services by making effective use of the internet. It has a wide scope and uses many channels as compared to traditional methods of marketing. The new age technique has proved beneficial to the business owners and they are leaving no stone unturned to exploit all the channels and mechanism to see growth.

There are high benefits of using online marketing medium:

• High Growth potential.
• Low cost.
• Effective communication.
• Quick response.
• Better customer service.
• Competitive edge.

There are many names given to online marketing like Web marketing, search engine marketing, Internet marketing and digital marketing.

The scope of online marketing depends on the business requirements. CRM and customer data are main pillars of effective marketing.

The idea of web marketing is to connect the business/products with potential customers and take the business development onto a higher level as compared to traditional ways of marketing or advertisements.

Internet marketing aims at combining the internet’s creativity and technology using tools which encircles advertising, sales, designs while keeping the main focus on initial business model.

There are lot of advantages to business which attracts them to web marketing:

• Cost efficiency : Web marketing open doors to millions at a fraction allowing business to make and spread ads at less than half the cost otherwise.
• Convenience and flexibility : Online marketing is such a hit among the customers as it provide convenience of shopping at leisure time from convenient locations.
• Options : The tools for advertising includes each click one pay, marketing through mail and search integration such as Google maps.
• Demographic approach: With various online tools available customers can be targeted demographically, it is not so convenient in offline marketing.

Due to these advantages online marketing has outsold traditional ways, and has embarked as a high growth industry. The limitation here is of the tangibility as the customers do not get to try out the things they are buying. But that does not seem to be a problem as all these web based portals are very generous in detailing and have very flexible return policies so that the buyer do not feel trapped.

Internet marketing can be for better understanding broken into more specialized areas namely web marketing, social media marketing and email marketing.

• Web Marketing : Web marketing is nothing but making use of the web (internet) to promote the products. It includes e-commerce web sites, promotional web pages, affiliate marketing and lot more. The main tool used here is search engine optimization which aims at bringing the product to the top of the search results so that the purchaser is attracted towards it first.
• Email Marketing: As the name suggest it is process of either advertising or promoting through the use of e-mail messages. This is done after a careful selection of emails which involves only prospective customers.
• Social Media marketing: Social media is widely used these days. The business promotion through these media is an effective method. It is used for both promotion and advertising. Networks such as facebook, twitter, YouTube are used here.

It sounds easy when you hear about online marketing, as the tools and the effects are so powerful. But the job is not that simple. Internet is changing drastically and thus there is constant need for the business to change or grow accordingly so that your business is at par with changes. There is dire need for specific strategies that will result in positive changes. These strategies will include:

1. Content marketing : The main reasons for success of business among customers is that they are able to create quality content with the use of various channels. This has created trust and enabled business to establish authority. Business by using various ways like newsletters, websites, media etc are building a positive reputation amongst the customers. Content marketing is designed for specific audience and targeted for valuable customers which allow better concentration and demographic control.
2. Social media marketing : Even when the business has thought that they have the biggies in their kitty there is something new on the charts. The online social marketing channels like Facebook , YouTube are quite popular and all the business are targeted towards them, but that looks like past now and new media sites like Instagram, Google+ and pin Interest have shown a great increase in the followers. The business needs to keep updated with all these changes in order to get more customers under its umbrella. There are plethoras of options for business to create content and more medium.
3. Image based content is the future: If one look at the examples of growing popularity of instagram and pin interest there is no need to stress on the effect of image any further. The feeds of blogs that gets the maximum number of shares have common characteristics. That is the use of images or info graphics which shows maximum information with minimum content. There is no reason to believe that text based marketing will be completely wiped out, but at the same time there is no denying the fact that image based content is viral right now.
4. Simplistic approach : This goes along with the above said points, which emphasis on simple approach. If one takes examples of popular and hi-end brands like Apple or Google they portray a simple value. The need is for clean, uncluttered messages. The new age idea is not to over play, it’s time to tone down and not scream for attention. A subtle approach seems to be working with the audience and this change in the mind set should be tapped to the maximum benefit.

Online marketing is based on the customer’s interests. The need is to keep an eye on the trend and act accordingly and timely. The plan is easy keep it simple and effective and go with the flow as change is the only constant.