Online Marketing

At its core, Online Marketing is a mix of tools, methodologies and platforms for promoting your company and product on the internet. It is a highly trackable and customizable type of promotion that can take many forms; including social media and SEO campaigns. Online marketing can have a variety of purposes too, from increasing brand awareness, to engaging with customers, to direct sales, but the ultimate goal is always to promote your company and drive sales.

Online Marketing has changed the entire landscape of the advertising industry. What once was primarily a local undertaking has evolved into a global venture. We live in a time where one simple Tweet or YouTube video has the power to drive more sales than a thousand TV commercials. That's the power of online marketing; to do more with less and to reach previously unreachable audiences. Online Marketing also has the benefit of being a constantly evolving medium. With so much unexplored territory, the potential of finding new and unique ways to connect with consumers is astronomical.

To make the most of your online real estate you need to evaluate where you currently are. Does this sound like your company?

• You don’t have information on traffic or demographics to your website
• You have no means of measuring / tracking SEO (backlinks, rankings, search traffic, social media activity, etc.)
• You currently have no means of tracking /measuring your marketing ROI
• You have a minimal online presence
• Your current sales / marketing strategy is dated and does not take advantage of modern sales techniques and technologies
• The way you find and interact with prospective clients is inefficient
• You don’t have an efficient way to automate lead generation

To keep abreast of all the changes in online consumer tastes you need to constantly adjust your online marketing. We can help you build a robust strategy that will take you where you need to be…and keep you there. Contact Us , and be where your customers are.

The role of a digital marketing agency is to use online marketing to get your product in front of the right people. They create campaigns that validate your brand and increase company credibility. This produces inbound leads that you can then turn into sales. The way that they achieve this online marketing is to create a website that is aimed at the right marketing persona, leverage the power of social media platforms, search engine optimizing all text, creating a transparent company ethos, increasing brand credibility with advertising, and providing business information to allow for verification and validation, both for consumers and those within the company. A digital marketing agency can make you an industry force to be reckoned with.

A digital marketing agency utilizes online media to promote your company and its products and services. This generally takes the form of a website, social media, video or photography. Other times, a more direct approach is required in the form of email campaigns and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. The goal of a good digital marketing agency is help you find the best medium to showcase your business. A company that has invested well in online marketing appears credible and engaging.

Online Marketing is a rapidly evolving entity. There is a constant influx of new communities, new technologies and new platforms to promote your product. Some of the most common types of digital advertising campaigns include:

• Google AdSense
• Google AdWords
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• YouTube

Calls To Action are critical in Web design and marketing! No matter how great your design or content, if you don’t ask the user to become engaged with your site they will not turn into a lead or sale. By placing prominent calls to action at critical junctures you start the conversation that allows you to guide them through to a sale. Calls to action are invitations, or buttons, that draw a potential consumer in to know more. They are usually phrases like, ‘Learn More’, ‘Download Here, ‘Subscribe’ or simply ‘Call Now’, with a link to take them further down your sales funnel. The aim of a call to action can vary: whether it is collecting email addresses, bringing in sales leads, or educating consumers, each call to action has a strategy behind it. The ultimate goal of a call to action is to guide the consumer along the sales path and down the sales funnel.

Websites are designed to be informative but may benefit from being intentionally ambiguous. The information available on a website appeals to a wide audience and gives background information about your company. This information is vital in building a relationship of trust with your consumer. However, what happens when you have a specific promotion or event that you need to advertise? In situations like these, a landing page is just what you need. It is a specific web page that your demographic is driven to by other marketing efforts. It may be through a QR Code or a social media link, but your demographic will arrive at a page created specifically for the campaign. Landing pages should optimized for their intended audiences and have their own calls to action. This establishes more metrics with which to judge the effectiveness of the campaign.

Deciding on a budget for your online marketing campaign can be challenging. If this is your first foray into digital marketing, you may want to consider accepting the guidance of a professional marketing firm. An experienced digital advertising agency has the expertise to make your money really work for you. They can create trial campaigns that allow you to ‘test the water’ and see what works best with your company. Online marketing is flexible and offers budget-friendly options for whatever avenue you choose to pursue. If you have an established online marketing plan, then simply looking at year-on-year growth will give you a rough budget for your campaigns. The scope of the campaign, and the growth opportunities resulting from it, can also affect your budget.

To get the most out of your online marketing efforts, it is important you understand what you want to say and how you want to say it. There is no ‘one size fits all’ campaign that will bring everyone the results they need. Every company is different and every marketing campaign is different. There are many ways to achieve a goal, and finding one that leverages your strengths as a company is key.

Every online campaign is different. Each campaign is tailored to your goals, needs, and budget so it's hard to quantify how long it will take to show results. It also depends on the type of campaign you choose, as some will have a more immediate impact than others. For example, campaigns designed to bring in leads or drive traffic to your website will have a direct effect on your bottom line. Campaigns that focus more on intangible or complex assets, such as brand awareness, may be harder to track. For instance, SEO plays a critical role in a brand awareness campaign, but its effects are a product of consistent effort over time. The benefits of long term investments into your brand can be difficult to measure, but they do exist and they do matter.

The easiest way to measure the success of a digital marketing campaign is to look at your sales. If your leads and sales are increasing, then it’s a good sign that your digital marketing is working. But this is a simplistic way of looking at it: with advances in Web metrics and analysis it is possible to see how each component of your website is performing. Metrics such as: click through rate, search engine rankings and follower count can help you determine the success of your campaign as well. It is important to note that, while these metrics are useful, they only give you a part of the story. To truly quantify the success of your campaigns you need to compare year-on-year growth as you would any other business metric.