Online marketing is essential in any business strategy to stand out on the internet, attract customers, increase sales, and create a community around the brand. It is not enough to be on the internet to attract customers online and increase sales; you must be visible to our potential customers, says noted Business Astrologer cum Astro Strategist Hirav Shah.
Shah says, “Companies that do not have an active presence on the internet lose the opportunity to:
- Position yourself in the current market.
- Facing the competition.
- Be closer to your customers.
In addition, the fact of not having an active and professional presence generates distrust in the consumer.”
Table of Contents
What is online marketing, and what is it for?
Hirav Shah explains, “Online marketing is the adaptation of traditional marketing (radio, press, TV …), news channels, and digital media.
They are a set of techniques, strategies, and actions that are carried out on the internet to position a business or brand and increase conversions.”
What are the main channels or media in Online Marketing?
Shah says, “Online marketing can be applied to the different media and channels existing on the internet; the main online communication media are:
- Corporate websites, online stores, and blogs.
- External websites, blogs, and news portals.
- Social media.
- Video platforms (YouTube).
- Sales platforms (Amazon).
- The podcast and digital radio platforms.
- Social, content, or news aggregators.
- Search engines.
- Apps and application markets.
- Directories.
- Emails (email marketing).
- Chats
- Discussion forums.
Main techniques, tools, and strategies in online marketing
Actually, online marketing uses a combination of techniques and strategies applied to different online channels and media. The goal is for companies to reach their target audience to attract customers and increase sales.
Some of the main techniques and strategies are CRO (conversion rate optimization), SEO positioning, SEM or online advertising, content marketing, and inbound marketing, Social Media Marketing, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, digital analytics, email marketing, Big Data Marketing, and marketing automation.
These online marketing techniques and strategies are complemented by other specialties such as web design and development or graphic design.”
Why is online marketing necessary?
Online marketing helps companies of any size to grow, position, and spread their brand through the internet. A large part of our clients use the internet on a daily basis, so we cannot miss the opportunity to reach them.
According to Hirav Shah, here are the advantages of online marketing for your company:
It is global
Online marketing allows you to:
- Have a presence anywhere in the world,
- Position your brand,
- Sell your products or services without being limited to a local location.
Facilitates internationalization and expansion at the national level
By requiring a much lower investment than would be necessary to create new offices or local points of sale, it is accessible to companies of any size. You can sell anywhere in a country or reach new markets internationally.
It is cheaper
It requires much less investment than traditional marketing. Campaigns in traditional media such as TV, press, or radio have higher costs. This is a handicap for many SMEs and professionals who do not have large budgets.
The ideal would be to combine both types of marketing (offline and online) with seeing the ROI that each action reports and thus optimize the budget.
But not all companies or professionals can afford it.
Another advantage of online marketing is that you can get a good return on investment with a smaller budget, focusing on the channels and strategies that bring the most benefits.
There are many tools, media, and online channels (both free and paid), which allow us to adjust the budget to each company’s capacity. Online marketing is cheaper, but it is not free. If we want to see results, we must invest time and money.
It can be measured
There are multiple tools that allow us to measure the impact and results obtained with our online marketing campaigns.
The possibilities to measure and manage any campaign are immense and for all budgets. In this way, we can know the ROI (return on investment), consult the data at any time during the campaign and adjust or stop it if it does not have the expected results.
It is adaptable and flexible
The information we obtain allows us to modify and reorient the strategy as many times as necessary in real-time. An active campaign can be modified to improve and optimize it even if it has not finished. Likewise, if the results are not good, we can stop the campaign without spending the total budget.
Allows you to test any online marketing campaign
With A / B or trial/error tests, we have the opportunity to carry out several versions of a campaign to:
Compare the results.
Know which images, texts, colors, or calls to action work best.
Which versions have better ROI (return on investment)?
In this way, we will make them more effective, increase conversions, and optimize the available budget.
Obtain valuable information to get to know our clients
Thanks to analysis, active listening, and online research, you can better understand your competition and your customers. With all this information, it will be easier for you to define your ideal client, know how to attract him, make him fall in love, turn him into a client and retain him.
Information is power, and the internet provides us with multiple sources from the company’s owner to external ones that help us improve our products or services, creating unique value propositions.
You can segment the campaigns to reach your target audience
With a good definition of our Customer Person (ideal customer), campaigns are oriented to the population segments that interest us the most.
For example, we can segment campaigns by:
Sex, age, location, language, cultural level, studies, economic level, consumption habits, hobbies, preferences, marital status, and employment status. Or establish strategies adapted to each phase of the sales funnel, behavior, or relationship with the customer.
It helps to position the brand
Digital marketing helps you boost and position your brand in the mind of the consumer. With a good branding and online marketing job, we get our brand to be recognized, stand out from the competition, and customers remember us when purchasing a product or service.
Create a community
If we create an audience around our brand, we will achieve:
- A large amount of information will help us know our audience, interests, and relationship with the brand.
- We will create ties with our community to generate a relationship of trust.
- We will increase the perceived value of our brand, products, and/or services.
- We will win prescribers who will help us spread the brand, share our publications, or recommend us to their contacts and followers. In this way, we will increase the reach and visibility of our company.
- The support of our fans will help us deal with a reputational crisis.
Hirav Shah wraps it up by saying, “Some companies provide people with internet marketing services so that they can grow better and faster. Your business will experience the multiple benefits of digital marketing by investing in different strategies, from PPC to SEO. Online marketing is a spectacular opportunity for your business to progress and gain more valuable sales and traffic. Investing in digital marketing services can help your business earn more leads, conversions, and revenue.“
