Have you thought about web marketing and how important it is for a business? With 59.5% of the world population using the internet, you cannot miss out on the benefits of the online platform.
With the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic, web marketing is the only option for both small businesses and large organizations. In addition, 81% of shoppers search for products online before contacting the seller.
Small businesses are reluctant to adopt web marketing. The purpose of this guide is to clear your doubts and help you make better online decisions.
We’ll take you through web marketing, guide you through the various types and show you how to increase conversion from the online platforms.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
What Does It Mean By Web Marketing
Businesses and organizations are bidding off offline marketing. Web marketing is simply buying and selling on the internet.
There is a big difference between offline marketing and web marketing. With offline, it is time-consuming, slow, and expensive. On the other hand, web marketing is the complete opposite.
Depending on the type of web marketing, it reaches a broad audience, cheaper, and is more targeted. This type of marketing works for all businesses, including small businesses.
Types Of Web Marketing
If you’re searching for ways of increasing sales, then you need to adopt web marketing. The online platform is vast, and if you use it right, it can attract traffic to your website.
Businesses are unique, and therefore, you need to study your audience and find out what works for them. That is, where do they spend most of the time, and how do you engage with them.
Web marketing is about having an online presence and reaching out to potential clients looking for your products and services. Hence, you need to be aware of the various types of web marketing that exist. Let’s begin!
1. Social media marketing
According to research by Datareportal, 5.72 billion people are already using mobile devices, which is 67.1% of the population. Further, 4.33 billion, which is 55.1%, is active on social media.
It means that businesses and brands have the potential to attract, engage and convert customers using different types of social media. The social platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, TikTok, and YouTube.
Linked In is the best platform for B2B businesses, while Instagram works for a B2C type of business. Hence, before you begin marketing through social media, you need to know what works for you and your audience.
To help you gather this information, you need to analyze your audience. You can conduct a survey or use marketing analytics.
2. Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the best strategies to use to increase sales for an eCommerce store. For instance, if you notice that you have an increase in abandoned carts, the fastest way to recover the sales is by sending emails.
Email marketing does not only work for eCommerce stores. It works for most types of businesses. It is a faster way of converting leads using personalized emails.
An effective way to use email marketing is by promoting offers, discounts, new products, or services. For example, if you publish a new blog, you can email your subscribers to let them know about it.
However, with email marketing, you have to be careful about how you send your messages. Spamming the subscribers’ inbox will have most of them unsubscribing to your emails.
3. Content marketing
The most popular form of content marketing is blogging. That is, publishing long-form content on a business website. Before you get started with blogs, you need to have a strategy.
That is, how will you implement content marketing and why. With content, it has to meet the user’s intent. It should answer the reader’s questions and at the same time give value.
Therefore, before you implement content for web marketing, start by analyzing your audience. It will help you answer the reader’s questions and create content that will engage with the target audience.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Do you have a WordPress website? Is it optimized for search engines and visibility on search engines?
For SEO services, you need to work with marketing professionals like an agency or a marketer. SEO can be challenging as it may require technical skills.
Having a well-optimized website improves customer experience and reduces bounce rate. Besides, it increases ranking on search engines.
There are three types of website optimization, that is on-page, technical, and off-page SEO. Yoast is a free WordPress plugin that helps to achieve on-page SEO.
Another form of optimization is through social media. It includes optimizing posts, ads, and business profiles with keywords. SEO increases organic search traffic to a website.
5. Display Ads
As part of web marketing, Google display ads help to reach potential customers who are not actively looking for your products. You have to pay a third-party site to display your ad.
They help to create awareness and drive traffic. You can use various forms of visuals when advertising on the Google display network. With quality ads, you can convert clients who land your target pages.
6. Retargeting
Retargeting is marketing to an audience that has interacted with your brand but did not convert. For instance, a client clicked on your ad but left without taking more action.
Converting is not always about buying. It can be subscribing to a newsletter, blog, or downloading an app. Retargeting is one of the methods of increasing sales as you already have the leads. If you nail it, retargeting can have an increase in your return on investment (ROI).
7. PPC Marketing
Pay-per-click, or simply PPC, is a form of marketing where the marketer pays for each click on an ad. With this form of marketing, Google leverages your ad to potential people who are likely to convert.
PPC is not new to marketers. It is a targeted method of marketing and is not free. However, Google allows you to set your preferred budget.
8. Video Marketing
Video marketing makes it easy to attract and engage an audience online. Adding a video on your landing page can improve your conversion by 86%.
YouTube is the largest video marketing platform. It has a variety of videos ranging from entertainment to marketing. If you’re looking for a faster method of engaging your audience, consider using videos in your digital marketing strategy.
Benefits Of Web Marketing In 2021
To get the best out of web marketing, you may consider working with a digital marketing agency. They will guide you through the pros and cons of marketing online.
Before we look at the benefits, having a website legitimizes your business. Due to the changes brought about by the pandemic, a website makes it easy for customers to explore your business and make buying decisions.
The benefits of using web marketing are:
1. It is budget-friendly
Web marketing is not as expensive as offline marketing. For instance, the benefits of social media profiles are free. You can market your business organically on the platforms without paying for posting.
Also, you can use free tools like Google Analytics to manage your business. Whether you’re a small business or a large organization, web marketing can work in your favor without having to stretch your budget.
2. Creates Awareness
Web marketing makes it easy to create awareness about your business services and products. As most people are shopping online, advertising your business on the internet attracts new clients.
For example, let’s have a look at display advertising. As a marketer or business owner, you design an attractive, customized ad and display it on third-party websites.
Not all customers are always searching for the exact product at the time. However, if you manage to design an informative ad, it is able to attract clicks to your landing page.
Meaning that even if a client does not buy, it’s already fulfilled a goal of creating awareness. As a result, the clients may end up converting or having an idea that your business exists.
3. Increases Return On Investment (ROI)
When running campaigns or implementing other forms of paid media, you need to know how they are performing. So, having a plan on how to measure the results is crucial.
Now, this is where ROI comes in. The return on investment measures if your campaigns have positive or negative results.
For example, if you realize that your campaigns are not generating conversion or getting clicks, you can change your ad copy and allocate more resources.
You can also consider working on retargeting. Besides conversion, ROI can also be in terms of click-through rate and impressions.
4. Reach a broad audience
Remember from the definition, web marketing is a form of advertising through the internet. You cannot compare the audience reach it has with traditional marketing like banners and newsletters.
Web marketing helps you target people who are further your geographical area. That is, it’s not restricted to a specific geographical location. People who are miles away can search and buy from your shop.
For instance, as a web design firm, you can offer web development and SEO services to people not within your geographic region.
5. It allows you to explore growth opportunities.
Unlike traditional advertising methods, site web marketing allows you to explore various strategies to find out what works for you. It gives you an opportunity to grow your business.
To start with, it allows you to promote your business. Second, you can monitor your online activities and track conversions. For instance, you can track user activities and recover lost sales.
You can also advertise your business with a web marketing company to create awareness and attract potential customers.
6. Web marketing gives you brand identity.
One of the benefits of online marketing is to increase brand awareness. Unlike offline marketing, where it may be impossible to stand out from the competition, web marketing makes it easy for you.
First, collaborate with a web marketing manager to assist you with the design of your website. Next, customize it to have a logo, images, and content.
Online marketing improves your brand identity. How often do you come across a campaign, and you easily identify the brand? That is how web marketing makes it easy for you to customize your brand.
7. Web marketing gives you control.
As a marketer, you are the one in control of all marketing efforts. That is, you can choose to run a campaign, use videos, display ads, or use content marketing.
With the campaigns, you can stop an ad if it does not deliver the expected results. Also, you can set up a preferable budget, unlike using traditional marketing techniques. Such control makes it easy to manage your business and scale your marketing strategies.
8. Monitor results in real-time
With Google Analytics, it becomes easy to monitor the activities of the user. For instance, with Google ads, you can track and import conversions online. With the results, it becomes easy to realign your marketing goals. For instance, you can reduce your website bounce rate and discover how people interact with your pages.
How To Increase Sales Using Web Marketing
With the shift to online marketing, it has led to an increase in online marketing. Organizations and businesses are using the platform to create awareness, drive traffic, and convert leads.
Although the results are not always instant, web marketing is convenient and cost-effective. It increases SEO visibility and has the potential to boost sales.
So, if you’re not sure of how you can use the online platform to increase sales, we got your back. Consider implementing the actionable tips below:
1. Set up marketing goals
Before you get started with web marketing, you need to define your goals. Make sure that you are aware of what you intend to achieve with online marketing.
According to most marketers, you should make SMART goals. For example, you should have a timely goal like, increase conversion by 20% in 4 months.
Also, you need to set your KPIs, that is, key performance indicators. KPIs are unique to a business. Having goals and KPIs sets you up for business success. It also helps in being intentional with your marketing efforts.
2. Identify a marketing strategy that works for you.
Web marketing is a broad category of online marketing. You may consider asking for service from a digital marketing agency to scale up your marketing efforts.
For a start, consider using social media. Identify the platforms that work for your business type and start advertising. The advantage web marketing has over traditional marketing is that it provides you with multiple alternatives to use.
For instance, if social media does not deliver to your expectations, you may consider display advertising, web development, or PPC marketing. Also, you can consider using more than one strategy as they easily complement each other.
3. Identify who your target audience is.
The main success factor in web marketing is the audience. Do you know who your target audience is?
A target audience means that you understand your buyer’s pain points, and you have a solution for them. Targeting the wrong audience will hurt your business.
Google Analytics is one of the free tools to help you get more information about your audience. Once you have the information, proceed to create the buyer personas. This information helps you understand your buyers and find out their buying stage.
4. Improve user experience
For a website, it should be easy to navigate and use. For instance, if you have an eCommerce site, it should have an architecture that is simple for non-technical people to use.
If the users are able to identify products within your website faster, they are likely to convert to repeat customers. Ways in which you can improve user experience are through website speed and accessibility.
5. Create a mobile-friendly website
Most internet users use mobile devices to access online platforms. You may consider hiring a WordPress web developer to optimize your website for mobile use.
A mobile responsive website means that it adjusts to the various screen sizes. With Google’s mobile-friendly tool, you can check if your site is accessible from different devices.
6. Make use of paid advertising.
Paid advertising means that you pay to advertise on a platform. It can be on Google through PPC, Facebook ads Manager, or display advertising.
With paid advertising, it helps you reach out to more customers as compared to organic marketing. The clients may not be looking for a product, but a paid ad can increase the buying intent.
It works for users who are in all stages of the buyer’s journey. That is the awareness, consideration, and decision stage.
7. Retargeting
Although earlier mentioned, retargeting is a form of marketing that helps to increase sales in a business. It involves marketing to people who have previously interacted with your business, products, or website.
To identify such people, you need to use Google Analytics. It is a targeted way of marketing that drives conversion to a business.
For an eCommerce store, retargeting can help in recovering abandoned carts. If a user clicks on your landing page but does not take further action, it’s easy to recover lost sales.
8. Optimization
SEO increases ranking and visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Optimization involves on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
For a beginner in SEO, you may consider asking for professional services. One of the reasons why you should optimize a website is to allow Google to crawl and index your site. It also improves the user experience.
As a beginner in web marketing, do not be tempted to use the dark web markets. They can hurt your visibility and ranking on SERPs.
9. Publish content consistently
Let’s look at an eCommerce example. How often do you update the products on your website? The product information should be up-to-date. If you run out of products to sell, you need to update the information to ‘out of stock’ to avoid misleading the customer.
Also, if you are dealing with blogs, the content should be accurate and add value to the reader. Publishing content consistently keeps your audience engaged.
As part of content creation, make sure that you publish relevant content that is within your niche. As content gets outdated, it provides no value to the readers. Therefore, consistent content updates are necessary.
10. Online user engagement
How long do you take to interact with your audience? Do you respond to their questions, emails, or comments? Poor customer engagement is one of the reasons why businesses are losing potential clients.
Web marketing helps you create and nurture relationships with users. You can hire a social media marketer to manage the online platform for you or use marketing software. However, if you’ll be using a tool, avoid using auto-generated messages like chatbots.
11. Marketing through social media
One of the most popular forms of marketing that works for small businesses is social media. With social media tools, it is easy to schedule and publish posts to your business profiles.
First, social media is free to use. You only pay to sponsor ads to maximize reach and conversion. You can also get audience insight from the platforms. In addition, you may consider having live sessions to interact and market to your followers.
12. Have a marketing strategy
A marketing strategy helps you scale your marketing efforts and discover what works for you. It helps you to come up with a unique plan for your business.
Another method of increasing sales is by spying on a competitor. With digital marketing tools, you can keep track of your competitor to find out what works for them.
For instance, if you notice that they are using PPC campaigns, you can use content marketing or social media to attract leads.
Final Verdict,
There is so much opportunity for growth and conversion in web marketing. As a marketer, you need to keep up with the changing trends in online marketing to make the best of the platform.
Web marketing, allows you to grow and nurture your brand through personalized strategies like campaigns. It also increases your online presence through paid and organic traffic. Web marketing helps to improve conversion and ROI to your business.
