A business is started by an entrepreneur or a team of businesspersons to make profits. To make profits the business has to perform well. The one function that can help do this is marketing. All the activities done by a company to ensure its products sell is marketing. It is the process of acquiring customers for the business who can contribute revenue.
There is no doubt that marketing plays a very important role in helping the business grow. Marketing helps to create customers and build a relationship with them so that they would be loyal to the company and provide business by buying the company’s products and using their services. Eventually, you can sell your business using a site like Business Sales Australia if you live there.
Marketing Today
Conventional marketing focuses more on marketing campaigns involving advertising and sales promotion done through channels like newspapers, TV, radio, hoardings, posters, mass mailers, etc. Personal selling was the main way of winning over customers, where salesmen would go and meet customers to get the order from them. The growth of the internet and use of technology have changed the way marketing is done.
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Digital marketing is becoming more popular. Studies have shown that in the US, almost 90% of people use the internet. This has opened up a new channel of marketing, which is digital marketing. Companies that used to spend big money on conventional marketing can now spend a fraction of that amount to market their products online.
Online marketing or digital marketing is the way forward. There are a large number of avenues for acquiring customers through online efforts. Conventional marketing is essentially intrusive as it focuses on personal contact with customers. Most customers are concerned about their privacy and are not receptive to intrusive selling efforts. Online marketing is non-intrusive and yet allows contacting customers and generating business from them.
Let us look at some of the popular methods used in digital marketing today. SEO, Social media, PPC, Email, and SMS marketing are popular digital marketing techniques used today. These digital marketing techniques can help companies increase their business growth.
Role of SEO in marketing
SEO is Search Engine Marketing. In the digital age, Google and other search engines play a major role in providing information to people. When someone needs to find out information about a concept, product, or service, the first thing they would do is search for it online. When you search for something on Google, it shows web pages that match what you are searching for. The millions of websites are organized page-wise for the users to see.
If a potential customer searches for the product you are selling, then you need to ensure your website is e displayed in the top search results. This would ensure that more people visit your website and you can thus promote your company and products.
To do this, digital marketers make use of a technique called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO comprises of techniques to optimize a website so that Google and other search engines give it a higher ranking. When your website is found easily in a Google search, it helps you get more people to visit your website who can become customers and help you get revenue.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing
Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are popular and are used by millions of people. This presents a great opportunity for marketers to reach out to millions of potential customers. Young, old, middle-aged, students, housewives, executives – everyone is on social media and just having a presence on social media can help connect with them.
By carrying out focused marketing activities on social media sites, a business can reach out to consumers at just a small fraction of the cost involved in conventional marketing. Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways of marketing. You can post videos, images, and other material on social media. Others would share it if they like and it can go viral and spread very fast. This can help you to reach out and engage with many customers easily.
Using PPC for Online Marketing
PPC is Pay-per-click. It’s an advertising strategy perfected by Google, where you can display your advertisements on not just Google’s search page, but also on many other pages. You would have to pay for the advertisements only if someone clicks on them, When someone clicks on your advertisement, it would take them to the corresponding page on your website. If the person visiting the website likes your offering, he can become a customer. Spending an amount as small as $1 or $2 can potentially get you sales in hundreds of dollars.
Email Marketing
Conventional mailers have now been replaced by e-mail marketing. You can send e-mails to all your customers and potential customers to promote your products. These e-mails can be sent all at once using software for this purpose.
E-mail marketing allows you to send photos and videos along with a link to your website. This can motivate the user to click on the link and visit your website. Every visitor to your website would be a potential customer. E-mail marketing allows you to reach out quickly and easily to your target audience.
Effective Text Message Marketing
Mobile phones have become very common today. Almost everyone uses a mobile phone. Even if they do not use smartphones, they would have a basic phone that has a facility to send text messages. Marketers can use text messaging to reach out to customers.
Just like e-mail marketing, you can use SMS to reach out to customers through their mobile phones. Unlike e-mails, there is a restriction that you can only send 140 characters of text. So, you can use text message marketing to send details of offers and deals to attract customers. It is a great way to carry out sales promotion on digital media.
Digital marketing is a highly effective way of acquiring customers and generating business. When done in the right way, it can help you in the growth of your business.
