3. Cast your line with online marketing.
In the previous episode dedicated to the operation of online services, we went through how to provide paid content on the Internet, and Michal "Radar" Vrátný, a gym instructor and founder of the Iron Ball hardstyle gym, showed what benefits moving services to the Internet can bring. In this part, we'll talk about how to use the magic of online marketing in your online business.
There are a lot of interesting fish (i.e. customers) swimming in the internet waters. It's just a matter of catching them in the best possible way. Online marketing can help you do that. This area of marketing has many advantages for entrepreneurs. The main ones are accessibility, precise targeting and good measurability - you can monitor the results of all your online marketing activities in real time and continuously optimise them. Another distinct advantage can be the low initial cost - you can start advertising with a very negligible amount, but the more you invest, the faster you will reach your goals and find out what form and setup of sponsored content works or doesn't work for you. Harness the power of remarketing - a great tool that allows you to gradually serve each member of your target audience content in different ways, tailored to where they are in the buying cycle. You can use it to reach potential customers based on how they've interacted with your business - whether they've viewed your video or visited your website during a specific time period. Online marketing takes many different forms, some of which don't have to cost you money, you just have to make the time to do them. This is also why this form of marketing is ideally suited to budding entrepreneurs. What online marketing tools can you use?
-
Search advertising - This is advertising that appears above search results on Google, Seznam or Bing/Yahoo. It leads users to your website who are searching for keywords related to your offer. For most businesses, this is the channel with the best results.
-
SEO (search engine optimization). Optimizing the form of a web page, but also mentions on other sites or social networks, so that the search engine algorithm considers it relevant enough to show up as high as possible in non-paid search results. You can find out how solidpixels helps with effective optimization in this article.
-
Display (or banner) advertising. Probably the most visible form of paid online advertising, most often through services such as Google Ads, Sklik, RTB systems or through direct buying from media houses. It is displayed to users on the websites they visit.
-
Email marketing. One of the most effective forms of online marketing. It takes place through email communication with customers. Quality content, well set frequency and personalisation play a vital role here. But so does the growth of an email list. Read more about connecting your website to newsletter systems here.
-
Social media marketing. This includes content creation, strategy, follow-up promotion and communication with users on networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter etc.
-
Content. Content marketing is a very important part of online marketing. Generating quality content for your own blog or social networks is essential for well-functioning campaigns and an increase in website traffic.
Online marketer and owner of the digital agency Moonshot Libor Jarolim tells you what basic steps every entrepreneur who wants to start with online marketing should take:
- Find out who your customers are. If you're running a business, you should already have a rough idea of who your customers are, what problems they solve, what they're looking for and where on the internet you can potentially find them. If you're just starting out, define who you want your future customers to be and group them into specific groups based on basic criteria. You can sort them socio-demographically or by what they are interested in, what they search for online or what they like. The more specifically you define your target group, the better.
- Think about where you want to bring them. Campaigns don't just have to lead to the web, you can bring customers to your social media page, do a whole deal with them in a messenger chat or lead them to a phone call with you through call only ads, for example. However, having target conversion actions on the web is preferable, especially if you are selling a more expensive or complex product, because you have much more space to present it well.
- Figure out how you can let them know about you. How will customers know that you're the one who can solve their problems? You should be there when they are just starting to solve them. If you know of a target audience that will be solving the problem sometime in the future, it's not a bad idea to start with banner ads or sponsored content on social media, this way you build awareness of your existence and users are more likely to click on your ad in the future. Otherwise, it is beneficial to start from keyword analysis and search campaigns. This way, you'll learn if anyone is searching for the solution you offer, under what keywords, and how often.
- Think about conversions. (This is usually the business goal of the site, where the visitor becomes our customer or comes close to it.) Do your customers want to make a traditional e-commerce purchase? Is an enquiry form more suitable for the type of service or product you offer? Or do you want them to call you instead? Depending on the subject of your business and your customers' preferences, determine the appropriate type and form of conversion actions.
- Start with campaigns. Based on all the variables identified so far, choose the appropriate form of your online campaigns and launch them. Even if the campaign is already running, the work doesn't stop there. It needs to be constantly monitored, continuously evaluated according to the set goals and adjust its settings or content to the results so far.
Do you have a project planned that you don't dare to do yourself? Then get in touch, we'd love to help you turn your entrepreneurial dreams into a digital reality.