For the last couple of years, we've seen a steady rise in digital ad spending for all businesses.
This trend isn't showing any signs of slowing down, either. In fact, experts estimate that funds dedicated to web marketing will make up 60.5 percent of total ad spending by the year 2023.
Are you looking to dedicate more time and resources to promote your business online?
If so, you need to make sure you're using the right web marketing strategies. Read on to learn about some of the most effective ones you can utilize today to start building your customer base.
When it comes to online marketing, one of the most important things to focus on is the design of your website. If your website is outdated or doesn't function well, people aren't going to want to stick around, and they're not going to want to tell their friends and family about your business.
Make sure your website loads quickly and has an intuitive, easy-to-follow layout. This will help to decrease your bounce rate and keep people around for longer periods of time after they find their way to your site.
Taking these steps improves your search engine rankings, too, when people spend more time on your website. This, in turn, makes it easy to attract people through organic search methods.
In addition to making your website look nicer on desktop devices, make sure that design also translates to mobile searches.
Over half of all organic online searches took place via phones this year. If people can access your website with ease from their smartphone and find what they need, they'll be more inclined to become customers and share your online content or products with others.
This helps you expand your reach, get your website and business in front of new people, and bring new potential customers into the fold.
As far as web marketing is concerned, one of the most important things to nail is search engine optimization (or SEO for short).
These days, most business owners are familiar with the concept of SEO. They're not so great at the practical application, though.
The better optimized your website is, the easier it is for people to find it online. The higher it ranks in search engine results, the more authority your business will be seen as having, too.
When you can establish authority and credibility, people are going to be more inclined to trust you and purchase what you're selling, while also encouraging their friends and family to do the same.
Affiliate marketing can be an effective tool for building your audience and spreading the word about your business. It doesn't work for every business model, of course, but it's definitely worth considering.
With an affiliate marketing program, you will pay certain individuals (social media influencers, bloggers, YouTubers, etc.) a small commission when people shop on your website using a link that you provide them.
When you work with affiliates, you gain easy access to their audience, people who already trust the opinions and recommendations of these influencers and bloggers. This helps you gain more credibility, boost your sales, and showcase your products or services to people who might normally never had heard of them.
It's great if you already have an email list and are sending out marketing emails on a regular basis. However, if you don't feel like you're seeing the kind of results you'd hoped for from your emails, it may be time to change the way you utilize them.
For example, it might benefit you to have several different email lists. These lists can provide people with different resources, from information content to discounts and information about upcoming promotions.
The more lists you have, the easier it is to vary your email content and reach a wider audience. The key is to simplify the opt-in and opt-out process for recipients. That way, they can choose what kinds of emails they want to receive and won't feel so bogged down that they end up sending everything to their spam folder.
When it comes to your online content, focus on quality more than quantity. Yes, consistency matters, but it shouldn't come at the expense of your content quality.
Whether you're creating social media posts, blog posts, videos, or any other type of content, make sure that content has a purpose, aligns with your brand's message and mission, and ends with a clear call-to-action.
Consumers can tell when you've put effort into your content and when you're phoning it in, and they'll respond accordingly. If you want people to consume your content, share it, and follow-through with your call-to-action, you need to make sure you're delivering when it comes to quality.
If you want more people to find your content and be exposed to your brand, especially on social media, it's important for you to encourage your followers to engage with your posts. Invite them to leave comments or share the post with their friends, for example.
Make sure you're also reciprocating and engaging with them. Respond to their comments, shout them out when they share your content or tag your business in a post. Little things like this help people to feel more connected to your company, which increases the likelihood that they'll eventually become a customer.
Google ads are an effective tool for promoting your business and exposing it to a broader customer base.
When you pay to run ads on Google, you can guarantee that your business will show up on the first search engine results page. This gives you immediate access to more people, which also increases the number of clicks you'll receive.
Using paid ads can help to bring more people to your website or landing page. However, if you want to seal the deal and convert them into paying customers, you need to make sure that the page they're directed to after they click on your ad meets or exceeds their expectations.
One way to do this is to focus on ad congruence. In simplest terms, this means that the ads resemble your landing page.
For example, the same font that you use in the ad is used on the landing page, or the marketing copy is written in a similar tone. Ad congruence helps to build brand recognition and reassures folks that they've come to the right place.
Backlinks are another web marketing tool that helps you to build credibility and expose your content and brand to a larger audience.
If you can get backlinks of credible websites, it's easier for you to grow your customer base and get people interested in what you have to offer. This is especially true when your backlinks are present on websites that have a large audience and are already considered to be trustworthy sources.
To secure more quality backlinks, consider reaching out to bloggers or other websites that are in niches similar to yours and ask about guest posting opportunities.
Sharing content on social media is an effective way to grow your brand and provide more people with value.
If you want to increase the number of social media shares your posts or videos are getting, start by making it easier for people to do this.
Include social media sharing buttons on your website. That way, when people want to spread the word about your latest post and send it to their friends, they'll be able to do so with just a couple of clicks.
If all of these different web marketing strategies are starting to make your head spin, don't panic. You don't have to try and improve your marketing approach all on your own.
The experts at Falcon Digital Marketing recommend bringing on an expert to help out. You can also outsource some aspects of your web marketing plan to a consultant or agency.
Doing this gives you access resources that you can use to gain insight into your company and identify the best practices moving forward. It also frees you up to focus on other important aspects of the business.
It's true that it costs more money upfront to work with a professional than to try and DIY all your marketing tactics. However, over time, you'll likely save money. You'll also have more freedom to come up with new approaches that will further boost your business's bottom line.
Building up your customer base is essential if you want your business to keep growing and thriving in 2020 and beyond.
You may feel daunted at first when thinking about how you're going to do this. However, if you start implementing these web marketing strategies, you'll have a much easier time accomplishing your customer growth goals and seeing improvements to your bottom line.
Do you want to learn more about promoting your business online and web marketing strategies? Visit the Digital Marketing section of our site today.
