Online Marketing

9.1 Introduction

After spending time looking at the different offline marketing methods and techniques that you may wish to use, it makes sense to now look at what could be deemed the modern methods, which tend to involve the use of technology. That means that we will focus on online marketing and, as with the offline version, there are a number of different things that can be included in this area.

For that reason, we will once again break the information down into smaller components throughout this module, to examine the different techniques that you should consider including within your marketing strategy due to their potential effectiveness. However, we will also warn against various mistakes to avoid because you could ultimately end up trying to market yourself in the wrong areas due to the vast size of the online world.

9.2 What the Term 'Online Marketing' Means

Online marketing is certainly something that most people will have heard of but, at the same time, they will generally have a limited amount of knowledge as to what it involves and what to expect from it. Online marketing means that you are using marketing methods and techniques on the Internet although there are a number of different areas and facets to this approach that have to be taken into consideration for any kind of marketing plan. We will focus on a number of different forms of online marketing throughout this module but it suffices to say that when you get involved in online marketing you will be using digital technology and all of the benefits that it can bring to your business.

FACT

In 2018, 90% of adults in the UK were recent internet users, up from 89% in 2017.

Source: www.ons.gov.uk

9.3 Why it Must be Included in a Marketing Strategy

The reason why this approach has to be included within your marketing strategy is quite straightforward: The Internet is now the single biggest marketplace that has ever existed and a large percentage of your potential market will now prefer to look for your products or services on the Internet, as opposed to any other location or any other form of marketing. Because of this, you need to come to terms with what it means for your own strategy because if the market you are targeting is looking online for the sort of products or services that you can offer but you are not on there, then you are missing out.

However, as with offline marketing, it is important to look at including a number of different approaches, even if just to increase the chances of you becoming a success. The potential market on the Internet may be large but, at the same time, there is also more competition than ever before and, at times, that can prove problematic for some companies.

9.4 The Different Forms of Online Marketing

Just as with offline marketing, there are various forms of online marketing of which you need to be aware and there is a pretty good chance that you are going to need to make full use of several of them, just to achieve some kind of presence on the Internet. The different forms of online marketing of which you need to be aware include the following:

A website

This is the most obvious form: you having your own website. It is important that you view this as being your online shop window whereby you have your own piece of online real estate and it allows you to promote your business and showcase what it is that you do or offer and why you are the best. A website is an essential tool nowadays because a lot of people will not even click on an advert if they see that there is no website to follow.

Social media

Social media refers to websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These are considered as being some of the busiest online, so you can understand why you have to be on there. Once again, your profile is going to allow you to provide information and sell yourself to your market, and the best part about social media is that it is very easy for to you see the kind of people you are aiming for and to take your business to them.

Directories

If you thought that directories were dead, then think again. Instead, online directories, such as the yellowpage-uk.com or yell.com, to name just two, are very much alive and they can generate a substantial number of leads for next to no money. However, you need to get listed on as many online directories as possible, especially those that are more closely linked to your market, to provide you with even more exposure than before.

AdWords

Google AdWords refers to those adverts that appear on the right-hand side of the search pages when you go onto Google. You are able to purchase adverts here and you only pay when somebody clicks on them. This will give you great exposure and, at the same time, you can set maximum daily amounts to spend, to enable you to keep a tight control of your budget.

Website advertising

It is also useful to consider using website advertising as a way of getting your name out, especially when it is connected to your industry or market. Find sites, see if they offer space for banners and then find out the cost, as it can certainly make a difference.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

No website should really be online without SEO or Search Engine Optimisation and, even though this is going to cost, it is still something to consider doing. This will lead to you appearing higher up the search engine results pages and, as a result, you will be able to get more hits on your site. It is then up to you to provide your potential customers or clients with the information that they need, to enable them to consider spending money with your business online.

Those are the six main ways in which you can market yourself online but, within each main idea, there are smaller facets that need to be taken into account, to enable you to go ahead and actually make a success of your online campaign. Remember, it is very easy for you to keep control of your budget when you are focusing on the Internet and you will undoubtedly get more value for money by marketing in this way. However, there are a number of other important points to be taken into consideration when looking at online marketing which we will now explore.

9.5 Whether to Go Local or International

Although the Internet has no real boundaries, it is still important for an individual looking to create a marketing strategy to decide if they are going to go local or international for this particular part of their strategy. The answer to this question lies within you, in terms of your aims or intentions for your business. As with offline marketing, it is a case of whether or not your products or services are purely for the local market or if your business has the ability to reach and serve a wider audience. To demonstrate this point we will look at two completely different examples, in order to ascertain the best approach in each instance.

The service based company

If we think of a company that provides a service then we can see how online marketing can boost the business, just as long as the correct methods and techniques are employed from the outset. In this instance, we will look at a company that works in the construction industry and see how that company could use online marketing to increase awareness of their business. Firstly, they could appear in online directories, either locally, nationally or even just primarily linked to their industry. This would be a mixture of both free and paid listings although it is worth checking the free ones, to see if there is any added incentive to provide a more detailed listing, even if it does cost them some money.

Next, they should have a website as this will act like a shop window for their business and allow people to learn more about what they have to offer them, without even getting in touch. This is something that should be done professionally, maybe looking at other construction companies for inspiration as to what should be included. Aside from a website it is now important for any business to have a presence on social media and this type of business is no different.

It will allow them to post images of their latest jobs and showcase the quality of their work, so people can make a decision as to whether or not they should hire them. In addition, it provides them with an opportunity to interact with customers and answer any questions. However, this does not include additional aspects, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to help with boosting websites. It does not include using AdWords as part of your advertising, nor Facebook advertising which you could include if you wanted to do something a bit different. Furthermore, a construction company could advertise on local forums for its market or trade websites so people could find them.

As you can see, there are a various options available when it comes to online marketing when you are a services based company. It is in your best interests to consider using a number of different methods, to ensure maximum exposure on the Internet. Look at other companies that offer similar services and try to ascertain what online marketing they are using, in order to then add those methods and techniques to your own strategy, if they seem to be gaining extra exposure for the company in question.

The product based company

When we then focus on a product based company, the online marketing approach used is completely different because of one important aspect: it is easier to move products around over a larger area.

Look at it this way:

On Amazon there are a vast number of companies that are based throughout the world and yet selling to customers thousands of miles away - and all done with minimal interaction between both parties. This is where the beauty of online marketing really comes into play because if you have products that you can send by courier or post, then your online marketing strategy must reflect this by stressing the international aspect of what it is that you offer.

We will continue along the same lines as the services based company and work through an example of how online marketing will provide more exposure to not only the products but also the company. As with the services based company, it is important that you have a website, even if it is not an e- commerce website whereby people are able to purchase products online. However, as an absolute minimum, it is important you provide some way to inform people about what it is that you sell and how they can access your products. It is also advisable for you to have a presence on social media. This will allow for interaction with customers, with the option of posting details of your products on those websites, in order to increase awareness of them.

This type of marketing is also a good way to inform potential customers about special offers or new products that you have available, however, you need to understand how to get those initial links with people in the first place. To do this, it is advised that you spend time establishing links with people that are connected to your market; which means that you need to be able to identify your market in the first place. This can be done by joining forums related to your target market, joining groups on social media, or liking pages. Use these online communities to build links and friends to whom you can effectively market at a later date. Ensure too that your business is listed on the appropriate directories.

There is also one other method that is worth thinking about, especially when you are using online marketing and that method is 'the discount'. By providing a discount through an online coupon or a printable version to use in store, you offer an incentive for people to purchase your products. Remember that marketing works well when the person viewing the advert has a reason to interact with you.

It has been shown that offering a discount of some description, whether it be money off or something provided for free, is an effective way of attracting people to your business and products. You do not even have to give a huge discount initially because often something relatively small can still tempt people into using your company. As you can see, there are very few differences between how a services based company and a product based company deals with online marketing. The only difference is really the location of their marketing, which is generally related to the industry rather than the type of business. The priority is to know where your market will be located online and then take your business to them - as most of the time they will not be actively looking for you.

9.6 Putting Ideas into Action

We will now look at how to put your ideas into action in terms of your online marketing strategy. It is all well and good coming up with a plan but it does then require you follow up by taking the necessary action. The way in which you action online marketing campaigns is different to the approach taken with offline ideas. However, it is not necessary for you to be an expert in the online world as a basic understanding of how the Internet works will suffice, and you can look at the way in which you personally use or interact with advertising online as a guide for your own marketing strategy. To put ideas into action you have to take the following points into consideration: Do you know who your market is and where they are located online?

This is the first point for discussion as it is important that you are aware of not only who your market will be but also where they spend their time online. As previously mentioned in this module, generally speaking, your market will not come to you, rather it is the other way around, which means that you have to know where they are located.

Are there certain online groups or pages that you have to join in order to present yourself to them?

How active are you going to be in those groups in order to start to attracting attention towards your company?

Make a list of locations and work through them methodically, in order to begin to make progress with your online marketing.

Create social media accounts.

If required, make sure that you create the various social media accounts that you are going to need in order to make your online presence known. The key accounts are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and, for professionals there is LinkedIn. Remember to include as much information about your business as possible as these accounts will be similar to an online advert.

Make sure your website is working.

If you already have a website, make sure that it is up to date and all links are working. Ensure the site loads quickly and is compatible with smartphones or tablets, as these two pieces of technology now account for approximately 40% of all Internet traffic or even higher in some instances. A website that does not work will damage your marketing exploits by giving a negative impression of your business and your approach to marketing, and prospective customers may look elsewhere to spend their money.

Research where you could advertise.

There are a number of options to consider when it comes to advertising online. Some websites will charge you a certain price per month and some will charge you a certain price per 1000 impressions (times that your adverts is shown). Alternatively, you could also use AdWords whereby you only pay money when somebody clicks on your advert. Think carefully about where you will advertise your business because it is very easy to lose track of where you are advertising and if you are advertising to the correct market.

9.7 Keeping Track of your Marketing

Once you have put your online marketing strategy into action there is something else that you need to do that is extremely important: keeping track of whether or not it is working. There are various tools available to assist in this, some of which are free to download. Doing this is extremely important because, with so much online competition, there is a real need to get your marketing strategy correct or you run the risk of focusing on the wrong market, while your competition steals your customers.

Look at your traffic.

In your website, go to your web hosting control panel and check out your AWStats. This enables you to see how many hits you receive, from where those hits come, which adverts are doing well and which should be withdrawn.

Check your customers' feedback.

As with offline marketing, it can often prove effective to ask customers or clients how they heard about you. This is something you may have noticed yourself on websites when submitting a contact form; they ask if you saw them on Google, Bing or by various other means. This allows companies to ascertain which marketing avenues are working best for them, thus enabling them to tweak their campaigns and strategies accordingly.

Check your followers.

When pursuing social media the number of followers, likes, shares or any other kind of interaction will show how effective this is as a form of marketing. If nothing is progressing, then you are doing something wrong and have to change tactics.

Check click-through rates.

If you are advertising on various portals and, by this, we include AdWords or Facebook advertising, then you need to be aware of your click-through rates, to see if those adverts are working. In the case of AdWords you should be able to hit your desired daily target allowance and, if you continually fall short, then there is a good chance that your advert is not working and that you need to change things. Also, if you are receiving no leads from other adverts, then think about whether or not you are aiming them towards the correct market.

Those are the four main ways in which you can track your online marketing - it only takes a short amount of time to look at the facts and figures and thus make a decision as to how to proceed. This is something that you must do or else you are going to make life so much harder for yourself.

9.8 The Potential Impact of this Form of Marketing

So what is the potential impact of this form of marketing?

Of course, that depends on your plans and how much effort you put into them, along with an element of luck, but there is no doubt that a powerful Internet presence will make a major difference to the potential success of your business. The Internet is now the largest single provider of leads and new customers. It gives potential customers the ability to find out more about you and to reach decisions as to whether or not they should trust what you do, without ever getting in touch.

In other words, if you fail to provide a quality service or a good product, the Internet is able to destroy your reputation much quicker, compared to the time it takes to build it back up. Whereas, in the past, people would use word of mouth to ascertain if a company or product was good or bad, this has now been taken over by the Internet and the appearance of reviews and comments posted on social media. Online marketing is something that is now expected from companies - if you are not on the Internet then people will start to question you. Perhaps the best way to sum up the potential impact of online marketing is the following: You enter into the biggest marketplace in the world.

This is not something to be afraid of, even though it means that you will be required to conduct more research and be able to grasp how to locate your market in the first place. The main point is that you are putting yourself out there, in order to be noticed and the key to any marketing campaign is making sure that people are aware of your existence.

You have more space in which to tell people about your business.

Think of it this way: if you put an advert in the newspaper, you will be restricted in terms of what you can include within the space that you have purchased. However, with online marketing, you are able to get more space for less and, when you have either social media profiles or a website to which to send people, then there is every opportunity for them to learn everything about your business.

People trust online companies nowadays.

It is interesting to see how people's reaction to online marketing has changed within the last decade. It used to be the case that people were wary, but now if you are not online then most people will not even give you a consideration. In other words, there is now greater trust towards online companies.

Interaction is everything.

With offline marketing you must consider how you interact with customers or clients, and it is acknowledged that you need to make some headway before they are ready to spend money. With online marketing, this is less of an issue and it ties in with the point made earlier regarding space. Thanks to the client having more options when it comes to contacting you, it means that the interaction is easier, along with the rest of the sales process. This will often lead to it becoming easier for you to convert potential customers into paying customers, although it does depend upon the quality of your initial marketing.

Online marketing increases sales.

While this is not the case for every single business, there is no doubt that online marketing is responsible for increasing sales figures for a large number of businesses. By this, we do not mean solely online sales, as your online marketing is able to drive people to your offline business or store also: if you provide an incentive and the necessary call to action. There are many companies, both large and small, that have seen a substantial increase in their turnover thanks to their online marketing exploits.

Online marketing will provide the following for your business:

*Increase awareness of your brand.

*Increase trust in your brand.

*Provide you with more opportunity to sell your products or services.

*Allow you to do more with less money.

*Boost sales.

*Boost interaction with customers.

Online marketing is very powerful and therefore necessary for you to incorporate it into any marketing strategy that you may have for your business.

9.9 Avoiding Things Going Wrong

As this forms such a large part of your entire approach to marketing, it makes sense that there will be times whereby things can go wrong. There are a number of reasons as to how or why things can go wrong in terms of online marketing but it will often boil down to just one thing: a lack of preparation or understanding. In order to help you avoid things going wrong, it is important that you keep the following points in mind:

Rushing leads to problems.

It is easy to get excited about the prospect of presenting yourself online, however, rushing into things will often lead to mistakes. The problem here is that the marketplace is so vast; if you rush and get it wrong, then you are instantly going to be swamped and people will be unaware of your existence.

Failure to understand your market.

Failing to understand your market is a fundamental flaw in any marketing strategy but, when you are dealing with such a large market in which there are so many opportunities to interact with the people that most likely want your products or services, that is particularly bad. As we mentioned in the first point, rushing into things means you can be swamped in the online world and this also applies when you misunderstand your market. It applies to both national and local campaigns therefore it must be stressed that you really need to do your research in advance.

Failure to take control of your budget.

It is important to remember that even though online marketing is often regarded as being inexpensive compared to offline marketing, there are still a number of costs involved - if you really want to make an impact. Consider not only the cost of having a website designed but also SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), advertising budgets and other varying costs, be they on a daily or a monthly basis.

In other words, the best way to avoid making mistakes when it comes to online marketing is to avoid making the same mistakes that you perhaps made with regards to other forms of marketing. Remember, you are following the same rules and the general expectations are the same.

MODULE SUMMARY

In this module, we have looked at online marketing and the role that it can play in helping you to develop your business further. We have also shown the various components involved in this form of marketing and it is important that you carefully prepare and study your strategy before taking any action. In the next module, we will look at how to collate all the information that you have learnt about online and offline marketing and how to incorporate it into your plan.