Creating a powerful online brand presence is a must for all companies. The Web has created a veritable marketspace, with people becoming less reliant on brick and mortar stores or facilities to meet their own consumer needs.
As such, e-commerce and other online revenue streams have been the driving forces for companies' success, and integrating these business tactics is a necessity for long-term survival.
With more companies taking their brand names to the online space, the market itself has become a competitive one, and a keen online marketing acumen is required to keep a company on the cusp of online consumption. Thus, online marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and content design are all specialities which improve Web presence and help companies gain business benefit.
Online marketing
Online marketing introduces a broad scope of marketing tactics that provide your brand and Web site with additional visibility. Here, we discuss a few relevant online marketing techniques:
Social media marketing: This is the process of gaining Web site traffic through presence on social media sites. This includes creating attractive content that will grab the attention of your readers and encourage them to subsequently share it with their own social networks. The key is to leverage highly recognise platforms such as Facebook, twitter and Google+ with fresh content and regular updates (Ref. 1). This will create a loyal base of readers and subscribers which are more likely to trust your products and consequently buy.
Google AdWords: Google AdWords allows advertisers to compete to display Web copy that can link to content on their site. A popular marketing tactic, this ranking strategy can give your company quick visibility and a lead on competitors. The copy used can be displayed on partner sites or on google Web pages and payouts are issued from advertiser to partner sites in exchange for increased ranking.
E-mail marketing: Considered to be one of the more efficient ways of generating revenue, e-mail marketing also serves as an effective method to keep your customers coming back. Special promotions can be sent to segmented groups of users and behavioural studies can be made to understand the buying potential of consumers to target them better.
The potential for online marketing is limitless, as long as a sensibility for the market space your company occupies is thoroughly understood to target optimally.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
The next, and possibly most important tactic, involves building a steadily growing traffic base for your Web site. Search engine optimisation is a strategy which helps increase a Web site's traffic by implementing techniques which improve the natural ranking of the Web site on search engines like Google or Yahoo (Ref. 2). There are a few steps required to implement this appropriately:
Choose your keywords: The primary key to all SEO strategies involves keywords. These are words that are typed into search engines when searching for a particular Web page. The first step in implementing an SEO strategy involves establishing which keywords you would like visitors to search for in order to find your Web site. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is optimal in deciding upon keywords as it ranks the top searches per month.
Target your chosen keywords: The next step involves choosing the keywords you prefer targeting on your Web site's pages. In order for your site to rank in search engines, these keywords must be used within copy on your site.
Implement your keywords: These keywords can then be included on specific parts of each page including in the URL, the title, the description and the body text. This will then link organic searches using relevant keywords directly to your webpages.
As one of the fundamental aspects of increasing business benefit for companies, SEO will surely continue to evolve, creating a competitive space for companies to optimise their strategies as best as possible.
Content and design maintenance
Maintenance primarily entails providing fresh content and a well-designed Web site, which keeps readers engaged and makes usability and navigation smooth. Here, we look at three pertinent maintenance recommendations to keep your business thriving online:
Regular updates featuring your own unique content: Frequent updates provide for increased search results, therefore, updating your site with relevant content is necessary to keep your brand alive. In this case, both quality and quantity are equally important so leveraging social media platforms, blogs, and the like, for content updates, is recommended (Ref. 3).
Keep it simple: Your Web site shouldn't involve an arduous navigation for users. A simple design that makes for easy browsing will build confidence with your consumers, old and new, as demonstrated on sites like luckycowbingo (Ref. 4). That is to say, special features should be kept to a minimum and relevant business information should be clearly specified. Don't inundate your visitors with loads of graphics, they might just leave and find the next best, simplest, option instead.
Go mobile: With people relying heavily on their mobile devices for all lifestyle purposes, it's imperative that your Web site be mobile responsive. If a consumer can access your site on their device quickly, and glitchless, then you're a step ahead in keeping consumers satisfied (Ref. 5).
Online marketing, search engine optimisation and content and Web design maintenance play significant roles in improving Web presence and revenue potential for companies. With a clear understanding of all facets of Web marketing, a smooth entry to the Web space will follow, ensuring consumers will recognise your brand and potentially build a loyalty to it.
References
Ref. 1: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/218160
Ref. 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
Ref. 3: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/79002
Ref. 4: http://www.luckycowbingo.com/
Ref. 5: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/6-ways-to-boost-your-web-presence.html
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