Do you sometimes find yourself struggling to produce results from your marketing efforts?
This does not necessarily mean that your marketing message or strategy is wrong, it could simply mean that the channel you’re using may not be the right one for that message or the audience.
If you go for paid advertising, it is important to do proper research before you start spending your hard earned cash or it is wise to outsource it to a perper agency who can handle it better and drive results for your business.
Here are some online marketing channels that can help you boost traffic to both your website and products.
Why a Marketing Channel Matters
Changing technology, including the introduction of mobile and social networking, has essentially turned marketing upside down.
Before these changes, selecting a channel was simple: you just needed to make the decision whether you would use direct or indirect methods.
However, this has changed as the internet has turned consumers into producers of content, in the process expanding the available channels through which messages can be sent.
A good example of the reason why marketers have to think strategically when they choose marketing channels is that word-of-mouth has become an extremely important marketing tool.
In the past, an angry customer could only influence people in their vicinity. Today, a customer with a few thousand followers can post a complaint that could easily go viral in a matter of minutes.
This moment can be especially essential if you get money from website traffic and such mistakes can completely ruin your business.
Hence, you should be extremely careful with all your marketing channels and the way you treat your followers and clients. Choosing the right channel is not only business-wise but can be your best benefit comparing to your business rivals.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
If social media marketing is not yet an important strategic consideration for your business, you may need to think again.
Marketers taking advantage of social media can definitely benefit since they can create a relationship with their customers that looks human-like.
There are basically three things that marketers using social media can do: social listening, engagement, and promotion.
By following what people are talking about on social media, organizations have an idea of what the customer pains are. If your organization is able to solve those pain points right on the spot, then you are using social media effectively.
Social media marketing also allows marketers to use the credibility of influencers that followers are more likely to trust than an advertisement in the local press.
SMM gives marketers a chance to manage the message and make it look like it is not coming from them.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search Engine Marketing is unavoidable for the brands these days. When we talk about SEM, it is all about the paid marketing in the search engines.
Search Engine Marketing is an improvable skill that can be extremely effective with proper and detailed keyword research.
Popular search engines like Google and Bing are constantly changing their policies as well as the ad designs to maximize the conversion for the advertisers.
A good SEM strategy starts with comprehensive keyword research and how you place the keywords strategically on your ads.
To make the best out of search engine marketing, you need to have a strong content policy and have a planned content marketing strategy so that your content is able to beat your competitors.
These are pay-per-click ads which are served in the variety of different formats such as text ads to visual advertisements.
Owned Media
While you may have little control over what other media says about your business, you can influence part of what goes out using owned media.
In this case, you are looking at your websites, blogs, newsletters, and catalogs.
The secret with using owned media as a channel for online marketing is that you have to invest in creating value for the customer.
When the consumer starts reading any of the content you create in owned media, they have one question in mind: What is in it for me? The moment they realize that the content is not about them but about you, you have lost them.
To use this channel for boosting traffic to your product, you have to be clear about who you are targeting. When you are clear about your target audience, it is much simpler to decide the kind of content they will find interesting.
You will also decide the means by which you will deliver that content: videos, interactive graphics, text, cartoons, stories or opinion pieces among others.
Email Marketing
If handled properly, email marketing can be an effective way of connecting with the customer and boosting traffic to your products.
This process should start with making a decision about the kind of customer you want to target. Follow this by carefully analyzing the customers’ pain points and create value for them by solving them.
Once you know who the target customer is, you may want to collect their email addresses and request for permission to send them emails.
Many organizations give the consumer a chance to say how often they would like to receive emails. They also want to have a chance to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list once they feel their challenge has been solved.
Make an Informed Decision
You can choose any of the advertising channels mentioned above and it all depends on your specific circumstances which channel you use. Hence, it is important to invest adequate time creating your marketing goals.
When you are clear about your goals, you’ll decide what you want to do with the traffic you generate using any of the online channels.
For instance, one marketer may want to increase the traffic with the aim of creating brand awareness and another may want to generate sales. Other organizations employ digital marketing for the purposes of creating the leads that will give them a chance to connect with their potential clients.
While just one channel may work for one business, in other instances a combination of specific elements of different channels may be more effective.
