There’s no place like the internet.
All of your customers are using it and chances are, it’s your primary sales channel, too. But even though it’s useful, online marketing isn’t easy.
In this post, we’ll show you 10 tips for marketing your business on the internet that very few people talk about. And hopefully, we’ll inspire you with some marketing ideas for your business.
Stay ahead of the curve and win your customers over!
1. How to Create Really Amazing Content
Every day, over 4 million blog posts are published. If you want your posts to stand out in the search engine results, you’re going to need to make them more delicious than chocolate cake.
How?
By creating 10x content.
The idea of 10x content has first been explained by Rand Fishkin of Moz who asked:
“How can I create something 10 times better than the top 10 people in the search results for this keyword or phrase?”
Some examples of 10x content would be:
- Content with original research
- Fresh takes on a topic
- Comprehensive resources
- Evergreen content
Now, you may not have the necessary resources to conduct your own research.
But what you can do is offer a unique angle on a topic, and create content that elicits an emotional response.
A great example of 10x content is Tim Ferriss’ guide to getting published:
The article has over 180 comments, with thousands of social shares. And it’s still shared to this day.
Creating your 10x content
The easiest way to create 10x content is by staking out the competition.
Typically, 10x content will have a lot of shares and comments. People won’t be able to resist tweeting about it and sharing their comments. It’s a conversation-starter, an idea generator.
You can use a tool like BuzzSumo to find articles in your niche that have generated the most buzz over time.
Then, go through those articles and identify knowledge gaps.
Find what’s missing and create improved content with the skyscraper technique. This way, you’ll be able to fill the gaps in the content that already exists, and you’ll create a more comprehensive resource.
2. The Lesser Known SEO Tricks
We all know the basics: keywords, page speed, and content. But SEO has changed, and there’s a lot you can do that your competition isn’t doing yet.
1. Schema markup and rich snippets
If you want your content to stand out in the search results, look into structured markup and rich snippets.
When you add the code to your content, Google bots will recognize different parts of your entries. The results will be more eye-catching.
2. Voice search and context
Google has been improving RankBrain to understand the context of content.
This means you shouldn’t stuff your content with keywords.
However, you can use LSI keywords (semantically related keywords) and adapt your content to respond to longer voice search queries. You can structure it as a FAQ section for increased likelihood of getting a featured snippet.
For example, have the heading of your post be a common search query: “What is [xyz]?” and then continue with “[Xyz] is…”
3. Linkless mentions
While Google primarily uses links to understand how your site fits into your niche, it’s starting to use linkless brand mentions as well.
This means that it’s picking up on signals from social media, comments, review sites, and other places where people talk about your business.
You can use linkless mentions to market your business online by:
- Starting a conversation about your business on social media and message boards
- Inviting satisfied customers to write reviews
- Sharing testimonials
- Responding to reviews
- Publicizing news and events
3. Use Email Marketing to Market Your Business on the Internet
Email marketing is still one of the most cost-effective online marketing methods. Its ROI is 4400%, and the best part is: you’re reaching your customers right where it counts.
In their inboxes.
However, many businesses make email marketing mistakes that could easily be avoided.
From making sure that your emails aren’t ending up in the spam folder to optimizing posting times, there are plenty of things that go into your email marketing mix.
Make sure you’re using all the tricks in the book; from drip campaigns to reactivation. You can even learn from companies who have been successfully using email marketing for decades.
However, the easiest way to get started with email marketing is by offering a lead magnet for newsletter subscription.
Then you can segment your subscribers according to interests or other relevant factors.
Don’t be afraid of intriguing visuals, interactive content, gamification, and special promotions just for your loyal subscribers.
In the end, your email list is your best, safest bet. You can even monetize it.
4. Engage Your Audience
The biggest mistake businesses make with digital marketing is putting their audience in the shoes of a passive content consumer.
In reality, people love engaging with your content. They want to be a part of your story, even if just with a comment or by taking a quiz.
It’s one of the reasons why BuzzFeed rose to prominence.
You don’t have to use quizzes, but you can still engage your audience by:
1. Using User-Generated Content (UGC)
Encourage your audience to share their content with you.
If you’re selling a particular product and your customers are posting about it, why not reshare their content to your social media? It’ll help you retain them and attract new customers at the same time.
2. Starting Challenges and Giveaways to Market Your Business on the Internet
People love competitions and challenges; they’re a big part of extrinsic motivation that drives us towards success.
So if you want to promote your business online, look no further than setting up a giveaway or a challenge on social media or through your newsletter.
You’ll get bonus points if you ask your customers to refer their friends for a higher chance of winning the prize.
3. Encouraging Referrals
Consumers trust other consumers more than brands. A few recommendations from your loyal customers go further than any marketing campaign ever could.
A great trick for encouraging referrals is to gamify the process with a loyalty program.
Reward customers who invite their friends to subscribe to your newsletters or buy your products with loyalty points or discounts.
5. Who Says You Can’t Market on Reddit and Quora?
With 92% of consumers trusting peer recommendations, message boards are the new El Dorado of marketing.
The main two today are definitely Reddit and Quora.
Not only do they appear first in search results for a lot of topics, but they also provide you with (free) access to your target audience. Content on those sites is sorted by interests, and it doesn’t get better than that.
However, it’s important to choose the right approach.
With Quora, strive to answer questions with detailed, useful answers.
Always go the extra mile by providing resources, coining analogies, and using your natural tone of voice to show your personality.
Bob Ruffolo’s Quora profile is a great example:
With Reddit, don’t start promoting your product immediately.
Instead, integrate yourself into the community you’re targeting. Discuss things with other members and ask for their feedback. Use native content formats such as AskMeAnything.
By the time you’re ready to promote, the users will accept it wholeheartedly.
6. Don’t Forget about Video
When we think about content, we typically think about blog posts and articles. However, almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day.
And when you add all the other platforms that support video, it becomes clear that missing out on it is almost like handing over your audience to competitors.
However, cats aren’t the only popular video subjects.
Your videos can be:
- How-tos and tutorials
- Explainer videos
- Q&A sessions
- Interviews
- Testimonials
- Product reviews
And much more!
Just like in Dollar Shave Club’s example, video is a great medium for conveying the personality of your brand while providing value.
You can even use native features of social networks that allow you to live stream.
With ads, try to be as short as possible to avoid disrupting the viewers’ experience.
However, don’t be afraid of long-form content with organic video and telling heartfelt stories like MailChimp with their Wi-Finders video series.
7. The Trick for Mastering Organic Social Media
Social media may have started out as a free way to promote your business but it’s growing increasingly pay-to-play these days.
However, there are still ways you can improve your organic reach and cut back on your advertising spend.
On Instagram, look into the way feed priority is handled by the new algorithm.
It focuses on being social so if you want your posts to be the first in your followers’ feeds, you should socialize with them:
- Leave comments longer than three words
- Respond to comments on your posts
- Feature UGC (user-generated content) and mention users in the caption
- Write longer and more meaningful captions
- Pose questions in the captions and ask users to tag their friends
The 21st Century Hashtag Strategy
When it comes to hashtags, know where and how they’re being used.
For example, users actively use them on Twitter to take part in challenges and join discussions.
On Instagram, on the other hand, they’re only actively used by smaller communities. Other IG users burned themselves before, when hashtags were chock-full of spam.
And because of this, you shouldn’t target very popular hashtags (over 10m posts).
Instead, opt for hashtags that have 50k-10m posts.
What about Facebook?
When it comes to Facebook, don’t forget to use Messenger Chat Bots.
They’re a great way of reaching your followers and customers with special offers while avoiding the low organic reach rate in the News Feed.
And since Facebook will be prioritizing groups rather than pages, consider creating a group connected to your page where you’ll share important updates and have meaningful conversations.
This way, you’ll get plenty of organic activity.
8. Become a (Thought) Leader
There is nothing that can fuel your long-term online marketing success as much as thought leadership.
Not only is it going to improve your brand awareness, but it’ll also give you extra SEO points.
Recently, Google has started implementing changes related to the E-A-T quality score. By using human content reviewers, they’ve identified the basic requirements that high-ranking content should fulfill:
- E – Expertise
- A – Authority
- T – Trustworthiness
You can improve your SEO EAT score by including author boxes with credentials, and avoid talking about medicine, finance and law unless you’re quoting expert sources.
And when it comes to pure thought leadership, strive to guest blog on popular platforms, take part in conferences, and connect with other influencers. HubSpot, for example, are thought leaders in marketing, sales, CRM and much more.
Turn yourself or your business into a resource your customers look to not only for products, but for news and meaningful content as well.
9. Amplify Your Message
When you’ve crafted the right marketing message for your audience, you have to amplify it.
Of course, you could use ads. But you could also use your existing customers, employees and influencers who are already trusted by hundreds, thousands, and millions.
Influencer marketing has a huge ROI; 11 times higher than display advertising.
All you need to do is find the right influencers for your niche and partner up with them in an organic way.
Turn Your Employees into Influencers
You can also use your employees as influencers. When they amplify your content, your message reaches 561% further.
Reebok uses their #FitAssCompany employee advocacy program to reach more consumers
Invite them to share your content or create their own content about your brand.
You can easily implement employee advocacy (and even gamify it) with a tool like DrumUp.
Referrals
Finally, no one is going to support you more than customers who had a good experience with your brand.
Use that to improve your revenue by encouraging them to refer their friends and rewarding them accordingly.
10. Use Offline to Fuel Online
Finally, don’t forget about offline marketing that will generate buzz online.
Guerrilla marketing is an incredible way of making your business go viral, and sometimes it’s as simple as drawing something in chalk on the sidewalk.
You can also experiment with pop-up events, interesting sandwich boards (if you own a brick and mortar business), and even including your customers in an interesting marketing campaign disguised as an activation.
When you want to market your business online, not even the sky is the limit.
