Why Online Marketing Doesn’t Need to Cost a Fortune
Although most businesses have some type of internet presence nowadays, a lot of them don’t fully understand the marketing potential of the internet. Small businesses blame high marketing costs as the reason they are unable to use the internet to their advantage, which is completely wrong. Online marketing campaigns can be very cost effective, and even free if you are willing to do all of the work. Let’s take a look at a few online marketing strategies that have proven to work for lots of different companies and how to get started.
Content Marketing
This has become one of the best ways to reach out to potential customers and get them interested in what you or your company has to say. Whether you are offering them videos, photos, a podcast, or just a simple text blog, you can appeal to your target audience’s interests and get them involved. Starting a blog can be one of the most simple things to do and it only takes about 5 minutes. There are plenty of free blog hosting sites, but if you already have your own website, you can just install WordPress and have a blog up and running easily on your own website.
When you first start out creating content, don’t automatically try and promote your services or products because that will most likely just push new readers away. Your original goal should be to just get people interested in the content so they continue to come back on a regular basis for new posts. So make sure to do some market research on your target audience and figure out what they like. Once you have posted a few things up and started to interact with some readers, they will start to let you know what they want to see next, which will make it even easier to attract more and more people.
OK, so some time has passed and you now have a decent size readership for your blog. At this point it would be ok to slowly start referencing what your company has to offer , because most of your readers are loyal to you by now so they won’t be scared off by some small marketing efforts. Just continue to deliver top quality content to your readers and you will continue to see your website grow. Throughout this whole process there are different strategies you can implement, such as link building throughout your content, search engine optimization, and having guest posts to help promote the blog.
This entire process can be completely free, although having a small budget can make it much easier. Coming up with content on a regular basis can be pretty time consuming. So hiring someone to do that will allow you to focus on promoting the content and attracting more and more people. The amount you want to spend during this marketing campaign is completely up to you, which is why it is such a popular online marketing choice.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing goes hand in hand with content marketing, which is why I decided to make it a part of this article. Creating a company profile on all of the major social networking sites will give people a place to go to further interact with your company, get more information, and can also act as a central hub for any content you decide to link them to. By placing links on your profile page as well as your content, you will have people going back and forth and following you all over the internet. After you get a good size following, you will start to notice more and more people will be willing to interact with you company, letting you know what they like and what needs improvement, which can be an incredible resource to any business owner. You can also promote your products and services with special deals only offered on your social networks, etc. Overall, this is another option that doesn’t need to cost anything and has an unlimited potential.
There are other online marketing strategies such as E-mail marketing and referral marketing that are very cost effective, but content marketing and social media marketing should get you headed in the right direction. Don’t limit your companies potential just because you think that the internet is too expensive. Like I previously states, having a budget might make the marketing process easier, but it isn’t necessary.
