As of April 2020 almost 4.57 billion people are active internet users, encompassing 59 percent of the global population. 

Statista.com

Those billions of internet users could become a potential customers for many businesses, which are searchable online. The online visibility chances significantly increase for businesses using online marketing strategy.

Online marketing increases brand visibility and the radius of the online expansion.

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Online opportunities for businesses are countless. When, creating an online business is now easier and more affordable than ever.

It makes perfect sense for businesses to tap into online opportunities. 

Those Online opportunities are constantly evolving. New websites, apps, plugins, social media platforms, online sales platforms, etc. are being created daily.  Now is the time to get involved whether you want to create a new online business or to boost an existing one.

There’s plenty of online opportunities. To name a few,

• Finding new customers.
• Selling your products or services straight from your website or app. 
• Delivering targeted advertising to customers. 
• Learning more about what your customers love. 
• Communicate with customers.
• Using analytics to power your online marketing and boost sales.

Where to start? At first, the digital world can be overwhelming. It is important to have a plan in place. The most important things to consider are, 

• Scope: web, mobile, social 

Decide where you want to go and whom you want to reach. Do you want to engage more with your customers using social media? Or maybe share more information about your business on a website. Think, where your ideal customers are most likely looking for businesses like yours? What devices are they using to source information they are looking for. Answering those questions will help you to decide what your priorities are and where to start your online expansion.

• Technology and content 

Decide which aspects of your business you can take care of yourself and which ones you will have to outsource. Do you have enough technical skills to create a website? What about updating it? Can you create an engaging blog post or social media content? Can you locate time to learn some of the above or rather invest a part of your budget into outsourcing it.

• Cost and time 

Set a realistic budget and achievable schedule. Create a list of milestones and commit to it. Creating a website can be an investment, you might need some technical help with it. Creating social media pages cost nothing and its pretty straightforward. Creating and sharing new content can be time-consuming. Do you have time to do it yourself or you going to outsource it? Plan your budget considering all of the above.

Choosing your online presence 

There’s more than one place for people to find your business online. Website, local business listings and review sites, social media and mobile apps. Decide which of those would be most beneficial for your business, at the beginning and later stages.

• Social media profile 

It is a quick, simple and cheap way to establish an online presence. This could be the first step to take to help customers engage with your business. Create Facebook account, Instagram or Twitter acc. depending on what platforms is your ideal audience using.

For more detailed information about using social media to grow your business make sure that your ready Social Media Marketing Strategy For Businesses. Expand Your Online Reach.

• Mobile app

After you established your social media profile, you can then look at longer-term investments such as building a mobile app. An app could help your customers to find more information about your brand and easily place an online orders.

• Website 

Here it gets more expensive and more technical. Website is an investment. You will need to consider: getting a domain name (a browser which figures out where online content is hosted and displays it to the user.); you will need a server with IP address (an IP address is made up of a string of numbers that can be located by any device connected to the internet) that your website will be at. You will have to pay for the domain name and hosting. Additional cost would be creating a website itself, unless you want to spend time on creating it yourself.

There’s a lot you can do without launching a website. On one stage, however, it might be a good idea to have one.

How to create a successful website 

Think about what you want people to do on your website. Whether it is to buy products – an e-commerce website will help you do that. Or, to schedule customers booking – you will need to instal a booking calendar. Do you want people to phone you – “Call now” button is essential. Or maybe, you want people to find you easily– google map location in that case. 

Key website ingredients

A website consists of many parts. By building and blending them the right way, you’re sure to succeed.

1. Website domain name

You want your website domain to be similar to your existing business name. This name must be available tho (search in domain registrar), if your choice is not available try different suffix, like .com, .net, .usa, etc.

2. Homepage

This is your page window. Here, you invite people in. Explain what your brand is all about and direct the customers to other website pages for more information. Make sure that your website is readable, clear and looks good.

3. Website’s organisation

Make it easy for the visitors to navigate your website. Use dropdown menus, headlines, photos and other interactive elements, as a shortcut to direct people.

Also, read How To Create a Website. Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners.

Website and your business goals

When creating your website keep in mind that you are using your site to further your business goals. Thinking like a customer when introducing your business online. 

Good practices are,

• Highlighting your phone number, by adding “call now” button.
• Making your contact page easily available.
• Adding maps and directions.
• Making your prices and special offers visible.
• Showing relevant certificates and qualifications. 
• Making your content about the visitors needs.
• Using everyday language. 
• Sharing reviews and testimonials. 
• Quick loading pages (avoid long videos and high-resolution images).
• Mobile-friendly website. 

Remember, combine your business goals with your visitors needs.

To find out more read the Ultimate Guide to Build a Successful Website.

Where to market your business online

Online marketing is crucial for increasing your business visibility. You can market your online presence using channels like search engines, social media and email.

1. Search engines 

When you offer a relevant product the search engines will help to find your business online. You can use it two ways,

• SEO (search engine optimisation) to get unpaid search results.
• SEM (search engine marketing) by buying ad space in the search results. 

In both cases your content needs to be optimised for the search engines. You can read all about it in the post: How the Search Engines can help your business? SEO Plan and successful SEM campaigns.

2. Social media

The social media pages are great for building relationships with customers, through your social media pages or profiles. You can share engaging content, gain the customers opinion about your brand, promote via contests or Social Media Marketing (SMM), like Google Ads or Facebook Ads for example. Social media pages will help you to spread the word about you business.

Ready more on that subject in Social Media Marketing Strategy For Businesses. Expand Your Online Reach.

3. Email marketing

First you need to build your subscribers list. Then you can share relevant pieces of information, offers or coupons emailed to people who already said, that they would like to hear from you by subscribing on your website. 

Get noticed locally

Local online presence is beneficial for business with an actual shop or services, which they want people to walk in. 

To help them find your business:

• Make sure you have your phone number and address available online.
• Use location services that will bring up a interactive map with directions.
• Make your working hours visible.
• Explain what areas your business serve. 
• Use local search listings: Google My Business, Yahoo Small Business or Bing Places. 
• optimise your website to be mobile friendly and people can for ex call right now from their mobile using your website call now button 

Local directories

Great way for local customers to find you is:

1. Create a listing with your all contact information.
2. Always, everywhere use the same name.
3. Enter the contact details exactly the same in every directory.
4. List at Search Engines, like Google, Yahoo, Bing.
5. Complete the verification process.
6. List your working hours, photos, videos, etc.
7. Update and manage your listing.

Creating an online marketing strategy with clear goals, milestones and time frame will help you to stay focus and achieve your goals faster. 

1. Create SMART goals

Every business has different objectives and you should create your own. Decide what you want to achieve and how are you going to do that. Decide how much time and money you going to locate to achieve those goals. Make sure that your goals are measurable to be able to check your progress along the way. Measurable goals will become your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Key Performance Indicators  are very important to online businesses. You need to know how to use available data and metrics to market your business, to evaluate and grow.

KPI’s will vary depending on the business. They must, however, be measurable and achievable to help you reach your long term goals. 

How to construct KPI using the SMART framework

S – specific

M – measurable

A – attainable

R– relevant 

T – time-bound 

Create your online marketing KPIs based on the SMART framework. Measure your KPIs and respond to the data accordingly.

For example, you want to promote your business using engaging social media posts on Facebook. Your goal is to gain 100 new followers in 1 week. After a week you only gained only half of that. You might then decide to invest in SMM campaign.

2. Identify your online customer 

Find out who your customer is and what needs do they have that your business could fulfil. Every business should know who the customer is, to choose the right channels to sell product/services. And, to target the marketing to specific audience characteristics, like location, age, interests, etc. 

• Investigate whom you talking to, when is the best time to talk to them, what are you going to talk about. 
• Group your audience and chose relevant advertising method. 
• Understand your customer behaviours. 

Keep in mind that the online customer behaves differently than the walk-in customer. Therefore the customer’s journey will have different touch-points.

The online customer see, think, do, care. Meaning, 

see – the customer gets intreated by a good attractive picture, saw it somewhere on social media (someones profile or maybe an ad);

think – the customer is now reading product/services reviews, visiting the company website, researching the brand;

do – customer is shopping;

care – good customer experience may make the customer post a review or share on their profile what they just bought or experienced. 

To make to most of the customer interaction with your brand research,

• What customer touch-points are: any stage that the customer comes into contact with the business is important to build a positive brand association. 
• Map common online customer journeys: find out what those stages (touch-points) are and make them as positive as possible for the customer. Put yourself in customer’s shoes, or ask the customer directly via survey or social media.
• Identify customer touch-points that generate business goals: make sure that you get the feedback from your customers, measure how effective your customer interactions are in drawing more business, make adjustments if needed. 

3. Identify your Unique Selling Points (USPs)

• Identify what makes your business stand out in a busy marketplace

Find out who your competitors are, what they offer to their customers, and how they are offering it.

• Use online tools available to help you research the competition
  • Consider your strengths as well as a weakness (SWOT analysis) and compare them with your competitions.
  • Use search engines to find out what keywords your competition is using.
  • Search the competition social media accounts to find out how they communicate their message.
  • Use Google Alerts to follow the topic that will help your research. like, key products or services or competitors name. 

• Chose your Unique Selling Points (USPs)
  • Who is my target audience?
  • Who are my competitors?
  • What problems do my audience have?
  • How can I solve them?

Answering those questions will help you to create your USPs. When you establish what your USPs are you can communicate it to the customer.

Remember to always include your Mission Statement in those communications. What your business stands for, what your business values are is an important message to the customers. The brand can develop stronger relationship with customers who associate with their values.

Share your mission statement with customers to create a strong brand association and long-therm relationship.

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4. Analyse and adapt

Making sure that your digital marketing plan is being executed the right way is crucial. Only this way you will progress in achieving your business goals and objectives. 

• Set realistic expectations

It takes time to get noticed online. Don’t get discouraged. Stay on tract and follow through your online marketing strategy.

• Track and measure your results

Google Analytics will help you to figure out what is working for your marketing campaigns and what is not. Track your KPIs and make adjustments the campaigns are not bringing the desirable results.

• Adapt to changes in technology and your industry

Remember that new tools, technologies and tactics pop up daily. Stay up to date, keep up with the latest and greatest. 

• Follow your plan but stay flexible

Revaluate, make changes and adapt different practices if needed. The online world is constantly changing and so should your online marketing strategy. 

Read the Digital Marketing Strategy Guide for additional information. 

Summarising, taping into the online opportunities can really help to grow your business. Take advantage of the online marketing solutions available to achieve your online business goals. Well composed and regularly updated Online Marketing Strategy is crucial for businesses aiming for online success. Execute correctly before you can start planning a further online expansion.

Make sure to ready Social Media Marketing Strategy For Businesses. Expand Your Online Reach and How the Search Engines can help your business? SEO Plan and successful SEM campaigns, to get a better idea of how to expand your online presence.

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Thank you for Reading! 

Ola van Zyl

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