There is a lot of hype these days about having a blog, a myspace or facebook page, a twitter or any other social networking presence. I am all for it. I run social media campaigns for my clients that drive sales and win fans. That being said, it is only a piece of the puzzle.
The most effective online marketing campaigns consist of a confluence of disciplines. You may be able to make some progress having only pieces of the puzzle, but in order to maximize your efforts you will need to utilize all of the arrows in your quiver.
Attract
This is the obvious one. It includes Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Viral Content, .
Everyone knows they need visitors to their website. But what good are visitors to your website if they don’t do what you want them to when you get there.
Convert
Here is where things get interesting. In order to gauge the effectiveness of any campaign you have to measure and optimize conversion.
Your company got featured on a highly trafficked web site? Great. But if no one who came to your site bought anything or signed up for you mailing list it doesn’t do you much good.
A site must have a clean usable design and well written copy that leads web browsers to the end result.
Retain
Once you have captured a web browsers attention, (no small feat in todays fast paced online world) What can you do to continue that engagement. Strategies that fall into this category are blogs, permission based email campaigns and well branded web design.
So you have provided value, entertained , or done business with someone, you have done all the hard work it takes to get a new fan. Why would you let them leave and never come back?
There is an opportunity to forge a connection here– a good marketing strategy will not ignore those who are already on board.
Measure
This is the cornerstone yet oft overlooked part of any successful campaign.
It is this step that allows one to maintain a positive return on investment and nurture the most successful channels of influence. It is very useful to see who is sending you users so that you can grow those relationships.
So the story goes:
- Attract the users to your site
- Make people an offer they can’t refuse and Convert them into customers.
- Offer them value beyond what you are selling Retain them for years to come.
- Measure the amount of traffic and where it is coming from to find out how you can get more.
I hope that you found this post helpful. There is so many different ways to market a business online and I did my best at categorizing them. Let me know in the comments if you feel anything is being overlooked.
This is the first in my Intro to Marketing Online series. I will go into each of these topics much more in depth in weeks to come. Subscribe to my feed to be kept up to date.