Mediaboss Marketing

If youre not actively marketing your business online in 2018, then youre leaving money on the table.

But heres the problem: online marketing can seem quite daunting and complicated. This can deter even the most focused of entrepreneurs from ever implementing an online marketing plan.

Thats why the goal of this article is to dissect internet marketing into its most basic strategies. Then simplify those strategies for the business owner or marketer who hasnt quite wrapped his or her head around them yet.

I tried only to include timeless strategies (i.e. strategies that work and will likely continue to work in the future)so you dont waste your time learning about little hacks that will quickly die off.

Youll also notice that there are seven overarching strategies. Then below each strategy, there are various tactics related to that strategy.

Lets begin!

Content is the backbone of the internet. If you think about it, nearly everything you view online is content (e.g. videos, articles, blog posts, infographics, etc.) of some kind.

Heres Googles definition of content marketing:

A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

Content marketing is arguably one of the most important internet marketing strategies because, without it, many other strategies wouldnt exist (or wouldnt be effective).

Here are two primary reasons why contentand marketing that contentis beneficial for nearly all businesses:

Below you will find quick summaries of the major content marketing tactics and then links to resources for further reading.

Having an industry blog and company newsletter can be very helpful in connecting with current and potential customers.

The Ahrefs Blogis an example of an industryspecific blog, the ultimate aim of which is to entice visitors into purchasing (or at least trying) the Ahrefs software suite. We do this by showing how helpful it is for marketers.

The Ahrefs Product Blogis an example of a blog that covers company and product specific news aimed at informing and communicating with current customers.

Linkbait is content thats specifically formulated to attract links. Its something so cool, valuable and unique that (given the opportunity) any industry blogger/influencer would be hardpressed not to link to it. These links then help to improve the sites rankings in search engines.

It can be pretty much any form of content (e.g. video, infographic, blog post, longform guide, SlideShare, etc.), but, as mentioned above, the primary aim is always to attract backlinks.

Why? Becauseattracting inbound links will:

An example of a linkable asset on the Ahrefs blog is our post on How Long It Takes To Rank In Google.

Look how many backlinks this post generated!

Guest blogging (or posting) is the act of publishing content on another website.

Here are a few reasons why you should guest post:

Using video to promote and market your business online is super powerful. Dont believe me? Check out these video marketing statistics.

You should also take a peek at the Ahrefs YouTube Channel. You wouldnt expect a video covering SEO auditsto do over half a million views, but this is actually our most popular videoon YouTube

Webinars are basically online minicourses.

They can be great forms of content, especially if you are selling a digital product.

Content syndication is when a piece of webbased content is republished (i.e. syndicated)by another website. Content syndication can be an excellent source of referral traffic.

Content doesnt need to be visual to be effective. Podcasting is an audible form of content that is excellent for brand building and growing an audience.

There are two major strategies when it comes to podcasting:

Both strategies can be very effective at marketing your business online and building relevant industry relationships.

Email marketing is super powerful because it is a direct channel of communication between your business and current and potential customers.

It starts by somehow acquiring your customer or potential customers email address. But then you have to figure out exactly how to market to everyone on your listwithout spamming them.

Here are the tactics you can use to do this:

You cant market via email without your recipients email address. The easiest way to get your hands on some emails is through a lead magnet.

Leadmagnets are something of value that you give away in return for an email address.

Heres an example from VideoFruitits located right after the blog post introduction:

And heres what you see when you click the link:

Youre asked for your email address in exchange for the free download.

Here are a few other examples of effective lead magnets:

The key here is that the lead magnet is actually valuable andrelatedto the product or service that you sell.

Aside from lead magnets check out these simple ways to get more email subscribers.

Once you obtain the optin, your goal with email is usually two things:

To do this well, youll want to segment your email lists so you can send more targeted, personalized emails.

Now that you have your email list segmented out, its time for split testing.

Split testing (or A/B testing) just means you are testing different conversion elements against each other to see which your audience responds best to.

Here are a few examples of elements within an email you would run A/B testing on:

Email marketing automation is the final piece of the puzzle and will save you a ton of time.

Basically, once your lead magnet rewards you with an opt-inand youve segmented your listyou can build out automated lead nurturing email campaigns and run your email marketing on autopilot.

These are effectively premade drip sequences that are sent out automatically by your email marketing software.

Its even possible to send different emails based on subscriber interactions (e.g. email opens, link clicks, website visits, etc.)all on autopilot.

Also, check the email marketing tools on our list of 101 marketing tools.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Here is Googles definition of search engine optimization (SEO):

The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.

If you want organic search traffic to your website, you need to optimize for search. SEO can seem complicated and confusing, but the basicsare easy enough to learn.

If you want to establish a firm understanding of SEO, check out this article. Otherwise, below are the core concepts of search engine optimization.

You need to know what people are searching for before you can optimize for that search.

Keyword and topical research help you find those search queries and topics.

Onpage SEO refers to optimizing the content and HTML elements on a webpage. When you write content for your website, you want that content to have the best chance at ranking in search engines as possible.

At Ahrefs, we also conducted an onpage SEO study. This contains some valuable insights and is well worth a read.

Offpage SEO helps improve your search engine rankings through tactics that arent implemented on your website.

When most people talk about offpage SEO, they are referring to link building, but offpage SEO can also include things like building citations and promoting content via social media.

Technical SEO refers to noncontent related techniquesthat make it easier for search engines to crawl and indexyour website.

Technical SEO usually starts with a technical SEO audit.

You can also check out the Ahrefs Site Audit toolto look for a number of technical SEO issues your website could be experiencing.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Marketing is all about getting that conversion. Thats why you do it in the first place.

So why not do things to increase conversions? Thats the basis of what is called conversion rate optimization (CRO).

CRO can be thought of as a combination of UI/UX (user interface/user experience) and copywriting. You use copywriting to deliver the message you are trying to convey and then you use design elements (UI/UX) to make it easy for the visitor to accomplish their goals and convert.

Now for some basic conversion rate optimization strategies

Web design is where conversion rate optimization starts. Sorry, but if your site looks like it was built in 2001 (like the 2001 Wikipedia screenshot below), you are going to struggle to get anyone to convert.

You want people to trust your website. Here are some examples of how to do that:

Whether you are optimizing for organic search, payperclick advertising, display advertising, or something else, improving your headline is one of the easiest and highest ROI activities you can do.

To come up with your initial headline, see what your competition is doing and then do something similar. You can also use a tool like the Coschedule Headline Analyzerto tweak your first headline.

Once you have your first headline, its time to start testing other headlines. Here are a few guides on headline optimization and how to go about testing:

Your CTA (or calltoaction)is your best opportunity to tell a visitor on your website what action they should take and why they should take it. Netflixs homepage is a great example of a simple, yet effective calltoaction.

Social proof is the idea that consumers are more likely to convert when certain trust signals (e.g. social media followers/likes, testimonials, reviews, trust icons, etc.) are present.

Should you use a blue button or red button? Should the button be in the middle of the screen or to the right? A/B testing, also known as split testing, is how you answer these questions.

In this day and age, social media marketing is a wellknown internet marketing strategy.

But there is a misconception with social media that the whole goal is visibility with your current audience. This isnt always true.

Sure, social media is a great way to communicate with your current audience, but visibility and communication are not enough to grow a brand or business. You need people to share your stuff with their friends (and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends)!

But how do you get your current followers to share your brand or business with their followers? Content! Really, really freaking good content.

And here are a couple of individual social media tactics:

Dont advertise on Pinterest if you are trying to reach an older male audience. You wont see results. Why? Well, Pinterest is mostly female.

Before you start spending time marketing via social media, make sure you choose a marketing channel your audience is on.

You may not think of social media as a customer service tool, but it is one of the best out there.

Managing your reputation through an active social presence can save your business from negative press, or can increase positive hype your business could be experiencing.

Sometimes in marketing, you need to pay to play.

Paid advertising is where you pay a thirdparty to advertise on the ad space they own.

Some of the more wellknown are Google Adwords and Facebooks advertising platform, but there are many of them you can test out.

Most marketing channels take time before they start generating you a profit, but the beautiful thing about paid advertising is that it can provide an immediate return.

Below you will learn about some of the more wellknown paid advertising platforms.

Google Adwords is a form of paid advertising, also known as payperclick (PPC), where you pay every time someone clicks on your advertisement shown on either Googles Search or Display Network.

AdWords can be extremely powerful in driving targeted traffic to your website(s) or landing page(s).

YouTube has over 1 billion users with over 1 billion hours watched daily. Im just going to let that sink in for a minute

Thats a LOT of people you can reach with YouTube advertising.

Read the original here:
7 Timeless Internet Marketing Strategies (That You Should ...