Posted By 
By Alex Alexakis
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Marketing your business online is crucial in the competitive marketplace of the 21st century. This is the case whether your business operates exclusively online, only in the brick and mortar world, or both online and in the proverbial “real world.”
As you contemplate your online marketing plan, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. You do want to put your own unique spin on your online marketing efforts for your business. However, there are some tried and true general strategies you will want to consider when developing your own online marketing plan for your business. Indeed, there are five specific tips you will want to keep in mind when it comes to your online business marketing endeavors.
1.) Fully leverage Social Media
In order to most effectively market your business online, you need to understand that social media is not just for socializing any longer. Indeed, that has been the case for some time. The effective marketing of your business demands that you fully leverage social media.
Research into social media and business marketing reveals that utilizing a platform like Facebook or Instagram can prove to be twice as effective as email marketing and telemarketing, according to CIO, a leading magazine on digital marketing.
Some business owners initially balk at the idea of integrating social media into their overall marketing plan. In the end, social media need not be overwhelming.
The best course to take to begin fully leveraging social media into a comprehensive marketing scheme is to commence the process slowly. What this means is you can begin to develop a successful, compelling social media effort by initiating the process through the use of one platform.
Focus your initial attention on a social media platform that appears to be favored by your customers or clients, as well as by opinion leaders in your industry or market segment. This may be Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. From beginning with one social media platform as part if your comprehensive marketing efforts, you can build over time and truly fully leverage appropriate social media options.
2.) Use Pay-Per-Click advertising
Another methodology you can employ to develop an effective online marketing regimen for your business is utilizing pay-per-click advertising. Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising allows you to place ads in certain locations online, including at social media sites.
PPC advertising permits you the ability to highly target your advertising. You truly can focus on a very precise market segment, a process that works to optimize your overall return on the investment you make in advertising dollars. With PPC advertising, you only pay when a potential client or customer actually clicks on your advertisement.
3.) Prepare and distribute Press Releases
Often, a business interested in pursuing an effective online marketing effort overlooks the value of press releases. The reality is a press released provides a business owner a powerful tool through which content or information can be widely distributed across both global and local channels.
In this day and age, there are large press release services on the internet that assist their clients both in preparing proper releases and in distributing online. These press release firms provide a business with an array of different press release preparation and distribution options in a spectrum of different prices.
4.) Blog consistently (at least twice a week)
An ever growing number of businesses are coming to realize how effective blogging can be as part of an overall marketing plan for a business. Blogging not only allows a business the ability to convey important, detailed information, regular blogging also aids a business in enhancing its overall visibility online.
Although there is not formula set in concrete for blogs and blogging, many business owners who have utilized blogging for some time have landed on some suggestions. Perhaps the most significant realization of longer term bloggers is that posting blog content at least twice a week is highly beneficial when it comes to enhancing the visibility of a business.
Blogging bestows other benefits on a business. For example, regular blogging aids in setting a particular business apart from the pack. Blogging can help a business become recognized as a true expert in a particular field or on a specific topic.
5.) Develop & implement an online marketing plan
One way in which many business enterprises fail to make the most of their online marketing efforts is because they limit themselves. These businesses actually limit themselves when it comes to online marketing in a number of different ways.
First and foremost, often a business fails to take a comprehensive approach to online marketing. For example, a business may justifiably start an online marketing campaign using a social media platform like Facebook. However, a business may fail to expand its efforts beyond Facebook. Indeed, a business may lock into only one type of marketing scheme at Facebook itself.
In the final analysis, a business gets the most out of its online marketing efforts by taking a truly broad, comprehensive approach. A business nearly always is best served taking advantage of a variety of different marketing options. This can, and should, include the use of more than one social media platform as well as the utilization of tools and resources like email promotion and press release distribution.
In addition to taking a comprehensive approach to online marketing, a business needs to strive to make sure its various promotional endeavors at undertaken in a coordinated fashion. For example, the same message should be conveyed via different online marketing portals simultaneously utilized.
Alex Alexakis is a UI Designer, SEO addict that helps businesses with their branding and SEO through his business PixelChefs. After hours he likes good food, Weimaraners, and toy robots. He has boldly build digital businesses by designing for conversion and offering a no-nonsense approach to internet marketing.
