Almost 75% of the U.S. population uses the internet in a given year, and 96% of U.S. shoppers make purchases on the internet. Many times people prefer to avoid crowds and traffic, and therefore find online shopping ideal.
When your Tucson business does marketing online, you’re grabbing a piece of this market. You don’t want to miss out on the huge number of people who discover new products through Google. You also don’t want to lose customers because they prefer not to come into the store!
Instead, use marketing online to grow your business. There are a variety of ways you can market your business online, and this guide will introduce you to many of them.
Let’s get started!
Marketing Online Through Your Website
The first step to any online marketing strategy is to have a responsive website that is well-designed and easy to use. It should feature your company’s name, logo, and brand colors.
Your site can’t just be pretty, though. It needs to actually bring people in, help them trust your company, and create sales.
As you create your website, pay attention to the copy, or writing, that’s on the page. It should be targeted to a clearly identified target audience, such as moms between ages 25 – 40. The content should be relevant to your ideal market.
Secondly, you want to make sure you use the right keywords on your website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps ensure your site is found in searches on Google, Bing, or other engines.
Your website design should also be dynamic, which makes it easier create and update. With dynamic design, you can better track how your users are approaching your site, what works, and what doesn’t.
Finally, there should be a lead generation freebie on your site to attract visitors and build your mailing list. With a free report, free sample, or another attractive offer, you can get people to sign up for additional marketing communication.
When people visit your website, join your marketing list, and make purchases online, your business will grow quickly. You won’t have to hire any additional employees to serve these customers, either – the internet will take care of it!
Boost SEO Through PPC Advertising
SEO will help you be found in search engine results, but it takes time to be really effective. In the meantime, boost your results from marketing online by using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising methods.
You can create a PPC campaign in Google Adwords or Bing Ads. You should select keywords that someone would type in if they were looking for your product. Some keywords have very high competition – try focusing on moderate to low competition to keep costs down.
When you use PPC, you don’t have to worry as much about how Google decides to rank search results. Instead, you can rest assured your company is showing up when people search for relevant keywords. You can target specific groups with your message, making it relevant and timely.
When you’re able to reach your ideal customers with a relevant and timely message, your business can’t help but grow. Your brand will become more recognizable, and more people will be buying from you. You may even have increased traffic in your store!
As you focus your marketing online in this way, you’ll be able to see what’s working and what’s not. Some online ads will perform better than others, and by tweaking your campaign, you’ll be able to improve your results day after day.
Use Social Media for Increased Visibility
Social media is a big deal. The largest platform is Facebook, but Instagram and Pinterest also have promising audiences. You can use social media in two ways: for natural, organic outreach and with paid ads.
Organic Outreach on Social Media
Spending time on social media platforms and building relationships takes time, but it’s also the most authentic way to grow your business online.
On Facebook, create a business page and a business profile. It’s best if the business profile is in the name of someone who leads your company, such as the owner or marketing director.
From there, friend people, share relevant information, make live videos showing behind-the-scenes shots of your business, and more. You can share interesting articles and invite people to like your company page.
On Instagram, the idea is similar. Create a profile and share beautiful pictures of your products, store location, local area, and more. You don’t have to be a professional photographer, but it’s important to make your shots as beautiful as possible.
You can use hashtags on Instagram that are local to your area, like #TucsonBeauty and #ShopTucson. This will help local folks find your posts and learn more about you.
Paid Advertising on Social Media
To move more quickly with getting noticed on social media, consider marketing online with paid advertising opportunities. Facebook, in particular, is well-known for their excellent targeting and low-cost options. You can run a Facebook campaign for as little as $5 per day.
Paid ads allow you to select specific attributes of a platform’s audience and show them your posts in their regular feeds. For instance, on Facebook you can choose to target not only age, gender, occupation, and location, but interests and recent buying habits as well.
Instagram also allows you to create and save ideal audiences in this way. In fact, the platform uses the same tools as Facebook. On Instagram, you can create photo ads, video ads, or carousel ads.
Paid social media advertising grows your Tucson business by putting you in front of your ideal customers in a place where they spend a lot of time. In 2017, 81% of the U.S. population had a social media profile, and usage is only going up!
Follow Prospects with Retargeting
Suppose someone visits your website, clicks on an ad, or views your promoted post on social media. Unfortunately, they don’t follow through and make a purchase. Are they lost forever?
No! The good news is that you can continue to put your message in front of them using retargeting. Very few shoppers will make a purchase the first time they visit your site, but with repeated reminders, the likelihood of a sale increases.
Retargeting, which is also called remarketing, uses a simple Javascript code to follow your audience across the web anonymously. When someone visits your website, a browser cookie is dropped. When this visitor visits other websites afterward, your retargeting provider will show them ads related to your products.
One of the reasons retargeting can be so effective is that it can be very specific. If someone was browsing a particular product, you can use retargeting to remind them of it when they browse other sites.
Your ads can recapture their interest, which will lead to them returning to your site. On your site, they can buy the item they were looking at, and perhaps a few other things as well!
With retargeting, you can grow your business because you’re consistently reminding prospects of what they’re missing. It’s one of the most effective methods of marketing online.
The Many Benefits of Marketing Online
Using online marketing levels the playing field between big businesses and smaller ones. If you are a small or medium-sized business, you don’t have to worry about being “priced out” of reaching ideal customers.
Instead, you can use digital marketing strategies to reach a very targeted ideal market without breaking the bank. In fact, you’ll find that marketing online is much more cost-effective than traditional avenues!
With so many customers shopping online, using social media, and looking for information on search engines, you’ll find that your online marketing methods are quite successful. Digital marketing converts, plain and simple.
Most of all, with marketing online you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can test different PPC ads against each other, and double down on the one that works best. You can see the conversion rate of your social media marketing.
You’ll definitely be able to see if your social media audience and engagement is growing. All of these real-time feedback methods give you a chance to tweak your approach and maximize impact. Traditional marketing doesn’t allow that!
Get Started With Online Marketing Today
It can be intimidating to imagine going it alone in marketing online. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Our digital marketing experts are here to help you with every aspect of your online outreach.
Whether you’re looking for help with web design, SEO, paid ads, or social media marketing, we have exactly what you need. There’s no reason to miss out on the sales and growth your business can gain online.
Contact us for more information today!