Online marketing is a huge opportunity because people are looking, and there’s a huge potential for people to find your business.
The thing is, it’s not about just using one or two tools, but it’s about using various tools together to maximize your success over time. Each tool has its own purpose, and you’ll notice that they all work together.
This will all start to make sense when you understand how your business gets found online.
How Do People Find Your Business Online?
First, it’s important to know that word of mouth or referrals are important to almost every business. And in today’s world, word of mouth happens online.
People share about their favorite businesses directly, share a piece of content, and even ask for reviews and recommendations from their friends and family.
When your business is online, you’ll have an opportunity to be a part of those conversations.
You can then manage those conversations and put your best foot forward.
Even when they hear about you from a friend, they’re likely to run a search for you to learn more about your business or organization and what you offer.
They may find and look at things like your website, social media profiles, reviews, or even your Google Business Profile.
Another scenario is that they don’t know about your business, but they know they need a certain product or service.
Regardless of the scenario, you’ll want to make sure your business shows up.
That means you’ll need various tools in your arsenal to increase your chances of being found. You’ve got to show up when people go looking and provide the information they’re looking for by answering their questions.
The 5 Must-Have Tools To Get Online
In order to set yourself up for success, there are five tools you’ll need. Some will be essential to showing up in search results, and others fulfill other tasks or goals in your digital marketing strategy.
You’ll need:
- A mobile-responsive website
- An email marketing tool
- One primary social channel
- Up-to-date business listings and review sites
- Easy way to create content
A mobile-responsive website: Your online hub
When consumers are searching for your business or what you offer, many are going to visit your website, they want to learn more about you.
So yes, even in today’s world, you still need a website for your business or organization.
One of the most important things is that you need a mobile-responsive website that looks good everywhere – on mobile devices and computers. It’s all about the experience of viewing and navigating your site – it should be easy.
And your website should have essential pages to answer the questions that people will have about what you offer.
That means your website needs to have at least 3 pages:
- Homepage
- About us page
- Contact us page
Plus, you’ll want to consider other pages depending on your industry or type of business or organization. For example, if you’re a restaurant, you’ll want to have a Menu page, if you’re a nonprofit or a service business, you’ll want to have a Services page.
The Homepage: Your front door
The homepage of your website is like the front door of your business.
Its purpose is to introduce visitors to your business and encourage them to take the next steps with you — to make a purchase, book a consultation, etc.
The homepage is often the first impression potential customers have of you and your brand, so you want to make it easy for visitors to quickly identify what you’re offering and the next steps they should take.
The real key here is to focus on how your business solves a specific problem people are having.
The About page: Share your story
The purpose of your website’s About page is to share the story of our organization.
Your story should focus on the problem you solve for your customers. People are looking for reassurance that you can deliver. Share what you do, your history, and your qualifications.
The big caveat here is that people don’t want to hear so much about you but how you can help them and solve their problems.
Contact us page: Your chance to connect
For this page, you’ll want to make it easy for visitors to find and contact you. Where you’re located, how to call you, how to email you, how to find you on social media, your hours, etc.
Customers won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to contact you, so make it easy.
Email marketing drives new and repeat business
No matter what people are telling you, email is NOT dead. In fact, email marketing has one of the best returns on investment (ROI) at $36 for every $1 spent — more than any other marketing channel.
Email marketing is how you drive business, you can reach and influence people, right in their inboxes. In addition, you have the ability to create and increase awareness of your business, drive revenue and profit, and boost repeat business.
Some people struggle with email marketing. And sometimes they’re only doing it because someone told them they needed to.
But email marketing is a key component of online marketing, and businesses often struggle simply because they don’t have a plan in place.
With that in mind, here are five steps to email marketing success:
- Plan for success
- Design for today’s audience
- Create emails to drive action
- Measure business impact
- Grow your list to grow your business
Listing and review sites provide critical information and feedback
No matter what type of business or organization you have, listing and review sites play an important role in getting found online.
In fact, eighty-seven percent of consumers read reviews online, and on average they read 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business.
To unleash the full potential of these tools for your business, ensure you’re presenting yourself in the best way possible and allowing consumers to find reviews about you.
Social Media builds and engages your audience
As one of the most popular marketing tools out there, social media offers a great way for consumers to find your business, for you to engage with them, and for you to encourage them to support your cause.
Start with one primary channel
Social media can become overwhelming if you try to do too much.
First, I suggest, picking one social media channel based on your business, your needs, the personality of the channel, and what you can do there.
Use that one channel to figure out what works and what doesn’t for your business and your audience. You can always expand later.
And when you do expand to other channels, take what you learned from managing your first channel and apply them here.
Remember, every channel has its own features and the way it works. So don’t post the exact same thing on every channel. Instead, modify it to suit the channel and the audience there.
Focus on 3 social media goals
Another challenge is figuring out what to post that actually gets results. Not everything is going to lead to a sale, but when you do it right, it helps to engage people and stay top of mind.
I suggest focusing on three main goals for your activities and time on social. You’ll want to create posts to:
- Generate awareness – let them know about your products, services, or business changes
- Drive action – ask for a donation, get them to buy, ask them to join your email list, etc.
- Provide customer service
In many cases, customers will search you out on social channels to ask a question or to even make a complaint. It’s important to pay attention to these and respond accordingly. A lot of it is going to be public, so how you respond helps you build trustworthiness and credibility with others.
Content increases your chance of getting found
Do you know those questions you get via email, on social media, on the phone, and in-person talking to your customers or clients?
There’s a good chance someone is out there searching for the answer to that question online.
That’s where content comes into play.
Content is what people search for, consume, and then share online — remember word of mouth?
It starts with a blog on your website
It all starts with a blog that is on your website’s domain.
Simply put, answer those questions you’re getting. This is your chance to demonstrate your expertise, provide value, and share helpful content.
Search engines love fresh blog content, so you’ll want to post on a regular basis.
This is the start of SEO (search engine optimization). At its core, it’s about delivering relevant and meaningful content to the people you’re trying to reach.
Content fuels other areas of your marketing
The great news is that when you spend the time and effort to create relevant content for your audience, it starts to fuel other areas of your marketing.
Save yourself time! Use the content to provide useful and valuable information in your emails and on social media.
Introducing Gamification to Your Marketing Strategy
More or less, you know what a game is: a structured form of play as a means of enjoyment and entertainment.
Gamification is a bit more complicated.
The Google definition of gamification is this: The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
Gamification’s purpose is to leverage the psychological drive behind games. It tries to apply all these elements that make games engaging wherever they can apply.
Benefits of Gamification
So why should you consider applying gamification if you still haven’t?
- It’s popular because it works. What used to be a pastime of a minority of ‘geeks’ or ‘nerds’ now has become an industry bigger than Hollywood. It’s more likely that someone will enjoy gamification, so it is a reliable mechanism. Gamification can be part of a valid strategy.
- It makes the user experience more enjoyable and thus more engaging.
- It increases user acquisition through word of mouth and social sharing.
- It’s cheap to implement in comparison to other mechanisms.
- It helps with customer data gathering. Gamification encourages users to provide info about themselves with incentives such as points, badges, and achievements.
- It increases brand loyalty. A positive app experience reinforces brand acceptance.
Where to begin?
The “Wheel of Fortune” Widget
No one can deny the power of the Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune ranks as the longest-running game show in the United States, being on the air since 1975. The concept of the “Wheel of Fortune” is straightforward: It’s all about FUN! It’s not just reading words on a screen or watching an exciting video. It’s the whole process of trying to hit your target, plus it involves some type of prize.
A Wheel of Fortune Widget is possibly the most simple and easy way to implement a gamification marketing strategy.
Wheel of Fortune is easy to set up as a widget for your website. New website visitors who are browsing your site will be presented with the opportunity to spin the wheel for a chance to win one of several great prizes. Once the user turns the wheel, they are presented with the opportunity to receive their gift by providing their email address.
Unlike traditional email pop-up offers which typically generate 1-2% email signups, the Wheel of Fortune usually averages 6-8% email signup rates making it one of the most powerful tools for savvy online marketers to take advantage of.
The Wheel of Fortune works best with discounts and promotional items. You may also choose to propose your products and services.
Where to Apply Gamification?
Introduction to Your Platform
Let’s start off with an example. Steam, the popular PC game retailer has a thing for badges. In addition to the selling of games per se, there is also a gamification layer on top. This is how it works: The moment you sign up, your Steam profile is at level 0. Badges give you XP and XP increases your level. Did you become the owner of your first ten games? Here’s a badge. Did you become a beta tester for a new feature? Here’s another. Do you want to know what you can do with Steam? Do all these actions and get your first level (and a badge!).
Competitions
Running a contest is the easiest to participate in for your customers. Reward your visitors with unique gifts. Ask them to add their e-mail and after a draw pick the winner!
There are some points to note here:
- Ensure that your contest is not too product-centric
- Incorporate some elements of fun and intrigue
Promo Code Giveaways
Offers and discounts are one of the reasons why people gravitate toward your Facebook Fan Page or Instagram Account. Reward your site’s visitors with promo code giveaways. That could be 10% off, 20% off, etc.
Engaging Visitors
Simple as that. Gamification is an easy way to boost your engagement with your customers and provide a frequent reason for them to return to your site. It will help your site to stay top of mind. Like with Steam, your level XP remain the same since the last time, and your mission is to gain more. There is a sense of purpose and continuity.
