Online marketing has become a necessity for businesses today.

The reason being, consumers are now using their smartphones and tablets to access information. This means that they are also looking for companies that offer them quality services through those channels.

If you want to succeed in the digital age, then you need to leverage online marketing strategies.

Online marketing is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your goals. If you want to increase sales or generate leads, then you should consider using online marketing strategies.

In this article, I'll share some useful tips to get started.

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What Is Online Marketing?

Unlike traditional marketing practices which mainly involves printed media, online marketing is the practice of leveraging web technologies and Internet platforms to promote your business, whether you have a physical store, online shop, blog or website.

Another difference between online and traditional methods of marketing is the fact that traditional marketing attempts to increase sales whereas online marketing also attempts to provide value to the consumer.

Online marketing is often referred to as internet marketing.

It is a term that came about in the late 1990s when marketers began to use the internet as a way to market products and services.

And yes, while online marketing may sound similar to digital marketing, it is actually vitally different. Digital marketing is not just limited to the internet as online marketing is, it includes anything digital such as SMS marketing, TV ads, or digital billboards.

Online marketing is in fact only one part of the greater digital marketing puzzle.

The various types of online marketing are:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
3. Affiliate Marketing
4. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
5. Email Marketing
6. Content Marketing

The main goal of online marketing is to incorporate these types into an effective strategy that reaches consumers by targeting online channels.

Why?

Because most people spend a huge proportion of their day online.

How Can Online Marketing Benefit Your eCommerce Business?

There are many advantages to using online marketing as part of your marketing strategy. So many in fact that we think you would be crazy to not go into work the very next day and come up with an online marketing plan of your own.

Here are just some of the benefits online marketing brings to your eCommerce business:

Relatively Low Cost

Online marketing is an affordable form of marketing.

For most small businesses, it's cheaper than advertising on television or radio. You don't even need a large budget to start.

Majority of the types of online marketing can be done for close to nothing if necessary.

Even with PPC marketing, you only pay if someone clicks on your ad.

Build And Maintain Customer Relationships

Having your business where your target audience spends the majority of their day is a great way to reinforce your relationship with them. It is also much more convenient for them.

Convenience is one of the biggest factors influencing buying decisions. When they can find what they're looking for easily, they will buy from you. This is especially true for customers who prefer shopping online.

Improves Your Lead Generation And Quality

Lead generation is another big advantage of online marketing. Lead Generation is the process of identifying potential customers for your product or service.

This can be done in many ways including cold calling, emailing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and advertising. Most of those strategies fall under the online marketing umbrella.

Increases Your Conversion Rate And Sales

Of course, when you increase your marketing efforts it is assumed that your sales will increase too. Online marketing helps to build trust between you and your potential customers.

This builds credibility and increases the chances of converting leads into customers.

The Success Is Measurable

Thanks to the many analytics tools available the success of your online marketing campaigns is easily measurable. You can track how many visitors you get, how long they stay on your site, which pages they visit, etc.

These numbers help you determine whether you should invest more time and money into your online marketing campaign.

Improved Flexibility and Adaptability

Unlike with traditional marketing methods which are hard to adapt if needed, online marketing methods can be adapted in an instant. If the situation you find yourself in changes, your marketing efforts can change accordingly. Most types of online marketing can be deleted or edited after the fact.

Increased Personalization

Online marketing can be more personalized than other forms of marketing. With online marketing, you have the ability to create different messages based on your target market. The message can be tailored to each individual user depending on his interests.

Precise Consumer Targeting

Another advantage of online marketing is the fact that you can target specific groups of consumers. You can use demographic data to pinpoint exactly who your ideal customers are.

You can then tailor your messaging specifically to appeal to these individuals.

Better Brand Awareness

When you use online marketing, you can reach new customers who might not have heard of your brand before. In addition, you can reach out to existing customers and remind them of your existence. This means that you can improve your brand awareness which is important for building your reputation.

When you have a strong brand awareness, you'll get more traffic and conversions.

People will know exactly what you offer and how you can help them. In turn, they will be more likely to visit your website and make a purchase.

Improves Brand Engagement

Brand engagement is one of the biggest benefits of using online marketing.

When you engage your audience, you show them that you care about their opinions and preferences. By doing so, you encourage them to keep coming back to your site and engaging with your content.

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13 Online Marketing Best Practices For Leveraging It To Your Advantage

As shown above, online marketing brings plenty of benefits to your business, however, you can't just run any old online marketing campaign and expect it to yield results.

You have to carefully plan your online campaign so that it is as effective as possible.

There are a number of best practices you can implement into your strategy in order for you to make the most out of online marketing:

1. Have A Clear Goal & Strategy On-Hand

Having a clear goal is crucial when running any type of marketing campaign, as is having a marketing strategy in place. Without these two things, you won't be able to measure your progress and gauge whether your efforts are paying off because you will have nothing to refer back to.

2. Know Your Target Audience

In order to have an online marketing strategy that your target audience relates to, you need to first know who your audience is and what the potential channels are that they are using. 

Knowing this information allows you to focus your efforts where they will be most effective.

3. Use Social Media To Your Advantage

Social media has become a very popular tool for businesses looking to connect with their customers. Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., gives you access to millions of people who want to hear from you.

A marketing platform worth mentioning if your target audience is younger than most, is TikTok.

This short-form video sharing platform is a fun new way of marketing.

4. Always Link Back To Your eCommerce Store

There is no point in having an amazing online marketing strategy if it doesn't link back to your eCommerce store.

Use a call to action button to make it clear what you are expecting your target audience to do next. The more convenient the better.

Image source: MarketSplash

5. Create An Organic Email List

If you are going to be using email marketing in your strategy then we suggest creating an organic email list. Email lists are a powerful way to market your products and services. They allow you to stay in touch with your customers and prospects, build trust, and ultimately generate leads.

An organic email list is made up of real people who have opted in to receive emails from you. These people are interested in hearing from you and they are more likely to respond to your messages than someone who was added to your mailing list through an ad or other method.

6. Use Both Paid And Free Strategies

The sweet spot for online marketing is a combination of paid and free strategies.

Yes, the free strategies that are available to you can benefit your business, but paying a bit of money will push your campaign (and your sales) over the top.

7. Create Engaging, Eye-Catching, And Relevant Content

If you're going to try to sell something, you should always start by creating relevant content. If people don't find your content useful or interesting, they aren't going to bother reading it.

Not only should your content be relevant it must also be engaging and eye-catching.

Keep an eye out for any design trends that may be worth incorporating into your content.

There is an overload of content available online so you need to make sure yours stands out from the crowd.

Perhaps experimenting with motion design is the best way to get some attention!

But be warned, if you're going to create great content, you need to be consistent with it!

8. Use The Right Keywords To Improve Your SEO

SEO marketing is one thing but making sure that your keywords are optimized correctly is another.

You need to use the right keywords to improve your search engine rankings. This means that you need to choose words that are relevant to your product or service and that people would naturally search for.

Image source: MarketSplash

9. Everything Must Be Mobile Friendly

The majority of your target audience will be accessing your content using their mobile phone. So, if you are not building content that is mobile-friendly, you are missing out on a huge chunk of traffic. 

Make sure that all of your content loads fast and looks good on any device.

10. Track Your Campaigns

It is important to track the success of your campaign because this helps you understand how effective your efforts were. Tracking allows you to see where your campaigns are succeeding and which ones are failing.

11. Omnichannel Marketing May Just Be Your New Best Friend

Omnichannel marketing is a powerful tool where you combine different marketing channels together to reach your target audience. 

• For example, you may:
  • advertise on television,
  • radio,
  • and billboards.

• Or you could:
  • create a social media post and send it to your email list.

You get the idea.

Image source: MarketSplash

12. Be As Personalized As Possible

Personalizing your marketing efforts is key. Personalization helps to connect with your customers and makes them feel like you are talking directly to them. This builds trust and loyalty between you and your customer.

People want to feel special and when you treat them like family, they are much more willing to buy from you.

13. Use The Available Online Marketing Tools

If this all seems like a brain overload to you don't worry, there are lots of online marketing tools available for you to use. Use these tools correctly and you can have them do most of the brunt work for you.

Online marketing tools help you automate many aspects of your marketing strategy.

Some of the tools worth mentioning include:

• MailChimp: automating your emails and managing your email lists has never been easier
• Outfunnel: easily connect your marketing apps to your sales tools
• Ahrefs: provides you with all your SEO and keyword needs
• Sprout Social: a social media management tool, of course
• Google Analytics: tracking the success of your online marketing campaigns has never been easier
• Tapfiliate: it is time to jump onto the affiliate marketing train, and Tapfiliate is here to help you on your way
• Wecantrack: a convenient platform that allows you to combine your affiliate marketing tools and a large variety of other marketing tools - all in one neat dashboard.
• Hubspot: an all in one platform for sales, customer service, CRM and, you guessed it, marketing

Conclusion

Online marketing is a key strategy in today's digital era, without it you and your eCommerce store will get left behind and forgotten by consumers and competitors alike. As you can see online marketing is very complex, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

With the right mindset and the right tools at hand, you can achieve anything.

All you have to do is follow the best practices that we have listed above and you are on your way to online marketing success.

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Author bio:

Darya Jandossova Troncoso is a photographer, artist, and writer working on her first novel and managing a digital marketing blog - MarketSplash. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, creating art, and learning everything there is to know about digital marketing.