Which Internet Marketing Strategy Works Best? 

SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and Pay-Per-Click ads are the best internet marketing strategies.

To reach more customers online, where do you focus your budget and time?

Here are the most effective digital marketing strategies.

• Search Engine Optimization
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Pay Per Click advertisement
• Email Marketing

1. Search Engine Optimization 

SEO is everything you do to help search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo understand your content so that they can serve it to users looking for such content. 

The more (and accurate) information Google knows about your business, the easier it is to show it to internet users looking for your business.

For example, when someone searches for “travel agency near me.,” they get results like this one below. (Tour agencies near Nairobi) 

The agency owners register their businesses on Google My Business to appear for local searches on Google. That’s SEO. 

But only a part of it.

When the agency owners buy domain names for their businesses, they give Google more information about their agency. 

And within their website, they can write content surrounding search terms like “holiday packages.”

And within their business blog, they can answer questions that would-be travelers have. For example, “should I visit Mombasa?”

All of the above practices increase the chances of reaching potential buyers searching for information on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. They’re all part of SEO.

Another SEO dimension is when other websites link to your website. 

For example, a travel agency could get a backlink from a blog post doing a round-up of the best travel agencies.

So, SEO has approaches like adding your business information on Google My Business, creating a website where you target keywords that your buyers use to research your product/service, interlinking your internal pages, and building backlinks to your website.

SEO is divided into:

• On-page SEO – using keywords in your web pages
• Offpage SEO – getting backlinks 
• Technical SEO – improving your site’s overall user experience (more loading speed, mobile-friendliness, etc)
• Local SEO – signing up on local directories, Google My Business, Yahoo Local Business, Bing Places for Business, etc.

While SEO hacks and search engine algorithms keep evolving, they all lead to the same goal; improving your audience’s experience. It means helping your market find the information they need faster, describing your product/services using the terms that they use, ensuring your website looks good on mobile devices and loads quickly, and providing valuable content on your blog. 

2. Content marketing

Content marketing involves giving your readers helpful information to solve a certain problem on your website, social media pages, and email. For example, you could share how-to articles on organizing a successful trip if you run a tour company.

Informative content typically guides your readers in the buying process. 

For example, when a potential customer watches a video of a park you visited, they’ll understand what you do better. 

Content marketing also helps establish your brand as an authority in your niche. 

For example, when you answer a customer’s questions surrounding the best places to visit in Nairobi, they’ll be confident to consult you about a trip they’re planning. 

A great example of this strategy’s success is Ahrefs – an SEO (search engine optimization) tool that helps businesses do keyword research, find backlink opportunities, analyze competitors, and more. 

Ahrefs has invested heavily in creating informational content on SEO to help their audience rank higher on Google. 

But as Ahrefs teach their audience how to improve their Google ranking, they also teach them how to use their SEO tools. 

For instance, in this content creation post, they teach their readers how to create blog posts that rank. 

As they write about keyword research, they mention their Keywords Explorer tool, which their audience could use to make their keyword research more effective. They bring up the tool, so naturally, you can hardly resist signing up.

Consequently, Ahrefs has gained great authority in digital marketing due to its unique valuable insights. 

The company was founded in 2011, and as of July 2021, Ahrefs had an estimated annual revenue of  $100 million.

That’s an admirable success, right?

The most important steps to follow in implementing this strategy in your business are:

1. Establish your marketing goal

Understand the reason you are creating content. Is it to boost brand awareness? Increase sales leads?

Defining your goals will help you set targets that you will use to gauge your success. 

For example, a goal for a traveling company could be “get 100 new customers in 1 month.

To make sure you keep track of your goals, you could:

• Write down your goals in Google Sheets.
• Use a goal-tracking app such as Strides to gauge your progress.
• Use a calendar program such as Google Calendar.

2. Understand your audience 

Defining your audience will help you create content that appeals to them.

So, you need to find out your target audience’s demographics, what kind of content appeals to them, etc.

Here are a few tips to understand your target audience:

• Look in online forums such as Reddit or Quora to see the questions raised by people in your target market.
• Look at previous interactions (e.g., messages) with your audience and assess the issues they brought forth.
• Look out how your audience engages with your social media platforms.
• Analyze your competitors’ audience because they’re also your target audience.

3. Plan your content production schedule

Based on your ideal audience persona, decide what topics to write about and when to post them. 

You can create an editorial calendar on Google Sheets or Excel to schedule when a given content piece goes live. 

I prefer Sheets because it saves your data in real-time. Plus, you can easily share the links with your editorial team.

3. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to promote your business products and services.

There are over 4.55 billion people active on social media globally. And out of this vast number of users, 54% use social media to research products and interact with brands online. 

It is therefore impossible to overrule social media marketing as one of the most effective ways to realize your marketing goals. 

Mercedes had one of the most remarkable social media campaigns in history. 

The company aimed at connecting with the younger generation as they released the all-new CLA series. They hired 5 top influencers and launched an Instagram campaign which was a massive success. 

The campaign earned them 87,000,000 organic Instagram impressions, 150 new marketing assets, and 2,000,000 Instagram likes.

Mercedes became the leading luxury automaker seller in the USA, surpassing BMW, which most young buyers previously preferred. 

More so, 47% of the consumers who visited the CLA-class page were under 35 years old.

To incorporate social media marketing in your business:

1. Define your objectives and select a platform to start.

It is wise to focus on one or two platforms that resonate better with your business rather than starting on all the platforms.

Consider your target audience to decide on which platform to focus more on. For example, Instagram would be the best to target the younger generation.

2. Come up with a catchy and memorable name that reflects your brand.

3. Create engaging posts and schedule when they go live.

To create engaging:

• Use your original photos and infographics
• Make your posts brief 
• Use appropriate hashtags

4. As your business takes off, assemble a social media team.

Maintaining a solid social media presence is demanding, and you might not be able to do it all by yourself.

 You’ll need help with the social media content, videos, and graphics, as well as the analytics. 

Since your budget may not be enough to hire a team on a full-time basis, you can hire skilled freelancers on platforms such as Upwork. 

Interested in social media?

Check out our detailed social media marketing for small businesses right here. 

4. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

As the name suggests, you pay for every click generated to your website from an ad for the pay-per-click strategy. One of the most common forms of PPC marketing is Search Engine Marketing. 

PPC works because your ad appears to someone looking to buy your product. For example, someone looking to buy a customized t-shirt would search for something like “custom t-shirts for men.” With this in mind, you’d use these keywords in your ad. 

Unbounce found out that traffic generated from PPC is 50% more likely to purchase than people who click on organic listings (articles). That’s because people who click on articles are looking for information, while those who click on ads actually intend to buy. 

More so, a study done by Stitcherads revealed that 58% of millennials and Generation Z buy products through social media ads, with a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) option.

In the wrath of the pandemic, businesses were severely hit, and The Recycled Candle Company was no different.

After closing their store due to the lockdowns, the firm turned to digital marketing and embarked on a PPC campaign to keep their business afloat. 

The campaign skyrocketed their clicks by a whopping 52%, and their business surpassed their original revenue target by 44.7%, with an 11.18 times return on investment.

To incorporate this strategy in your marketing campaign:

1. Decide where to run the campaign.

You can go for programs like Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising. Create an account and go through their requirements.

2. Decide on which keywords to bid on and set your bids for various keywords.

The keywords chosen determine who sees your ads. To come up with the keywords:

• Brainstorm keywords and phrases searchers and likely to use to find your business.
• Incorporate some local keywords as per your location

3. Craft your ad and link it to an appropriate landing page on your site.

To come up with a great ad:

• Clearly state what your business is offering and include your Unique Value Propositions
• Create attention-grabbing headlines
• Highlight your Unique Selling Proposition
• Include a compelling call-to-action

Since a character limit binds you, make every character click-worthy and eliminate unnecessary words that may elongate your ad.

You can learn more about creating PPC ads that work here.

5. Email marketing 

Email marketing entails sending informative or promotional emails to your subscribers. 

A study by litmus established that email marketing has an average Return On Investment (ROI) of 3600%, that is, $36 return for every $1 invested. 

What’s more, email marketing influences the buying decision of 59% of customers.  

                                                         Source

Dell broke the conventions of email marketing while launching the XPS 12 convertible Ultrabook. They crafted a super creative, GIF-centered email to introduce their new product to the customers, which resulted in a 109% increase in revenue.

Outstanding, huh!

Their success paints a clear picture of how well email marketing can go.

To get started with email marketing: 

1. Sign up for an email marketing provider

There are numerous email providers to choose from, such as:

• Constant Contact
• AWeber 
• MailChimp

Take a look at their offers and pricing and settle for the one that best suits you.

2. Gather contacts and add them to your email marketing account

To get people to opt-in to your email list, you can place a simple email newsletter signup form on various pages of your website. To make it even more persuasive, offer them an opt-in reward such as a free ebook or a voucher. 

3. Practice crafting persuasive emails.

To create a compelling email:

• Create a persuasive and authentic subject line
• Make your pre-header text enticing 
• Keep the email content clear and concise
• Keep your email conversational and infuse the personality of your business   

       Source 

Conclusion

From the above case studies and statistics, Blogging, Pay-Per-Click, Email, and Social Media marketing strategies prove to be effective internet marketing strategies for reaching potential customers and boosting sales. 

Whichever strategy you adopt, take time to understand the customers’ real issues and address them swiftly to earn and retain their confidence in your business. 

People only engage and buy from brands they trust.