In the times we live in, where everyone is inclined to the Internet, Social media and technological advancement, the need to stay relevant is a must. Nowadays, it is not enough to have a great product and service, you also have to have a strong online presence.
This question is what drives many businesses to solicit the efforts of an online marketing guru to take their operations to the next level.
One of the most beautiful aspects of online marketing is the plethora of strategies that you can adopt. Hence, in starting an online marketing business, you have to be familiar with these strategies.
Let’s look at six of them before we move to explore the best ways of starting an online marketing business.
Strategies
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Social Media marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Pay Per Click Advertising
- Search Engine marketing
Content Marketing
Some will say this is the bedrock of online marketing as there is no business that does not incorporate some form of content marketing into their strategy.
For this type of online marketing, content is used to create awareness, increase traffic to a website or social media pages, and generate leads.
You can use either of the following forms of content marketing to boost a company’s image.
- Blog Posts
- Whitepapers
- ebooks
- Podcasts
- Infographics
Email Marketing
If you are looking to help a company that is introducing a new product or offering a discount, then email marketing is one of the best options for your online marketing business.
You can do this by sending welcome emails, newsletters, and follow-up emails to ensure that the customers are always abreast of any information.
Social media marketing
This is probably one of the most popular forms of online marketing today. 92% of marketers use social media to promote products and services for their respective companies.
With more people developing a deeper appreciation and dependence on social media, it is only normal for people to maximize this area.
Currently, 93.4% of Internet users use social media making it one of the most accessible modes of marketing available.
Affiliate marketing
Since you are looking to start an online marketing business, one of the areas to explore will be Affiliate marketing.
They say no man is an island right? Well, affiliate marketing allows you to network with people who may have higher authority in the niche you are looking to penetrate.
For example, as an online marketing business, you could solicit the help of a blogger with higher site traffic to promote a company’s products.
You and the blogger will have to work out an arrangement in terms of remuneration and frequency of posts.
Pay Per Click
We all would have seen ads on Google and social media platforms as we surf the Internet, right?
This is a popular way that online marketing businesses and companies drive traffic to their website and offer their services to people.
So as these people search for products by typing the relevant keywords, your ads will pop up on the page.
As they click on that ad, you pay Google, Facebook, Instagram or whatever platform you are advertising on a particular fee.
Search Engine Marketing
Did you know that there are 3.8 million searches on Google every minute? This roughly translates to 5.6 billion searches every day.
The eye-opening statistics have enabled online marketing businesses to be able to utilize search engine optimization as one of their primary modes of generating traffic.
Since there are that many people searching for something every minute, you can increase your chances of visibility by adopting the right strategies.
By using keywords, metadata, and backlinks you can help a company increase its visibility when people search for related terms.
As much as it would be exciting to delve even more into these aforementioned online marketing strategies, this guide is exclusively meant to show you how to start your online marketing business the right way.
Step 1: Research
You will see in other guides for starting an online marketing business that the first thing to do is to promote yourself.
Now promoting yourself is great, but it should not be the first thing you should do.
You are entering into one of the most competitive spaces in business today, you cannot simply promote yourself and hope people will start patronizing you.
Besides, what if you start getting offers, there is no structure in place.
Trust us, you do not want to start your business without having a proper structure in place.
Take out time to look at the people who are into the online marketing business. Look at the people that are leading in that space and note some of the few things you like.
Step 2: Choose what form of online marketing service you will offer
This can be very tricky for many people starting out their online marketing career but thankfully, you have us. But seriously, looking at the different online marketing types that are available, it is very easy to get carried away.
However, each one of them has its own peculiarities for using them. So, their success is relative depending on how you use them, and the audience they are meant for.
It is best to identify your niche early, so do you want to specialize in social media marketing? If yes, you will still have to narrow your choice down a little bit.
Do you choose Facebook or Twitter? Also, ask yourself what type of companies you want to offer your services to?
When you consider these things you can then choose the best-suited type of online marketing for your business.
Here is a caveat, no one says you cannot combine two or more online marketing types, however, you need to have sufficient experience in those forms.
So another way of choosing the best suited online marketing form is by going for the area that you have the most experience in.
Step 3: Choose the best market
After you have carefully considered all the options and made your choice on the online marketing type to adopt.
It is now time to choose the best market that fits your choice.
Unfortunately, some people select online marketing types without looking for the best market. So, what happens is, that they have a great online marketing strategy but the audience or company is not tailored to that line.
Imagine choosing affiliate marketing as the major method when the company you are promoting has 90% of its audience on social media.
You want great results, so choose the best market that will maximize the potential of the online marketing type you have experience in.
Step 4: Pricing
For each online marketing service you are offering, there needs to be clear pricing packages for all.
This is because online marketing has different forms which may be interwoven or separate.
So you can put similar services in a package to help people with throttle choices.
Or you could have different prices for all your services without grouping them into packages.
The bottom line is you have to ensure that your prices are competitive.
So research similar services and look at what other people are offering.
Then set your price by using price skimming, dynamic pricing, value-based pricing or any other pricing strategy that would be great for you.
Step 5: A business plan
You need to have an overview of your business.
Have goals and objectives for different times of the year so you can have a framework that guides your success.
This is most times overlooked, but a business plan is important, it helps you stay on track no matter the issues.
In your business plan, you can highlight the type of clients you will go for.
Plus, look at the type of strategy you want to use to attract them as well.
Step 6: Get out there
There is no better time to get involved in online marketing than right now. Why do we say so?
Look at the number of people active on the Internet today, millions of people combing through the Internet searching for answers to different issues.
The first thing you need to do to get your online marketing business up and running is to promote yourself.
Maximize the powerful tool called social media. You will need to create different social media accounts for your business and promote yourself to let people know you offer online marketing services.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram are great options for you to choose from.
It is advisable that you create a website that is user-friendly. Now at this time you will have to use the strategies of online marketing yourself to show people what you offer.
So whether it is content marketing, social media marketing or pay Per Click, promote your online marketing services using the most appropriate methods.
Plug people to your website where you can grab their attention by showing them how you can solve their issues.
For many businesses, the dilemma is standing out from the crowd in their industry, so create a transparent strategy that addresses this pain point.
Conclusion
Now that you have seen what it takes to start an online marketing business, you know it is no small feat.
But you can still be successful even with the amount of competition there is.
So getting it right is the most important aspect and by contacting Ecomitize you are on your way to having a solid online marketing business.
