An Introduction to Online Marketing for Beginners

Online marketing can seem scary, especially for beginners. As a business owner, you probably have other things that aren’t internet-based services. It’s easy to feel like online marketing is the reserve of large corporations with big budgets and lots of time spent on social media. However, it doesn’t have to be that way!  

Online marketing isn’t reserved for big businesses; it’s accessible to everyone, and the benefits are apparent. With a well-executed online marketing strategy, you can easily reach millions of people around the world at a minimal cost. 

Online marketing is an excellent way to measure ROI (return on investment) and assess which aspects are working and which need some tweaking. 

In this blog post, we’ll discuss what online marketing is and the different components, including organic traffic (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, & paid marketing. 

Let’s get started!

What is online marketing?

Every day, the number of individuals using the internet grows worldwide. As of 2022, more than 4.95 billion people use the internet. This makes marketing online crucial for business success.

Online marketing is promoting a brand and selling products or services using digital technologies, such as social media, search engines, websites, landing pages, etc. It involves developing marketing strategies to attract, engage, and convert web visitors into customers.

Online marketing, however, is broad. To be successful in online marketing, you must learn, develop and apply the right digital marketing strategies.

Components of online marketing

Several components make up an online marketing strategy. These components equip your digital marketing plan for success when executed well, and they include:

• Organic Traffic (SEO)
• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Paid Marketing, etc.

Web design and video production are also part of the online marketing components because they help create a more cohesive online presence for your company.

Now let’s discuss in more detail each of these components.

Organic Traffic (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is improving the visibility of a website, eCommerce platform, or any form of content in search engines so potential customers can find you at the right time when they want a solution to a need.

Organic traffic is free to implement, but it does take some time for new businesses before they begin to see results.

Well-executed organic traffic (SEO) drives visitors to your business website without any paid advertisement. As of the writing of this article, more than 3.9 billion searches are processed daily on Google.

So, a small business owner must make sure their SEO strategy is done right to capture some of this free traffic via search engines like Google, YouTube, or Bing. 

There are two types of SEO:

• On-page SEO 
• Off-page SEO

On-page SEO is about optimizing your web page content to be more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). You achieve this by focusing on factors you can control on your website, such as keyword density, headings, meta descriptions, alt text, etc.

Off-page SEO refers to all activities that affect a site’s ranking in SERPs but are not related directly to the content or code on its website. These include internal, external, backlinks, business listings, etc.

Social Media

Social media marketing is an online marketing that uses social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote your business. 

On the average global internet, users spend two hours and 3 minutes daily on social media, so it’s a great tactic to get your business in front of where people are spending time.

So how do you get started?

Businesses can use social media marketing methods to reach their target audiences. Some of the most common methods include paid advertising campaigns, content creation, social networking, etc. 

However, it is best to focus on one or two social media channels to engage your target audience. Growing an audience on several platforms can be overwhelming, especially for small businesses with a tight budget.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to engage with your customers, educate, build awareness, build loyalty and sell. It is one of the most cost-effective and measurable marketing channels. 

The best part is that as a small business or a beginner in online marketing, you can get started for free on some email providers, and you get to pay only when you reach a specific limit on your email list.

What comes to mind when we hear about engagements are social media platforms. But statistics show that email is 40 times more likely to bring in a new consumer than Facebook or Twitter. This proves that email surpasses many social media platforms for engagements.

Any right-thinking business should add email marketing as a digital marketing strategy. 

A crucial part of email marketing is building an email list, but it starts with having an optimized website. If you don’t have a website, check out our artificial intelligence design assistant (AIDA), which will help you build an optimized website in minutes so you can focus on your business.

Paid Marketing

There are many ways to promote your small business online, but one of the most effective is paid marketing. According to a Google Economic Impact Report, businesses generate $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads.

Paid marketing includes everything from advertising on social media and Google ads to banner ads on your website. 

However, as the name suggests, paid marketing is not free, and you should be prepared to invest time and money into it. 

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to paid marketing is that you need to have a plan. You need to take the time to create a plan that considers your business budget and timeline and then execute it.

It’s also essential to track your results to see how successful your campaigns are or if you need to tweak them for a better result. 

Look for metrics such as “Reach” and “Click-through rate, transactions, etc. Another thing to remember is that paid marketing isn’t for everyone. If you’re just starting, you may not have the budget yet, so it’s best to test it before investing entirely in paid ads.

Key takeaways

Now that we discussed the core components of internet marketing, you can see how they all come together to make a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Here are the key takeaways we want you to note.

Organic Traffic (SEO):

• Use SEO as a long-term strategy to help your business (website, eCommerce platform)  get found online. However, start doing it now; it’s free.

Social Media:

• Social media can be both paid and free. It is an excellent tool for engaging with your audience. However, focus on one or two key channels where your brand will most likely reach its target audience.

Email Marketing:

• Start building up an email list immediately for email marketing, and you can get started for free on some email providers.

Paid Marketing:

• Paid Marketing is an effective tool to connect with your audience instantly, but you need to plan your campaign and test it out regularly to see what works for you.

Conclusion

As a business owner, you are the chief responsibility officer, and a vital part of your day-to-day activity includes marketing. For you to be successful, online marketing must play an active role. 

Online marketing can help your business reach a wide range of potential customers. And, it can drive traffic to your small business or eCommerce platform. 

With online marketing, you can effectively compete with the big guns of business and scale up your business from zero to millions in yearly revenue.

Thank you for reading through. Stay tuned for another guide next week. Bookmark has all the solutions and tools to build a solid online presence for any business. Please feel free to reach out via Live Chat if you have any questions.