Essential Internet Marketing Tools
Today we are talking about the essential internet marketing tools that you need in order to successfully run your business. All businesses require marketing and today the bulk of that marketing often takes place over the internet. This article won’t turn you into an internet marketing expert overnight, but it can solidify your foundations and challenge the way you view your current skillset and toolset. We’ll tackle the basics of internet marketing, what these tools are, and how they can be used (or re-used) to promote your business. Whether you are a business owner, a marketing, or someone unsure of what role they want to step into next, this article can help jumpstart your acumen and get you thinking through these concepts in a new light.
Social Media Accounts
The most essential internet marketing tools in this day and age are found via social media. If you want to reach people, you must go where they are. However, not all social media platforms attract the same crowds and perform the same way. In the same sense that a carpenter and a doctor use similar objects with dissimilar purposes, you must also take the time to understand what each platform has to offer. Most of the time, Facebook is going to be the place to start. It has the highest user count of any of the major platforms and its built-in tools, statistics, and depth of user definition make it the easiest to use when targeting a specific audience or set of audiences. However, other platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and even Snapchat (to name a few) all have their own upsides and downsides.
For most small businesses, you can utilize Facebook in combination with YouTube and/or TikTok to create an effective internet marketing platform. The more dynamic or hands on your products and services are, the more you can use the video platforms to highlight what your team is doing. This is especially pertinent for businesses where a finished product can be seen, especially something that is unique, like home building. Video is a highly effective tool when used in combination with your social media following. Dynamic looks into your team’s process and their end results is a great way to drum up enthusiasm and plant the seeds of possibility in the mind of your potential, and former, customers and clients.
A Business Website
Social Media Platforms are great, but they come with one unique flaw when contrasted to a traditional website. Content on social media has a quick shelf life. Social Media is geared almost entirely towards the now. While such things as pinned tweets or bookmarked memories can exist, most social media content is only effective within a short window of when it is posted. With millions of accounts posting every hour, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle if you are recycling content and new content doesn’t always get its place in the limelight. Additionally, Facebook pages or YouTube accounts don’t always provide enough space for the entirety of the sales funnel process. That is why it is important to maintain a professional business website outside of any social media platform.
While social media accounts are great for outreach and bringing in new leads, a dedicated website is a necessary home base for all of your content. Websites can be much more static than social media, providing easier navigation, a larger library of “current” content, and more space to continue the sales funnel process. It can also be managed to fit whatever visual or navigational aesthetic you deem best fit for your company. That being said, there are some particulars that you need to have attached to your business website. These are essential internet marketing tools that help generate more traffic while providing great service and information to your potential customers.
A Space to Write
Written content is an essential part of attracting new visitors to your website. What are you saying that people need to hear? What areas are you an expert in that others are not? We’ll touch briefly on the power of Search Engine Optimization in the following section, but for know we need to view written content as an essential method of disseminating knowledge that appeals to your potential customers while also making your website more popular with search engines and relevant search engines.
Even if you choose to deliver information through videos, images, or PDF guides, written descriptions of this content can ping for key terms and attract users to your website. Make sure that your business’ website includes pages that highlight your knowhow and authority. Whether you utilize blogs, short essays/articles, Q&A’s, or a variety of other content, make sure that your website appropriately describes what you have to offer in detail.
SEO Plugins
Another essential internet marketing tool that works in conjunction with your website, is a good SEO plugin. No matter what hosting platform you use, there are a variety of plugins available that can help evaluate your Search Engine Optimization efficiencies and give you step by step instructions on how to make your content more appealing to both users and search engines alike. Make sure that anything you put on your website has been evaluated through these plugins. Make sure that you are targeting key words or phrases, and that your content mentions these via either tags or specific keywords. Search Engine Optimization is the best, fastest, and easiest way to make sure that the content you have worked hard to create reaches the largest audience possible.
Positivity and Creativity
This might sound like cheesy advice to those who don’t take either concept seriously, but positivity and creativity are two of the most essential internet marketing tools. You must have the ability to think outside of the box and the faith to try new things even when they don’t all work. Experiment with new methods of content delivery, such as podcasting or even TikTok videos for your business. Try tackling newer or more complex subjects. Choose a design style that doesn’t fit with the norm of your competition. Make the effort to stand out and adapt when things either work as you hoped or don’t work at all. Positivity and creativity are how you stretch your own abilities and processes to meet customers not by what you know, but where they are at.
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