Advantages of Digital Marketing

 Wider Reach: Digital marketing helps improve awareness about products and

services through an online platform to reach a wide base of customers across
the world. This strategy allows even the start-up companies to have equal
access to the customers while competing with big enterprises in the traditional
market.
 Brand Development: It is necessary to establish a brand image for the product
or services through the marketing campaign so that customers consider it a
reliable and trusted name. Digital marketing helps to build the brand in various
ways of direct campaigning and personalized approach. This technique makes
customers more engaged and allows them to experience the unique selling
proposition and value of the brand. This leads to a sense of positivity among the
customers towards the brand.
 Personalization: The strategy of digital marketing is more effective because of
its ability to interact with prospects and get feedback. Bringing the audience
closer and approaching them with the product that meets their requirement,
helps to create brand loyalty and reputation. Digital marketing provides a
platform for personalized marketing by designing specialized content for
customers. The purpose is to make customers feel that the brand is addressing
their individual needs.
 Accessibility: Marketing methods using digital platforms provide the
opportunity for both sellers and buyers to get easy access with the flexibility of
time and location. The potential customers get an experience of a virtual shop
with information about services and availability of product range. The
customers can leave reviews and recommendations that guide the organizations
to plan their marketing strategies accordingly to respond to customer
requirements more effectively.
 Better Engagement: Digital marketing allows the brand to create better
awareness among the customers and get recognition from more people. A
suitable promotional strategy using blogs, social media content, and
promotional offers allow the brand to get a hold of the customer’s attention and
build credibility.
 Lower Cost: The popularity of digital marketing is attributed to its cost-
effective way of handling business activities. The cost involved in digital
marketing is much less in comparison to traditional marketing campaigns. The
digital marketing methodology is easier to implement with a limited budget and
infrastructure which is beneficial especially for small businesses.
 Trackable results: The digital analytical tools and other online metrics help to
track how effective the marketing campaign has been in terms of customer
reach and response. It provides necessary information about the extent of
customer engagement and response to your website and advertising.
 Improved conversion rates: The digital marketing process creates a seamless
and immediate connection with potential customers with the convenience of
making a purchase just with a few clicks on your website. This leads to better
chances of making a purchase in response to marketing campaigns.

Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

  Skills Requirement: There is a need of gathering the right knowledge and
expertise on the digital platform to carry out the marketing activities
successfully. With regular advancements in technology, it is essential to remain
updated on tools, platforms, and methods to quickly respond to any changes.
 Time-consuming: We need to plan and implement various tasks related to
optimization of online advertising and creating suitable content for promotions
that can take up a lot of time. It’s also important to regularly track the results
and modify strategies accordingly to ensure a return on investment.
 High competition: A wider reach to the global audience with digital marketing
also requires building capabilities to face global competition. It can be a
challenge to establish the brand against more competitors and to grab attention
among the many digital channels campaigning in real-time.
 Complaints and feedback: The digital platforms allow for feedback or
criticism by anyone about your product or services that can be visible to your
audience through social media networks and review channels. Any negative
review can create an adverse impact on some part of your customers unless you
have a strong foothold through brand loyalty and efficient customer service.
There is a challenge to maintain the brand reputation by responding to negative
feedback effectively.
 Dependability on Technology: Digital marketing is purely based on digital
technology and internet access. There can be instances of failure when the links
may not work, the website may not respond, and user access gets hampered.
This may create dissatisfaction among the prospective customers that forces
them to switch to other brands. A regular checkup or maintenance of the
website is necessary to cope up with the constantly changing technological
environment.
 Security and Privacy Issues: The more use of online platforms demands better
security and website protection. For a digital marketer, securing and
safeguarding the network connections by using firewalls and good antivirus is
always desirable. The legal formalities for protecting and using customer data
in digital marketing strategies need to be completed to avoid any complaints on
data breaches.

Module 2

Web Presence (Options)

By definition, web presence is the location on the World Wide Web where a person,
business or other entity is represented. There can be, and often are, multiple online
venues in which a person or business can be found, thus increasing their web
presence. For your business, it is important that you can be found all over the web,
and that the information shared at each of those places is accurate. Accurate and wide
reaching web presence can help drive business, even if your primary services are
conducted offline. Let’s look at six of the most important aspects of commercial web
presence.

Website

The first, and often the most critical, aspect of web presence is the business’ website.
The website needs to be written in a manner that will ensure people are able to find it
when searching for the goods or services you provide through search engines. Not
only does this include the readable text, but the tags and meta data of the website as
well. This culminates in a site rich in search engine optimization (SEO) that is also
reader friendly.

Blog

Another component of your web presence, which is often integrated into the website,
is a blog. A blog ensures that there is constantly fresh material being loaded onto the
site. This in turn keeps the site properly indexed in search engines, helping to boost
search results.

Paid Search Advertising

Utilizing paid advertising for search results, such as Google AdWords, is a surefire
way to keep your business listed at the top of results. It is important that AdWords
campaigns are managed by someone highly trained in the platform, so you do not
waste any time or money.

Video Marketing

The use of video is key in capturing additional SEO as well as allowing your business
to be found in non-traditional mediums. Video, which can be surprisingly
inexpensive, is great for distributing through multiple video sites, including YouTube.
Websites that have relevant videos on their homepage that are hosted on YouTube are
much more likely to show up near the top of search results than sites that don’t.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are three sites your business needs to be active on if
you want to maximize your web presence. Social media posts are a great way to stay
connected with current, future and past clients. Additionally, the posts and pages
themselves can be indexed and found in search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo and so
on.

Online Directory Listings

Your business needs to claim and maintain the many online profiles set up for it
automatically by sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List and others. What is very
important about your business’ listings on these sites is having coherent and accurate
information across them all regarding your phone number, business name, address
and so forth. Inaccuracies could hurt your business’ placement in search results.
A directory cleanup service can be used to make sure all information is correct.
Web presence is highly important for all businesses, even those that don’t do any
deals on the web. If you’re looking to drive business by building your web
presence don’t hesitate to contact the Internet marketing professionals at
MORBiZ. We utilize all of the above methods and others to ensure that your business
is easily found by the clients and customers. Give us a call at 1-855-2MORBiZ ( 1-
855-266-7249 ) to learn more or to boost your web presence today.

What is meant by e-commerce?

Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the
buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of
money and data to execute these transactions.

Steps in Web Presence Creation

An important part of modern marketing is how you use the internet. But you don't
need a complex, thousand-dollar website to advertise online. Here are the 10 steps to
creating a simple but effective web presence for your small business:

1. Be Present

It may seem silly to have to say this, but the first step to an effective web presence
is to have a presence at all. A Facebook business page is a start, but ideally, you
want a website. This website should have a real domain — yes this is worth paying
for, no matter how small your business — and not a free one that looks like gibberish.
Ideally the URL should also not be an obvious extension of something else (like a free
Google site has "sites.google.com/a/yoursite").

Once you have your domain, make sure your business' name is on it, and that your
focus is on your business and what it does. It doesn't matter how fascinating the
owner's antique car collection is, unless you're selling or servicing antique cars they
do not belong on the home page, nor as the focus of your blog.

2. Stay Present

Now you have a website - great! But you're not done yet. You need to keep this
website updated. Make sure all information is up-to-date and accurate. If you have a
news or blog section, post to it regularly; if you can't manage regular posts don't
include a news section or blog.

An abandonded website is almost worse than nothing. Prove to your potential

customers that you care, and that you're still in business. Basic maintenance of the site
— keeping information updated and outside links working — is what proves there's
someone alive behind the site and gives you a real web presence. Without this, there's
only an empty chair in a vast crowd.

3. Connect to the Real World

Okay, so now you're present and accounted for: you have a professional website and
you keep it updated. In order to get anything out of this however, you need to connect
back to the real world. So a potential customer has found your site — do they know
what to do next?

You don't have to build an online store to effectively market yourself online. What
you do need, is contact information. Where are you, and how do customers reach
you? Be sure to provide an address, phone number, or other contact information in a
prominent place.

4. Answer Main Questions

Next, ask yourself what people call you up and ask most often. Is it hours? Services?
Pricing? Menu? Whatever your most frequently asked questions are, can you answer
them on your website?

The key to an effective web presence is to make your site truly useful. If you offer
take-out, be sure to include your menu, phone number, hours, and delivery radius on
your website. If you provide appointment-only consultations, include how to schedule
such an appointment, how long one will last, and what to expect from it.

You can get creative. A farm might provide regular updates on what crops are ready
or almost ready. An outdoor theme park people travel long distance to might provide
the local weather forecast. Just make sure that whatever your potential customers are
wondering, they have the answer at their fingertips.

5. Impress Visitors

You can't have an effective presence without good content.

But the content may not have a chance to matter if you can't present it cleanly. That's
why a good layout is so important.

Design your website to look clean and uncluttered. Stylize to express the character of
your business, but never sacrifice usability. Make sure all important content is
findable and readable. The most important points should be in the header and/or on
the home page - don't ever make the customer have to look for it. Bonus points if
your website has cool, unique features that don't interfere with usability.

6. Be Flexible

Half way there! You now have a well-planned, consistently maintained website. But
have you tried looking at it on your phone?
Your website will be  in many different ways — be sure your layout is responsive,
working no matter what operating system, browser choice, or screen size your
potential customer has. Why waste good work?

7. Join the Community

Now you've built a sturdy platform to stand on: you have a

helpful, user-friendly website. The next step is to reach out and bring people to you.
Remember that Facebook business page that wasn't enough on its own? Now's the
time to set it up, if you haven't already.

Along with Facebook, there's Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many other social
media sites. These are a great way to interact with customers - but if you get it,
maintain it! Just as you should not have a blog if you cannot maintain regular posts,
don't set up a social media account unless you are prepared to at the very
least respond to anyone who contacts you through it.

To get the most out of social media marketing, be proactive. Don't just respond;
post content and start conversations. Commit to regular posts, and for best effect,
make a social media content plan.

8. List Your Business

A lot of sites will list businesses, with web links and/or phone numbers, for free. Take
advantage of these! A good place to start is Google Business. Taking the time to
maintain these listings can literally put your business on the map — Google Maps,
that is.

9. Stand Out From the Crowd

Now you're actually well on your way to a truly effective web presence, but to
optimize, use Google Analytics to track your website's performance. Make sure you
include meta data on your pages, and adjust content as needed for SEO (search engine
optimization).

10. Advertise

Finally, it's time to advertise. Advertising online will increase your reach once you
have a good website with useful landing pages. PPC ("pay-per-click") advertising puts
your site in front of thousands.
And that's it! Look how far you've come.

Content management system

A content management system is computer software used to manage the creation and
modification of digital content. A CMS is typically used for enterprise content
management and web content management.

A content management system, often abbreviated as CMS, is software that helps users
create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized
technical knowledge.

In simpler language, a content management system is a tool that helps you build a
website without needing to write all the code from scratch (or even know how to code
at all).

How Does a Content Management System Work?

To give you an idea of how a content management system works, we’re going to take
a whirlwind tour of the WordPress interface (WordPress is a good example of a
content management system).

Let’s start with creating a piece of content. Without a content management system,

you’d need to write a static HTML file and upload it to your server (sounds
complicated, right?).

With a content management system like WordPress, you can just write your content
in an interface that looks a good bit like Microsoft Word:

What is CMS example?

Examples of the most widely used open source CMS platforms
include: WordPress. Joomla. Drupal.

How to Build a Website with a Content Management System

Want to build your own website with a content management system? If so, the general
process looks something like this:

 Purchase web hosting and a domain name

 Install your content management system of choice on your web server
  Configure the content management system to dictate how your site looks and
functions
 Start writing content using the content management system’s interface

It’s actually surprisingly simple. And hosts like Kinsta can even help install the
content management system for you (WordPress, in this case), so you can jump
straight into building your site without any technical setup.

What Is the Best CMS Platform?

This is a little bit like asking, “what is the best flavor of ice cream?”.

Sure, everyone’s got their answer, but it’s difficult to come up with a factual argument
for one content management system being the best in 100% of situations.

What we can do, though, is return to the numbers and make a suggestion that there’s a
reason WordPress has such a dominant share of the content management system
market:

For most types of websites, it provides the most user-friendly, flexible solution. It’s

not always the best option, but it is the best option most of the time.

For a deeper comparison of some of the popular content management systems, you
can view our posts on:

 WordPress vs Drupal
 WordPress vs Squarespace

1. Don't Try To Craft Content For All Audiences

Understanding what content resonates with your specific audience is
critical to success. You don't need everyone to read your content, just the
audiences that matter to you. By precisely crafting content that speaks to
these audiences, you better break through the noise and avoid costly
promotion efforts that falsely inflate impressions and click-throughs. - 
Megan Humphreys, Convé Communications
PROMOTED
2. Make It Memorable
Create content that has your stamp on it -- your specific tone, style, etc.
Give the reader something memorable and, more importantly, something
valuable. Some brands are even using “taboo language” or humorous
interludes (or both), often to great effect. "Dictionary answer" content is
informative but boring. Show your brand's personality, be bold and take
calculated risks with your content. - Bernard May, National Positions
3. Be Helpful
Produce content that helps clients and prospects solve a problem, save time
and be more efficient. Helpful content resonates with readers, builds good
will and provides an opportunity to show how your particular product or
service can be part of the solution you propose. - Donna Robinson, Nina
Hale - Digital Marketing Agency

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in

successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising
agencies. Do I qualify?

4. Provide Value
Users are bombarded with content at every moment. For yours to make a
memorable impression, it has to provide value. Become an expert not only
in your product or service, but in your industry, your niche in the industry,
and what problems your target consumers are looking to solve. Aim to
build a relationship with your target consumer and to be their source for
expert advice. - Lon Otremba, Bidtellect
5. Stop Selling
Stop selling. No, not literally. However, sales are a natural byproduct when
consumers trust your brand. Consumers continue to gravitate toward
brands that put their needs before sales. Create content that is purposeful
and useful by educating and addressing customer pain points. - Laura
Cole, Vivial
6. Make Your Content Current
Try to make your content as timely and relevant as possible. Whether it ties
into a trend that’s the focus of the current cultural zeitgeist, a story that’s
dominating the news cycle or a hot business topic that’s on the minds of
your customers, try to connect your content to something that is top of
mind right now. It’s a surefire way to drive traffic and leads. - Tripp
Donnelly, REQ
7. Offer Unique Insight, Data Or Research
There is so much "expert" content available today that it's not enough
anymore to simply "frankenstein" together existing content from online
into a new format with different verbiage and pretend that's useful to
anyone. To create content of value, you must have something truly helpful
to communicate that's unique or fresh -- a new idea, a fresh insight or
proprietary research, etc. - April White, Trust Relations
8. Take Advantage Of Trends
Pay attention to what people are searching for. Stay atop of the latest trends
and create content about those topics when possible. Try to offer a new
perspective on the topic, and don’t forget to demonstrate how it connects to
your business so customers can see why your services are relevant. - 
Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
9. Use High-Quality Visuals
The internet is completely saturated with information and advertising and
we are programmed to skim content quickly. Using eye-catching, high
resolution imagery is one way to get people to slow down and notice your
content.  People like pictures. - T. Maxwell, eMaximize
10. Write Catchy Titles
I think everyone agrees that producing valuable, interesting content is key
to attracting traffic and leads. However, you can produce incredibly
valuable content but still lack in readers. The key to really bringing in
views is producing a one-of-a-kind title or H1. Spark the interest of readers
 with an eye-catching title, and they're more likely to read your content.
- Charles Mazzini, Hyperlinks Media, LLC
11. Leverage Influencers
With 92% of consumers trusting influencer content over what they see in
paid ads, tapping an influencer to produce content is the most effective way
to drive real results. Influencers, by nature, create content for audiences
with shared interests. So, the meal planner who produces content that
offers advice on meal prepping using a certain product will resonate more
than a bland ad of the product. - Maria Sipka, Linqia
12. Split-Test Your Way To Better Content
A/B testing works because it eliminates the guesswork and leaves you with
hard facts regarding what works, what doesn’t and what yields higher
conversion rates. Use split testing to improve your funnel, better your
content and find out what maximizes your traffic conversion. - Ashar
Jamil, Digitally Up
13. Adapt To Each Format And Channel
Most brands don't see the value of creating ephemeral content or
underestimate the power of Instagram stories either because they are not
users themselves or don't get the chance to view it. We've seen a
phenomenal force of stories to drive traffic and sales when explicitly
adapted for the format. Use multiple screens and the tap-forward way of
consuming stories to tease, capture and convert. - Aurelie Sauthier, Made
in
14. Perform A Content Gap Analysis
When producing content, most websites focus on bottom-of-the-funnel
keywords, meaning keywords that customers search for right before they
make a purchase. Performing a content gap analysis will help you find
keywords and topics that your customers are searching for prior to their
desire to purchase. A content gap tool will let you research competitors to
find high-ranking content you are missing. -
15. Check Out The Competition

As much as you are watching your own schedule, it is important to watch the
schedules of your competition. You want to see what is out there that is converting to
sales. That means that you are going to know what to plan as well. There are many
ways that you can share what has worked for your competition and bring in those
strategies.

How to promote your website online

Let’s take a look at the 10 ways to promote your website in 2022:

1. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is arguably the biggest thing you can do to
promote your website. With more than 2 billion websites on the internet, and more
being created every second, you can easily risk your website getting lost in the
ocean of content if you don’t make your website search engine friendly.
Thousands of free online guides can help you improve your website’s SEO, so you
don’t necessarily need the budget to hire an SEO professional. More often than not,
you can fix most SEO problems on your website yourself with a few simple
optimizations.

When you’re looking at your website’s SEO, there are two main things to be aware
of: on-page and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is, as you might expect, everything you can see on your website. This
covers things like your website copy, images, videos, meta descriptions, responsive
design, and even how your website is structured.

Off-page SEO, refers to what’s going on behind the scenes. This covers aspects of
your website like who’s linking to it, how authoritative it is, and the engagement it’s
getting from readers.

If you’re using Webflow, most of the technical aspects of being an SEO-friendly

and responsive website are already done for you. This way, you only have to worry
about making great content.

Search engine optimization is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your
website because while you will need to make adjustments from time to time, this
method largely generates traffic without much input once everything’s been
optimized. However, you should also know that it can take months to see results
from this method, so don’t expect a quick fix.

Related reads: Website SEO: the beginner's guide to ranking on Google

2. Guest blogging

Guest blogging is an underutilized yet fantastic way of building links to your new
website. With this method, you write a guest post for an authoritative blog in your
industry (or an adjacent one) to showcase your expertise. With each guest post
linking back to your website at least once, you’ll be able to direct traffic from a
reputable source back to your new website.

Whether you’re a new business or you’re in marketing, you might find it difficult to
secure a guest posting spot on certain websites through no fault of your own. Given
that writing guest posts for other publications used to be a massively popular SEO
tactic, many websites either carefully vet who guest blogs for them or they don’t
accept submissions at all.

The key thing to remember with guest blogging is that it’s less about SEO and more
about building relationships, both with the publisher and with your audience. If you
can build a relationship with a publisher and regularly contribute new content, it
won’t just drive traffic to your website, but it’ll also help you to build contacts
within your industry.

3. Content marketing

Content marketing is a great way to promote your website because it both improves
your SEO and generates content that your audience will find useful. A common
misconception is that to do content marketing, you need to blog, but that’s not
necessarily true. While blogs are the tried-and-true content marketing avenue, you
can produce videos, create a podcast, or even start a newsletter around something
related to your work.

With content marketing, the biggest thing to remember is the content you create
needs to be useful, interesting, or entertaining for your audience. The best way to
make sure you’re answering questions people have is to do plenty of keyword
research before you get started.

If you don’t have the budget to pay for an SEO specialist, or SEO tools, to conduct
keyword research for you, a great free resource is AnswerThePublic. By searching
for your chosen word or phrase, AnswerThePublic will show you different
questions, statements, and location-based searches that users have typed into search
engines. This ensures that whatever content you’re making addresses a genuine
customer need.

Content marketing is a promotion method that doesn’t work in isolation, however.

To get the most out of your content marketing, you’ll need to make sure you work
on your website’s SEO strategy and promote your content through other channels
like social media or paid advertising. You should also make sure that you
continually create new content so your customers have a reason to keep coming
back.

4. Social media

Social media is the best-known free method of promoting new websites — and for
good reason. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have billions of users
each, and it’s easy to connect with other local businesses and promote your own
through these platforms.

Before you get started with social media, though, you should consider what your
business’s brand voice is, who you’re marketing to, and who you’re trying to reach.
Here’s a quick summary of the platforms you need to consider, as well as what kind
of businesses they’re good for:
  Facebook: A good all-rounder for both B2B and B2C companies, regardless
of brand voice. Facebook has the biggest user base, so it’s good for posting
regular updates about your business.
 Twitter: Good for B2C companies that can promote themselves with short,
snappy statements. Best for sharing links, creating conversations, and getting
involved with your audience.
 Instagram: Great for both B2B and B2C. The best platform to use if your
work is highly visual or if you want to reach younger adults as your primary
audience.
 Reddit: Best for B2C, but it takes time to cultivate. Before you begin
promoting your website on Reddit, you’ll be expected to join in conversations
on subreddits (specific interest forums) and only share links to your website
where it’s necessary.
 LinkedIn: Best for B2B. Often used as a hybrid social media and blogging
platform, so it’s great for reaching other professionals and showcasing your
expertise.

If you’ve got some budget available for promoting your website, then Facebook Ads
is brilliant for promoting your website through social media. Through Facebook
Ads, you have a wide array of targeting options available, making it easy to narrow
down your target audience. You can even choose to target users who follow specific
other pages or are friends of your current followers.

5. Email marketing

If you’re looking for a tried-and-tested method of promoting directly to your

customers, then email marketing is a great option. Once you’ve got your website up
and running, it’s easy to start an email marketing campaign, and many email
marketing services are available that you can use for free or on a limited budget.

While this article can’t cover everything you need to know about email marketing
here, the internet is packed with free guides to email marketing, like this one
from DreamHost.

The great thing about email marketing is that users don’t even have to have visited
your website to sign up for your email newsletter, so you can start promoting your
new website before it’s launched. Most email marketing services will let you share a
signup URL with your followers so they can subscribe to your email list without
having to visit your website.

Here are some ideas for how you can use email marketing to promote your new
website:

 Set a countdown timer for the launch of your website, with one email every
few days showing sneak peeks of what’s to come
 Send a coupon to all users who sign up to your email list before your website
launches
  Invite users to a scavenger hunt, where they have to find a hidden item on your
website, with winners receiving a prize or a discount on your products
 Share your first blog post as soon as your website launches

And once your website is live, you can integrate email signups into the web design
so that new visitors can get updates about your business. For example, you can
easily integrate Mailchimp’s email marketing automation into your Webflow design
with no HTML embeds or added scripts.
6. Google My Business

If your business relies on local footfall, or if you’re looking to generate more local
traffic for your website, Google My Business is a must.

Creating a Google My Business profile is free, easy, and makes your business easier
to find when people make location-based searches. With a Business profile, you can
attach your new website to other information about your business like opening
hours, contact details, and your location, making it easy for customers to find your
business among the search engine results.

One of the great things about Google My Business is that you can see how users are
interacting with your business profile, so you can easily change your promotion
strategy if you find out it’s not driving as much traffic as you hoped for.

7. Quora

If you’re a regular internet user, then you probably already know about Quora
because of how often it shows up in your search results. While Quora can seem
spammy sometimes, it’s a surprisingly good place to promote your new website.

For those of you unfamiliar with Quora, this website allows users to post questions
for the community to answer. Because this website is so popular with both users and
people marketing their business, Quora results tend to be shown on the first page of
Google for long-tail keyword searches.

The main reason why Quora is considered spammy is that it’s a good place for
promoting your business. And, as with most other promotional avenues, once
something is shown to be successful, you’ll always have bots and low-quality
marketers using it without any care for the value it brings to the user.

If you use Quora well, it’s a great promotional tool to promote your website and
showcase your expertise, and can be a great distribution tool for your content
marketing strategy. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start answering
questions relating to your industry or niche while remembering to link back to your
website at some point in your answer. This could be linking to a blog post where
you’ve already answered someone’s question or linking to your About Us page to
show other users what qualifications you have.
8. Online communities and aggregators

There are dozens of online communities that let you post content to their site. For
example, everyday thousands of people visit Product Hunt to find new and trending
products. Posting your website on Product Hunt is a great way to organically get the
ball rolling.

Another great community that lets you post content on, similar to Reddit, is Hacker
News. This is a great place to share information about what’s happening in tech and
the developer community. In fact, some of the first ever Webflow users came from a
Hacker News post made by the founders.

Besides just online communities, there are also many different media aggregators
where you can post to. These websites focus on creating a directory of content
related to a specific niche. For example, Designer News allows users to publicly
share links related to design.

The great thing about online communities and media aggregators is that they’re easy
to post on, they can give you a link back to your website, and if your posts include
content that is useful it has the potential to be shared.

9. Pay-per-click advertising

Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising, is an easy way to promote your website, even if

you’ve only got a tiny budget to work with. Digital marketing in this way might be
one of the more traditional channels, but it remains prevalent because it’s a great
way to build website traffic as well as target specific demographics.

Google AdWords, the best-known PPC advertising platform, is a great place to get
started with PPC advertising. With Google AdWords, you can quickly create adverts
around the keywords you’ve found through keyword research, and you’ll only pay
for that advertising when a user clicks on the link.

However, there’s no set amount you’ll pay with Google AdWords. When you run an
ad through this platform, it’s entered into an automatic auction that happens
whenever a user searches for your keyword. Typically, the advertiser who is
offering more per click will win, but their ad positioning (or where it shows up on
the search results) will be determined by other factors like keyword relevance, your
click-through rate (CTR), and your overall ad performance.

If you’ve got a strict advertising budget to meet, then you can easily set up Google
AdWords so that once you’ve spent your budget for a certain period, your ads won’t
be entered into another auction until that period renews. So, you don’t have to worry
about endlessly spending money with little control.
For a small business looking to invest capital into distribution, Google AdWords is
one of the best ways to promote your website or blog.

10. Giveaways

Finally, giveaways are one of the best ways for your business to build a rapport with
your customers while promoting your website. While giveaways can often be seen
as a cheap trick for driving website traffic, they’re a great way to get people
interested in your products, generate interest in your website, and even make other
industry connections.

The key thing to remember with giveaways is that you’re doing it for marketing
purposes. So, they need to generate a positive return on investment (ROI) for them
to be worthwhile. When you’re designing your giveaway, you should keep this in
mind when you choose a product or service to offer up as a prize.

Along a similar vein, you also need to make the entry cost equal to or less than the
perceived value of the prize, or customers won’t take the time to enter the giveaway.
Make sure the rules are clear upfront so you don’t face any issues later. If your end
goal is to drive website traffic, then make the entry cost something relating to this.
Liking a certain Facebook page, subscribing to an email newsletter, or even visiting
a certain landing page are common entry costs that help drive website traffic.

It’s important to run a giveaway focused on the goals you want to reach. Given that
you want people to visit your website, it should be the “hub” of your giveaway and
where people go to investigate the full details. When it’s over, you’ll find you have
a good number of new followers who can’t wait for the next giveaway.

Promoting your website no matter your budget

There have never been more options to promote your website, even if your budget is
limited or nonexistent. With tons of digital marketing courses and free channels like
social media and SEO, in combination with paid email marketing and PPC
advertising, the barrier to increasing website traffic has never been so low.
However, you should make sure that you’re exploring multiple promotional avenues
to get the maximum benefit from each method of promotion.

Module 3
9 Key Elements of an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy, and How to
Establish Them
1. Creating an audience persona

The core of effective social media marketing is about speaking to a specific audience
with your social posts. And unless you have an intuitive idea of who your target
audience really is, you’ll need to create audience personas.

Audience personas are a deep look at the demographics of your audience, including
their interests, fears, needs, and behaviors.

Here’s an example of what an audience persona might look like:

 
Notice how the persona details the person’s goals and challenges (or pain points).

Having a good idea of who your audience really is will help you choose social media
platforms down the line. For example, according to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends,
the most important social networks for teens and young adults are:

 Instagram (32%)
 Twitter (24%)
 Facebook (14%)
 Snapchat (13 %)
 Tumblr (4%)

Here are some helpful resources for creating your audience personas:

 How to Create Buyer Personas with Social Media Data - Hootsuite

 How to Mine Social Media Data for Persona Marketing - TrackMaven

2. Goal-setting and objectives

Once you’ve got a good idea of who your audience is, you’ll then need to identify key
goals for your social media marketing efforts. What do you actually hope to achieve
with your strategy?

The top goals for most SMB social media marketing programs are:

 Building brand awareness (74%)

 Getting website traffic (53%)
 Lead generation (41%)

Whatever goals you choose need to align with various metrics that you can use to
measure your success later on:

 
Without goals and associated metrics, you won’t be able to measure ROI, and
determine if your efforts are actually effective.
Here are some resources that can help you define your goals and metrics:

 7 Popular Goal-Setting Strategies That Will Help You Achieve Great Things
on Social Media - Buffer Social
 How to Create Achievable Social Media Goals - Sprout Social
 How To Set Smart Social Media Goals To Achieve Strategic Objectives -
FlypChart

3. Budgeting

With your goals set, next, you need to determine how much money you can allocate
to your social media marketing strategy. 

The share of overall marketing budgets devoted to social media is expected to

increase from about 10% on average to nearly 25% in the next 5 years.

How much of your budget you allocate to social media will depend on a lot of factors.
Maybe you’ll need to get buy-in from higher-ups, or maybe your budget is limited
because you’re a small business. Itemizing your potential expenses will show you (or
your boss) where all the money goes.

You’ll need enough funds to invest in:

 Your campaign content

 Paid social promotions
 Social media management tools
 Community engagement efforts
 Analytics tools

Here are some resources to help you determine your social media marketing budget:

 How to Determine Your Social Media Marketing Budget - The Next Web
 Social Media Marketing Budget Template - Demand Metric

4. Resourcing/team building

Research by Simply Measured shows that while actually developing a social media

strategy is more difficult for small businesses, enterprise companies also face
significant challenges in securing enough internal resources to make it happen. This is
probably because SMBs are more open to the idea of outsourcing to build their teams.

Your big decision here is deciding if your internal staff will head your social media
marketing strategy, or if you’ll outsource the work. You could utilize a combination
of both - it’s easy to find freelancers who will manage your social accounts
on Upwork or Guru. But finding someone who will develop social campaigns that
speak to your target audience is a bigger task.
Some of your social media marketing tasks will be easier with the help of tools - for
example, PicMonkey and Canva are photo editing tools you can use to make your
visual social media posts:  

Here are some other tools you can use to simplify social media campaigns for you or
your team:

 Blog aggregator tools - Use a tool like Feedly to aggregate all your blog feeds
in one place. Easily select content to share with your audience all from one
platform.
 Social media automation tools - Use Hootsuite, Buffer, or another tool and
schedule your social posts to go out at optimum times. They’ll also help you
analyze your results.
 Social following tools - Use ManageFlitter or FollowerWonk to identify and
follow your target audience.

Here are some resources to help you build the right team and find helpful tools:

 48 Social Media Marketing Tools and Resources - BrandWatch

 The Essential Roles and Responsibilities of Your Social Media Team -
FlypChart
 How to Structure a Social Media Team - LinkHumans

5. Research

Once you know who’s going to run your campaigns, and what tools they’ll use to
create it all, it’s time to research:

 Your campaign content (What resonates with your audience?)

 Your posting strategy

Your social media campaigns will likely involve using a combination of your own
native content and sharing content of others.

For this, you’ll need to spend some time finding relevant blog posts, memes, and
other social content to share. You can do this using a tool like Buzzsumo, or by
following social groups and lists related to your niche. You should also take this time
to identify which types of content generate the best response from your target
audience.

Next, research your posting strategy - how often should you post, and on what
platforms?

Research by Hubspot found the best times to post on Facebook are:

 3 PM on Wednesdays
 12-1PM on Saturdays and Sundays
 1-4PM on Thursdays and Fridays
How often you should post your content will also depend on your platform:

 Here’s some content that can help you in the social media research process:

 20+ Places to Find Superb Content To Share on Social Media - TwelveSkip

 The Essential Guide to Content Sharing - RazorSocial

6. Choosing your platforms

Did you know the average social media user maintains five accounts?

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If you want to effectively target your audience, you’ll want to reach them on several
different networks - but that said, you shouldn’t plan to have a presence on every
single platform. You’re limited by your time and resources, so you don’t want to
stretch yourself too thin.

Having a social profile that hasn’t been updated in six months looks less professional
than having no social profile at all, so select your platforms carefully.

There are a lot of factors you should consider when choosing the right social
platforms for your business:

Consider the purpose of each platform, and how it relates to your business goals -
Facebook’s great for building brand loyalty, for example, while LinkedIn is best for
B2B business development. You’ll also want to think back to the demographics of
your target audience to help decide which platforms are the most worthwhile.

Check out these resources on choosing your platforms:

 The Zero BS Guide to Choosing a Social Media Platform for Business -

WPCurve
 Social Media Demographics to Inform a Better Segmentation Strategy -
SproutSocial

7. Producing content

Your social media strategy will require a mix of content to be successful, so you’ll
need to develop a process to create this content, and maximize its worth.

If you want to ensure optimal performance of your content, make sure it’s:

 Visual - Did you know visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on
social media than other types of content? Including images as part of your
social posts is one of social media marketing’s best practices.
  Emotional - Most brands shy away from sharing something polarizing or
opinionated, but this is the kind of content that resonates most with people on
social media. Create content that evokes awe, excitement, or amusement to
encourage engagement and shares.
 Useful - People like to share content that they think might be helpful or
educational for others. One study by Berger and Milkman found that people
like to share useful content to help others, for self-help, and for social
exchange. So find a way to offer something of value to your social followers.
Create compelling social content and develop a powerful strategy to promote
it.

These resources will help you get inspired and create great social content:

 9 Best Social Media and Content Marketing Tips From Buffer - Convince and
Convert
 100 Killer Ideas For Your Social Media Content - Forbes

8. Integrating with the rest of your digital strategy

Social media marketing isn’t all about brand awareness. More than half of
marketers using social media say it helps improve sales, which is why it’s important
to integrate social media marketing into your larger digital marketing strategy to get
the most out of it.  

Thanks to tracking tools like Google Analytics, it’s easy to attribute web traffic and
site behavior to different marketing channels. This data will help you visualize how to
make these different strategies work together to achieve your overall marketing goals.

Some of the marketing strategies you want to integrate include are:

 Content marketing
 PPC and display advertising
 Email marketing
 Search engine marketing
 Offline marketing

All of these strategies can work in combination to nurture your leads and help them
move down the sales funnel.

Here are some resources that can help you integrate:

 How to Build Social Media Into Your Content Marketing Process - Content
Marketing Institute
 How to Integrate Email Marketing With a Social Media Strategy - Campaign
Monitor

9. Tracking analytics

Analytics tracking is one of the most important things you can do to improve your
social media marketing strategy over time. Tracking analytics gives you a detailed
picture of what kind of content and promotion strategies work - along with the ones
that don’t - enabling you to adjust and improve.

So how can you measure the success of your campaigns? While 80% of marketers use
engagement metrics (likes and shares) to evaluate success, 56% base social media
marketing success on website traffic. You may want to use a combination of the two -
the specific metrics you focus on will be relative to your goals (raising awareness
might better align with social metrics, while referral traffic is a better indicator of
sales).

Here are the most common tools people use to measure social media marketing
results:

 Native analytics tools on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (65%)

 Social media management platforms like HootSuite and Buffer (62%)
 Web analytics such as Google Analytics (59%)
 Dedicated social media measurement platforms (22%)

Measuring ROI will likely require you to look at big-picture data, as well as
engagement metrics. This all goes back to your original marketing goals and
associated metrics - how well have your various social media campaigns helped you
achieve them?

Types of social media accouns

1. Traditional social networking sites

Most of us are familiar with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and TikTok. These platforms help us connect with friends, family, and brands. They
encourage knowledge-sharing and are all about personal, human-to-human
interaction.

A social networking site is a Jill of all trades. Users can share thoughts, curate
content, upload photos and videos, form groups based on interests, and participate in
lively discussions. They’re built around the user and everything that’s important to
them and their social circles.

Also, they help us to measure the social media ROI which helps us in planning an
effective marketing strategy.

So how can this type of traditional social networking site help your business?

Reach a target audience through ads

These platforms cultivate large, diverse communities. Advertisers can rent permission
to interact with people based on specific targeting metrics. For instance, an advertiser
who wants to reach a predominantly young crowd could advertise on an app like
Snapchat while those who want to reach a professional user may find LinkedIn more
appropriate.
Because these platforms are incredibly data-rich, you can reach a lot of the right
people without blowing your entire ad budget.

Network

Engage with followers, find like-minded customers or potential business partners

through hashtags and groups, and build connections.

Research

Social networking platforms are a great place for digging up customer research and
using social listening tools to track conversations around specific terms. This can help
you understand (and serve) your audience better.

2. Social review sites

What’s one of the first things you do when planning a trip or buying a new product? If
you’re anything like us, you’ll head straight to the reviews.

Review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor display reviews from community members
for all sorts of locations and experiences. This eliminates a lot of the guesswork that
goes into booking a restaurant or hotel. Not sure it’s the right thing for you? Check
out the reviews and you’ll know.

Businesses can really benefit from studying their reviews, the good and the bad. It
helps them:

Understand the customer’s perspective

Reviews tell you about the customer experience from their own point of view. Use
this to identify what’s working and discover areas with room for improvement.

Solve problems

Reviews are an opportunity to engage with reviewers and solve any potential
challenges before they become a huge deal.

3. Image and video sharing sites

Visual content like images, infographics, and illustrations capture our hearts, eyes and
imaginations. Social media platforms like Instagram, Imgur, and Snapchat are
designed to amplify the power of image sharing. (Or these days, video sharing.)

Users create, curate, and share unique content that sparks conversation and speaks for
itself. A picture or video can be worth a thousand words to your business. Use these
sites to:

Encourage user-generated content

Content sharing sites are a gift for photogenic businesses. You can run campaigns
encouraging users to snap and share a pic or video with your product and a unique
hashtag.

Create inspiration

By creating, curating, and sharing your own content, you can inspire and engage
users, bonding over a shared interest.

4. Video hosting sites

YouTube revolutionized the way we watch, create, and think about video. It
transformed the medium into something accessible. Recent improvements in tech and
connectivity helped video go the rest of the way.

Video hosting platforms like YouTube and Vimeo help creators put together content
and share it to a platform optimized for streaming. This accessibility makes video a
super important medium.

Use video hosting sites to:

Share phenomenal content

Yes. This point is a bit obvious, but creators can use YouTube to build communities
and get their content out there.

Engage

YouTube’s comment section offers plenty of opportunities to get to know the people
watching your content.

5. Community blogs

Sometimes an image or post isn’t complex enough for the message you’ve got to
share, but not everyone on the internet wants to run a blog from a self-hosted website.
That’s a lot of work.

Shared blogging platforms like Medium and Tumblr give people a space to express
their thoughts and help connect them with readers.

These community blog sites provide an audience while allowing plenty of room for
customization and self expression. Use them to:

Develop your voice

Starting a blog can be daunting. Use platforms like Medium and Tumblr to find your
voice, get some readers, and get clear about your vision.

Syndicate content
If you do have a blog, you can use community blogging platforms to share, re-
purpose, and re-post older content and expose it to a new audience.

6. Discussion sites

While most of us have seen many a heated discussion happen on Facebook,

discussion sites like Reddit and Quora are specifically designed to spark a
conversation.

Anyone is free to ask a question or make a statement, and this attracts people with
shared interests and curiosities. However, unlike Facebook and Instagram, users tend
to give out less identifiable information. Anonymity is powerful when it comes to
people opening up and getting real.

So how can these platforms help your business?

Research

Reddit is made up of different sub-communities. With a bit of research, you can find
and engage people in your field, discover what they’re asking, and use this as a
starting point for your content marketing strategy.

Answer questions

Quora users ask all sorts of questions. Answering them can help establish you as a
thought leader and drive more traffic to your site.

7. Sharing economy networks

Sites like Airbnb and Rover aren’t just a cool place to find cheap holiday rentals or a
pet sitter. Sharing economy networks bring people who’ve got something they want to
share together with the people who need it.

These communities provide opportunities that won’t exist otherwise by pooling

resources on a large scale that wouldn’t be possible without tech.

Good Practices in Social Media Marketing

10 social media best practices for 2021

1. Research your customers

Knowing your customers is one of the most important foundational steps for any
marketing campaign. Social media gives us the power to cultivate a massive
collection of customer data that we can use to guide business decisions and marketing
strategies.

Based on Gartner’s research, only one percent of companies who regularly tap into
their stores of social media and legacy customer data, actually use it to its full
potential.
When we truly know more about the wants, needs, and expectations of customers, we
can anticipate them in real-time. We can also change the very nature of customer
service and fundamentally reshape the sales funnel, thus also shifting the way
customers view our brands.

2. Conduct a competitor audit

When putting together any kind of business strategy, it’s always a good idea to take a
look into what your competitors are doing. This is the same for social media strategy.
Social media’s accessibility and availability make it especially easy to find, track, and
analyze competitors, versus traditional marketing and media mediums.

While planning your brand’s social media strategy, look to your competitors for
insights into what kind of content is being published and what performs well (and
doesn’t). This will give you a head start on optimizing your campaigns and increase
the likelihood that your brand will be successful on social media.

For instance, if your competitor is running ads on Facebook, you can take educated
guesses about which demographics they’re targeting, how much they’re spending, and
whether they’re using video or other media to capture specific audiences.

3. Establish and maintain your brand’s voice

Your social media accounts are an extension of your brand and should, therefore,
align with your other forms of brand messaging. Maintaining a consistent voice helps
your brand be recognizable among competitors and stay true to its values.

If your brand hasn’t defined its voice, it’s a good idea to lay out some guidelines for
your team. Consider why your brand exists, what it values, how you want to describe
your brand, and how you want customers to feel when interacting with your brand.

You can even use your customer and competitor research to help determine which
sort of brand voice will resonate with your target audience. Use any personas that you
generated from customer research to find a voice that speaks to those customers. You
can do competitor research to see how they approach brand voice, and then decide if
you want to improve upon that strategy or go in a different direction.

4. Choose the right time and amount to post

Are you still guessing when’s the best time to reach the most people on social? Stop
guessing and start using data to tell you when and how much to post instead.
Leverage social marketing analytics to better understand the performance of your
content based on time of day, frequency, geography, and more. Then you can use the
insights to adapt your social publishing strategy for optimal performance.

5. Use tools to plan and automate tasks

Tools and automation let you focus on the most important tasks, instead of getting
bogged down with repetitive, menial jobs. Enlist the help of tools to make your day-
to-day job easier and more efficient, and eliminate or automate inefficient tasks where
possible. For example, social media listening tools are invaluable for planning and
creating content that your audience is interested in, and chatbots can be used to
quickly respond to customer inquiries. Most brands also use a scheduler to post
content when and on what social media channels they want.

6. Respond to customers promptly

Speed is crucial to maintaining a happy customer base. Customers have high

expectations for a quick response: half of social media users expect a brand to respond
to their tweet demand a response within three hours. Brands who fail to meet this
expectation risk losing customers. About 30% of customers said they would stop
giving a brand their business and express their dissatisfaction both on social media
and to friends and family.

Not surprisingly, over 40% of customers who reach out to brands on social media are
more likely to buy and encourage their friends and families to buy from companies
who provide them with a timely response.

Learn more about the consumer expectations for social media customer service in our
new report or how chatbots can seamlessly automate aspects of your social media
customer service.

7. Tap into subject matter experts at your organization

There is simply no better way to get expert assistance for social agents who often do
not know the answer to a customer question than to appeal to the experts within your
own organization. Don’t be afraid to tap into subject matter experts across all
departments to assist with customer issues; this will ultimately drive higher customer
satisfaction ratings.

8. Share customer feedback — especially when it’s positive

When your customers experience satisfactory resolution to specific issues, and in

particular those using social channels, ask that customer if you can share those
conversations or if they would like to leave a review. Not just on your social channels,
but internally as well. Building internal excitement and encouraging a collaborative
approach to social participation can transform your employees into brand advocates.

If you have an online brand community, use Community Syndication to place positive

customer reviews anywhere they need to go. (And if you don’t have an online brand
community, consider how adding one might improve your bottom line.)

9. Build a relationship with your customers

74% of younger people (gen Z and millennials) don’t like being targeted by brands on
social media. Building trust with these generations involves a two-way dialogue, with
sources such as blogs and online communities carrying far more credibility than
traditional advertising. Younger users are much more resistant to being pitched at or
sold to. They want an experience that feels organic and authentic. The best way to
build trust is to talk with, not at your customers. That way, you can build a network of
trusted stakeholders around your brand.

10. Measure results to better optimize campaigns

Social media managers can neither prove their value nor optimize their efforts without
hard data. Use a social marketing tool that helps you both measure and optimize your
social programs. This works in the same way that companies have long measured and
optimized search, email, and other proven digital channels.

Challenge yourself to measure the social media impact on your business. This will
give you executive-level support to secure a budget for resources like technology
tools and team personnel, and it will ultimately prove that you’re adding value.