An Online marketing moves at the speed of light. You need a strong foundation with the judgment to think critically, act independently, and be relentlessly creative. There are textbooks to online video tutorials, you can really take your pick. But, we felt that there was something missing and a guide that really starts at the beginning to equip already-intelligent professionals with a healthy balance of strategic and tactical advice. The Beginner’s Guide to Online Marketing closes that gap.
We wrote this guide for an audience of first-time marketers, experienced entrepreneurs and small business owners, entry to mid-level candidates, and marketing managers in need of resources to train their direct reports.
step:1 Focused on Your Customers
First of all your customers, prospects, and partners are the lifeblood of your business. You need to build your marketing strategy around them. Step 1 of marketing is understanding what your customers want, which can be challenging when you’re dealing with such a diverse audience.
- The process of building personal connections at scale
- Crafting customer value propositions that funnel back to ROI for your company.
step:2 Make your Marketing Framework
Mostly big marketers think in terms of growth frameworks. Learn how to position your marketing strategy into a sustainable, ROI-positive revenue engine for your brand. Gone are the days of shallow branding. Leverage metrics to build a solid revenue stream.
step:3 Create your Brand’s Story
Mostly, people spend money, they are thinking with both their rational and emotional brains. The most effective marketing frameworks appeal to both. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that your company can wield to build customer connections. This chapter will walk you through the mechanics of cultivating your company’s story.
step:4 Foundations of Traffic Acquisition
You need to actively think about how you’re going to bring new visitors to your website. You need to build your traffic acquisition strategy. From paid channel advertising to content marketing, you have a range of options. You can have the most amazing web storefront, blog, or product in the world, but if you’re not getting traffic, your business’s growth strategy will fall flat. This chapter will walk you through some of the most common free and paid traffic acquisition frameworks for bringing visitors to your website.
step:5 Build Audience Connections with Content Marketing
Content marketing is more than just blogging. When executed correctly, content including articles, guides (like this one), webinars, and videos can be powerful growth drivers for your business. Focus on building trust and producing amazing quality. And most of all, make sure that you’re capturing the right metrics. Create content to generate ROI. Measure the right results.
A content marketing is just what it sounds like. It’s the process of engaging and growing your customer base through high-quality content.
Content marketing is an investment.
It’s part of a larger marketing framework.
It requires strategic insight.
It targets users across the entire conversion funnel.
It should be held accountable to a standard set of success metrics.
step:6 Connections with Email Marketing
An E-mail marketing has a bad rap. When executed correctly, email marketing can be incredibly powerful. The trick is to prioritize the human-to-human connection above the sale. Balance automation with a personal touch.
Think about it. When you send an email, you reach your audience in one of the most personalized ways possible. Our email inboxes are literally in the palms of our hands. We’re glued to email at work, after work, first thing in the morning, and right before bed. It’s an understatement to say that email is a powerful marketing channel.
step:7 Do with SEO
Search Engines Optimization are powerful channel for connecting with new audiences. Companies like Google and Bing look to connect their customers with the best user experience possible. Step one of a strong SEO strategy is to make sure that your website content and products are the best that they can be. Step 2 is to communicate that user experience information to search engines so that you rank in the right place. SEO is competitive and has a reputation of being a black art.
As you could imagine, the competition in this space became very cutthroat, as more and more companies realized how important it was to rank for certain keywords.
