Modern-day businesses need to be online to maximize their reach. Many people like to do their shopping online because of the convenience, and if you own a business, you’re missing out on too much to simply let this piece of your marketing efforts be neglected. Finding an approach that will lead consumers to you takes planning, so here’s a three-pronged approach to growing your digital influence.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the term that’s given to creating content that helps search engines better understand what your business is about. Without SEO strategy, you’re less likely to be found by your potential customers. Conversely, without search engines’ algorithms, web-users would continually find websites that had nothing to do with their search queries. Creating a strong SEO strategy is one of the keys to getting your website to rank well for certain search terms, which will help get your business in front of consumers’ eyes. One of the best ways to do well with SEO is to create relevant skyscraper content, such as case studies and in-depth information articles.
Internet Marketing
SEO is part of Internet marketing, but your online marketing efforts should be focused on more than merely getting to the top of the first page for a certain term on Google. According to WebMarkets, “the main focus of using Internet marketing is to find success on the Internet by increasing web traffic, community awareness, brand loyalty, creating a beautiful design, and increasing the end user’s potential to buy.” Your Internet marketing strategy might also include using social media and email, influencers, or affiliate marketing.
Connect with Consumers on Forums
One of the best ways for businesses to increase their digital influence is to get to know their consumers and solve their problems. To increase the likelihood that you’ll know which problems your potential consumers are having, take the time to hang out online where they do.
For instance, look through forums where people are talking about your industry and find out what they want to know more about. While you shouldn’t make forums about yourself by spamming your business’ name around, if you know the answer to a question that someone asks, it’s perfectly legitimate to answer it for them. You can get your business’ name out simply by naming yourself where the forum asks you to. One of the best things about this approach is that people will be able to see your post for years. You can also build a forum on your own website to increase the interaction that you have with customers and make your business feel more personable. According to BrightEdge, “one of the fundamental decisions is whether to moderate and approve all comments, review and remove inappropriate ones, or let it be more wooly and open. If the forum membership has a reasonable hurdle, like being a paying customer or a certified user then regulation is less important. If membership is open, then the comments should be moderated to prevent competitors’ negative or specious comments. In truly large forums of more than 10,000 the moderating effort may require a few hours a day.”
When you have a business and want to grow your digital influence, getting in front of your consumers’ eyes is one of the first steps. But like all good marketing, you have to show people what you can offer them.
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