Internet marketing is the means of advertising and selling products or services over the internet. Understanding internet marketing is essential for your success in the digital age, whether you wish to grow an e-commerce business or a personal brand or gain traffic to your website.
In this ultimate guide, I will break down everything you need to know to harness the potential of internet marketing and grow your business or brand in 2023.
Why Internet Marketing Matters More Than Ever
Life has changed with the internet.
Today, over 4.5 billion active Internet users exist. They use Google to search for answers, Amazon to shop, YouTube to be entertained, social media to connect.
That means your audience lives and breathes the internet. Which is why you need an internet marketing strategy to be able to reach, engage with, and convert your target customers.
These are some of the stats that are testament to the need for internet marketing:
- 99% of all people researched online prior to buying in-store
- Over 50% of all website traffic comes from organic search
- Google has 3.5 billion searches a day
- Roughly 2.5 hours a day are spent on social media by users
The numbers tell their own story. And how to go about this is to master this skill of internet marketing.
The Core Pillars of Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is complex, but the fundamentals can be broken down into core pillars that make it more manageable.
The main pillars are:
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the act of optimizing your website and content so that it shows up on the search engine results pages (SERPs) when those users search for those keywords.
For instance, assume you own a coffee shop in Los Angeles. And you want your business to appear at the top of Google results when someone in LA searches “best coffee shop.”
Achieving a high ranking in SERPs requires consistency, patience, and precision — but the return on investment is huge. 53% of all clicks on a website go to the top three search results.
So, how do you actually get that coveted No. 1 spot? Here are proven SEO tips:
Focus on High-Value Keywords
The company uses high search volume low competition keywords relevant to your business. Budget about 30 minutes to an hour for brainstorming relevant keywords using tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner.
Create Keyword-Optimized Content
Make sure to use your relevant keywords in key locations on a page — page titles, headers, meta descriptions, image ALT text, and 2-3 times in the body copy. Just don't overdo it. Write for humans first.
Get Backlinks
Rankings are boosted with high authority domain backlinks, such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc. Use guest post, partner with an influencer, promote your content to get backlinks.
Optimize Website Speed
Page load speeds are good for SEO Optimize images, reduce redirects, turn on browser caching, and use a CDN to speed up your site.
Publish Fresh Content
Search engines prioritize sites with fresh, updated content. Target to write at least anywhere between 2-3 blogs per week.
Nail down these basics, and you’ll watch your website start to rise in the SERPs. And when combined with content marketing, it's a match made in heaven!
Content Marketing
Have you ever posted an informative article or funny video on your social media, perhaps even some inspirational quote?
You’ve done content marketing then.
HubSpot and Moz are examples of brands that do content marketing beautifully.
They write blogs, record videos, podcasts, or any media that attract their potential target market.
Great content marketing builds authority, shows expertise, provides value. This establishes trust with your audience so that when they’re ready to buy, they think of you.
These are some well-tested content marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and traffic:
Informational Blog Posts
You should publish in-depth “how to” articles and guides related to your industry which get you authority and rank in SERPs.
Videos
According to statistics, video content gets more than 1,200% more shares than text and images combined. Video content: upload engaging videos for YouTube, Instagram, etc.
Infographics
Share new and interactive content. In addition, infographics condense complex data into easily consumable formats that tend to go viral.
Email Newsletters
Send subscribers curated news, tips, promos, etc. to keep communication lines open and develop a relationship.
Case Studies
Utilized Case Studies of Existing Clients For Social Proof
Webinars / Podcasts
Conduct educational webinars and podcast interviews with industry experts to show thought leadership.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a way for you to interact with your audience directly.
With roughly 5.17 billion active social media users , utilizing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is critical in order to execute internet marketing.
But just posting won’t build your following. And everyone needs a social media marketing strategy.
How to make the most of your influence?
Choose The Right Platforms
Find out where your audience hangs out online, and spend your time there. Teenagers and young adults, for instance, dominate TikTok.
Post Consistently
The more you post, daily, a few times per week keeps your brand top of mind. Social media management tools (like Hootsuite or others) can also help manage multiple accounts.
Leverage Influencers
Collaboration with Influencers in your Field: It is also noteworthy opportunity for significant exposure to pre-qualified audiences.
Run Contests / Giveaways
Encourage users to Like, Comment, and Tag friends for prize opportunities. Something like this can help grow your following exponentially.
Use Hashtags
A better way to find your content is to add some relevant hashtags. Find out trending hashtags in your niche.
Engage With Your Audience
Interact with followers by replying to comments, answering questions, and joining conversations.
Analyze Performance
Facebook Insights and other tools make it easy to figure out what kinds of content drive the most engagement for you. Do more of what resonates.
If you keep at it with these strategies, your social media will prosper.
But social media is only the beginning of it. Next, we’ll talk about email marketing, the most powerful but underused strategies.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has the best return on investment of any marketing channel for many businesses.
Why? You might already be receiving promotional emails from a business you’ve never purchased from. And email converts:
- Email is more commonly checked by people than social media, texting, and the like.
- Email leads generate $36 per $1 spend
- But, only 23% of small businesses use email marketing. That would be a massive lost opportunity.
Here are tried and tested email marketing techniques that brings results:
Offer Lead Magnets
Offering something relevant and valuable, such as a guide, template, or checklist, in return for email addresses. This speeds up the process of building your list.
Send New Subscriber Welcomes
Did you know that personalized welcome emails have 6x higher click rates? Tell who you are and what subscribers can expect.
Promotional Emails
Plus send promotions such as holiday sales, customer appreciation, days etc. A subject line that includes the terms "sale" or "coupon," for instance, gets opened 18.3% more.
Educational Emails
Provide tips, how-tos, and industry insights to build expertise and authority. You don’t always need a call to action in every email.
Behavioral-Based Segmentation
As I mentioned before, tailored emails based on past purchases, interests, demographics, etc. will lead to the highest open and click rates.
Track and Measure Your Results
You have done a lot of the heavy lifting up to this point, maybe some of it was SEO or writing incredible content, social campaigns, email campaigns, and maybe even investing in paid ads. Awesome work!
However, you must track and measure your results to enjoy the highest return on your internet marketing investment.
Track website analytics through Google Analytics as well as Facebook Insights and email open & click tracking, along with conversion tracking on your website.
Review important metrics including:
- Website traffic
- Improving ranking of the target keywords
- Open, click and conversion rates for your emails
- Improved social engagement and followers
- Sales or leads per channel
Regularly test and refine according to performance results. Keep doubling down on what is working, and modify or remove what is not.
Thus, the ROI-centric approach makes for a win-win scenario where the time and effort spent on internet marketing translate effectively into financial returns.