If you own a business, chances are you have thought about online or internet marketing. You may have already dabbled in it, decided you didn’t need it, or simply don’t know how to get started. In 2019, online marketing is an essential part of growing any business – yes, any. The majority of businesses at least have a cursory webpage so they can say that they have one, and to give basic information about their business or products. However, online marketing can take your business and customer base to a whole other level, if optimized properly. Here are five advantages of internet marketing that you haven’t thought about, and why you need to be doing it.

1. Social media helps to build trust

Whether or not you’ve already realized it, social media is one of the frontrunners when it comes to an online marketing strategy for all businesses. With multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at your fingertips, it’s easy to take advantage and get a free online marketing campaign underway. Not only does posting regularly scheduled, high quality content help establish your business’s online presence, but social media allows your posts to be shared – this means that if someone shares your post, a friend or family member of that person may be more inclined to check it out (and hey – that’s free advertising). A share from a friend or family member, (being a person that a potential customer already trusts), will be one of the most beneficial forms of online marketing that you can find. Both sharing and personal recommendations will achieve more success than stumbling upon your business by accident any day!

advantages of online marketing

2. Customers’ expectations have changed

Not having a strong and easily accessible online presence can and will hurt your business in 2019. Customers expect information about your products or services to be readily available to them online, and if they’re not, they will likely move on to somebody else. Not only do customers expect you to have an online presence, but they expect your website to be optimized for mobile use. If you do not have a website where even basic information can be offered, it is extremely likely that your potential customers are just going to pass you by. This is not only because they do not want to have to go out of their way to find out more about you when they don’t absolutely have to, but you not having an adequate website is going to make them question your legitimacy as a company. If that isn’t enough to put some extra effort into your online marketing, I’m not sure what is.

3. Keeping up with your competitors

If you do not have an online presence and are not engaging in online marketing, keeping up with your competitors will become increasingly difficult. As stated above, because of the fact that customer’s expectations have changed, it is going to be incredibly difficult to keep up with your competitors if your online marketing game isn’t strong. In this day and age, your customers are going to almost always pick convenience over having to pick up the phone, or having to physically travel to your business in order to find out if you have what they’re looking for. In order to keep up with your competitors, your company should be focusing on all strains of online marketing, including SEO optimization, social media platforms, customer experience optimization and more if you want to even keep up with your competitors – never mind staying one step ahead of them!

advantages of online marketing

4. Connecting with your customers on-the-go

Making sure that your website is optimized for mobile use should be one of your main goals when looking at how online marketing can benefit you. Why? Think about the amount of times that you yourself have grabbed your mobile phone to look up information about a product or service. If the website wasn’t available in a mobile version, odds are you moved onto another. When a website is not optimized for mobile use, the text becomes much more difficult to read, and the links much harder to navigate. Your website should both be optimized for those moments when your potential customer is out and about and needs your product or service right now, and when they are sitting at home. The importance of making sure your customer can reach you on the go is likely something that you haven’t thought of, but is definitely necessary to your online marketing journey. On that note, do you do a regular email marketing campaign? You can build your brand awareness by getting some people to subscribe to your updates and promos. Never underestimate the power of a great follow-up email to get those sales conversion rates up!

5. SEO optimization is crucial

Owners of small businesses often don’t realize just how important SEO is to gaining a competitive advantage with internet marketing. Traditional advertising simply won’t cut it anymore, and you need that inbound marketing strategy to really build up your brand. All of Content Refined’s packages are centered around SEO – it really is that crucial to getting a company noticed, and most specifically a new company. SEO (search engine optimization) is centered around making sure that your company is creating high quality content full of keywords that match up with what your potential customers are inputting into their search engines. This is why Content Refined offers many different SEO services packages according to your needs and budget. If you are not focusing on this aspect of online marketing, chances are that your website is not going to be ranking high enough on a search engine’s results in order to be seen by any potential customers. You may have designed the most beautiful website with the most unique products in the world, but if you haven’t made use of SEO with your internet marketing, the likeliness that anyone is going to see it is very slim.

Hopefully we have increased your awareness of the many advantages of online marketing for your company. There is really no denying that it is an essential part of owning a business in 2019, and it will only become increasingly more important as time goes on. At Content Refined, we can analyze where your company may be lacking when it comes to online marketing, and how to get you to the next level. Each project that we take on has a designated Project Manager that makes it their priority to come up with a plan for your business, so we can meet your goals. Book a free consultation with us today, and don’t put off your online marketing dreams any longer!

Get a FREE consultation.

Book a Free Consult