Let’s start out with a few motivating statistics.

By 2016, more than 50% of the money spent by retail customers in the US will be influenced by online marketing.

This means that one out of every two people will be making purchases because of an ad, a website or a mobile app that catches their eye. With that influential power, it’s clear that marketing products or services online is a near need for retailers all across the country.

At $9.6 billion, Internet ad revenues are the highest they’ve ever been.

This is indicative of two things: that more customers are buying based on online marketing ads and that more businesses are turning to online marketing to help their sales.

There are encouraging statistics for bloggers and website owners, too.

Blogs are 63% more likely to impact people’s purchasing choices than magazines.

Not only do fewer people receive magazines these days compared to a decade ago, but it would appear that more people turn to bloggers for trusty product and service advice. Even websites dedicated to general customer bases have more purchasing influence than any print competitor.

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Magazine

Experienced online marketers agree that there are five tricks of the trade that every savvy Internet advertiser or blogger should know. They include:

1. How do use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to your advantage

2. How to effectively utilize social media profiles to boost your traffic

3. How to navigate and use the exciting new world of phone applications

4. How to construct and maintain a useful blog for your business

5. How to use email marketing so that you stand out from competitors

Experienced online marketers agree that there are five tricks of the trade that every savvy Internet advertiser or blogger should know.

 

Online marketing can seem kind of daunting at first: Where do you begin? How do you reach your intended customers or readers? Among the slew of websites and blogs and social media profiles, how do you even get noticed?

The trick isn’t to market everywhere and anywhere, or even to anyone, but to market smart.

It’s about knowing your audience. It’s about building a marketing strategy with the knowledge of what doesn’t work. It takes time to perfect, but you can start out ahead just by following this user-friendly guide.

Search Engine Optimization is something that all online marketers should be savvy in. When creating a website for your company, there are some SEO basics that you should know.

1. SEO affects only organize search results. The keywords you focus on for search engine results make all the difference. Make sure to choose them selectively and wisely.

2. Make sure and choose a short, relevant title tag. This tells both search engines and customers what the basic interests of your website are.

3. Use the description meta tag when building your website so that a correct summary will help customers find your page with general searches.

4. URLs are shown in search results. So make your URLs as relevant and short as possible.

5. Simplify the navigation of your website. Making it easy for readers to go from your home page to the specific page they’re looking for can make all the difference. It also makes it easier for the search engine to point readers in the right direction.

6. Link your other pages—blogs, social media accounts, etc.—to your main page so that searchers are also shown these options.

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Sponsored

1st page

2nd page

70% of the links that users click on after a search are organic.
This means that SEO is very important when building your website.

Sponsored search results like Google AdWords get fewer clicks.

75% of users don’t make it to the second page of search results.

SEO is also important because it allows you to reach the right readers using specific and relevant tags.

The more generic tags you add, the further from the first page of search results you get.

So you want to create a Facebook page for your company. Good idea! Social media is a great way to be seen and stay relevant in today’s society.

But do you know how to maintain your social media account successfully?

Social media is tricky. It invites users and subscribers to access your business easily: see hours of operation, photos, product information and even events. But along with the good comes the worrisome. Social media profiles also invite comments and constant connection, which can sometimes be damaging to a business’ reputation.

Having a Twitter account to provide consistent updates for your customers is great; but don’t feel compelled to get into conversations with subscribers on the site. That’s what telephones and private email accounts are for. Customer complaints or issues should remain private, as they’ve always been. Sticking to positive, informational posts will be in your company’s best interest. Don’t be afraid to engage with your customer—this is actually encouraged. Just be aware of where this road can lead.

But let’s not dwell on the negative anymore. How about some positive?

Frequent access

Frequent access

Infrequently access

Infrequently access

91% of adults in the US access their social media accounts regularly.

You probably don’t need any more incentive than that to market using social media.

73% of smart phone users utilize apps to access their social media accounts at least once per day.

Easily accessible websites and social media accounts allow those with smart phones a more pleasant experience when browsing your ads.

Getting a smart phone app for your business, blog or website is probably the smartest marketing strategy of the 21st century. Sure, you may have a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated and well-written website; but that may be too much for the average smart phone. And if it takes more than ten seconds to load, smart phone users are more likely to move on.

Not only do apps make it easier for customers with smart phones to browse your products and services, but they also put a permanent face to your business. Every time a user opens up his or her smart phone, your icon is on their phone’s desktop. It is a constant reminder and one that you can’t afford not to provide.

Care about mobile-friendly

Don’t care

What better way to be mobile friendly than to have an app that is easily readable on a smart phone?

Time spent on Apps

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That means that more than anything else, people are using apps to access information on their smart phones.

Some people think blogging is for those interested in crafts or politics or restaurant reviews. The truth is, maintaining a blog and keeping your customers up to date with your business or services can be very lucrative. But there are some things to keep in mind when building a blog.

Blogs by mothers

Blogs by others

Sounds kind of irrelevant, right? Hardly. Other bloggers are the most likely to read blogs. So catering your product, service or website to this customer base can be extremely worthwhile.

Visual retention

Word retention

The more posts per day, the less engagement from customers.
Don’t blog just to blog. Make sure that each entry has its own purpose and information for your customers. Readers are less likely to visit a blog that posts multiple times per day; they can’t keep up.

The worst thing you can do in a blog is type, type, type. Don’t forget pictures and videos; these will keep customers interested and research shows they will stay on your blog or website for a longer period of time.

You know how it goes; you sign up for email updates or ads, you receive them and then you delete the overload of them once they’ve arrived. We’re all guilty of it. In order to keep your emails to potential buyers from being immediately placed in the “Junk” folder, you have to make them stand out. From subject line to layout, every detail of email marketing is important.

It may not be enough anymore to send out an email with your company logo, a few sales or offered products and a link to your website. Here are a few things to remember when constructing your emails:

Consider important

Consider unimportant

It is likely that without the right strategies, your email will be lost in the chaos. So choose your audience and customer base wisely; sending out emails to people who aren’t likely to visit your website is a waste of time and resources.

Increase in smartphone
e-mail opens

Remember that more and more of your customers are quickly checking their email on their iPhone or Android. Long, detailed emails will get trashed instantly if they are considered irrelevant. Sometimes brevity is the key to getting a customer’s attention.

You know how it goes; you sign up for email updates or ads, you receive them and then you delete the overload of them once they’ve arrived. We’re all guilty of it. In order to keep your emails to potential buyers from being immediately placed in the “Junk” folder, you have to make them stand out. From subject line to layout, every detail of email marketing is important.

It may not be enough anymore to send out an email with your company logo, a few sales or offered products and a link to your website. Here are a few things to remember when constructing your emails:

SEO:
• Avoid using default names for pages like “Untitled.”
• Do not use an overly lengthy title for your page.
• Also avoid lengthy URLs with useless session IDs and parameters
• Never put unnecessary keywords in tags for your titles

Social Media:
• Never reply to every single comment on your page. This creates expectation.
• Do not engage in arguments with customers on your page.
• Do not just post text; videos and pictures receive many more likes and views.
• Avoid being overly and obnoxiously promotional.

Blogging:
• Do not ignore your blog’s comments section.
• Do not post negative blogs about your company or another company.
• Do not post more than once a day; this lowers reader interest.
• Never post lengthy entries with no pictures or videos.

Apps:
• Do not simply make your app a smaller version of your website.
• Avoid creating complex apps that require too much reading.
• Do not forget to design an eye-catching icon for your app.
• Do not design an app and then have no plans for marketing it to customers.

Email:
• Never use impersonal, generic greetings like “Dear Sir” or “Dear Customer.”
• Avoid sending pointless emails that offer no exclusive content for subscribers.
• Do not send more than one relevant email per week.
• Do not send emails to anyone and everyone; know your customer base.