Published by Designzillas on March 13, 2014
As digital marketing evolves, the competition becomes more aggressive and competitive. Each day, new technologies and opportunities arise that allow businesses to position themselves at the forefront of their industries — it just all depends on how they are used!
Your goal is to incorporate ways in which you can integrate the most effective and ideal channels to grow your web presence without necessarily having to spend a fortune on advertisements or pay-per-click campaigns. By using these three organic marketing channels, you can define your social media presence, provide valuable content for your customers, and ultimately rank higher in search engines — all without spending a dime. Enticing, right?
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
In just a short period of time, social media has become an absolutely essential marketing channel for businesses to effectively (and EASILY) reach millions of users in real time. And the best part? It’s absolutely free. Sure, you have your paid options, but the bulk of the exposure a brand can get from social media requires no payment whatsoever. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s really not. But it does take a little hard work, perseverance, and the ability to put your scathing fear of rejection to the wayside. Because guess what, sometimes you’ll be rejected. You’ll lose 20 followers in one day for what seems to be no reason at all. People will absolutely hate that picture of a cat that you posted that you thought would go viral. Social media throws you curve balls, but it’s also a great way to learn about your customers and prospective buyers.
The challenge with social media marketing is setting your business apart from ALLLLLLL of the other businesses out there. You need to find ways to connect with your fans by forming connections with them, and other businesses. Whatever you do, DO NOT use social media as a way to constantly plug your products and services. This is a big no-no. If you do this, we will find you and we will send you to the corner to think about what you have done. Now, this doesn’t mean to NEVER mention what you do or sell. Just mention it creatively and in ways that your customers WANT to interact with. Don’t be afraid of a little fun!
DYNAMIC CONTENT CREATION
You guessed it: START A BLOG. There is nothing your business can lose by starting a blog. Your buyers are online, and they’re out there looking for answers. You might look at business blogging like this, “There is so much content out there, ours isn’t going to make any difference whatsoever. What is the point?” First of all, that’s a bad attitude and shame on you. Second of all, wouldn’t you rather be contributing to the vast array of content already available than to be a silent voice in a crowd of many? You won’t get any recognition that way.
They key here is to contribute to the conversation. People in your industry are talking, and they’re talking a lot. Listen to what they’re saying. Read other blogs, articles, magazines, anything you can and figure out how you can add to all the chitter chatter out there. Customers like brands who they can trust, who offer them valuable information and who generally want to help them out in whatever way they can. Starting a blog is a GREAT way to do this. You won’t be “adding to the deluge” if you create meaningful content that people actually want to read. Oh, and please, forget about keyword density and focus on the actual information that you want to provide. At the end of the day, your primary goal is to become the ideal source of information in your industry.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Ah, good ol’ SEO. While this term is becoming quite outdated, it still has meaning. The problem is, when we think about SEO, we mostly think about the negative things that come along with it. Bad backlinks. Spammy content. Keyword stuffing. Paying for followers and likes on social media. But “SEO” doesn’t have to be so back alley. Good SEO refers to the things you can do on-page and off. Adding the appropriate tags to your images, headings, and links. Cultivating links the right way, through creating lasting relationships with people in your industry. You can find a whole slew of best practices on websites like Moz and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It’s not as hard as you might think — just follow the rules! Learn what search engines like, and do more of that.
See? Marketing doesn’t HAVE to cost you all the money in the world. A big part of it is paying attention, staying engaged, and contributing to what’s already out there but doing it BETTER than everyone else. And it takes time! Nothing worthwhile happens overnight. Just care about your business and your customers and the change will come naturally. Be resourceful, useful, and innovative and as always, happy marketing!
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