There are many different marketing channels that new business can explore in order to increase their brand awareness, sales, leads generated, traffic and other metrics of success. In this article, we take a look at what marketing avenues suit new businesses best and look at their positive and negative aspects. There are many forms of marketing that are not so popular and are seen as outdated, we have just included digital methods in this article.
Types of digital marketing
Each business has a budget or financial allocation that is to be set on marketing, for some businesses this is virtually $0, but for others it can be in excess of $10,000 per month. Each of these channels are scalable and despite yielding better results at a higher budget, they are suitable for all budgets.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you promote your products/services by using other people’s platform. A platform-owner, such as a blog owner will promote a link to your product on their site and you will receive referral traffic and potentially sales as a result.
The affiliate, also known as the party that promotes the products will try to attract customers that purchase the merchants products. It is typically seen that the affiliate will post review-style articles in order to attract customers.
On the consumer side, the customer will view the affiliate website and encounter the merchant product. If the product is enticing to the readership, the end result is the sale. Once the consumer clicks away from the affiliate platform to the merchant platform, this click is tracked and monitored. Once the consumer purchases the product on the merchant site, the affiliate will receive a commission. The fee that the affiliate receives is based on the consumer’s order value and the percentage that the merchant gives to affiliates. For example, if a merchant gives 5% commission to affiliates and someone orders $100 worth of products from the merchant site, the affiliate will receive $5.
This may not sound like much, but some affiliate sites drive thousands of sales every month, resulting in significant earnings via merchant commission. Some affiliates integrate merchant products into their content incredibly well, which means that the consumer doesn’t always realize that they are purchasing a product via affiliate link
For new businesses, starting an affiliate program may be challenging as it requires the resources to contact potential affiliates and get them onboard. The more affiliates that you work with means the more resources you will need to ensure they have adequate support from your business. Many businesses work with affiliate networks, who take the labour-intensive parts out of the process. Although, some affiliate networks have high setup fees which aren’t always feasible for new businesses. Affiliate networks work as an intermediary between the merchant and affiliate, which makes having a successful partnership much easier.
A good example of an affiliate program is the Amazon Associates platform, this is also the biggest affiliate platform in terms of affiliates. Anyone can sign up to the program and generate a custom affiliate link, which gives affiliates a small commission if a consumer purchases something from Amazon’s website, after following their affiliate link.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a multifaceted tool that offers lots in terms of marketing opportunities for businesses. Each social media platform like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer something unique for businesses and can be used to drive leads and sales.
Influencer marketing is often associated with Instagram, as popular accounts on the platform often work with businesses in order to bring awareness to that company. Influencers can demand high sums of money to promote businesses on their platform, depending on their reach. Although, working with influencers isn’t always about finding someone who has the largest following and paying them to share a picture holding your product.. Influencer marketing works best when you partner with popular accounts within your specific niche. Engagement and relevancy are more important factors than just follower count. Fake followers and bot accounts can give the impression that a person has a larger following than they actually do.
Facebook groups are one way that small businesses can build awareness without having to spend much on marketing efforts. Some Facebook groups are just for businesses that are looking to share what they do and what they have to offer. Although, other groups do not allow for commercial posts to be made, so look before joining a group what is allowed. Unlike the other social media methods, posting on Facebook groups is free. However, like with all things.. you pay for what you get. You can expect conversion rate, if any sales at all. But the platform is good for bringing awareness and receiving feedback on your services.
Facebook ads are another way that you can drive leads and sales to your business. Facebook’s PPC platform allows businesses to set a budget and share ads with users across the platform. It is possible to target people who are already interested in your niche, making it easier to generate leads and get sales. Many large businesses use Facebook ads and generate consistent profits by marketing their products on the social media platform.
Promoted posts are commonly seen on Instagram and Twitter, with different businesses experiencing different results. The promoted posts system on Twitter is used by people who are looking to promote their brand and products on Twitter, without spending time creating and managing Twitter ads manually. Smaller accounts with less than 2,000 followers can expect the best results from the platform. By using Twitter Promote Mode, you tweet normally and Twitter will select up to 10 of your tweets that fulfill its quality requirements, then promote these tweets to your selected audience. You do not have to create these ads yourself, which saves lots of time and takes the stress out of actively managing them. You can set the platform up by selecting your country and timezone, specifying to target your potential customers by either interests or location. You can then refine your target audience, enter credit card details and kick off the campaign.
SEO
It is most likely that you’ve heard of the term SEO or search engine optimization before, but do you know what it actually means?
SEO is the optimization of web-pages and online content in order for search engines to prioritize the content for certain keywords. Although, it’s not as easy as it sounds. New business owners often think that creating a website is enough to get it traffic, when this is rarely the case. There is so much information available regarding SEO, that is is often confusing on what to prioritize. Without the help of an SEO consultant or agency, many businesses often forget about SEO all-together and this means that a potentially significant segment of customers are not being targeted.
The basics of SEO can be covered by installing plugins to your site, such as Yoast and most themes are designed with SEO in mind. Although, arguably the most crucial part of search engine optimization is also the most complex.. link building
Building links to your website is what will separate your site from the competition, with the quality of link that gets built more important than how many are build. A link is when a third party website links back to your website, giving your website credibility and some authority in your niche. As mentioned, not all links are build the same. The two main types of links are no-follow and do-follow. A no-follow link is when the third party site links to your website, whilst informing search engines not to pass on ‘link juice’. Which is the term used for the authority that passes from one site to another when linked. Do-follow links are arguably more beneficial for SEO as search engines should then take the link into consideration when ranking your webpage.
There are other aspects of SEO that should not be overlooked, like site speed for instance. It is said that Google looks at around 200 individual factors when ranking a site. It is incredibly difficult to keep an eye on every ranking factor, but by keeping your site frequently updated, following search engine guidelines, your website should be in a good position to grow. Some industries are more challenging than others and if you are intending to attract global traffic, then SEO can take even longer in some instances.
For new businesses, search engine optimization is a great way to attract customers to your website and will convert into leads and sales if your site is designed correctly. The major downside to SEO is that it can take months to rank for your selected keywords and even when you do, there is no saying if an algorithm update will put you lower in search rankings. SEO agencies carry out all of the required SEO tasks that a business would need. If you do not have time to optimize your website and build links consistently, then working with an agency may be your best option. For local businesses, around $500 is a suitable monthly budget to see results in a reasonable time.
Pay Per Click
It is said that 6.4.6 percent of consumers click on Google ads when shopping online. The biggest benefit of PPC is that immediate results can come from it. Pay per click campaigns are designed to bring traffic, leads and customers as soon as the campaign kicks off. Unlike SEO, you can get instant results and profit straight away. As states previously, search engine optimization can take months to see results from. However, PPC campaigns can be much more difficult to run and require constant monitoring and adjustments. It can be difficult to utilize pay per click adverts because all industries have a different PPC landscape. For example, some businesses such as lawyers and marketing agencies can expect to pay a high amount per click. Whilst other business may be paying much less for a click, making their PPC campaign more profitable.
All AdWords campaigns require a significant amount of research. Customer research is essential when it comes to PPC campaigns, as it helps you target customers that are most likely to convert into sales and leads. There are tools which can help you target specific customer groups and find out what they are searching for. You can put whatever keywords you like into your campaign, but if customers are not searching them with intent, then you might as well be throwing your budget away. You may see people clicking your ads, but with the wrong intent, you will see very few conversions. This is worse than getting no clicks at all, because you will be spending money on these clicks, with no success. Your keywords will consist of everything that your customers would use in order to find your product. These keywords are what you want your search ad to appear under when potential customers type a query. The higher the demand for a keyword, the more money you will be paying per click for it. Using tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, you will be able to see what keywords have a low CPC (cost per click) and suitable search volume. Google AdWords tool will also suggest keywords so you can see what ones suit your campaign the best, which can be helpful if you don’t have access to more advanced tools.
Because PPC campaigns can be so difficult to initiate and monitor, whilst achieving a positive ROI, you may look towards hiring a PPC agency to run your campaign. Agencies typically charge a monthly fee to run your campaign, but some take a part of your PPC budget. This means that if your PPC budget is $2k per month, an agency may take 20% or $400 per month. Pay per click is suitable for new businesses as your budget can be whatever you set it as, there is no real minimum. Although, if you are a new business in a niche where CPC is high, like the legal industry, then it may not be a good idea, as each click can cost in excess of $10, which means your campaign could be over very quickly.
Author bio
Cameron Batt is the founder of Crum Consult, a global consulting firm that does marketing for companies around the world.
