modern marketing what works for your businessIn a world driven by technology, there are hundreds of marketing strategies out there, far more than there once were. Not all of them will work for every business, though some are, in general, more effective than others. Assess all your options and decide what suits your business, and how to best reach your target market.

Paid Online Advertising

Paying search engines to display your website higher up in their results can definitely be effective, but also expensive. Side ads and popups are more or less obsolete in today’s society. The majority of internet users have developed what’s known as ad blindness, where they actively or subconsciously ignore advertising. Thanks to programs like Adblock, there’s also less of a chance that your ad will even show up on their screen.

SEO

Search engine optimization is a marketing technique that’s quickly gaining popularity. It involves creating quality content pertaining to, or containing a link to your site to generate traffic. By using certain keywords and phrases and increasing traffic to your website, you increase its ‘natural’ ranking, meaning it appears sooner in a web search. SEO is usually adapted to the search engine – Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing relies on the popularity of sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others, to generate interest and spread word about their business or product. Typical strategies include viral videos, competitions, and promos that will generate and grow an online audience by encouraging people to share posts.

Content Marketing

This covers several content areas. Online blogs, magazines and journals, as well as other written content, video content and mobile apps and games. Some of the best app designs are structured around promoting or selling a product or service. The ease and convenience of smartphones means people are more likely to choose a business that lets them buy products and access services from their mobile.

This shouldn’t be a completely separate approach, it should factor into all forms of advertising you use. Quality content is what gets and keeps customers. Your ads, your website, it should all be quality content.

Email Marketing

Email marketing could be anything from newsletters or periodicals to monthly specials and personalized discounts. Direct email marketing is aimed at an individual, based on any number of factors – age, gender or purchasing habits. Bulk email marketing is sent to multiple people. Sometimes to an entire database, otherwise to a specific subset of the database, such as those with young children.

Successful email marketing tends to be quality content, usually that people voluntarily subscribe to. Unwanted email tends to be flagged as spam, meaning future mail from the same address will automatically be sent to the spam folder, cutting off your marketing campaign at the knees.

Take a good look at your business model before you decide how to advertise. If you’re using obsolete techniques or methods that aren’t reaching your target market, you’re wasting money and you may need to rethink your strategy.