Online Clarity

Online Word-of-mouth

What is your business’s main online marketing objective – to increase awareness or improve acquisition? The answer to this question will determine whether the focus of your online strategy lies in online advertising or word-of-mouth marketing.

But first, what’s the difference between the two? Online promotions and advertising does an excellent job in increasing a consumer’s awareness of a business’s product or service to a limited audience. However, if it’s acquisition that is important to your business, then nothing is quite as successful as a carefully targeted word-of-mouth campaign. Personal referrals and recommendations are far more influential when it comes to a consumer’s purchasing decision making process.

While it’s important to realise that you can’t force consumers to speak about your brand, you can strategically create something unique as a part of your brand’s off- and online marketing campaign. It is having an understanding that plants a “This is different. I want to share this with the people I know.” seed in the consumer’s mind.

Businesses today succeed mostly because of the relationships they build with their customers. Word-of-mouth or viral marketing allows businesses to create an environment that stages a unique beginning to this relationship. Instead of falsely advocating a brand, businesses can now rely on starting to communicate with current and potential customers in a more natural fashion.

Viral marketing can be tailored to specific brand goals too. Whether it’s to create a buzz about a product launch that ultimately leads to a new lead or a direct call-to-action promotion, viral marketing gives marketers a creative way to meet these objectives in a way that reaches a wider audience when compared to ordinary online advertising presents. To succeed in this, though, is to come up with an idea. And that’s where all the fun lies; in coming up with an idea that your competitors have missed out on.

Online Marketing Defined

As an online consultant specialising in online marketing, I am often asked “what is online marketing?” This post is geared towards trying to answer that question.

The main focus of online digital marketing is building brands online. How we do it is through the aid of various techniques and methods that have been proven to provide a positive return on investment. Gone are the days where banner advertising and search engine submissions made up these methods. Internet marketers are employing more sophisticated techniques that deliver cost-effective distribution, personalisation, and higher response and tracking rates.

Unlike traditional media such as television, radio and print, online marketing focuses on delivering content in a innovative fashion to a carefully researched target market that will help build awareness of a brand or business in more personal fashion using internet technology as a backbone. Online Marketing includes banner ads, pay per click advertising, opt-in or permission based email marketing, search engine marketing including search engine optimisation, blog marketing, viral marketing (word of mouth), RSS (really simple syndication) marketing, affiliate marketing, and article or press release marketing.

The aim of any good online marketing campaign should be to close the loop of other communication channels such as telemarketing, advertising, promotions, and direct-mail. Furthermore, online marketing can include a focus on other aspects of managing a brand or business other than sales. This includes information sharing, customer service and public relations.

Some Basics in Online Strategy

The aim of a business online strategy is to improve a business’s flow of communication, create a compelling online experience for users, and to build relationships with customers and improve loyalty.

To get this right, you need a deep understanding of what drives your business. What are your business’s goals and objective? How is your brand currently projected in the marketplace? Furthermore, what trends are happening in your industry? These are some of the questions that will help in identifying opportunities that will take your business forward, online.

Online marketing takes time and effort to customise and get right. What makes it hugely exciting is that, unlike traditional media, online media allows for the easy molding of a solution to a particular business.

Having said this, any sound business however does not follow media hype. The same applies to online media. Sometimes online marketing does not fit in with a business’s overall picture; all mechanics that a business uses must point to the same, predetermined goal. It is through a thorough examination of your business, its competitors, and its customers that, together with a specialist, you are able to define your online strategy.

Who’s Your Target Audience?

Deciding how to reach your business’s target audience online is perhaps one of the most important points that need to be examined once a decision has been made to incorporate online into the business’s media mix. Things that need to be considered include the customer’s geography, their surfing habits, and the different digital vehicles to use to target your audience.

The needs of your target audiences are fundamental to online success. What are their preferences, their habits, and, most importantly, their expectations? Answers to these questions form the important foundation to the rest of your online strategy.

The aim of any online venture should be to craft highly-relevant and mission-driven solutions that are delivered in an intuitive and visually gratifying fashion. Get that right and your audience will thank you.

Adding value

Adding value to a website actually means keeping visitors 'glued' to your site. A common term used by web savvy folk is “stickiness”. A 'sticky' website not only attracts visitors to it but also keeps them on the website for as long as possible.

Product prices or company profiles can be found everywhere on the Net. To stand out from the crowd you need something that is useful and convenient to your target market. A utility or tool of sorts. Perhaps a regularly updated dialogue with your visitors. An invaluable resource that teaches people something they don’t already know. How about an interactive feature that allows them to communicate or express themselves with the outside world?

Over the coming weeks I will be discussing various ways of adding value to your site with the aim of attracting new and return traffic.