10 Ingredients to a Winning Online Marketing Strategy

There are over 2 billion internet users on Earth. In the United States, 88 percent of adults in have a cell phone, 57 percent have a laptop, 19 percent own an e-reader, and 19 percent have a tablet, per the PEW Research Center.

These statistics are important because they mean one thing to businesses: to be successful, you must be online. But it’s not as simple as that. To create a winning online marketing strategy, you must take steps to discover which online marketing methods are right for your business.

Here are ten ingredients to a winning marketing strategy, and the steps you should take to best implement them:

1. Defined Personas: You must know your audience before you begin.

2. Responsive website: Your website is your storefront to the world. Make sure it is working to your advantage.

3. Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Follow best practices in web design, content writing, and coding to reach a wider audience.

4. Social Media: Based on your customer personas, decide which social media channels make sense for your target audience. Create an editorial calendar and post frequently.

5. Engaging Marketing Content: Think of all questions your customers might have about your products and services and produce content about these subjects. Follow SEO best practices to help your content be found. Repurpose this content in the form of vlogs, blogs, podcasts, checklists, infographics, webcasts, and eBooks.

6. Search Marketing: Advertise on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! for better brand exposure. Create strategic campaigns to reach your identified customer personas and track your conversion rates along the way.

7. Email Marketing: Cultivate a clean email list of prospective and current customers who want to receive relevant content about your products and services. Be mindful of not becoming a spammer – that’s not a good marketing tactic.

8. Digital PR: Any time your brand has something newsworthy going on, consider creating a press release and sharing it online through PR distribution services. If you have a solid pitch, it might get picked up by legitimate sources and generate an online buzz about your brand.

9. Realistic Budget: Online marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing but it’s not free. It takes a considerable amount of labor hours, which should be accounted for in your budget, and funds for video production, graphic design, and advertisement fees.

10. Tracking and Accountability: Someone must oversee your campaign and track your efforts. The biggest advantage of online marketing is the fact that you can track and measure your efforts.

Sorting through these 10 aspects of online marketing strategy will help you create a plan that works best for your business.