- August 7, 2013
- Posted by: Vishal Shah
- Category: Online Marketing
Most business owners should testify to the fact that digital marketing has taken over the world. From building brand awareness, to drawing in customers and even creating a vessel through which customer communication and sales can be made possible, the internet has forever changed the face of business. Here are a few digital marketing tips and tricks to ensure that you get the most out of the internet.
The Wild West
The thing with the internet is that it’s still in its early days of development and so, akin to the Wild West, there aren’t many rules by which businesses ought to run. This makes digital marketing incredibly exciting as we constantly seek to discover and break new frontiers by which the name of the game is somewhat changed.
The impact of social media for example, has significantly enhanced and altered the face of digital marketing and indeed, marketing in general. In fact, social media has made digital marketing what it is, changed the level of intimacy between businesses and customers and forced businesses to adopt digital marketing methods.
This Wild West level of lawlessness means that the biggest law to digital marketing is there are no laws. Businesses practically have seemingly endless possibilities to be creative and run the internet how they see fit.
Online Reviews
The importance of online reviews in influencing customer purchase decisions is immense. In fact, according to Opinion Research Corp, a staggering eight-three percent of consumers are influenced by customer reviews while deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
While it is rather unethical to fake customer reviews (though many businesses still do this), there is nothing wrong with asking those customers who are pleased with your brand to advocate your brand.
In fact, if your business is liked enough; you won’t need to ask anyone to advocate your brand as they will naturally do this themselves. You will find that happy customers are very vocal in their pleasure, as are unhappy customers in their displeasure.
Don’t Hassle People
People don’t like to be hassled in real life, so why would you think it OK to bother them online? Promotion emails should be avoided and nobody ever reads them anyway. The same goes for hassling people over social media. All such methods do is bother people and show how desperate you are to gain customers. If you’re seen to actively hassle people online in search for customers, you won’t seem like a business that can draw people in naturally through the worth of your product. Essentially, anything that needs a direct approach through selling shouldn’t be bought. Things that can sell themselves won’t hassle people in search for customers.
Engage
While it is self-destructive hassling people online through email and social media, it is a good idea to engage with potential consumers. This will improve the awareness around your brand and also build a positive image around it. Furthermore, by engaging with people you serve to put your brand in their minds, which is a large step towards turning them into customers.
Your engagements can be about anything really. Although it’s best to keep subject matters on topics relating to your business so that your brand is represented – almost as an authority on the topic – through what is said.
Over-engaging can push customers away however. The last thing you want is for a person to log into their Twitter, to see their whole page filled with Tweets from your business and as a result, unfollow you.
Try to get inside people’s heads as much as possible, while giving them as much space as possible. This balance may be something that you’ll learn to get better with over time.
Post By
Michael Richards is a British SEO and freelancer, writing on topics from SEO tools like Outreach Software, to digital marketing techniques and the benefits of YouTube.