Starting a business can be very challenging. In addition to a great product and unique selling proposition, every business needs an effective online marketing strategy in order to succeed.

Whether you are looking to start a new business or want to grow your existing business, an effective online strategy is the key to the long term viability and success of your business. How we do business has changed significantly in recent years. Although the goals and objectives remain largely unchanged, the methods required to get there have changed.

What then does it take to succeed online today? Working with several businesses and advising them on how to build a brand online has given me an insight into the strategies that work and those that don’t.

Below are 5 important strategies with important tips that can help your business to succeed.

1. A Great Website

There is much more to a great website than a visually appealing design. Good design is important. But a great website goes far beyond that. Several factors need to be considered in order for your website to achieve the expected results and help your business grow. There are several characteristics of a professional website. Here are some elements that make a website great.

Website Tips:

• Make sure the design of your website reflects your brand
• Offer quality content
• Include a variety of content, not just information about your business and its products
• Use effective calls to action
• Offer interactive features on your website
• Engage with visitors on your website
• Good navigation

2. Active Blog

Experts argue that a business should post quality content to their website almost on a daily basis in order to build a brand and grow the business. There is no better way of doing this than a blog.

Marketers have been arguing about the importance of blogging for quite some time. Studies clearly show the benefits of blogging for a business. However, in spite of this many businesses are not taking full advantage of blogging.

Whether you run a one person business or an established organisation, it is very difficult to succeed without an active blogging strategy.

How Does Blogging Help?

An active blogging strategy offers several benefits for your business. These include:

• Higher ranking on Google for multiple search terms relevant to your business
• High traffic from search engines as well as direct referral traffic
• More links to your website and resulting referral traffic
• Trust and credibility in your business
• Improved customer confidence
• Improved brand visibility

Blogging Tips to Help Your Business Succeed:

Here are some business blogging tips to help you get the most out of your blog:

• Use a self-hosted WordPress blog on your website instead of a free blog platform
• Post frequently (At least 3 times per week, more if possible)
• Syndicate blog content on several external sources
• Don’t be overly promotional. Instead write about general topics relevant to your business

3. Effective Social Media Strategy

Social media marketing has become essential to the success of any business today. Whether you sell products online or use your online presence to build and promote your brand, an effective social media strategy is the key to the long term success of your business.

The only drawback of social media is that it can take up to a year before the return on investment is noticeable. As a result, many small businesses find it difficult to allocate sufficient resources towards building their social presence.

Social signals are also playing an increasingly important role in search engine results.

How Does Social Media Help?

• Creates brand recognition
• Attract a large consumer base
• Form connections and build relationships online
• Off customer service to existing customers
• Target new potential customers
• Improves credibility
• Builds authority and influence

Social Media Tips

Here are some social media marketing tips to help you get started:

• Maintain brand presence on several social sites, not just Facebook and Twitter
• Don’t forget relatively new sites like Google Plus and Pinterest
• Post content from several sources, not just from your website
• Post at least 5 times a week
• Customise your strategy for each network
• Use consistent personalised branding on all social networks
• Engage actively with users

4. Focus on Lead Generation

Simply using the above channels including your website, blog and social media is not enough. Ultimately, the success of your business will depend on your ability to leverage the above channels to generate leads  and sales for your business.

Leads are not only generated via your website but also on your blog, social media profiles and via any content you create as part of your content marketing efforts. For best results, a business needs to apply lead generating tactics across the board i.e. on your website, blog as well as on social media.

How Does it Helps?

• Generate leads for your business
• Increases your revenue
• Improves conversion rates
• Avoids missed opportunities
• Direct impact on business growth

Here are some tips to help you to get started:

Lead Generation on your website and blog:

• Use effective calls to action
• Use well designed lead capture forms
• Display well design buttons
• Place your calls to action in a prominent position above the fold
• Offer incentives e.g. free eBook for signing-up to your newsletter, 10% off for buying today, free 1 month support, etc.
• Use Google Website Optimizer to run split tests to see what works best

Lead Generation Tips for Social Media

• Display email sign-up form on your Facebook page
• Offer incentives to join your network
• Use calls to action in your posts
• Include a link to a dedicated landing page (with lead capture form) on your profile instead of linking to  your homepage.
• Post messages to generate an interest in your services and motivate customers to avail of your services.

5. Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing is an effective inbound marketing technique that involves creating and distributing valuable content to a target audience – with the objective of converting them into customers. Good content marketing plan allows you to get the most out of your content whilst generating leads for your business.

It is an intelligent form of marketing where instead of pitching your sales messages to the masses; you attract customers by producing quality information that is of interest to them. This results in qualified leads from prospects who have read your content and are already interested in the products or services you are trying to sell.

Blogging and social media are perfect examples of effective content marketing techniques. However, there are several other content marketing methods that you can take advantage of.

How Content Marketing Helps?

• Create brand awareness
• Obtain backlinks
• Generate direct referral traffic
• Get your business noticed
• Build your audience

Content Marketing Techniques

Here are some other content marketing methods you can take advantage of in addition to blogging and social media:

• EBooks
• Reports and White papers
• Promoting content via content curation services like Paper.li
• Creating documents on document sharing sites like Slideshare or Docstoc
• Creating and sharing images and infographics on image sharing sites like Flickr
• Branded videos promoted on video sharing sites like You Tube and Vimeo

Conclusion:

Although the online marketplace has become increasingly crowded, a good business idea backed by a powerful marketing strategy can easily help your business succeed. Focusing on all of the above areas is essential if you want your business to be successful today.