Every business needs a credible online presence in order to be competitive. Whether you sell products online or rely on traditional retail sales, building a presence for your business on the Internet is crucial for your long term success.

However, Internet marketing is a vast field which is very competitive. You are competition against businesses from all over the world to get your brand noticed.

In this article, we look at the 3 pillars of success for every effective Internet marketing strategy.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to get exposure for your business without the high costs involved. Results are also faster to achieve than a typical SEO strategy. In many ways social media levels the playing field by allowing small businesses with an opportunity to compete effectively with larger established businesses.

See results of a survey by Crowdspring below of what small businesses accomplish through social media.

However, the effort involved on social media should not be under estimated. Simply, creating a Twitter account and a Facebook page for your business is not likely to achieve any significant results. If you want to be effective on social media, you will need to identify what you want to achieve, make a plan and participate actively on social media.

Even if you are new to social media and do not have a clear strategy, don’t worry. As long as you participate actively and share information that is valuable for your targeted audience, in time your user-base will increase and you will see a steady stream of traffic to your website. This in itself can be a very valuable asset for your business and you will be able to find ways to tap into this asset.

There are many ways to use social media for your business.

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

• Create an inspiring branded Facebook page for your business
• Take steps to improve your popularity on Twitter. Going viral can provide huge exposure for your brand.
• Promote your business on LinkedIn
• Look beyond the main social sites. Use multiple business social networking sites as well as social bookmarking sites to increase your reach.
• Save time by using tools to post to multiple social networks simultaneously
• Use tools to keep track and measure your social influence
• Don’t just share your website content. It is equally important to share information from other sources and websites.
• Research other social media techniques for your business

Blogging

Quality content is at the heart of every effective Internet marketing strategy. Blogging is one of the best ways to do this.

The use of language in blogging is very different to print, radio or television advertising. Effective business blogging involves publishing valuable non promotional content and is not about hard selling your products. Blogs are useful for many reasons.

Let’s take the example of the Web design Company I work with, where blogging forms an integral part of Internet marketing. We publish new posts almost daily about topics relevant to web design or SEO e.g. “Good Web Design Principles” or “How to get more leads from your website”. Our blog is the single largest source of traffic to our website, attracting over 10,000 readers to our website every month. The same traffic would cost anywhere from £3000 to £10000 per month via Pay per click advertising. You can see the value and return on investment for our effort.

Many businesses start a blog but fail to maintain momentum. There are steps you can take to avoid failure in blogging. Studies show that businesses that blog frequently and maintain momentum witness better customer acquisition. See results of the study below:

There are many ways to use blogging effectively for your business.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Host your own blog on your website as opposed to a free blogging platform.
• Post frequently. If you don’t have the time, hire someone to blog on your behalf
• Choose compelling blog post titles
• Share all your new posts on various social networks
• Engage with your readers
• Build connections with other bloggers. Commenting on blogs is a great way to do this
• Take steps to succeed in blogging

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

In spite of the rise of social media and blogging, search engines continue play an important role. SEO will always remain an important method for marketing a business on the Internet.

There are many SEO techniques you can take advantage of. SEO requires long term commitment. See results of a study below that shows that websites with an active SEO strategy reported a growth of over 300% in website traffic after 6 months.

A first page rank for desired keywords can take more than a year to achieve. Even when you start ranking favourably for your desired search terms, only a constant effort will ensure you don’t loose your position to competitors.

SEO is a vast field and there are many techniques that can be used. Here are some SEO tips to help you get started.

• Optimise your website for search engines
• Continue to build quality back-links
• Create link-bait resources
• Take advantage of Article Marketing

Conclusion:

Internet marketing is the most effective form of advertising today. However, it is a vast field with many areas to target, if you want to be successful. SEO, Social media and blogging are the 3 main pillars of success in Internet marketing. You need to focus on all these three areas if you want your business to be successful on the Internet.