Online marketing is complicated, right? As founder and consultant at bizmktg.com I am often asked some variation of that question, especially by business owners who are busy taking care of their business, meeting with new clients, patients and customers, hiring new employees, managing day-to-day schedules, making payroll and just plain “keepin’ the doors open.”
My answer to that question is that online marketing does not need to be complicated at all. There are four fundamental elements to online marketing success that every business should understand and apply. I call these elements “the four keys to online marketing success.” Keep reading to see my bonus item.
The four keys to online marketing success are attract, convert, retain and measure.
- Attract – Make it easy for new customers that are looking for your products and services to find your business. For most businesses that means showing up on Google, Bing and Yahoo! It may also include Yelp, Google+ and specialized directories.
- Convert – Turn potential customers into new customers by making it easy for them to find answers to their questions about your business, read reviews, find your location and contact you via phone, email, contact forms and online chat.
- Retain – Each happy customer is your very best marketing. They want to help your business succeed so make it easy for them to give your business positive reviews, refer your business to their friends and come back for more of your products and services.
- Measure – Measure everything! One of the best qualities of online marketing is its measurability. With phone call tracking and other measurement techniques it is fairly simple to see which marketing campaigns are really creating measurable results for your business. Once you know what’s working and what needs improvement you can allocate your budget and resources to optimize the results.
Bonus Item – TEST – If you want to find online marketing success you must be willing to try a few new things. My one caveat is that anything you test be related to one of the items above. If not, it’s probably a waste of your time.
Did I miss something? If so, let me know! Leave your comments below.
