Are you frustrated with having to spend so much with so little revenue from your marketing budget? Or creating a strategic budget to help you maximize internet marketing.

Marketing is much more than just advertising and promotions. It is about understanding how you can achieve success with little or no spend.A budget must cover the many areas of planning, pricing and distributing your product or service if you want to stay competitive and maximize your profits.

Because marketing affects most areas of your business, your marketing budget is critical to your success. As you create your marketing budget, start with a list of exactly what areas you need to address in marketing your product or service and how you’ll address each area.

Your marketing budget should cover the macro aspects of your business: market research, product planning and development, financial projections to help set production and pricing objectives, distribution methods, advertising, promotions and public relationsAlso, under each of these categories are several sub-categories of spending, such as the design services needed for any advertisement you create or costs you incur for fulfilling promotional rebates.

Establish your marketing goals
Starting from any other premise results in arbitrary tactics or actions based off of someone else’s goals, copied from an outdated or disparate department. And that kind of foundation will do you no good.

With something as important as a marketing budget (which, let’s face it, tends to be the first on the chopping block), you need a strong foundation and clear numbers if you want to show results.

Is your goal to increase your online conversions by 300% this year? Are you a small business with the goal of doubling your email list in the next three months?Do you want to get the word out about next season’s product launch, and have that new product line make up 20% of your overall sales for the year?

Or are you ready for your brand to launch an entire new online strategy, complete with a redesigned website and a full inbound marketing plan — with an integrated content strategy, email campaign strategy and lead generation strategy — that increases your revenue by 25%?

Your goals will vary, but the first step in establishing your marketing budget is to get specific about your goals — and your prioritiesYour goals will translate into your marketing budget by the allocation of funds towards these goals where you need to see results. Don’t listen to another marketing department’s strategy if you want to achieve your goals.

Determine your total annual marketing budget
The percentage of revenue that you should allocate for your marketing budget will depend on your industry which is, the size of your company, your brand recognition and most importantly your overall growth goals. Once you have that big number settled upon, it’s time to start budgeting.

Figure out your marketing budget category
This is the part that can get complicated, especially if you’re in the middle of implementing new marketing strategies that aren’t already line-items in your current budget.

You may have to start from scratch to make sure you include all the categories that will end up impacting your marketing budget this year.

First, round up the current expenses in your budget (the difficult level of this step will depend on the state of your current marketing budget documentation).For example, you might allocate a certain amount to ad buys on television, radio or websites; a certain amount on blog post writing, social media, content marketing; a certain amount on sales nurturing etc.

Get it all in one list, segmented by category. Then add the new marketing strategies you’re starting to implement. What categories do those fall under — and are they creating entirely new categories?

Here are some potential categories that you might need to consider:

Paid advertising
Search, PPC, social media advertising, lead generation, display, TV, radio, print, direct mail. This is the bread and butter of “old school” marketing.

This used to be the only way to reach your audience. While this type of “outbound” marketing has had lots of competition with the evolution of newer forms of PR and content marketing in recent decades, it’s still a great way to get messages out there for some industries and organizations.For any advertisement budgeting, make sure you account for both production (including design, messaging, testing, etc.) as well as ad placement costs.

Branding & creative
Software, hardware, IT, equipment, stock photo or video, freelancers, fonts, printing, off-site shoot travel, supplies.

Your branding and design department is what is going to make your marketing look good. And in some cases, the first look is what determines if the audience will pay attention.Be sure to include costs each month for equipment, software, hardware, etc, in addition to design and freelance hours.

If you don’t use it each month, that positive balance will carry over to when you really need it, for critical updates or to replace malfunctioning equipment.

Website
Website design or development (or re-design or development), updates, maintenance, integrations, improvements, registrar or hosting, stock photo or video, fonts.

The budget here will depend on whether you’re building a new site, in the market for a website redesign, or maintaining an existing website.Even if you have a fairly new website that you’re happy with, regular up keep of the site is important.

That means that regardless of how old your website is, maintaining it will be at least a minor ongoing expense.

Don’t forget secondary costs such as website hosting, font license renewal, domain renewal, etc.

Content marketing
Content creation, design, video production, publishing tools, analytics, file management, stock photo,video,audio, freelancers, marketing automation, monitoring services, webinars, social media tools.

Content marketing gained popularity originally, in part, due to the perception that it was “free” marketing — but that’s not the case at all.Sure, you aren’t paying to place an ad like you would in traditional “paid” advertising, but creating and distributing quality content that will really benefit your brand takes time, research and effort by a team of content marketing pros — and that all costs money.

Don’t forget secondary costs such as hosting your videos once they’re created and posted online (a cost that can increase over time as your library grows).

Public relations
PR services, research or contact services, reputation marketing, events, award fees, dinners, swag, outside agency retainer fees.

Traditional PR is still very important, especially for large companies that are very visible in their marketplace.Brand perception takes a lot of effort to manage, and smart businesses invest in the tools it takes to make sure that they’re hearing about any potential PR trouble before it becomes a problem, and are responding smartly if it does.

Depending on your industry and overall company or organization budget structure, you might also have these categories to consider:

Product marketing
If your business or organization makes a product, then product marketing should be a budget consideration.It’s easy to overlook costs like message testing before the product development phase, so make sure you’re thinking about ways you can be proactive with product marketing that will save you in the long run.

Assign budget amounts to each category
Now comes the most tedious and challenging process of all — assigning a monthly budget cost to each category and line item you’ve established in your marketing budget.

The budget allocations will differ depending on the goals you established at the beginning of this process. The percentages you allocate to each major marketing budget category should reflect those goals and fit your industry.

Conclusion
Budget is an essential aspect of any business, it helps you know what your total spend is which will in turn help you make financial predictions in the nearest future.

Remember that budgets are meant to spread out overall costs on a monthly basis, so if you’re over budget in a given category on a certain month, take a step back and look ahead.

Is this a cost that is going to continue to exceed your budget, or will it correct itself later in the year when expenditures in this category might disappear entirely?

Or is there another category in which you can make cuts for a few months to make up for it?

The art of exceptional copy writing boils down to understanding how to trigger action and emotion in your readers.

You could be the most incredible writer in the world, but that enviable talent won't do much for you as a business person if you're not turning your site traffic into conversions.

Conversion, of course, requires knowing exactly how to transform a lead into an actual paying customer of your copy will depend completely on the success of your content marketing strategy.

Simply improving that copy writing and using correct testing and targeting methods can be enough to boost your conversion rate by up to 300 percent, according to a white paper from Steelhouse.

No wonder, then, that businesses are developing and creating content at an alarming rate.

Web users share 27 million pieces of content each day, and marketers invest more than a quarter of their budgets into their content-marketing campaigns.

When you consider statistics like these, it's easy to see why good, persuasive copy is so crucial. Most of the time, the art of exceptional copy writing boils down to understanding how to trigger action and emotion in your readers.

Once you elicit an emotional response, you'll be ready to convince your audience that buying from you is a good decision.

Here are some ways to boost your copy writing skills to increase conversions.

Write a clear and engaging headline

Most people will read a headline for a blog, article, or paper, but few are likely to read further, and fewer will bother to consider your copy if your headline isn't engaging enough to capture their interest.

A headline is the key element of your copy writing when it comes to driving action. It should persuade your readers that the rest of your article is worth reading.

Today, thanks to WordPress and other content-management platforms, it's simpler than ever for anyone to start a blog and start posting information all day long.

Unfortunately, the problem with that easy access is that users become overwhelmed by constant information. Go online and you'll find literally thousands of pages of content for any given topic.

In addition, consider that the average attention span is around eight seconds, meaning that you've got only a brief opportunity to convince someone that your page is better than those of your competitors.

Simply put, if you want your target audience to bypass information overload and click on your page, you have to start with a clear and engaging headline.

Ditch errors with research

Content without accuracy won’t get you anywhere on the web today.

Your readers expect you to have already researched the information you're giving them, so they can be confident they're getting authentic, valuable content.

Good copy's are reliable, honest and filled with facts backed up by trustworthy sources.

In the world of copy writing and marketing, the more you know about your given subject, the greater chance you'll have of achieving great results.

Speak to professional copywriters and bloggers; they'll tell you they spend half their day looking up data online before they even start writing a couple of words.

Why?

Because accuracy counts and it shows your audience that you're authentic, intelligent and trustworthy.

Map your audience persona(s)

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the best way to maintain long-term success is to find ways to constantly engage people.

However, before you can do that effectively, you need to get to know the customers you're writing for.

Creating audience or customer personas will help you find the right words and phrases to bridge the gap between you and your ideal audience member.

When you're designing this persona, include information on whether the customer you're profiling accurately represents your secondary or primary audience, as well as what his or her goals might be.

The more information you have, the more you will be able to reach, and persuade, your audience to take action.

Getting data for your audience personas is as simple as sending out a questionnaire or survey, or directly asking for input via an auto responder in your email. Also, ask your customer service and sales reps for a list of the most common questions your customers ask.

Using this feedback from your target audience, you'll be able to analyze it in line with the persona you've established, then incorporate the finished result into your marketing strategy to develop more valuable leads.

Let your copy writing be authentic

When you yourself are a customer thinking about giving your money to a new business or startup, what's the number one thing that stops you?

Most people feel uncomfortable handing their cash over to new businesses simply because they're not familiar with them.

They haven't built up any trust yet; so customers can't be sure whether these companies are going to offer them a great experience or deliver something depressingly sub-standard.

Knowing and trusting people are two scenarios that usually go hand in hand; so as a business, you need to create content that does more than just persuade your customers that you're worth their cash - it can actually make people feel that they know you.

Most brands have an idea of the kind of voice they want to portray to their audience.

For some companies, particularly those in the business-to-business area of marketing, that voice needs to be sophisticated, formal and chockful of information.

If you're not sure how to speak to your customers, play around with your voice a little. Check out different formats and see what has the best impact.

Use hacks for persuasion

Do you know how to convince your audience to say yes to something?

Persuasion is always a challenge for marketers, but it's also a crucial part of converting a lead into a customer. In most cases, online persuasion is all about understanding exactly what your target audience is looking for.

If you know the pain points of your preferred customer and you can represent ways in which your product or service will benefit your readers in some way, you should be able to persuade them to take the action you want more easily.

When your aim is to influence people, remember that logical and emotional factors are crucial.

Evoke emotion to help your customers make decisions based on how they feel, and link to logical concepts such as reciprocity so that your customers feel as though they're making an accurate and informed choice.

Try some individuality

Your one-size-fits-all approach to content not working? Try shaking things up a bit.

This is not to say that you should start insulting your audience and infusing your blog posts with profanity.

But a little bit of controversy and individuality can go a long way toward helping you make an impact in today's big, bad world of business.

You don't get together with your friends on a Friday night to talk about that new salad spinner you saw the other day, or the software your business is considering installing.

However, you do talk to others about something that made you take a second look. Controversy can be a dangerous thing to play with in the business world, but it can also be something that shakes your prospects out of their boring lives and forces them to take notice.

Think about how you can show your company to be a bit controversial from time to time. Don’t simply agree with the common issues in your industry. Look at them from a closer perspective or a different angle.

Even if you do agree with something, try to show your audience why that belief is correct instead of just nodding along like the rest of the sheep in your industry herd.

At the same time, remember that no matter how professional your brand image is - or how complicated your industry - you need to be at least a little conversational.

Write how you talk! Use metaphors, incomplete sentences and other unique embellishments that make you more you.

Conclusion

Crafting the ideal copy is no easy feat. And copy writing can make or break your company - that's why there are professional copywriters scattered across the internet who make a living designing and implementing strategies for all kinds of businesses.

However, if you adopt the steps outlined here, and make sure to test your results and adapt over time, you should be well on your way to more effective copy writing and conversions.

You can share with me some of your experiences in copy writing and also some more effective ways to write copies that can convert.

You here most people tell you “knowledge is power” which is true but in this premise, I will kind of disagree with that notion.

This is not because knowledge is power but what use is the knowledge when you as a content writer is giving bits and pieces to your audience – then there won’t be power.
I have come to realize that most content marketers or businesses assume in their minds that their audiences know certain things.

Therefore, they write and post content without including those basic truths that will give their audience power through having an in-depth knowledge of the content.

For example, you tell me how social media can help my business win on the internet but you forget to include and explain the various social media channels with their differentiating factors which would enable me know the exact social media handle to use.

You just assume I know that aspect. The more you know, the more you’re blind to what other people don’t know.

Just because you know doesn’t mean I do or I see it in your own perspective. In one noteworthy experiment, participants were divided into two groups. One was asked to tap out the rhythm of a song, and the other group was asked to guess which song it was.
The tappers predicted that listeners would get it right 50% of the time. In reality, they got it right only 2.5% of the time.

Why such a big gap?

The tappers had the advantage of listening to the song in their heads. The listeners were starting from scratch. Again, another example is when you try locating a place and you ask someone who knows the place so well.

The likelihood is that he sure would start up by describing the place like though you had an idea. He or she might start off describing with landmarks around the area that you know nothing about.

That’s the same thing you do when you put up content that get your customers or audience more confused than they were. It’s like fixing your about us at the bottom of the site and you expect first time visitors to know.
The curse of knowledge is also a barrier to connecting with customers in the disciplines of customer service, sales, and the customer experience.

And it’s a major factor in why the user experience so often suffers from catastrophic mis-designs.

Let’s take a look at each of these areas and how the curse of knowledge manifests itself and the solution.

Website navigation

You already know how your website works. You and your team probably had long discussions about your site architecture — where to put what, what to link to, etc. You probably debated the pros and cons of different structures until you were tired of thinking about it.

But does your structure make sense to people who weren’t in on those meetings? Can visitors intuitively find what they’re looking for? Or do they miss important features because they don’t know they’re there?
It is important to use the appropriate word; phrase and design to enable your customers or audience have a stress less experience on your site.

Here’s the most important thing to remember: Don’t make people work too hard to figure out why and how to give you their money. Make it easy.

You start too far down the sales funnel

There are different versions of the sales funnel, but I prefer this one: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action.

Unfortunately, a lot of small business content starts at the “decision” level: It assumes people already know what they sell and why they would need it — and that all those visitors need is a reason to choose their product over a competitor’s.

And that’s great if all of the people who consume your content really are at the “decision” phase. If not, however, you’re completely missing out on all the people who don’t yet know what they don’t know (or what questions they should be asking).
For a first time visitor, he or she would expect to see content that describes the functionality of your product or service rather than being welcomed with making a decision.

To start with, before a decision is being made, you must have stirred up interest in your target customer and before they show interest, he or she must have an idea of what that product or service is all about.

Nobody shows interest without weighing to understand the functionality of the product.

Don’t blame customers for their lack of knowledge

Often times, we blame customers for their lack of knowledge but in reality we are to be blamed.

We put up content for ourselves not for customer or prospects i.e, you expect the customer to know and one thing am sure of is this – if your target audience had the sort of information you are giving, they won’t be on your website or trying to search.
Most times, customers contact you via emails, comment or through phone calls to clarify things but you probably will go like “but they are supposed to know this”. Am sure if they had no difficulty getting that information, you won’t be contacted.

I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to answer the same question for the tenth time in an hour — especially when you’ve got 7 hours left to go in the day. But letting customers sense that frustration simply isn’t good business.

The smart strategy is to answer the question as if it’s the first time you ever heard it and as if asking such a question is a sign of extreme intelligence and insight. Seriously — don’t blame the customer for not automatically knowing something you didn’t think you needed to tell them.
That’s your fault, not theirs. And, yes, I’m sure there are people who will never get it. But let’s not get distracted by the exceptions.

Our society values knowledge, so it can be hard to wrap your brain around the fact that your expertise can hurt you. But the “curse of knowledge” is a problem only as long as you let it get in the way of putting yourself in your customers’ shoes. And there are a couple of things you can do to minimize its effect.

Conclusion

Knowing it all doesn’t necessarily translate to your customers knowing everything. You need to put that knowledge into practice by explaining to them and giving them useful tips.

For example, you can start by having a blog where you share these tips, or use your social media as a tool to distribute content.

The most necessary tool is your website – make sure it has all the required information to guide your customers through your sales funnel. Minimal information or no information can make your target audience retract from engaging your brand.

It is therefore important to consider your target audience or customers first before looking into how much you know because the much you give them is the much they know and the less you give them, is the less they know.

Please share with me other ways the curse of knowledge can hinder sales.

Most businesses have two major challenges: limited cash flow and very limited manpower. The internet has created a world where new social media channels are popping up all the time.

How does a business devote their limited time and resources to the social media outlets that will be most beneficial?

It requires some homework upfront.It is commonly suggested that to increase your brand presence, you need to be active on all forms of social media.
While that may be true, unless your company has a dedicated social media coordinator, finding the time to maintain every platform out there can be extremely time consuming.

If your company is just starting out on the Web and need to pick a few social media networks to rule over, here is our guide to choosing the best platform(s) for your business, and how to make the most out of them.

Social media networks are incredible resources for businesses looking to promote their brands online. The platforms themselves are free to use, but also have paid advertising options specifically for brands that want to reach even more new audiences.
But just because your business should be on social media, that doesn't mean you should be on every network. It's important that you choose and nurture the social platforms that work best for your business, so that you don't spread yourself too thin.

If you want to create a successful social strategy, you should familiarize yourself with how each network runs, the kinds of audiences you can reach on that network and how your business can best use each platform.

When it comes to choosing which social media platforms you'll utilize, select those that offer the best potential for reaching your ideal audience and broadcast the type of media you've decided is best suited for your company.

From Snapchat to Instagram, here’s a brief overview of the most significant platforms as they pertain to your business needs.
We all know that social media is crucial to creating a successful business nowadays, but are all social media platforms worth the same amount of your time and money?
Of course not.

What are your objectives?

When people search for your brand what do you want people to see? What goals do you want social media to accomplish for your business?

Answering these questions will help you narrow down your list of possible social networks since you’ll focus on the networks that will help you accomplish your objectives.
For example, if you want to spread the word and introduce your business and its content to a wider audience, then Twitter is an excellent platform to use.

If you want to connect with other professionals, then focus on your LinkedIn profile. If you were selling a physical product, such as your artwork or baked goods, visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest deserve your attention.
If you’re stuck on which platform will answer the questions listed above, compile a list of industry leaders and influencers to see which platforms they’re using.

BuzzSumo is an excellent tool that can help you find these individuals by conducting a simple search inquiry.

Where is your audience?

After defining your objectives, you also want to find out which social networks are being used by your audience.

Just as with your target audience in general, you want to review the demographics and psycho-graphics that makeup your specific audience. This will assist you in determining where they spend most of their time when online.
Overall, the most popular social networks, based on the amount of users, are; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, and Instagram.

However, Snapchat is the most popular among teens. So, there’s a good chance that your audience is somewhat active on those sites.

Just keep in mind though that just because there are million users on a social site doesn’t mean that they’re active. So be wary of fake accounts and keep an eye out for activity.

And, don’t rule out niche networks that are specific to your industry or business.

Consider your resources

Growing your presence on social media takes a fair amount of time and money. However, different channels can cost you more than others.

For example, creating and sharing videos on platforms like YouTube or Vine requires more of an investment than sending out a tweet.

If you want to be active on Twitter, you have to tweet multiple times throughout the day - which requires either more time or investing in a scheduling tool like Buffer.

Selecting your ideal social network

While there are several factors to consider when selecting a social network, it’s recommended that you at least join the big four of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +.

Regardless of your audience and industry, these are crucial when implementing a social media strategy.

After signing up for these four accounts, you can then select a channel or two that are more niche or demographic related.
A clothing retailer with a big millennial audience, for example, should focus on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.

Even if you only use a couple of platforms, I suggest that you still register your brand name across board just to avoid confusion and prevent any future hassles.

Making your presence known

Once you have registered your brand and created your accounts, it’s time to make your presence known.

And, that can be accomplished by:
• Optimize your profiles by including either a professional logo as your profile image, completely filling out your description, a link to your blog or website.
• Add social buttons on your blog or website and a link in your email signatures.
• Follow and interact with influencers in your industry.
• Create and share quality content that people will share. Follow the 80/20 rule which means that 80% of your social content is sharing someone else’s content.
• Post throughout the day. Buffer has created a frequency guide which has found that your should tweet 14 times throughout the day and just twice on Facebook. Again, scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can help you manage scheduling multiple accounts.
• Stay consistent across all platforms. This includes having the same color scheme, logo, and voice on each of your accounts.
• Stay true to yourself and your business plan.
• Start to have your business become an influencer.

Testing out your social media presence

Lastly, remember to test and assess how your social media presence efforts are going. Each site can provide analytics that offer reports on how that presence is doing.
This will also help you to determine where your audience is located and to what degree they are engaged with what you are doing on those platforms.

Remember that you will most likely have to make tweaks along the way to where you interact with your audience and the type of content you provide.

Facebook

This is by far the biggest social media channel, with an estimate of 1.11 billion people using the site each month, 665 million active users each day, and generates up to 645 million local business page views per week, Facebook has proved that its popularity amongst users is here to stay.
Facebook can be thought of as the “social” home for your business on the Internet. It’s a place people can go to leave a message, browse through business products and photos, or chat with you online.

With so many targeted potential customers, creating a business page is a must, but remember that it needs to be updated on a daily basis with not only promotional information, but engaging and interesting content as well.
Know that this platform does need a considerable amount of human and financial resources (advertising), and, if done right, the benefits to your business will definitely be seen.

Twitter

Twitter is full of people with things to say, and you can listen! This social media channel has an estimated 215 million active users.

Twitter is meant not so much for friends and family but for people you actually want to communicate with. You may think the 140 character count (or the amount of words you can tweet) is limited, but when used correctly, you can reap the rewards.

Twitter has proved its worth in recent years as a platform for breaking news. Use the great hashtag feature to keep up with and be part of the latest trends and news worthy events.
Twitter is also a great way to connect with your customers. If you have an unsatisfied customer you will hear them on Twitter, and this is your chance to excel at customer service.

If you have succeeded in gaining some popularity with your twitter account you will know how viral twitter can be.

Google+

Google+ has 359 million active users a month – far from the ghost town it is popularly believed to be.

Many see Google+ as a combination of Twitter and Facebook, but its new features makes it a marketing paradise.

The Hangouts, +1s and hashtags , if used properly, can result in a fantastic page popularity. Like Twitter and Facebook, this page needs to be updated; you need to be interactive with not only your own users, but other business pages as well.
Remember: Google+ is Google, which means great search engine results for your business!

If you have a Google+ Page and someone searches for your business (despite if they follow you or not), your Google+ Page and its most recent posts will be displayed on the right side of their personal search results.

These search ranking benefits makes Google+ an important social media site to consider for your business.

Pinterest

This is a tricky social media channel and you should only take it on if you have great images to share concerning your business.

Your business can reap the benefits of introducing your products to an estimated 70 million (10 million in the US alone) users on Pinterest, with fabulous backlinks to your website.

Businesses that produce quality visual content on Pinterest have a distinct advantage.
Because of the highly visual nature of the site, quality images have a greater chance of becoming “viral” – that is, shared and re-shared and re-shared further – to thousands of people.

An image pinned by a highly-followed Pinterest member has the potential to reach millions of viewers.

If your business is image heavy – say, a photography studio, retail shop or an ecommerce site – then Pinterest for business makes sense.

Don’t overlook the appeal of a good “how-to checklist” or a step-by-step guide. When paired with an interesting image, these pins can garner attention, too.

Once someone pins the image, the web address associated with that pin can serve to draw in new customers.

Remember: The majority of users on Pinterest are women (80%) between the ages of 25-45. Is this the right target audience for your business?

Instagram

If you’re not already aware, Instagram is a photo-sharing program. What makes Instagram different from other photo-sharing programs is that it’s a free app which can be downloaded onto iPhones and some Samsung and Android devices.

It enables users to apply a variety of filters to pictures with a simple press of a button. Do not sign your business up if you are not going to use your smart phone.

Though you can manage your Instagram account via your PC, you can’t upload images to Instagram without a third party tool from your PC.
Instagram is great for products, pictures of staff and developments within your business, and using this social media channel can add the ‘we’re just human’ factor to your business.

Statistics show that there are between 130 and 150 million users, but you need to understand the demographic of these users and determine if this is the right target audience for your business: The majority of users (70%) are female between the ages of 18-35.

LinkedIn

Linkedin is the largest social media network for business people and professionals but most small business owners still don’t have it on their marketing radar.

Business owners are now realizing the value of this site and the opportunities to build relationships and sales leads. There are over 230 million LinkedIn users and 2.7 million business pages already on LinkedIn.

Note that LinkedIn is more serious in nature compared to Facebook and Twitter. Approach this social media channel more seriously and assume that the users will want serious, professional and informative information.
One of the most powerful features of Linkedin is “Linkedin Groups” which provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to start and participate in a discussion within a Group.

You can share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish yourself as industry experts. Groups can have a hundred to thousands of members, so the exposure is significant.

YouTube

This social media channel is the most popular video oriented site and has an estimate of over 1 billion unique visitors every month, with over 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

A huge factor to note with YouTube is that:
It’s the second largest search engine after Google (not Yahoo or Bing!). So, having content here that is optimized to be found by someone looking for your product, service, or niche can have enormous benefits.

YouTube is owned by Google! When it comes to boosting your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking, videos are over 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results as part of the blended results that Google now shows.
But the YouTube market is competitive. It really is a social media channel to choose if you have value videos that invite engagement, sharing and that users will enjoy.

If your business can visually show how their services, products and employees are different from all the rest out there, this social media channel is a winner.

Conclusion

Social media has changed dramatically since its inception. What started as a way for individuals to connect and communicate is now a powerful tool that every business should be taking advantage of to cultivate their audience, engage their users and increase revenue.

While social media has grown into an incredible opportunity for business owners, it has also grown more complicated. There are now more options than ever.

Do you need an Instagram profile? Should you get in on Snapchat and Periscope before they get too big? Should you have Facebook and Twitter, or just choose one?

How do you know where to direct your time and resources for optimum ROI?

Just think of social media as a fluid process that will evolve over time. Just stick with it and be patient.

While it will take some time to develop your presence and following, you will know when it has made an impression.

The basis for creating an online presence is to attract more customers; therefore every internet marketing plan is expected to fit for a long term relationship.

Whether you’re operating a medium, small or large organization, it does not change the fact that all you do is tailored towards customer acquisition. In recent times, everything is online – shoes, groceries, electronics and even used stuff.

This trend has caused a lot of companies to find a spot on this new “hot cake” to make sales. With the number of online stores, businesses and companies these day, new boomers need something out of the ordinary norm to make a lasting impression and maintain loyalty.

Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn’t work. Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it.

Digital media has evolved overtime that consumers can not only get information about your product or service only directly from you but they can source for any form of information they want on the internet.

People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences.

It’s not enough to just know your customers; you must know them better than anybody else so you can communicate with them where, when and how they are most receptive to your message.

To do that, you need a consolidated view of customer preferences and expectations across all channels – Web, social media, mobile, direct mail, point of sale, etc.

Marketers can use this information to create and anticipate consistent, coordinated customer experiences that will move customers along in the buying cycle.

The deeper your insight into customer behavior and preferences, the more likely you are to engage them in lucrative interactions. Knowing your customer refer to understanding they purchase pattern, their preferences, and what prompts them to make certain purchases etc.

Having a glaring perspective will enlighten you on the most suitable internet marketing plan to tailor towards your target audience. It is essential never to neglect your customers because they form the core of your business.

The reality is, people spend twice as much time online as they used to 12 years ago. This means once you understand your customers over period, you will be able to keep re-strategizing and making future plans ahead of time to retain them.

That means you can forecast your budget to fit future plans based on the nature of your customer. One way to analyze acquisition strategy and estimate marketing costs is to calculate the Lifetime Value (“LTV”) of a customer.

This analysis will enable you make adequate internet marketing plans to meet up with the maximum retention period.

This is not to say you won’t have customers that will keep being loyal over the years and beyond but based on the average lifetime value of customers, you can make your internet marketing plan to fit the scope. Let's face it, not all your customers will be loyal to your brand for as long as forty years (40).

They probably might find another brand that suits them the most, your customers might lose interest in that particular product, it might not be good for their health or that particular customer might meet the inevitable (death).

There are basic life issues that might cause a shift of interest or patronage which means you have to know and make plans to maximize the most of that relationship and boost revenue without exploiting your customer's - within the best time frame.

The competition is fierce, and it’s harder to draw in new customers than ever which has caused most businesses to tilt towards digital marketing.

As you probably know, you can’t grow your business without marketing. Even the best products and services need to be advertised before they will sell.

So 2017 is just kicking off which means it’s still not too late to consider digital marketing for your business. I know some of you are a bit skeptical trying digital marketing and some of you are new to the internet.
The Internet has become an integral part of our everyday lives and it is simply unimaginable to try and picture our lives without it.

How many times have you needed information about something and the first thing that popped to your mind was to Google it?

For example, some days ago, I was searching for this new mobile phone transfer code for GTBank. Did a bit of asking around but no one could help out and I remembered “Google is my friend” - I did Google and there it was.
That is exactly what consumers do when trying to find information about a company they are interested in – they search for it online using search engines like Google, Bing or yahoo etc.

That is the most important reason why you need to establish an online presence for your business. You need to have an effective digital marketing strategy that can help you accomplish that and set your business on the right path to success.

Due to the great use of the internet and the constant advances in technology, digital marketing is one of the best methods that can help you grow your business. It can help you get more customers and build your reputation, thus expanding your business.

Traditional forms of marketing and advertising, like magazine or newspaper ads or billboards on the side of a highway, can be expensive — and evaluating their effectiveness can be close to impossible. Instead of relying on these methods, it’s time to turn to the internet.
Internet marketing can drive traffic to your business and convince new visitors to become paying customers, and often at a fraction of the cost of a billboard! With Internet marketing, you’ll never have those issues again.

A properly structured internet marketing campaign allows you to track individual users throughout your sales funnel, from initial contact to conversion.

So how exactly can Internet marketing help your business?

Today we will be looking at how digital marketing can give you the sort of conversing and popularity you want with viable tactics.

Build website

Since you’re new on the internet, the first way to establish your brand is by creating a web page or site where leads and prospects can be directed to when they are searching for information about your business.

Your website will incorporate everything about your business – from your mission, vision, then a little detail about your brand, product or service.
Also, you should make sure you have images to correspond with what you offer as a business. For example, an internet user searches for sneakers using Google and probably that’s the product your business specializes in.

I personally as a customer will be expecting to see images of some of your products displayed on at least a page. That’s the same expectation your customers have. Once they are on your site, they expect you to give them reasons why they should engage you.

In order to have a quality website with great loading speed, you need to find a good hosting provider that will offer you the best service possible. Once you have your host, the crucial thing you need to pay attention to is your content and the overall design.

You cannot let your website become cluttered; everything needs to be clear and visible, so that visitors can easily find all the information they need.
Quality content is what will make those visitors come back, so it is one of the most important things when it comes to your website and attracting more customers.

Making a website for your business is the best digital marketing method that can help you grow. However, it is just a starting point and there are a few more things to do in order to successfully establish your online presence.

Establish a loyal following on social media

Social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, are great methods for expanding your business with digital marketing. Companies can set up official brand pages or accounts on social media sites, and post updates - however often they choose.

Although managing your presence on social media can potentially eat up a lot of time but it’s worth the investment. Being active on social media is the best way to showcase your business to a great number of potential customers.
Also, it helps you learn from their feedback, as well as to keep a steady flow of communication with your current customers. These platforms give followers of your company or product new ways to interact with, and learn about, what you have to offer.

It also gives customers the opportunity to ask questions, get help with something they are having troubles with, or just have a conversation with you. Social media can help grow your business by first growing your follower’s base on these different platforms.

If someone follows you on Twitter because they like what you have to say, they might eventually make a purchase from your website. Or, if someone joins your Facebook page because a friend recommended it, they may already trust you enough to subscribe to your service when the time is right.
There are lots of creative ways to use social media to grow your followers and customer base. You can post links to interesting content, run contests or exclusive promotions, or simply ask questions.

Due to the increasing popularity of social media networks, you should seriously think about establishing your presence there.

It is a great digital marketing method for your business and you will get more customers, since everyone is online all the time, literally.

Driving traffic with SEO

Without SEO, businesses may find it difficult to rank on search engines like Google for the keywords that they associate with their products or services.

Optimizing your website for search is one of the very best ways to grow your site traffic and your business. Studies have found that being at the top of the first page of search results can earn you more than 50% of traffic. However, that percentage drops all the way to a mere 4% for the fifth spot.
So if you’re not showing up on the first page for a specific keyword or phrase, you should work towards finding yourself there whether organically or through paid ads. To use SEO to grow your business, you may want to work with an experienced digital marketing agency.

Usually, these professionals help you with the technical aspect of optimizing your website by: Identifying the key phrases and words you want to rank for, optimize your website titles and Meta tags to align with keywords you want to stand out for, optimize your copy and on-page content, and submit your site to search engines.
Actively optimizing your website is one of the only ways to beat out your competition and rise to the top of the search results. One of the best parts of SEO is that it generates organic traffic – traffic that you’re not paying for after an initial investment.

If you create an awesome blog post that starts ranking at the top of Google for a certain search term, it will continue to bring in traffic day after day.

In digital marketing, “Content is king”

Content is king for organic search ranking efforts, and producing relevant, new and useful content for your website can have a big impact on your business.
The content used in this method can vary from blogs to videos to whitepapers or even ebooks, but they all share the same end goal: to convince visitors to your website that they should buy from or partner with you. One of the oldest methods of content marketing is the company blog.

A blog can be a great way to not only offer content that is interesting to those visiting your website, but also to create conversation and encourage repeat visits.
Blogs don’t have to be all about your brand or products. Content marketing can also come in the form of downloadable, long-form content, like whitepapers, guides, or ebooks.

Though this kind of content can take a long time for a brand to produce, and requires more research and resources than a simple blog post, it can be very rewarding.

Offering long-form content can help to position you as a thought or industry leader, and that kind of positioning can be very valuable.
Basically, you can use content to tell your brand story and experience to your ideal audience. Usually, when you have a content, one important factor is sharing your content on social media platforms or other sites like Nairaland in Nigeria.

This helps drive more traffic to your website where you have your blog and conversion starts from that point. When executed correctly, content will keep your customers interested in your brand.

They will be willing to come back and visit your site regularly for new things to read and digest.

Creating suitable paid campaigns

Certain tools can create immediate results and highly relevant and targeted traffic, such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

This is a tool that enables you craft out specifically tailored ads online to relevant target consumers when they search using specific keywords relevant to you in a search engine, but the beauty is - you only pay the search engine if the searcher clicks your ad.

You can set budget controls for flexibility and reach your target consumers at the right time. PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising is another way to bring new visitors to your website. PPC ads are displayed along with search results, and entice users to click on them to find what they are looking for.

As the name indicates, these ads require you to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. However, they aren’t as expensive as you might think. In fact, the exact opposite is often true.
PPC can be a fantastic investment for businesses of all size, because you have extreme control over your ad spend.

If competition is low, you may only spend lesser than you envisage per click and still see a great return on investment. Just like SEO, where your PPC ads show up in search results are very important.

If your ad shows in the very first spot, above the unpaid search results, your business will receive roughly 59% of all ad clicks. So it is important to invest enough in your PPC campaigns to make your business link both visible and interesting to shoppers.

Leverage emails for digital marketing

Email marketing is one method of growing your internet business. Although gaining a dedicated following can take a long time, brands with large email lists know that there is great value in this method.

In fact, studies suggest that for each dollar a brand spends on their email marketing program, they made more than $40! Email’s effectiveness seems to stem from its ability to put your company right where it matters most: a customer’s inbox.
In this digital era, the email inbox is one of the most frequently accessed locations on the online. When a customer opts-in to your email list, they are saying that they want to give your messages some real estate in their inbox – so you should definitely take advantage of it.

By sending out periodic emails about new products, special offers or sales, and interesting additions to your website - you can drive shoppers back for repeat purchases.

Emails can easily be forwarded to others, so subscribers to your list might send one of your marketing messages to a friend or family member if they spot something of interest to them.
That can lead to more subscriptions, more clicks, and more sales.

Email marketing is a proven way to drive sales and encourage repeat visits. Just be careful not to overwhelm your subscribers with too many emails.

Which means you should test your email effectiveness to determine the right timing and frequency of your messages.

If you send out too many emails, you risk annoying your customers – but not enough, and they may forget you completely.

Increase trust with link building

Links are another way that potential customers may find your business. If someone is visiting a website that they trust, and they see a link to your site, they are far more likely to trust you than they might if they had stumbled upon you in some other manner.

But getting links on other websites isn’t all about trust: it’s also about your ranking. Links to your site help indicate how well you should rank in searches for specific keywords or phrases.
Search engine algorithms – how search engines determine where a website ranks in organic results – have rapidly evolved since their introduction.

Years ago, the website that had the most keywords, the most links, and the most keywords in their content would undoubtedly sit at the no1 spot.

However, algorithms now take unnatural or spammy behaviour into consideration. This means that it’s not enough to just have a lot of links – they have to be high-quality links from well-known and trusted websites.
So, in order to get these good links and improve your ranking, you will need to undergo a process called link building. This refers to the process of building links to your site from other sites through manual actions.

You can simply ask for a link, or you can create great content that others want to link to. If you can build up a lot of high-quality links to your business online, this will indicate to both search engines and shoppers that they can trust you.

This will not only improve your ranking, but also increase the amount of traffic that comes to your site.

You can try going mobile

Website traffic from cell phones and tablets increases every day. More and more consumers are using their mobile devices to research, browse, and even shop on the go.

To grow your business online, you may find it necessary to create a mobile-optimized website, or even a completely mobile version of your site.

Mobile website design often involves installing special code that will make your website easier to browse on a mobile phone or tablet.

It will cut back on unnecessary scrolling or zooming, and will make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for – or even make a purchase – from their device.
Creating a mobile version of your website, or using responsive design to ensure that your existing content appears properly on all devices, can potentially increase your conversion rate dramatically.

If a shopper visits your site on their phone and finds it easy to navigate, they are far more likely to buy from you than from a business who does not have a mobile-friendly store.

Every naira you spend is accounted for through your ROI

If your website is the Heart, analytics is the Head of digital marketing.

Many forms of traditional marketing (Broadcast, Print, Billboard etc.), make it very hard to pinpoint relevant data and return on investment, and therefore what works and what doesn’t for your business.

Analytics tools provide sophisticated data that is highly measurable and easily analysed with tools such as Google Analytics.
This data can show exactly which strategy is most cost-effective for your expenditure, and which is providing the highest revenue, ROI, sales, leads and more.

Data can also be used to find weaknesses in your website or marketing which can then be addressed via A/B testing of new ideas.

Conclusion

With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society.

Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one, or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.

For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successfully thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales.

In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, digital marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.

Digital marketing is also much more quantitative than traditional marketing ever could be. Many internet marketing channels yield detailed data that allows you to optimize online campaigns which greatly improves your chances of success.

You can also share with me some of the ways new businesses can thrive and succeed on the internet.