Recent research shows that Google gets approximately 77 000 searches a second and that around 93% of all online interactions start with a search engine. Further, it is estimated that 3.2 billion social media users are active every day. Today, if your business isn’t online you are missing out. Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, businesses have had to pivot their strategies to operate online. Most experts believe these changes will remain permanent when life goes back to “normal”, making the online marketing space that much more competitive. If you are marketing your business in 2021, you want to know how you can do it online to reach the greatest amount of potential customers possible.

Do You Have a Professional Website?

Having a unique and engaging website is now foundational to your business in the information age. There is no point in marketing your business online if you don’t have anywhere to lead your customers. Your site needs to be unique and to follow modern UX practices (User- Experience). Whether you are developing a new website or improving your current one, ask yourself these questions: Does my site guide the user? Is it easy to navigate? How many clicks does it take to make a purchase or to submit contact details? Is there useful information on the site? (Think FAQs). A potential customer should be able to arrive at your site from another marketing channel and have all the information they need to either make a purchase or to request you to contact them.

Copy Must Have a Purpose

Remove the fluff from the copy on your website. Less is definitely more here, your product or service needs to be clearly and succinctly described. If someone searches for your product or services on a search engine, will the copy on your website match what they are searching for? There needs to be consistency with your copy between your website and your marketing efforts, the more these align together, and the closer that you can align your copy with search engine search terms, the more relevant your site will look to the search engine which equates to better SEO. The principle here is that your copy must not be random and “salesly”, it needs to be informative and relevant. Research shows that you don’t have the users’ attention for too long, that’s why most copy you see these days is in the center of the screen and to the point.

Are You Converting Website Visits?

As mentioned already, if you manage to get people to your website, can they take action? And, how easy and straightforward is it to do this?

You need a friendly contact form with no more than one click required for your user to leave their details and request you to contact them. Your contact and/or sales form is the finish line for your strategies. The marketing expert from Fortibus recognizes this is a crucial component of your marketing strategies as it allows you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimize them. Chatbots can be useful here, with you setting pre-programmed answers to the most common questions.

Also, if the user wants to make a purchase or book an appointment, make it as easy as possible for them to book or pay. No unnecessary page loads or clicks. The information they need to make a purchase should be updated and available – such as stock and availability. Have the most common payment options available.

If the above is set up well, your customers and clients will have a good experience and market your business for you. You now have a foundation to expand on your marketing tactics.

Set Up Google My Business

This is one of the most underutilized marketing functions that Google offers. It’s great for SEO and free. If you have not set up Google My Business, do so now!

Use Media in Your Content

In surveys, 62% of internet users have stated that they prefer video. It’s worth investing in a design specialist to have some original and engaging content. If you can have your own infographics, videos, and images, you are going to engage your visitors more and have more of them return to your website, blog, and social media profiles.

Make Use Of Social Media

Don’t have too many social media profiles, it takes a lot of effort to stay engaged and be relevant. Choose the platforms that your target market uses the most and make a business profile that looks professional and that is up to date. It’s important that if a potential customer wants to find you on social media they can and that the profile is up to date and active.

Community Management

As mentioned you need to be active and relevant. However, remember that you are building a relationship and trust with your audience. Be consistent with your posts and only post high-quality content that is engaging and informs your audience. Employ a community manager or make a posting schedule for yourself. Check for emergencies daily but you don’t need to post everyday. People don’t want to feel like you are just talking at them and that they are just another sale. They want to resonate with your brand and feel that you care about them.  Rather post consistently twice a week that ten days in a row and then be silent for extended periods.

Make Use Of Paid Social Media Ads

Facebook has approximately 2.74 billion active users and is the 3rd most visited site in the world. By starting with Facebook, which also allows you to target Instagram users, you can target most of the world, and for relatively low costs and low risks. You can select which profile you want your ads to be displayed on, it’s like choosing who walks past your signboard. Because Facebook has data, such as demographics, interests, and search histories, you can target people specifically and learn a lot about who your customer is. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad or per 1000 impressions. You also get data/feedback when someone clicks, even if they aren’t making a purchase it’s helpful, so you can allocate a small part of your budget for market testing.

Paid Google Ads

When you think of something that you need or want, what do you do? You Google it.  Google is the most widely used search engine by far and thus, by using it you can target most people. Google ads allow you to target searches. You can have your ad show when someone searches for something that you have linked your ad to. If someone searches for a product or service that you provide, you want your website to come up.

There are a lot of new marketing options available to you in 2021, the likes of virtual events and augmented reality. But if you don’t have a strong foundation in the marketing topics discussed in this article, then the exciting new options are not going to help you.