Inbound Marketing Insights

If you want your business to thrive and succeed over time, you need to be able to market your products online. Everyone can be contacted and searched online, which is why you need to reach out to them using this medium to stay relevant and top-of-mind. If you don’t put in time and effort to create a strong online presence, your competitors will, and it won’t be long before they will steal your customers from you. After all, customers tend to choose businesses that are innovative, convenient and accessible. And while you can easily post pictures of your products with their respective prices, online marketing involves much more than that. There are certain strategies you should consider so your efforts will end with positive results.

More often than not, businesses think that marketing their products online is enough to convince customers to choose them, but this is a misconception. If you’re looking to successfully market online, you should stay clear of the following 4 mistakes:

1. You don’t have a website that clearly answers the customer's questions: Sure, you can always post your products on all of your social media accounts but that isn't always the most effective. How can customers find out more more about your business? How can they reach you if ever they have questions? How will they know that your business is legitimate? With the advent of technology, proving all of these points, especially the last one, is important. When you have a website that is easy to find and navigate, you can promote your products online and provide additional information about your business to help consumer's make their purchasing decisions. 

2. You don’t track results: There are many mediums which you can use in order to promote your products online. You can use social media, your website, email marketing, and third-party online platforms. And there’s nothing wrong if you decide to use all of these mediums at the same time. But when you do, it's important to know which mediums actually work and which ones don’t. Can you pinpoint which digital channels bring you the most new and repeat customers? Tracking results is critical to help answer all of these questions. It can also help your business save money in the long run since you’ll make better marketing decisions on campaigns and investments to make in the future.

3. You’re okay being a “me-too” business: With the number of businesses using the internet to promote their products, standing out from the crowd can become a challenge. Some businesses don’t even think about standing out – as long as they have a business, all is well and good. This isn’t the best way to go. If you want more customers to choose you over other businesses, you need to position your business as something that’s unique and different. Determine your positioning statement and what  makes you different. Utilize that as part of your marketing and sales campaigns to help you earn customers through your differentiated products or customer service experience.

4. You’re loving your prospects, but ignoring your customers: It’s common to see businesses work really hard in order to gain prospects. Businesses will exert time and effort to communicate with these prospects, tell them why their products are the best and why they should choose them over competitors. But after they made their first purchase, businesses oftentimes don't pay attention to their customers anymore. The time and effort you give to your prospects should still be given once they become your customers, maybe even more! You should strive to create relationships with them. Remember, keeping a customer is much cheaper than gaining new ones.

Nowadays, marketing your products online is no longer a want but a need. If you’re a business owner, having a strong online presence needs to be included in your plan. This is one way for your business to create professional relationships with customers which will result in brand loyalty. Marketing your products online can also level out the playing field among your competitors. Achieving all of these can be challenging, especially if you’re used to doing traditional marketing or if your business is still small. However, once you know how to do it, things will come easier. Aside from the 4 tips in this article, don’t hesitate to seek the guidance of a firm, like Boston SEO, for help with your SEO strategy.

If you're interested in discussing your current marketing strategy and how you can further align that with your brand and voice, we invite you to schedule an inbound marketing consultation with our team. You can also check out our marketing explainer videos if you have any questions specifically on digital marketing. 

Guest Blog Contributor: Dianne Belencio-Abonita has been writing blogs for quite some time now. She is interested in a lot of things, which makes it a joy for her to write about different niches. But among all the niches, business and marketing are her favorites. She currently works for Omegaseo.co, but when hen she’s not busy writing, Dianne spends her time with her husband Francis and daughter Francine. This is where she draws inspiration to continually provide informative blogs to different audiences.