Forms of online marketing
Online marketing is an important means of attracting more leads, visitors or customers to your website or physical store. There are several forms of online marketing that will help your business move forward.
The different forms help each business in a different way. Sometimes one way works better than another for a specific company.
Do you want to do the marketing of your business yourself? Then keep in mind that any form of online marketing requires sufficient knowledge to execute it properly and get the desired results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The first form is search engine optimization (SEO), or search engine optimization. SEO is done by making improvements to the content, technology of your website and by performing link building. By optimizing, your website will rank higher in Google’s organic search results. This means improved online findability. Good online findability leads to higher sales.(1)
Unlike advertising in search engines, the visitors you get through SEO are ”free.” We call these organic visitors. It means you don’t have to pay per click to get visitors to your website. The visitor comes to your website by himself.
It takes time to optimize all components for the desired results. However, you are using a sustainable strategy that will benefit you for the long term.
Email marketing
The name says it all. Email marketing centers on collecting email addresses from potential customers. You collect these email addresses to then take them to email campaigns. The more email addresses and other data you manage to collect, the more targeted your campaign will be.
How do you collect these email addresses? There are several ways. Give out discount coupons or other rewards to visitors who sign up for the newsletter. From this data you read what the customer’s data is. In addition, in this way you find out where the customer’s interests lie.
Make sure you are running email campaigns correctly. By no means everyone likes getting emails in with campaigns in them. Intrusive email campaigns come across as spam. Make sure your customers don’t dislike you. Motivate them to take action.(2)
Search Engine Advertising
In addition to non-paid (organic) search results, you have paid search results. These are search results in the form of ads at the top of Google. Paid search results are always displayed above non-paid search results.
Advertising in Google is called SEA. In this form of marketing, you link search terms or queries to ads. Your ad shows Google when a searcher types in the keyword. The difference with SEO is that the results are immediately visible. You pay Google a fixed amount each time a searcher clicks on your search result.(3)
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is a form of marketing that allows you to be close to your potential customers. Many people are on socials in their spare time. Therefore, the tone is more lighthearted than through business advertisements or mailing. Social media makes it easy to spread new products.
A sound marketing strategy is important. You need to be clear about what you want to post, at what times (when is your target audience on social media?) and, above all, what your goal is.
It is a channel that many customers turn to when there are questions, as well as complaints. Therefore, it is not just a matter of posting nice messages. Keeping track of the responses you receive is just as important. Social media is growing by the day and so is marketing with it. Don’t fall behind and join your company in this upward trend!(4)
What is the best form of marketing?
As mentioned earlier, different marketing strategies are valuable for different businesses. Therefore, it is up to your company what fits and works well. For some businesses, it is not relevant to do email marketing but rather SEA. To execute the best marketing strategy, you must first properly identify your target audience. Look at what your goal is, and adjust the marketing strategy accordingly.
- SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers. (s.d.-e). Google For Developers. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
- Santiago, E. (2024, Jan. 26). Email Marketing: The Ultimate Guide (Expert Tips + Data to Know). HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-guide
- Your guide to Google Ads – Google Ads Help. (s.d.). https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6146252?hl=en
- Baker, K. (2024, Jan. 24). Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-marketing
Frequently Asked Questions
What is online marketing?
Marketing products and services over the Internet is called online marketing. As a business owner, you want to spread the word about your products and services, and everything you do to that end via the Internet falls into this category. You could think about social media marketing or e-mail marketing, for example. Which strategy best suits your business/website depends on the industry but also what goals you have as a business owner.
By using online marketing you can attract more visitors, for example, this can work quickly in the short term if you suddenly work with high discounts when people sign up for a newsletter, for example. But often you still want it to attract long-term customers who keep coming back. Therefore, it is good to respond to this, choose a strategy that suits your business and your target audience.
But the most well-known form of online marketing is SEO. With this, you’re also going to make a website rank higher in Google, which is your goal. That way you are more likely to get people to come to your website. For that, you need to use the right keywords by knowing your target audience well. You also need to make sure your texts are unique and relevant.
Is it important that I apply all online marketing methods to my website?
More and more I see that online marketing is an important tool to attract more visitors, customers or leaders to the website. Online marketing comes in multiple forms, so I always look carefully at what suits a particular business. Online marketing can help a business, sometimes I choose method A and sometimes method X, because it works just a little better within this industry.
Search engine marketing is a form of online marketing that is of interest to any website. After all, you want as many visitors as possible to come to your website, hoping that they will proceed to a purchase or other action. Therefore, it always makes sense to invest in them. You don’t have to apply all online marketing methods to your website.
You really need to look at what form of marketing is relevant to your target audience and business. Where can you get the most out of it and what is effective? If you can’t figure it out, I can always provide you with tailored advice as an SEO specialist. After all, you still want to get the most out of your website, and I’m happy to help with that.
Do I need a big budget to apply online marketing?
You don’t have to have a very large budget if you want to apply online marketing. For example, SEO is free if you do it yourself, but SEA costs money because you have to pay for ads. So it’s really entirely up to you how much money you’re going to spend on it and whether you want to spend money on it at all. Perhaps you have some hours free each week and can delve into online marketing opportunities on your own.
You may also have a budget per month that you want to spend on online marketing. Hiring an SEO specialist is then a good choice. I work with a fixed hourly rate and can tell you in advance what I can do for you and therefore what you can expect from me. You decide how much money you want to spend on it per month and when you want to stop.
My advice is to first see what can be gained from your website this way with search engine marketing, for example. Then another form can be applied to get even more out of it.
Will online marketing help me make more sales?
I have already mentioned that there are different forms of online marketing. One important form is SEO. So this is search engine optimization. I then perform improvement to the content, texts of the website and for link building. If a website is optimized, it will rank higher in the search engines. It ensures higher sales.
So it sounds logical that online marketing can increase sales. After all, if more visitors come to your site, they are more likely to make a purchase. Really not everyone will stay or make a purchase or other action, but you do have a chance that some visitors will. Every visitor who does is one more and therefore means more sales for your business.
Therefore, if you are well findable, it contributes to more sales. You will compete with the competition, because you want to be the best findable online and for that you can apply online marketing or you can have it done. This is how to get the most out of your website (and your business).
What is the most sustainable form of online marketing?
There are different marketing strategies and which one is chosen depends on the company. A different form may be chosen for each company. Email marketing, for example, is not relevant to everyone, but in order to ascertain the best form for a business, the first thing to consider is what the target audience is. I recommend that you also take a good look at the goal you have and then you can adjust the marketing strategy accordingly.
In any case, SEO is a good way of online marketing that is going to benefit you now but also in the long run. I do then advise you to stay engaged with this. Keep blogging, working keywords into the texts, posting relevant texts that appeal to people and really see them as adding value. But also consider link building, because that too will make you more findable online.
E-mail marketing is a form of marketing that does not make everyone happy. Some people see it as spam. This will especially happen if emails are sent too often. Therefore, pay close attention to this if you would choose this.
Can I get good results using only one online marketing channel?
Through e-marketing, as the name implies, you are going to collect e-mail addresses from (potential) customers. These are then included in an e-mail campaign. I understand you’re wondering how that gets you the email addresses, but there are several ways to do that. You can give rewards when people sign up for a newsletter, for example, or give a discount. You will also find out where that interests the customers.
Social media marketing can also be used to gather information from customers. However, these are two channels that you often combine with SEO, for example, because through this you go into keywords, links, etc. just to optimize everything so that you are more findable.
My advice is to start with SEO so you can be even more findable and start optimizing your website properly. From there it is possible to see if there might be other online marketing channels that are interesting to use. But you could always choose a channel too, it just depends on where that your goals lie and what you want to get out of it.
Can I get started with online marketing myself?
If you have a business and would like to get started with online marketing yourself, you can. Then look carefully at what form fits your business and your target audience. I can advise you to perform a few steps in advance. You could do a keyword research, then you will know what words you want to rank for and that is what you should focus on.
Make sure you put unique content on your website, and keep doing so. It has to add value for your visitors, but also for the search engines. Again, use the right keywords and synonyms, make sure you post links and have links pointing to your website (by posting a blog elsewhere, for example). But even small things like incorporating keywords properly in the header tags and URL will help you improve your online findability. If you have developed a newsletter, then you can also use it to attract people to your website and, for example, offer a discount if they sign up now. These are already a few small steps that you can start yourself, though.
When is it wise to hire an online marketing specialist?
It may be that you have a large business, you are very busy every day and don’t really have time to handle online marketing yourself. This is a wise time to hire an online marketing specialist. But it could also be that you have already tried all sorts of things and are not yet seeing the desired results. You find out anyway that it’s too intense and you don’t feel like it.
For any business operating online, it is important to invest in online marketing. So my advice is if you don’t have the time or inclination yourself, outsource it to me for example. As an SEO specialist, I can provide you with customized advice, or I can do all the work for a flat hourly fee.
I’ll keep you updated on the steps I took, of course, but I’ll also show you the results. Therefore, you notice positive effects in the short and also in the long term. If you want to know more about it you can always contact me and I will be happy to answer all your questions.