Top 10 Secrets to Successful Internet Marketing: A blog about product marketing basics.

Category: Digital Marketing

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Top 10 Secrets to Successful Internet Marketing: A blog about product marketing basics.

How To Market Your Product In the Digital Age. Let’s discusses various methods and tools you can use to market your product.

The internet has become one of the most powerful tools for marketing. It gives you access to millions of potential customers, it allows you to reach them at any time, and it provides you with many ways to interact with them.

It also allows you to use various methods and tools for your marketing campaigns, which can help you reach more people and make more sales. This article will discuss some of the most important methods and tools that are available to you.

For any business to remain competitive, a strong digital marketing strategy is essential. These top 10 tips will help kickstart the marketing efforts of any small business.

If you’re a small business owner, then a good digital marketing strategy is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition. As technology continues to rapidly develop, social media platforms grow and online communication booms, you need to ensure your digital presence is the catalyst for business success.

In fact, 63% of businesses have increased their digital marketing budgets in the last year, so by failing to do so you may run the risk of getting left behind.

If you’re stuck for inspiration, then this list of digital marketing tips will ensure your small business doesn’t miss out and you remain competitive in an ever-changing world. Here are 10 effective ways to kick-start your digital marketing endeavours, with all the tips and tricks you need to promote your brand online.

1. Research your competitors

If you want to stand out from your competitors, then getting to know their brands and what they offer is a good place to start. This digital marketing tip is especially relevant for startups that may be new on the scene and finding their feet.

As a local business, you’ll want to showcase additional value in your chosen market, offering your customers something that your rivals don’t. By taking a closer look at a competitor’s business model, you’ll be able to notice missing elements from their service that you could potentially capitalise on.

When you have a good understanding of what your competitors are doing, you can then tailor certain elements of your digital marketing strategy to take advantage of their weaknesses. A good way of conducting competitor research is online, taking a look at how they advertise, their website, social media presence, and customer reviews.

2. Speak to customers and understand your audience

Arguably, there are very few digital marketing tips for small businesses more important than this. Speaking to existing and prospective customers is absolutely essential, as you need to know everything about your target audience. This includes who they are, what they like, what their expectations are, what they want to see, and so much more.

You may think you already have a good understanding of your target audience, but taking a deeper dive into their behaviours and opinions will help to build long-lasting relationships and improve your customer retention. As a small business, you’ll need to know your local target audience extensively, so you can encourage them to buy your products and spread the word.

Interviews, surveys, and customer feedback are great ways of getting to know your audience better. If you want, you can tailor your research methods towards a particular theme or area of your business.

It’s important to remember that different online platforms will attract different customers. For example, posting a survey on social media is likely to encourage interactions with different people to what you might expect with emails. You’ll therefore want to think about the right approach and what areas of your audience you want to target.

3. Create a Google My Business listing and improve customer reviews

As a small business owner, your reputation could be the difference between gaining or losing a potential customer. This free digital marketing tip provides internet users with important information about your business and also allows them to see reviews.

Having a Google My Business listing is a great way of improving your visibility online, as your profile will appear in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping.

By adding your small business, you’ll be able to:

Add your location
Include contact information
Link to your website
Prove your business has been verified
Customise your profile
Add images and videos
Include keywords in your profile
Encourage reviews
Add special features and attributes.

Potential customers will be able to quickly and conveniently access all of your important business information, plus you’ll also be able to easily edit any details to ensure they are always up to date. In total, it’s estimated that 64% of consumers use Google My Business to find contact details for local businesses.

4. Work on your website basics

There are countless ways of improving and developing your website, but getting the basics right first is absolutely essential. Whether it’s ensuring your website has a clear design and is easy to navigate or making sure your website pages load quickly, first impressions are an integral part of attracting customers online, with 94% of first impressions of a website being design-related.

As user experience on websites continues to improve, customers are quite rightly becoming more demanding and expect businesses to get the basics right at the very least. A badly functioning website will not only turn customers away, but it will also impact your chances of ranking in Google and hinder the likelihood of being noticed.

A huge component of digital marketing is about converting new users into customers, and having a fully-functioning website that offers an excellent user experience helps to achieve this.

5. Create interesting content

Content is king. Whether it’s blog posts or videos, the content you produce is one of the best digital marketing tools for you to leverage. Creating innovative and engaging content will help you to get noticed online and also expand your reach. Not only is it good to have on your website, but content is also great for sharing on social media – especially when it comes to videos.

Not only does it help you to form a connection between your brand and its customers, but it also allows you to promote your business in a much more engaging format. In terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), having blog content will also allow you to naturally target keywords and improve your ranking on Google.

In an increasingly competitive world, digital marketing tips and tricks like this will help you to stand out from your competitors and put your own unique spin on how you market your brand. Simply put, no digital marketing strategy is complete without it.

6. Optimise your website for mobile users

Let’s face it, so many of us are glued to our mobile phones, constantly staring at our screens and relying on them for basic day-to-day functions.

We are now less inclined to open a laptop when it comes to browsing websites online and instead opt for the more convenient option of using our smartphones. Incredibly, 6.92 billion people around the world use a smartphone (86.29% of the world’s population), which is why it’s incredibly important that your website is suitable for mobile users.

Your website needs to be user-friendly and easy to navigate on a mobile, while embracing new technologies and innovations to ensure you’re maximising all the smartphone tools you have at your disposal. This is especially important if you’re targeting a younger target audience, as poor functionality on a mobile phone will ensure your business falls at the first hurdle.

7. Understand and improve your SEO

No digital marketing strategy is complete without SEO consideration, which is why you need to ensure you have people working in your small business that are knowledgeable in this area.

In its simplest form, good SEO best practice utilises keywords on your website to help drive performance and ensure your website ranks higher in online search results. By doing so, your business is more likely to be recognised and traffic to your website will increase.

SEO can also help your small business by:

Building trust with your customers
Organically improving your visibility
Boosting your credibility
Maximising paid marketing strategies
Expanding your reach
Improving website usability
Driving user engagement rates.

SEO-incorporated content should always be impactful and traffic-driven, which is why so many businesses now employ SEO specialists. However, if your small business is constrained to a tight budget, then detailed SEO guides will help you master the basics.

8. Target a social media channel that’s best for your business

Increasingly, social media is becoming one of the most important tools a business can use as part of its digital marketing strategy, as people spend an average of 151 minutes per day on social media platforms.

However, it’s not as simple as just sending out the same post across multiple platforms and expecting good results, as you need to tailor your posts to a particular platform and the audience it attracts. For example, B2B companies may favour LinkedIn, while B2C businesses will likely have more success posting on Instagram.

Therefore, you should aim to target the social media platform that is most relevant to your business and is used by your target audience. It’s always better to excel at one particular platform than do an average job across multiple social media channels, so make sure you identify the platform that is most appropriate for your small business and put more of your energy into making it a success.

Due to the fact social media is a free, easy tool to use, this digital marketing tip is great for startups that are tight on budget and resources.

9. Develop email marketing

Despite the rise in social media and other similar digital marketing tools, email marketing is still a fundamental part of any successful digital marketing strategy.

Regardless of age, just about everyone uses an email, which means you have the opportunity to expand your reach and target people of all demographics and backgrounds. However, it’s important that you’re emailing the right people that are interested in what your business offers.

Monthly newsletters, promotions, news, and competitions are all great ways of engaging with your audience through emails. It’s also a great low-cost option that allows you to customise and personalise your messaging to help your brand connect with its target audience on a deeper level.

10. Get in touch with local influencers

Our list of digital marketing tips for small businesses concludes with one of the most effective marketing tools available to companies looking to make an impact in a modern, digital age. Reaching out to influencers is a great way of getting your small business recognised and boosting publicity.

Here are some enlightening statistics from a recent report by Influencer Marketing Hub that highlight the growth in influencer marketing:

Influencer marketing grew to $16.4 billion in 2022
Businesses are making $5.2 ROI for every $1 spent on influencer marketing
67% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.

In order to make this strategy successful, you need to think about which influencers are right not just for your business, but also for your target audience. It can be challenging to find someone famous who is not only well-known among your audience but also passionate about your brand and what it represents.

Whether it’s giveaways and discounts or brand ambassadors and collaborations, partnering with influencers will undoubtedly improve your business’s visibility and get people talking online.

Digital marketing tips for small businesses: additional learning

Hopefully, the digital marketing tips i have covered in this article have provided plenty of inspiration to help ensure your small business’s online presence is a success. By implementing some of these tips and tricks, you’ll be able to effectively promote your brand online and drive sales in no time at all.

At Vintage Creative, we offer a variety of digital marketing courses to help further your learning and equip you with invaluable digital skills that will help you to drive your small business forward.

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How to Succeed with Sales Enablement

B2B sales enablement is not just about sales tools, people and process, or data and intelligence – it’s about combining all these pieces together in a cohesive strategy. When done right, sales enablement offers a repeatable and scalable way for sales to boost revenue. How do B2B companies get there? Let’s dive into five key areas for attaining best practice B2B sales enablement.

1) Set Strategy with People and Process

You cannot automate an ill-equipped process. Before rolling out a sales enablement process, companies must first set strategy and align stakeholders.

For example, if sales need account-based enablement while marketing is arming sales with lead-based resources, that is a sign of misalignment. That misalignment will likely result in inefficiencies in the sales process and unrealized revenue.

Sales teams supported by sales enablement have a 15% higher win rate on forecasted deals than those without. (CSO Insights)

A best practice is to align stakeholders on what is needed to enable sales and make sure sales is properly trained to drive adoption. Here are some questions to ask when developing a sales enablement strategy:

What is our go to market strategy?
Which companies are we targeting?
What is our sales process for lead and account management?
Are the goals of marketing, sales, and management aligned?
Which technologies are needed to support and streamline sales initiatives?
How can we drive efficiencies to maximize sales?

2) Build the Foundation with the Right Data and Intelligence

How can sales communicate more effectively with the target audience? Whether it is a prospecting tool for discovering net-new business or a tool for understanding the behavior of the install base, intelligence is a must for any sales enablement strategy.

Knowing that a lead visited product-specific web pages and interacted with video demos will help sales prioritize efforts and communicate more effectively.

Just 56% of sales reps surveyed said they use a data-based prospecting approach to find new customers. (LinkedIn)

Additionally, incomplete data brings inefficiencies to the sales team. Any sales enablement strategy should include a data audit to make sure the team is starting with the right foundation.

3) Adopt the Right Technologies

A carpenter going to a house to fix a door is not going to get the job done with a plumbing kit. For sales, a rep must have the right tools to do the job. These tools come in the form of technology. The list of technologies is vast, so here’s a few top technologies that help build efficiencies in the sales enablement process:

CRM: A CRM is the obvious technology that provides an assortment of lead and opportunity management capabilities.
Sales Outreach and Email Templates: Fifty sales reps should not have to write fifty different emails for a follow up to a webinar. With marketing feeding content into outreach solutions, that email creation and sending is streamlined.
Automated Proposal Builder: Proposals should not be special snowflakes. Otherwise, sales will spend more time on paperwork than selling. Proposal builders can help streamline the RFP and proposal creation process.
Digital Training: From technology to process, supporting the field with e-learning modules will help support any in-person training.

4) Arm Sales with the Right Content

Providing a sales team with the proper content is an essential part of the enablement process. Sales needs to have the right content at the right time to communicate more effectively. These content assets include case studies, website updates, blog articles, demo videos, presentations, and other resources.

These assets do not get created on their own. Successful sales enablement requires a well aligned sales and marketing relationship to ensure the teams are collectively focusing on the right content.

The three most common types of sales enablement materials created for sales teams are email templates (53% of teams), call scripts (39%), and pre-call checklists (37%). (HubSpot Research Global Sales Enablement Survey)

5) Measure Success

No program is complete without measuring its success. Sales enablement is no different. Measuring the right metrics helps companies understand the progress they are making. Here are a few common metrics to evaluate:

Revenue: Are sales teams hitting their quotas?
Sales Velocity: Are deals moving through the pipeline faster?
Content Usage: Is sales leveraging the content that marketing created? Is that content helping to influence deals? If not, consider aligning with marketing to prioritize content assets the sales will leverage.
Technology Adoption: Is the sales team leveraging the technologies deployed. Many technologies offer usage reports to leverage those to understand the technology adoption.

Companies with excellent successful sales enablement programs have 32% higher team sales quota attainment. (Aberdeen)

Sales enablement is not an overnight win. It is a constant process to ensure that the sales team have what it needs to succeed. Sales and marketing must align and agree on processes and terminology. And of course, management must buy into the whole process for holistic sales enablement to be successful.

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Email Marketing Tips That Will Increase Your Sales

So how do you increase sales with email marketing? Let’s take a deep dive.

Imagine you’ve two choices: buying your favorite products from the store or buying them from home — which one would you go for?

If you’re thinking — duh, the second one, that’s a no-brainer! — you’re right on point.

Well, if it’s something you’d choose, why not give the same option to your customers?

Let’s face it. An eCommerce store can pretty much seem like a physical retail store — attractive products, amazing discounts, tons of options!

And of course — the overwhelming pressure to select, compare, purchase — phew!

The result? Higher bounce rates and cart abandonment rates.

But what if your customers got a customized list of products right into their inbox? Wouldn’t that make their shopping experience and decision-making easy?

For the retail store example — that’s equivalent to keeping everything ready right at the counter so you can just pay and checkout.

Simple, isn’t it?

Enter email marketing.

How to increase sales with email marketing?

Email marketing can help businesses expand their reach, boost their conversion rates, connect with their audience, and increase sales.

If you’re like 81% of business owners, you may already be using email marketing as a part of your digital marketing strategy and reaping the benefits.

In the competitive world of eCommerce, it’s not enough for you to simply utilise email marketing the same way every other business uses this channel.

Want to unleash the full potential of email marketing? You’ve to make sure your email campaigns are effective, efficient, and personalized to help you stand out above your competition.

It’s definitely a challenging task — but not an impossible one.

To make your work easier, we’ve compiled a list of 10 super-actionable tips to help you boost your sales with eCommerce email marketing.

Let’s begin.

1. Build a Super Relevant List

An email marketing campaign is nothing without a strong email subscriber list. While you may already have a list of emails from people who’ve bought products from your business, this isn’t enough to help you make the most of email marketing.

You need to build a list of folks who’ll genuinely like to hear from you and offer content, discounts, and news that’ll be incredibly useful to them.

Build an active and engaged email list with these tips:

a. Use segmented pop-ups

Pop-ups are still relevant and useful as long as they’re targeted towards the right audience.

Avoid using the same pop-ups for each of your website visitors by utilizing pop-ups that are triggered by a shopper’s location, browsing habits, or cart size.

Take this example from MeUndies — which is geared towards new customers.

This pop-up is different from the one they would use for users who have already added at least one item to their online shopping cart and the one for users with repeated visits.

Showing different pop-ups to different consumers can help you build a strong email list. This is because you can then provide the right incentives to the right customers.

A new shopper who puts an item in their shopping cart might be enticed by a pop-up offering an immediate discount whereas a repeat shopper might be more interested in joining a membership or limited edition products.

Use segmentation with your email pop-ups to further personalize the messaging for your audience and close better sales.

b. Add value to your customer’s purchase with free eBooks and guides

Show consumers your brand cares about adding value from day one by offering a free eBook or guide in exchange for their email address:

When you provide genuinely useful content that has been deeply researched and full of helpful information, you’ll entice folks to engage further with your brand.

Besides, who doesn’t like the word “free”? Offering free products can increase sales by up to 2000 percent. It’ll also leave a positive impression on your consumers, making them more excited to be a part of your email list.

c. Be transparent! Make sure your email subscribers know exactly what they’re signing up for before they share their email address.

Now, anyone who signs up for their email newsletter knows exactly what they’ll receive.

When they trust you for the information they consume, you can direct them towards a sale easily as well (no sweat!).

d. Be creative

Don’t be boring, that’s all!

There are too many competitors out there writing the same email subject lines and copy, so being original and creative is your best bet to get the most bang out of your buck.

Look at Outrun the Dark for example. They have a compelling feature on their landing page:

Now, anyone who signs up for their email newsletter knows exactly what they’ll receive.

When they trust you for the information they consume, you can direct them towards a sale easily as well (no sweat!).

e. Add options to opt-in to your emails throughout your website

Do you just cross your fingers and pray that your website visitors will scroll through to the bottom of your landing page and see your subscription box?

Don’t leave things to chance, especially not an opportunity to grow your email list.

There are several sections on your website where you can keep a subscribe option handy:

Your “About Us” Page: This is typically one of the most frequently visited pages on a business’ website, so it’s a great place to put an opt-in form. Plus — if people already know a bit about you and your business — they’ll be more likely to open your emails. A simple form like the one below at the bottom of your About Us page can be enough to get shoppers to do the honors.
f. Simplify your subscribe box

Make sure people aren’t turned away by the amount of information they have to provide in order to subscribe to your email newsletter.

Do you really need to know your website visitors’ addresses, phone numbers, and ages when they sign up for your email list?

2. Use Email Segmentation Best Practices to Increase Sales with Email Marketing

Chances are you’re already using email segmentation to avoid sending the same emails to everyone on your subscription list.

These are some of the metrics you need to take into account:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Occupation
- Interest
- Spending habits
- Shopping history
- If you want to take your email marketing to the next level, you need to not only stop sending irrelevant email and follow the email segmentation best practices:
  
  a. Test, test, test
  
  The only way to guarantee that your email segmentation is working is to keep testing your emails. Make it a habit to routinely check whether your segmented email campaigns are reaching the right people.
  
  Here are effective ways to test your messages:
  - Solicit feedback from your readers
  - Keep an eye on your open rates and other key metrics
  - Use A/B testing to test different emails on different groups of subscribers and see how each group responds to your messages
  b. Use data-driven segmentation
  
  Boys like blue and girls like pink. Older people hate when things are too flashy and young people love it.
  
  If you’re using preconceived notions or stereotypes like these to determine the way you target the people on your email list, you’re not making the most of email segmentation.
  
  Throw assumptions out of the window and let data guide you.
  
  Collect data and use that data to help you form adequate and appropriate segments. For example, if the subject lines “fun for the whole family” and “cozy winter essentials for everyone in the family” perform better with a certain segment of your audience, then you know that group of subscribers may be more interested in family-oriented emails.
  
  With data-driven segmentation, you can guarantee that your emails strike the right notes with your readers.
  
  c. Save your master list
  
  Email segmentation can be problematic if you toss your master list of subscribers in favor of tons of small segmented lists. This will make it difficult for you to create new segments and make changes to your email segmentation in the future.
  
  Remember, your customers’ preferences are not set in stone and the way you need to market to them will shift over time. Make sure you have a master list that you can use to evolve and re-evaluate your segments.
  
  3. Use Automation Wisely
  
  Want to make your eCommerce email marketing life easier? Automation is the way to go!
  
  But use it with caution.
  
  Automation can help send your emails at the perfect time and increase the likelihood that your emails will be opened.
  
  But here are some tips to save you from email automation fails:
  
  a. Don’t spam your subscribers
  
  Email automation is a useful tool because it can help you send high-quality emails without using as much time and energy. But don’t go on an email sending spree — it may do more harm than good.
  
  With email automation, it’s far too easy to send email after email to your list with a click of a button. Consciously avoid sending emails to your subscriber list too frequently and ending up in their spam folders.
  
  Hey, you’ll love this: 5 Awesome GDPR Compliant Email Opt-In Ideas
  
  b. Add a human touch
  
  When you’re sending emails with the click of a button, you also run the risk of becoming too formal or robotic. Make sure you’re still coming across as a brand run by humans! Make your copy warm and inviting instead of a copy-paste template coming from an automated machine.
  
  Make it a priority to keep things personal and show the humane side of your brand.
  
  c. Set specific goals
  
  If someone asked for help with their New Year’s Resolution to “be healthy,” what advice would you give them? Do they need assistance with protein-rich meal recipes? Do they need help with preparing an exercise budget and schedule?
  
  There are several ways to approach a problem but unless you’re sure about the specifics, coming up with a specific solution will be challenging.
  
  Similarly, improving your email marketing automation without a specific goal in mind is like expecting to be healthy without a health goal in mind.
  
  Like everything else in your business, you need to make sure that you have a clear objective that you’re aiming towards with your email automation beyond just “finding success!”
  
  Are you trying to increase your open rate? Do you want to step up your customer service? Are you attempting to boost your conversion rate?
  
  When you have a specific goal, you can develop an email automation strategy specifically tailored to achieve it.