Effective Online Marketing

Written by: Jennifer Shaw, Associate Marketing Supervisor

Today’s technology advances have pushed business owners to remain savvy and knowledgeable in the competitive online marketing space.  Staying connected to current customers as well as potential clients has become even more essential to businesses looking to grow in 2012.  Are you using your online presence to the best of your potential? Are you attracting the right type of customer? By reviewing some basic ideas, you can be sure your business is on the right path.

How big is your footprint?

Your online footprint, that is. The first thing to check off is a well-optimized website. Like most people, this will be the first place your potential customers will go for information.  Some key points on your checklist should be that your site has well written content and has easy to find “call to action” areas. This can either be a large, visible phone number with hours of operation, or an email with a fill-able contact form for off hours. There are other various attributes an optimized website will have, but ensuring yours contains these basic ideas is a great way to start.

Get social?

Now, before you jump on every social networking wagon, do your research and analyze which network fits your business, your brand, and where your customers are located. The importance of getting social cannot be denied; however, there is a right fit for every business, and this requires doing some homework.  For example, Facebook has now reached 800 million active users, 80% of who are located outside of the U.S. 48% are between the ages of 18-34 years old, with the 35+ demographic growing rapidly.[i] If these statistics fit your potential client base, then creating a Facebook fan page might be effective for you. That being said, it takes time to develop a connection with your fans. Fanpages that are updated frequently with interesting news, special coupons, as well as quick responses are a few ways to keep your audience interested. Linkedin is another social network that many businesses might consider joining. Now with 135 million members worldwide, this is one network that might be a good fit for most organizations. Touted as the industry “online business card” for professionals and companies alike, it might prove to be helpful to have an optimized profile for search engines. The same idea applies to creating Google+ profiles as well.

Other Communication Tools

Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are one of the quickest ways to get your message to a large number of people. Make sure that your mailing lists are up to date and you are following best practices when you send your promotions.

Micro-Blogging

Twitter is the most well-known micro-blogging platform. The company now has 100 million global active users, half of those logging in every day. 34% of marketers have generated leads through Twitter and an interesting fact to note is that 55% of Twitter users access the site via mobile. If Twitter fits into your business, make sure you update your Twitter feed with pertinent and interesting information. This will not only establish your social presence on the web, but will stronghold your connection to your followers.

Though the internet will continue to grow and new tools will emerge, the best way to stay on top of your marketing tactics is to research, test, try, and try again. If you have additional questions or inquiries about this article, feel free to contact the MMC Marketing Team at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .