In 2021, Statista claims 2.14 billion people purchased products and services online. With more users and better trust in eCommerce sources, these numbers are rapidly growing. So, online is the right platform if you want to successfully sell your products and grow your business.
There are many aspects to consider when you are striving to grow online. Such aspects include understanding your business requirements and then making appropriate strategies for acquiring qualified talent. However, the focus of this article is on the mediums and approaches you can take for online business growth.
Mediums for Online Presence of Your Business
Before starting efforts for online business growth, it is important to consider the platforms you can use. Let’s start with the easiest ones to set up. Today, customers and people interested in your products or services expect you to have a social media presence. The standard route customers usually take is to do research on your brand on different platforms. For example, some people who are in their decision-making phase may look you up on Facebook. Similarly, others may be looking for you on Instagram. Therefore, presence on all major social media is usually important.
A business website is a standard requirement for anyone starting out in the online scene. Having your business website adds more trust and credibility to your products and services. When someone Googles your company, they can see your website in the search results. Since the start of the Digital Era, a website has been one of the best ways to locate products and learn about a company. And it still is one of the most common and dependable sources!
Using your websites and social media, you can effectively promote your business which further translates to growth. All the methods this article discusses start with just these two mediums of an online presence.
Social Media Marketing
People now look for everything on social media. The products people see on social media have a significant impact on their buying habits. SMM (social media marketing) is the marketing approach that works with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. But again, it all starts with your presence on different social media. After making suitable handles, the next step is to put effort into organic and paid promotions.
Organic Promotion
The posts we generally see on our timelines are targeted by our user behavior. There is a strong algorithm that understands what type of content a user would want to see on their feed. Organic promotion works using the algorithm. However, the posts of a social media handle are visible to your friends and their friends at most. Also, it is a time taking process to build an audience.
Paid Promotion
Paid promotion is faster and allows you to show your posts to a wider audience. Like organic promotion, the same algorithm helps your posts get in front of a suitable audience. A major advantage is that you do not have to make an audience first for displaying your products/services. You can build an audience from these promoted posts and then increase your organic reach as well.
The Best Social Media Marketing Approach
The best approach that yields long-term and short-term benefits is to include both paid and unpaid posts in your strategy. From the growth perspective, your social media handles have massive protentional. Many businesses worldwide are benefitting from social media marketing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is another method of digital marketing that promotes your content organically on the top results of search engines. These search engines include Google, Bing, and other not-so-popular names. SEO generally involves uploading quality content, link building, and making your websites more user-friendly. This branch of digital marketing gets your business long-term benefits.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Like SEO, search engine marketing works with Google and Bing. SEM takes you to the top of search results in a similar manner to SEO. However, it is a much faster approach that offers quick results instead of weeks or months. The process is similar to running paid promotions on social media, but you have to create and set the ads on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
These ads work with the cost per click model (CPC model) which means you are only charged for clicks on your result. This model helps you get maximum return on the marketing budget.
An Ideal Approach for Online Business Growth Online in 2022
Many marketers and entrepreneurs suggest an interconnected strategy that focuses on both social media and search. Creating valuable content and sharing it on all platforms including your website can put you on the path to online success. Pro tip: make the best use of remote working and decentralized recruitment to have the right people on board. Understand the potential of every platform, build your strategy around them, and start putting in the required efforts.
