Online Marketing – Choosing Your Route to Market

Though the internet is unequalled in its reach and marketing potential, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming. When it comes to marketing your business online there are almost too many options.
So, how do you decide which route to market (RTM) is best for your business?

Now, presuming that you have a website which either gives your visitors a chance to buy directly through an online store or get in touch with you, your primary concern should be to get as many targeted visitors as possible to visit that website.
There are 5 main channels businesses can use to achieve this:

1. Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for a long time, but just because it’s an old tool it doesn’t mean that it can’t be used in new and innovative ways. If you have access to a targeted list of email addresses, sending regular, engaging emails can be a great way to bring qualified visitors to your website. A successful email marketing campaign is all about effective measurement, the quality of the content and not being too intrusive.

2. Paid Online Advertising

Paid online marketing, or Pay Per Click (PPC), advertising offers a highly targeted way to get your product or service in front of the right people. It allows you to target your ads so they are visible to people in the right age group, demographic and you can even re-target people who’ve recently visited your website!

3. Organic SEO

Organic SEO isn’t something which will bring instant gratification. To rank highly for your most valuable keywords will take time and effort. However, when you get there the rewards will be worth it. The vast majority of people will choose to click an organic search listing over a paid ad. What’s even better is that once you achieve your #1 ranking, you don’t have to pay for every click!

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing is the use of high quality content to attract and engage your ideal customer. If you can create high quality content on your website (a blog article for example) which is visible in the search engines, is well written and answers a common question asked by your customers, it will attract exactly the right type of person to your website. After reading the article they will be better informed and trust you. As a result, they will be far more likely to buy from you.

5. Affiliate Sales

This is a route to market which many businesses ignore. The internet allows you to track and monitor where your links are coming from. By offering an affiliate option for your product or service you can have other web users do all the hard work for you. They provide the traffic then, when you make a sale, you pay them their referral fee. You win, they win and everyone’s happy.

As with all aspects of marketing your business, there’s no magic solution. In order to find the right route to market for your business you will need to experiment. The most likely solution will involve a combination of the above options.

We offer all of these services as part of our online marketing packages. We are also able to take the guesswork out of finding the right channel for you with our online marketing consultancy services.
Want to give your online marketing a boost? Why not give us a call?
By Angus Findlay