Online marketing: significance & better visibility on the Internet

Introduction

In a world where the digital click has become as powerful as a personal handshake, online marketing has become the ultimate bridge between businesses and their audience. Whether you want to grab the attention of scrolling smartphone users, increase visibility in search engines, or strengthen customer loyalty through social media-effective online marketing increasingly determines the difference between success and invisibility.

But how do you make sure your message really stands out in the overwhelming digital landscape? In this article, discover the latest strategies, surprising insights and clever techniques that will help you take your online marketing to the next level.

What is marketing?

The position of online marketing within the marketing profession quite often leads to confusion. Therefore, here is the American Marketing Association's definition of marketing (2023):

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Freely translated: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offers that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.

Read more about marketing in general.

What is online marketing?

And now for the definition of online marketing:

"Online marketing - or Internet marketing - is the marketing of a product, service or brand over the Internet. Online marketing includes all online marketing activities used to achieve various business objectives."

Visual representation of the position of online marketing within marketing

Why is online marketing important?

Meanwhile, all businesses can be found on the web whether you are small or large. Besides being good for the reliability of your business to be findable on the Web, where they can read more about you who you are and what you offer, online marketing has several other advantages over offline marketing:

The ability to measure results

Google Analytics and other analytics programs make a variety of results and statistics readily apparent. This allows the effectiveness of various marketing activities to be accurately measured. Online marketing strategies can be continuously adjusted in order to permanently pursue the best results.

Effectively utilizing advertising budget

With online marketing, an advertising budget can be used effectively by targeting the most interested people. In addition, targeted ads ensure that people are approached at exactly the time when they are most likely to make purchases or requests.

Personalization of marketing

In addition to targeted targeting, marketing campaigns can be personalized. A customer's needs can be addressed directly, resulting in better customer satisfaction, more repeat purchases and a loyal customer base.

Ability to analyze purchase behavior

With video recording and A/B testing, among other things, purchase behavior can be analyzed. Thus, purchase processes can be optimized and customer satisfaction and sales increased.

Strategic basis

Successful online marketing always starts with a strong strategic foundation. Three key principles form the foundation for this: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (known as the STP model). These principles ensure that you can target your marketing efforts effectively.

Segmentation

Segmentation is all about dividing the market into groups of customers who share common characteristics or needs. This can be done based on demographic characteristics (age, gender, income), geographic characteristics (location, region), psychographic characteristics (personality, lifestyle) and behavioral characteristics (buying behavior, media use, brand loyalty). By defining clear segments, you can better understand who your customers are and how best to reach them.

Targeting

After segmenting the market, determine which specific segments are most attractive and profitable for your organization. This is the process of targeting. This is where you consciously decide which customer groups to focus your efforts on, based on factors such as market size, growth potential, level of competition and how well your offering meets their needs. Proper targeting ensures that your resources such as budget, time and attention are effectively focused on target groups that are most profitable.

Positioning

Positioning is the process of determining how to position your brand or product in the customer's consciousness so that it stands out from competitors. This is done by creating a unique value proposition-a clear, compelling reason why customers should choose you over competitors. Effective positioning requires that you develop a clear message that aligns with what your target audience cares about and is communicated consistently across all marketing channels.

By applying these three basic strategic principles consciously and in a structured manner, you will ensure that your marketing campaigns are better aligned with your target audience, more effective in communication and ultimately provide a higher return on investment.

Objectives of online marketing

With online marketing, several objectives are pursued. For example, online marketing is used to:

• Increase brand awareness
• Strengthen brand identity
• Attract new customers
• Optimize customer retention
• Build a loyal community
• Lead generation

There are various forms of online marketing that contribute directly or indirectly to achieving these goals. The key to effective marketing is the optimal use and alignment of different online marketing activities to achieve the best results and highest profitability per channel. Below we discuss some well-known online marketing channels.

SEO - search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) improves the organic findability of a website. An extensive keyword research shows which keywords are most used by potential customers when searching for a certain subject, service or product. It is carefully considered which keywords contribute to better findability and a higher conversion ratio (more sales or requests). After determining which keywords will yield the best results, they are strategically implemented in website texts, blogs, landing pages, category and product descriptions. These keywords are also used in tags, photos, coding, URLs and meta information, in order to optimize the technical side of the website for search engines as well.

Search engine advertising (SEA): Google Ads & Dutch Microsoft Ads Agency

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is an important part of online marketing. With this form of advertising, "search queries" are answered directly with catchy text ads. These ads appear at the top of the search results list, above the organic search results. Search engine advertising also begins with extensive keyword research. It looks at search volumes, but also at the commercial potential of the keywords. For example, it is important that the search terms used in the ad correspond to a commercial search question; a search question from a potential customer who is (almost) ready to buy or sign up. Then, based on the ad budget, bids are placed on the most relevant keywords, after which costs are charged per click (CPC).

Social media marketing

Various social media channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn lend themselves ideally to increasing brand awareness, building a loyal community and generating more website visitors. Being active on a regular basis can create a vibrant community with engaged followers and loyal customers. Within the channels, advertising can be done with the goal of increasing the community or directing prospects to a particular page or product. Adverteren op social media can be very effective because the target audience can be accurately targeted.

Conversion Optimization

Many online marketing activities aim to direct potential customers to a particular page or Web site. However, when these potential customers land on the page in question, they should proceed to purchases or inquiries. With conversion optimization, a page is set up in a conversion-oriented way. The website visitor is guided to the most important "Call to Action" with strategic texts and catchy images. Reviews, promotions, trust (e.g. social proof) and attractive buttons are used to persuade the visitor to take action. With video recording and A/B testing, the website visitor's behavior can be mapped out in order to test and optimize conversion orientation.

Email Marketing

With e-mail marketing, (potential) customers are approached in a personal way via e-mail. A company can share useful information, highlight new interesting products, offer special discounts and more. Email marketing allows someone to be approached in a personal way, responding directly to someone's needs. Email marketing is an effective way to encourage repeat customers and build a loyal customer base.

The key to effective online marketing

In online marketing it is very important that the various components are used in such a way that they reinforce each other's effect. For example, Facebook can be advertised to get more "page likes," but if there is no activity on the page then the value of a new follower is quickly lost. Google Ads advertenties can perfectly match search queries, but then if the landing page does not match the visitor's expectation, they will quickly leave the page. Website content can be fully SEO optimized, but if the navigation and conversion orientation of the website leaves much to be desired, then there is little chance that a visitor will proceed to purchases or inquiries.

Thus, in online marketing, a comprehensive online marketingstrategie is very important. An approach in which the different aspects are optimized and coordinated with each other, in order to achieve the best results and the highest profitability per component.

Engage online marketing agency?

Online marketing has many channels, and each form can contribute in a unique way to achieving your business goals. What sets us apart as an online marketing agency is the power of specialization. At Tasmanic, we work with dedicated experts in every field: SEO specialists, SEA specialists, Social Ads professionals and experienced copywriters. Because they focus entirely on their own discipline, they can achieve maximum impact within their area of expertise. As a company, have you set clear goals for your online presence? Then a focused collaboration with a specialized agency will ensure that you achieve those goals faster, smarter and with greater efficiency.

Resources

American Marketing Association. (2023). Definitions of Marketing. https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/