Thirty percent of the world is online. That is equivalent to more than two billion people. That is the population of China — twice. If you still can’t grasp how big those numbers are, data collected by Go-Gulf shows how much time people spend on the Internet.
The result: global time spent online is 35 billion hours every month. That is almost four million years! The only reason that’s hard to imagine is because it’s simply incredible.
A user spends an average of 16 hours on the internet doing these activities:
- Social networking (22%)
- Searches (21%)
- Reading content (20%)
- E-mails (19%)
- Multi-media sites (13%)
- Online shopping (5%)
Google, Facebook and YouTube are among the most popular websites. How popular? There are one billion searches on Google, four billion views on YouTube, and more than 800 million updates on Facebook every day.
You are now probably convinced that everything happens online. So if you have a business, an advocacy, or a campaign and you want something significant to happen, the Internet is a trusted partner.
Even a small and start-up business knows that online marketing is the way to go. How well will your brand be received depends on how well you will play in this hyper-competitive online world. Here are nine ways to get ahead online:
1) Make it simple
Develop a clean and professional looking website. Remember that the quality of your website is paramount to your success. Content must be reader-friendly and information must be easily accessible. The internet is fast-paced. If your website is a mess, hard to navigate, and looks like a high school project, your visitors will leave you in a snap.
2) Know your competition
A research by Verisign shows that 72% of companies globally use a website for primary online presence. In fact, 36% of companies today have a staff dedicated to digital marketing efforts. These companies claim that online presence makes them look more credible.
This is how tough online competition is. One of the first things you have to do is monitor and analyze your competitors. Visit their website often and identify their strong and weak points and build on them. Respect what they do but strive to make yours better.
3) Know your niche
Know where you stand in the grand scheme of things. Position your brand well and know who you are catering to. When you know your niche, it is easier to develop new ideas, create solutions, optimize your website, and be a leader in the industry.
4) Content is Key
A Custom Content Council study shows the industry of content marketing had grown to a $44 billion industry in 2013. To turn an internet user into a brand advocate, give him the information he needs. Content should be so unique and consistently published for a brand to go to the very top of the result pages.
Content marketing is important because internet users research and decide based on what they see on a company’s website or social media page. A joint study by the groups BIA and Kelsey found that nearly all consumers or 97% go online and research about a product before making a purchase.
Develop a unique and competitive content marketing strategy that will cater to what your audience wants and needs.
5) Timing is everything
Right timing is also at the heart of online marketing. You can have the best content but if you miss out on timing, then your market will also totally miss you out. To achieve effective content marketing timing, you have to know your market’s internet habits and activities. Track when they are most active and then fire away with your content. It will also help if you peg your content to what is current. Know when engagement rates are high.
6) Invest on SEO
A study by Forrester found that 93% of all internet traffic comes from a search engine. To figure well in a search engine like Google, focus on content and improve your use of keywords.
A well-thought plan to improve search engine optimization, takes you high up in the page search results. Remember that 75% of users never scroll past the first page search results at least according to a 2010 study by MarketShareHitsLink.com. So the higher up you are the better for your site traffic.
7) Facebook invasion
Verisign research shows that 49% of companies use social media for marketing. Social networking sites are the busiest platforms on the internet so don’t ignore them. Interacting with customers is also easier on social media sites like Facebook.
8) Blog away
Blogging is not a lost art especially for churches, ministries and nonprofits. An effective marketing strategy should include creating and maintaining one. Blogs are not complicated and easily builds connection with customers. There’s something about it that feels so personal and that is extremely important in a virtual world. Blogging helps your organization become a trusted source of information.
9) Don’t be a snub
Remember that while everything is virtual, you are dealing with real people. So the drill is — read and reply. Communication is key.
The Internet is a new world we all live in. We have to play it right if we want to be online rock stars.
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