3 Online Marketing Ideas to Reach and Engage with your Target Market

Reaching your target market is one of your main priorities as a business owner, perhaps the main one.

Connecting with them, engaging with them, building trust, developing relationships and ultimately creating long-term loyalty are what follow.

Where your target market hangs out, will depend on the product or service you’re providing.

What do you offer? Who needs it most? What are they like?

From there, you’ll have a good understanding of the type of marketing that will be most effective. And in fact, for some businesses, online marketing may not be your first tactic.

But for those of you who are selling a product or service where online marketing is a primary focus, here are three online marketing methods that get results in today’s digital age.

1. Video marketing

Although not an entirely new concept, it’s amazing how many businesses have yet to cotton on to it.

But just think about it for a moment … how many websites are delivering similar information in exactly the same format?

Millions.

Even if you just take your niche, you’ll still find numerous websites offering the same type of information in the same manner.

All text-based.

So … nothing stands out.

And the majority of internet users nowadays are lazy – they can’t be bothered to read through pages and pages of text unless that already know that what you’re offering is exactly what they need.

It’s because of this attitude that it’s a buyer’s market.

Your customers no longer have to do the hard work to find your product or service. Your business is the one that now has to make an effort to find them.

So you must do something different to get noticed.

Depending on your budget will determine the lengths you can go to, but I’ll assume budgets are relatively tight. In which case video marketing is for you.

It enables you to cut through the noise without spending a ton of money.

Selling your product or service in a short amount of time with a simple message. No jargon. No fluff. Talking directly to your target market. One on one.

Video also allows you to be more you. It’s a great way to show your personality. People like to do business with people, using video opens your business up to becoming more real. And being real, builds trust.

What could you use video for?

As a start:

1. Explain a new product or service with a 60 second Explainer Video
2. Broadcast your latest blog article topic in a more interesting and engaging way
3. Promote a special offer or competition on social media channels
4. Train team members or provide a product walk-through for customers

There are literally endless uses for video.

And what’s more, Google loves video – of course it does, it owns YouTube! So your website could rank better simply by adding a few relevant videos.

Video stands out. It connects with your target market more personally. It helps to simplify any marketing message. And it helps with SEO.

2. Email marketing

A marketing method that’s been around for a long time, but many small business owners still aren’t using it. Or if they are, they aren’t using it effectively.

Either way, it’s a missed opportunity.

• 77% of internet users preferring to be communicated to via email
• Email marketing delivers 40% new customers than social media marketing

It’s time you get involved.

What’s more, it’s a cheap way of reaching ‘warm’ leads. They’ve signed up to your list, so they’re already aware of you. Now all you need to do is nurture that relationship.

How?

By giving them valuable information.

What problems do they face? What do they need?

Help them, for free, and they’ll start to trust you. Rely on you.

Then start dropping in a few self-promotional messages.

When and how you go about this will depend on your product or service and your customers. Remember – you know them best. Adapt your marketing campaign to reflect them, not you.

Key considerations:

• Timing: Think about the best time to send your emails, which may take some trial and error. But is an important element of email marketing – after all, you want to achieve maximum engagement with every email sent.
• Measure: Don’t just send out your emails and forget about them. Track open rates. Calculate click-throughs. Make changes and measure those. Make more changes. Email marketing should be an ongoing learning curve. Stay flexible for best results.
• Mobile friendly: 53% of emails are now opened in a mobile application – your email marketing campaigns must be mobile device friendly or they may not get read.

3. Content marketing

An extension of both video and email marketing, content marketing is a more general term.

But many business owners restrict it to their website, blog and social media channels (at a push), when in fact content marketing reaches beyond that.

Yes, concentrate on your own site and blog. Create valuable content that your viewers will be interested in. And ideally you want this content to be shareable – getting others to do your marketing for you.

But also think further:

1. Infographics
2. Guides
3. Podcasts
4. Case studies
5. eBooks

Each of these marketing tips will help your business cut through the noise and stand out without breaking the bank.

And if you need any help – get in touch!