Whether you’re a sole proprietor, small business or corporation, you most likely want to use the power of the Internet to let the world know what you’re doing.
That’s online marketing in a nutshell.
The word “marketing” may have an unpleasant aftertaste, courtesy of various fraudulent consultants, not-so-capable agencies and the like, but it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Marketing is a craft and how (in)well it is practiced can easily determine the fate of a given business.
In this article I will try to introduce marketing and show that online marketing can be done:
- fairly,
- quality,
- and sustainable in the long term
The main goal, however, is to show that marketing is not just a buzzword of 17-year-old online TikTok entrepreneurs, but an activity that should be pursued with the utmost attention and seriousness.What is online marketing?
Online marketing is a set of activities that lead to creating awareness and interest in your business/product among (especially new) customers.
Why is marketing hard?
Because there is competition. When you’re the only one doing the thing, marketing becomes an order of magnitude easier.
That’s why perhaps one of the best marketing moves is to model yourself after Navala and productize something that you have a specific aptitude for and that feels like fun, but other than work.
You may be wondering why bring philosophy in here. However, if you give the paragraph above some honest thought, you will see that you can come up with a number of very actionable steps in a moment.
The best way to make marketing easier for yourself is to compete with as little competition as possible.
What is the goal of online marketing?
In my opinion, the goal of online marketing is to get people looking for what you offer. And that they find it from you, not your competitors.
The word find here then has a broader meaning. It’s not just about getting people to stumble upon your product/solution, it’s often also important that you can explain its benefits, convince people that you are a solid partner and that it’s worthwhile for them to go into business with you.
That they did.
Many people take the goal of marketing to be “sell the thing you’re offering” – to anyone, any way, anywhere.
And while you can pick up a lot of inspiration for your activities in the waters of persuasion, it is extremely important not to confuse marketing with manipulation.
What does good marketing by the operator/you look like?
It’s a sustainable set of activities, which doesn’t distract you from your core work and, through the compounding effect, results in more and more people in your target audience knowing about what you offer.I believe that, especially for small businesses, marketing should be like teeth cleaning.
Activity that
- is not complex,
- doesn’t take too much time,
- but you do it regularly, and it gets results.
The main message of the simile is continuity.Marketing is not a sandwich. It’s not quick, it’s not easy, and you can’t even buy it at the gas station.
It’s more like growing a ficus tree. Just follow a few basic rules, and the results will come.
However, it’s not easy to maintain this setup, and you only have to look around to see that much of your competition is probably not marketing, especially not happily.
They don’t brush their teeth.
And that’s a huge opportunity for you.
Paret’s Rule
Paret’s rule states that 20% of actions will produce 80% of results. However, as Nassim Taleb rightly points out, it is much more about principle than exact numbers.In the real world – especially on the Internet, the disparity can be even greater, and 5% of activity can easily generate 90% of the results.This is why I like to start minimalist and focused:
- one channel,
- manageable frequency,
- one uncomplicated content plan.
When you go about it this way, you’ll get feedback and know much better where to direct your next effort.
After all, try it and see :).
However, with focus and concentration, it is important to choose a method of promotion that has a chance of success. Therefore, spend enough time researching and don’t be afraid to get advice from someone.
How much does online marketing cost
It matters. It’s always something between free (your time) and millions a month.Therefore, I would flip the question around and ask what potential capital you have for marketing and how to make the best use of that capital.
Good marketing should eventually pay for itself, so that you can then reinvest back into marketing what it earned you.
I’d start small, use iterations, evaluate the data, and adapt over time.
How’s that going to work out.
How do I get started with online marketing?
Practically. Main point. Inventing, planning, plotting – it all has its place, but until you get your hands dirty with real experience, you won’t know anything.
Begin by yourself
Whether you have the time to do online marketing on your own, or you don’t have the time and will be looking for someone to help you (whether a freelancer or an agency), you should at least learn a little bit about marketing.
Because the world is full of people who, when they see that you don’t know anything about marketing, won’t hesitate to take you on.
Unfortunately.
Best resources about online marketing
From Czech blogs I recommend Freelance and I will add more soon.
I’ve written a couple of articles myself on interesting areas of marketing, and I’d especially recommend What is Inbound Marketing and MVP.
However, there are also a number of great books about online marketing. i would recommend three in particular.
Three books about online marketing you should read
Show what you do
This book by Austin Kleon (author of Keep Like an Artist) is a great framework, especially for smaller businesses and individuals who want to make their business better and more visible.The book is readable, practical, and addresses the fundamental question: “How do you promote yourself even if you’re not exactly the extroverted type?”
It tackles the question practically, so you’ll take away plenty of actionable tips as well.
One page marketing plan
Don’t let the ugly cover or the English language put you off, this is probably the best book on marketing I’ve ever read (I could have read anything between 15 and 30 of them)
.The book is readable, simple, practical and highly functional.
I try to return to it regularly and can really recommend it highly.
Lean Startup
Lean Startup is not so much a book about marketing as it is a book about entrepreneurship in the digital age.
The book will give you an idea of how to move fast, efficiently and cheaply. How to measure success. But most of all, it is a framework for how to think about business.
And it will help you both in marketing and in business itself.
Main areas of online marketing and how I perceive their importance for a beginner
SEO
You may have noticed I have a soft spot for SEO. So personally, I would recommend SEO right from the start.
You’ll be able to do a lot of the search engine optimization work yourself, and if you do the right work (perhaps a consultant can help you with that), you’ll see that you’ll also get great and, more importantly, lasting results.
However, SEO results take time, which puts a lot of people off.
Another thing I love about SEO…
Read my recap from this year’s panel discussion SEO isn’t about keywording, SEO is about meeting people.
Social Networks
I see social networking as a marketplace where people are shouting and trying to herd you to their booth.But once it gets dark, people disperse and your efforts are almost forgotten, you need to start again tomorrow.
This is how networks are treacherous.
Great illustration of the saying: good servant, bad master.
Personally, I don’t think you need to pay much attention to them, especially in the beginning. If you do want to pay attention to them, pick one (the most relevant to your business – I chose LinkedIn for this site, and for many other projects like Pinterest) understand that one and be on it.
Once you master one, you can add another. However, don’t get overwhelmed. Even if you use all sorts of post scheduling tools, actively managing 8 social networks is a full-time job, not a marketing toothbrush.So be careful about adding networks.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing you can try to use it from both sides. Either as a seller or give other people the opportunity to be affiliates for your business.
But if you are not proficient in the affiliate world or your business is not based on affiliates, I would leave this branch of activities for later.
And rather try to secure strategic collaborations.
Strategic Collaborations
I don’t recommend collaborating directly with competitors, but with people who are doing something related to you.
For example, a wedding DJ may work with a wedding caterer, a guest house where weddings are held, and a wedding photographer.
Collaborations like this are then a win-win for all parties and I highly recommend that you also create and set up collaborations from the beginning of your business.
PPC
Not pay-per-click advertising is a method of marketing where you pay to advertise on pages of your website and they are then shown to people at the top of search engines. You can recognize them on Google because of the small Ad title.
SEO is a way to get into search organically, PPC is a way to get there through paid advertising.
Would I recommend PPC to startups?
Not recommended.
There are several reasons. The main reason is that I see PPC as meaning that before you start paying for advertising, you want to make sure that what you are promoting works (site, product, service). So I would focus on making sure it works first.
The second reason is that, again, PPC efforts, unlike SEO or strategic collaborations, don’t have a duration in time. Once you stop paying, the ads disappear.
PPC is a hugely powerful tool, however you need to know how to use it, analyse it (use the results for SEO for example) and most importantly have a very good idea of the cost of clicks and contacts from your website.
Which you often don’t have at the beginning.
That’s why I personally wouldn’t go into PPC until time.
Newsletter
Newsletter is a heartbreaker. With its effectiveness, ease of setup, and “purchase price”, I would happily recommend it even more than SEO.
From what I have had the opportunity to see, the newsletter can be a beast.
And while it probably won’t be used by every business, for many I believe it’s at least worth a try.
You may be skeptical and telling yourself that the newsletter is
- ineffective,
- old-fashioned,
- no one reads promotional emails…
In this case, my only advice is: Try it. You have nothing to lose and many people were surprised by the effectiveness of the newsletter, maybe you will be too…
Get help with things that really pay off
Doing everything yourself is a double-edged sword. Even if you really can do a lot on your own (somehow), you should always think about whether it pays to pursue that activity more than your core business.
But above all, you should make sure that you are doing the right thing.
That’s why I like to use various consulting services, like the people at navolnenoze.cz, because I’ve had the chance to see firsthand many times that getting advice at the beginning is probably the best thing you can do.
Word in conclusion
Marketing can be a continuous joy and fun, especially if it delivers results.
However, it will take time.
So make sure you don’t waste your energy right at the start, but be prepared for the long run.
Marketing is a marathon.
But I hope this article has perhaps given you some inspiration on how to run it better.
Thank you for reading this far.
And let me know in the comments how you’re doing with online marketing in your business (so far)?
