Business owners and those attempting to break into new markets online must adopt quite a few online advertising strategies in order to beat the competition and stand out in a crowded market. When you look online for the best online advertising strategies you may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. This can make forming a marketing strategy quite difficult for some. Thankfully, the team at VIMAR digital marketing are here to help.

In this article, we will look at some of the best advertising strategies that can be used for almost any website and online business. Some of these you can implement yourself or at least test out, while others can be managed and controlled by digital marketing professionals here at VIMAR. Let us delve into some of the best online advertising strategies and methods that you can adopt for your business. Some are tried and tested for yours such as email marketing, while others may be quite new for you.

At VIMAR, we use the latest online advertising strategies and techniques to achieve the best possible results for our clients. To learn more about online advertising at VIMAR, you can visit our online advertising services page (1).

The Best 9 Online Advertising Strategies

Marketing your business both online and in traditional forms boils down to targeting the right people and finding them where they are. It’s, for this reason, some businesses will focus on social media sites due to demographics, use paid advertising to target online shoppers or use informative content to entice their target audience to their website.

You may choose to adopt all the methods of digital advertising below or focus on just a few. If these ideas of digital advertising appeal to you or you wish for our team to provide further information, get in touch with the VIMAR digital marketing team today.

Paid Online Advertising:

1. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing continues to grow as a major way to market your services, products and brand online. Influencers from well-known celebrities to local comedians have amassed a trusted following which is pivotal to both their and your success.

The success of this advertising method is largely attributed to the high level of trust these influences have built with their followers. You can find influencers on multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and most recently TikTok. Before selecting this advertising method, it is important to conduct proper research and decide which platform you’d like to focus on first.

Some companies specialize in influencer marketing, but it’s important to know your target audience and what you can offer them first. Some famous backfires include the infamous Fyre Festival. When something like this happens it can ruin a company’s reputation and that of the influencer.

Though if you feel it is something that could work for you, why not give it a try.

Tips for Influencer Marketing:

  • Thoroughly research the influencer you are choosing to work with, what is their track record, have they worked with similar brands before.
  • Know your target audience and theirs before engaging in any campaigns. Do they have real followers or Bots, how is their engagement?
  • It is far better to work with quality professional influencers than a wide number of mediocre or unprofessional people.
  • Aim to develop long term relationships that are mutually beneficial to you.

2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

This is a cost-effective internet promotion strategy whereby marketers pay whenever their ads get a click. If you’ve seen the advertisements that appear at the top of your results page after prompting a search on Bing or Google, then you’ve already seen this online advertising strategy in use.

A good example of a commercial search is the one people make when looking up products on google. In PPC ads, costs are incurred whenever customers click on one of the first ads that they see.

PPC is rooted in an auctioning process whereby businesses select target keywords and then contend with different marketers to place them on search results pages such as Google, Yahoo or Bing’s.

This is an ideal option for businesses both big and small. IF you are in a niche market you may still be able to outbid or outrank more established businesses by bidding correctly and proving a good advertisement for your business.

This is a great way to also increase brand awareness while you wait for longer-term strategies such as SEO to take place.

Consider Quality over Quantity

Given that all clicks to your ads are eventually paid for, it’s only right that you bid keywords that correlate with the products you are offering. Like in any investment undertaking, if you focus on keywords related to your business, your ROI will likely be high. It would help to consider investing in a keyword research tool that can help you identify your most ideal keywords. By doing so, you increase your chances of driving up your sales whilst keeping your expenses low.

If you would like your business to be spotted quickly in search engine results, then you should consider combining PPC with top-notch SEO.

The team here at VIMAR are experts in ad placement, keyword research and SEO. If you are looking for quick results and a quality ROI, then perhaps you should content the VIMAR team today to help with your search engine marketing.

Tips for PPC advertising:

  • Conduct in-depth keyword research before launching a PPC campaign.
  • Check what the competition is doing and where they are focusing campaigns.
  • Can you target Niche areas without much competition?
  • Don’t be overwhelmed by bidding and spending targets, if you don’t reach your goal then next time you will.
  • Don’t overbid, if your buying strategy is not effective then you will spend more than you can make.
  • Hire professionals if it becomes too burdensome.

3. Geofencing Advertising

This online marketing technique allows you to target users’ smart devices in a given location. With this adverting method, it is now possible to engage a wider audience and boost your sales. It involves bringing together various technology, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

Geofence marketing might seem difficult to grasp, but it is rather easy to understand and implement. Here’s how it works; your brand sets up a geofence for a given location and comes up with an advertising campaign. Whenever a user sets foot on the already set up geofence, they get connected to your advertising list and receive your ads in the form of notifications or pop-up advertisements.

The main advantage of this kind of marketing is that anyone can create a geofence in any location, including around your competitors’ premise.

Though probably not as useful or necessary in rural Ireland this advertising strategy works quite well in more urban areas and can help you target the competitor’s customer base.

Businesses across Dublin, Cork and Galway have slowly begun adopting geofencing marketing strategies and we are excited about the prospect here at VIMAR.

Geofencing advertising recommendations:

  • Don’t overdo it when it comes to notification, this can hurt your brand and marketing strategy.
  • If you are living in a rural area, geofencing may not be right for you. Talk to professionals for the right recommendations.
  • Have specific goals in mind for your campaign.
  • Make your messaging concise as you do not have much space to market your products, services and location.

4. Advertising on Amazon

Amazon is among the most prominent marketplaces among online shoppers. Over the years, Amazon has amassed plenty of loyal customers who wouldn’t even consider shopping anywhere else.

While being very similar to PPC, Amazon is more targeted and is much more effective for online stores and those targeting specific products.

What sets Amazon advertising apart from other forms of advertising is the diversification of products on Amazon’s ecosystem. Amazon allows even businesses that don’t run in the e-commerce category to make use of its ads. You can, therefore, promote your products on other platforms owned by Amazon like Fire TV sticks and IMDb.

Being the third most used advertising platform and the beginning point for many product searches, Amazon advertising is an ideal place to start for, many businesses.

While not as large in Ireland as in the US, Amazon advertising can still be hugely effective here. VIMAR are continuing to develop your knowledge and the use of advertising here and we would be happy to work with you and share what we know and help you along your advertising journey.

Amazon Advertising Tips:

  • Research which adverting method is best for your business and the most cost-effective
  • Conduct keyword research for the terms and products you wish to be found for.
  • Restrict add placement so you don’t overspend or show up in the wrong areas.

Paid and Unpaid Online Advertising Strategies

1. Content Marketing

This type of advertising focuses on creating and constantly delivering quality content to drive up sales and retain a specific customer base. Rather than pitching your products to prospective clients, content marketing (2) involves providing content that is informative, fun or which builds and establishes trust.

By providing them with relevant and valuable content, you gain your audience’s trust. This is an incredible way of building consumer loyalty in a company. Outstanding content is a highly valuable resource and whoever consistently delivers high-quality content often completes the most sales.

Content Marketing Should Focus on the Consumer Journey

Before customers buy something, they knowingly or unknowingly go through a buying cycle. The first stage of the buying cycle involves awareness. For a prospect to buy something, they need to know that the product exists and that it is the solution to their problem. Content marketing avails relevant information about solutions to people’s needs.

Content marketing is useful to businesses that want to establish themselves. For a brand to establish itself in a certain niche, it will have to put in some work. The first thing it ought to do is ensure it consistently provides relevant and useful content to searches and long-time customers. Such content can take multiple forms, including infographics, web pages, and even videos.

For you to establish yourself, especially in a competitive industry, you must remain consistent. Businesses that post more times in a month compared to their competitors end up making more profits. Whereas most companies opt to deliver only one specific kind of content, you can switch things up a little by combining different features.

If you’re looking to engage your target audience, you can choose to incorporate additional content such as a blog post instead of just using images.

Simple Tips for Content Marketing:

  • Repurpose old content into new media such as blog posts or listicles
  • Don’t overdo the type of content you create. Dozens of videos and blog posts can take too long to create.
  • Create content that is easily readable and shareable with your audience.
  • Focus your content production where your audience resides such as social media or Email Marketing.
  • Have a hierarchy for your content so it has structure and you can continually build upon it.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains one of the most important online advertising strategies and determines your website’s position in search engines such as Yahoo and Google’s search engine results page (SERP).

A quality SEO strategy ensures a company’s website incorporates keywords clients use to get information about given services. When a site ranks highly on a search engine’s list, potential customers are often inclined to click on it. After all, a company’s site is only useful if customers can locate and access it.

SEO encompasses integrating keywords relating to the products or services your company avails. To properly determine relevant keywords to integrate into your company’s page, keyword research is critical. Keyword research helps identify what keywords your customers are looking for and what your competitor’s business websites are targeting.

After conducting your research, it’s important to craft quality content using keywords, proper placement and the right kind of media. Video SEO, imagery tagging, content production, site speed etc. all play a part in creating SEO and results in friendly content for your audience and search engines. Search engine marketing should be part of all campaigns not matter the scope.

Some tips for crafting proper SEO articles include regularly publishing content, updating existing content with new and relevant information, using tools such as SEMrush and having patience.

SEO is a long-term strategy that may take weeks or months to see results. For this reason, many businesses and website owners, opt to outsource their SEO to relevant companies.

At VIMAR we have a great track record of delivering quality SEO (3) to all our clients allowing them to rank in local SEO searches and for global search terms also.

SEO Tips and tricks for advertising and general upkeep:

  • Continually work on Keyword research so you have a constant supply of content and marketing information.
  • Use tools such as Google terms and others which are free if you are on a budget.
  • Look for high volume low difficulty keywords.

3. Email Marketing

Another traditional form of online adverting that remains incredibly powerful when done right, email marketing can do wonders for businesses big and small. Even with a small email list, or while building your own, you can have great ROI on email marketing.

While social media boast a massive user base, people use email more frequently than other advertising platforms. For your business to maximize its email marketing benefits, it is wise to have an email list. An email list is a database of email contacts who authorized your company to send them marketing communications.

Besides improving sales, an effective email marketing strategy has multiple other benefits, including improving your company’s awareness and client engagement.

Email marketing strategies can come in the form of providing information on new products and services, promoting new departments, simply personalization and much more.

You may opt to use an email marketing platform yourself or allow the team at VIMAR to take control of your list.

Personalization of email, segmentation of lists and testing are pivotal to email marketing campaign success.

Develop a strong copywriting and marketing plan or use the advice of digital marketing professionals to power your email marketing campaign and see the incredible results it can produce.

Email Marketing Tips:

  • Establish an effective marketing campaign and test it before launch
  • Use tools to segment your lists by hobbies, demographics and more.
  • Use effective copywriting techniques, personalized messages and have quality headlines to grab the attention of readers.

4. Social Media Marketing

Most businesses have active social media accounts and are constantly engaging with their prospects and customers. Given its potential, businesses that market effectively on social media can have great success.

It’s important to know where your audience resides. You don’t want to spend money focusing on LinkedIn when your audience is based on Facebook and Instagram.

Ask your customers via email, test where they are with some small budgetary paid advertising or get the experts at VIMAR to find where they are.

As more people continue signing up on social media sites, the target audience for businesses on such platforms continues to increase. SMM (4) allows enterprises to meet their marketing goals through the sharing and creation of content on various platforms. To drive audience engagement on such platforms, you will have to engage in marketing activities such as posting text, videos, and images.

It is now possible to easily target a specific audience on social media, making this marketing category quite powerful. Depending on the platform, it is possible to use aspects such as hobbies, gender, location, and even age to target specific consumers.

The highlight of this marketing technique is its affordability. In comparison to other forms of marketing, SMM is quite budget-friendly.

When conducting SMM it’s important to remember where you are. Formal business speak or very direct marketing will not work here and may harm your brand. It’s important to craft campaigns that use the lingo and structure that these platforms were designed for. More informal and humorous content usually works on most social media platforms.

SMM marketing ideas:

  • Don’t stretch yourself too thin by using too many social media accounts.
  • Only use paid advertising when you have a strategy in place for your business.
  • Not all social media is built the same it’s important to know the differences in audience, strategy and paid campaigns.

5. Web Design

The value of a properly designed business website is impossible to overstate. It’s on your website that you highlight your products and services and the professionalism of your business. In other words, a webpage is the hub of a business’s entire advertising endeavours. It paints a picture of what clients ought to expect from the business.

If you had a brick and mortar store it would be clean, easy to navigate, open to the public and advertise the best of your business. Your website is your online store and showpiece.

When your site is properly designed, clients will likely stay longer on-site and will be willing to purchase your services. When it comes to websites, aspects such as site speed, navigation and even the colour scheme can make a huge difference. Customers will often purchase goods and services from websites that have superior design features.

Regardless of the amount of time spent on strategy development, clients will often mistrust a website if it has poor features. It is, therefore, wise to seek a professional to design an attention-grabbing website with a simple interface if you’re unable to do so yourself. As a business owner, if you feel your website requires an upgrade, then do not hesitate to give it a makeover.

At VIMAR we are constantly upgrading, designing and working on our clients’ sites. Our development, design and content team (5) can create a site both you and your customers love.

Creative website design, effective content marketing and well-established SEO can do wonders for your business, increase site visitors and conversions for your business.

Web Design Tips:

  • Unless you have coding, experience does not try any complicated coding as it can adversely affect your site and performance.
  • If you have issues contact professional web developers immediately
  • A simple and easy to navigate site is a far more powerful and overcomplicate site.

Why a Digital Marketing strategy is important?

If you choose one or more of the options above to add to your digital marketing campaign, this needs to be part of an effective strategy. If you do not have a marketing strategy in place then you will waste precious time and money on simple advertising that is doing anything for your business.

You need a funnel system or effective channels to reach specific goals. Are you hoping to create brand awareness, increase time on site, launch a new product?

These are all important considerations when developing effective online advertising strategies.

The best way to do this is by working with your internal marketing team or professional digital marketers such as those here at VIMAR.

If you have set goals, then it is far easier to create a marketing strategy and campaign with effective online advertising the reach these results.

Conclusion

The best online advertising strategies and methods capitalize on the vast number of users on different platforms by launching campaigns tailored for specific audiences.

Knowing what strategy to use, when to use it and how can be difficult to master. If your advertising budget is small focus on the areas, you can improve yourself such as content marketing and basic website redesign.

If you have an increased budget, paid advertising from influencer marketing to PPC can create rapid ROI and build brand awareness for your business.

If you are still unsure of what direction to take, then get in touch with the VIMAR team today (6) so we can discuss your options and how best we can help you.