The Essential Guide to Online Marketing

Some of you may have already heard the name Chandler Bolt, however, what exactly do you know about him?

Marketing nerds everywhere are aware of the fact that he is a 21-year-old who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars by working from his kitchen table.  He started a company called “Self-Publishing School” through which he helps individuals make a living by publishing books on Amazon.

Having said that, he isn’t a fan of magazine interviews, talk show visits, and other aspects of being famous.  He’s essentially a highly successful introvert that has made a fortune without having to force himself to go out into the world and act like he likes it .  The important thing that you should take away from this story –  and probably why you’re reading this article – is the fact that you can create a successful business and earn money, right from the comfort of your home.

This would have been impossible a few decades ago.  Then, you would have needed to create a large company with many employees, and spend time, money and energy in order to make as many connections as possible.  In other words, you would have needed to be as public as possible.  However, things have changed since the development of the internet.  It is now possible for a single individual to build a large company by working from home during the afternoons or even on the weekends.

This is an opportunity that enables those wanting to earn a more-than-decent living without having to leave their home.

If you’re interested in learning about online marketing, then the following guide could very well be the gold mine you’ve been looking for.  Even those who know what it is and what it can do for a business will find some interesting information in the examples below.

What is Online Marketing?

First of all, it is important not to confuse Online Marketing with Digital Marketing.  Not only are they not the same thing but a digital marketing campaign does not necessarily have to also be an online one.

TNMedia defined the term as “…any tool, strategy or method of getting the company name out to the public.  The advertisements can take many different forms and some strategies focus on subtle messages rather than clear-cut advertisements.”

To put it more simply, any effort to popularize your company, through the use of the internet, can be called online marketing.  It basically refers to any action that you take on the internet, in order to make your business known to people, with the intention of selling them products or services.

Overview

Now, this guide will cover 7 extremely important types of online marketing.

These are:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO);
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM);
• Content Marketing;
• Social Media Marketing;
• Pay-per-click (PPC);
• Affiliate Marketing;
• Email Marketing;

The second one on the list, SEM, is basically the paid version of SEO.  It means that marketers pay Google or other search engines in order to display ads together with search results, in hopes that the increased visibility will drive more traffic to their websites, and to their product landing pages.

Next is content marketing, which means that marketers try to create attractive content and to distribute it to potential customers.  In time, people will not only become familiar with your company but also become interested in what it has to offer.

Social media marketing is exactly what it sounds like.  You use various social media networks in order to reach potential customers, to build relationships with them and to provide them with your products or services.

Somewhat similar to SEO, pay per click advertising means using online platforms in order to create ads that can be integrated into their feeds, essentially allowing you to pay for clicks to your website.

Those who know what referral marketing is will see that affiliate marketing is not extremely different.  Marketers promote each other’s products and then share the profits.

The last one, email marketing, may not be as popular as it once was, however, it remains one of the most effective channels.  Once your customers sign up and give you permission to send them emails, you will be able to send them an email every once in a while, in order to let them know of your other products and services, and baiting them in buying.

Online marketing is truly huge, especially when considering the fact that each of the categories mentioned above can provide numerous opportunities to increase both popularity and traffic, as well as sales.

For example, when talking about social media marketing, we have platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Youtube, Periscope, and others.  Each of them is large enough in order to have a measurable impact on your sales and popularity.

The following guide will provide you with several things.  The most important one is essential information required in order to successfully use every single type of marketing on the list above.  You will also be given examples of individuals who have organized successful online marketing campaigns.  If you’re a beginner, read this guide as you would a manual, and you’ll be ok.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A perfect example of someone who took SEO to a new level is Brian Dean, the creator of Backlinko.  Those who have been curious about learning search engine optimization may have seen his name on various websites or may have come across his website.

Backlinko is amazing in the sense that it outranks major websites such as Wikipedia or Forbes, and provides those interested with practical step-by-step tutorials that can be used by both SEO professionals, as well as by those looking to learn.  The website is so well optimized that it actually ranks 1 AND 2 when searching for “How to get backlinks”.

Dean’s blog doesn’t republish SEO news but offers well-written tutorials that teach people how to efficiently implement good SEO techniques.

SEO is the process through which you optimize your online content in order to make it easier for search engines to analyze it.  This will lead to those pages being placed in the top of the results page shown when searching for certain keywords.

The guides are not only just well written, but they also include a lot of information.  For example, most of the tutorials include proof that certain techniques work, as well as all the steps that you must follow in order to replicate their results.

Dean also includes various case studies on his website, all of which are extremely useful for those looking to up their SEO game.

Most, if not all of the studies first show the results and then feature easy-to-follow steps that will walk you through everything that you have to do in order to use the method that generated the successful results.  However, while the tutorials are not complicated, there is a downside: you need a lot of time in order to execute them.

This prevents many people from actually using the information on the website in order to develop good SEO techniques and to grow their business.  Having said that, you can certainly get ahead of the competition, if you have the patience to follow the tutorials to the letter.  The fact that most people do not want to spend time making these improvements means that the few who do invest in them will have a clear advantage over everyone else.

If you aren’t sure if SEO is for you, then go through the Backlinko blog and look at a few tutorials.  Furthermore, if you want proof of how effective the SEO tutorials really are, look around the web and you’ll find that the Backlinko has over 100,000 monthly readers and 100,000 email subscribers.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

As stated at the beginning, SEM is practically a paid version of SEO.  The difference between the two is that instead of optimizing your content and then promoting it in order to have your website displayed among the top results of a particular query, you can just pay and get there instantly.  Search engine optimization can take up to a year in order to render any results, SEM is more of an instant solution.

This is extremely useful, due to the fact that about 50% of search engine users usually click on the first and second results shown in a result page.  However, you have to pay for every visitor that opens your page using these artificially ranked links.

The price depends on what keywords you want your website to show up for.  If a keyword is targeted by more companies, then the price will be higher (the prices are surprisingly competitive).  You may find that some keywords are worth as much as a few hundred dollars per click.

SEM is a great way to instantly gain massive online visibility, however, it can also be extremely expensive.  If you’re interested, then do your best to ensure that you get your money’s worth, or you may find yourself spending a lot of money, without having a way to recoup your advertising costs.

Search engine marketing is mainly suited for those who offer paid products and services.  Those who are still offering free content in order to build their audience will lose money extremely fast.

If you are interested in using SEM in order to grow your business, then it would be best to set up conversion goals as part of your campaign.  Also, make sure to track which people have made purchases through your ads, in order to determine how much money you’ve lost, or earned, by using them.

Look online and you will also be able to find a few case studies published by Google, regarding some of their customers who have spent large amounts of money on Google Adwords and have enjoyed large profits, as a result.  You will notice that most of the time, their return on investment is much higher than that possible with stock or real estate investments, creating up to 20x the ad spend in conversions.

Now, if you’re looking to learn how to use Google Adwords (regardless if you are a company or a solo entrepreneur), look up Jerry Banfield.

He is currently making a living by working as a full-time instructor on Udemy, and usually, has a monthly income of at least $30,000.  This figure is possible due to the fact that he used Google Adwords in order to scale up his sales.  Banfield ran a one-man advertising agency before becoming an instructor and focused on helping others with their SEM.

He started putting his SEM skill in practice for his own direct profit once he had a few courses that he could sell, and he quickly managed to get a return on investment of 4700%, by using Google Adwords.

The best part is that he is both an instructor, as well as a living example of the fact that his lessons are effective.  Furthermore, Banfield doesn’t hold anything back and teaches most of what he knows for free. If you’re interested in learning from him, then you should start by watching his Google Adwords free course on Youtube.

He will give you all the information that you need in order to set up your first SEM campaign, over the course of three hours of video content.  However, this is only the beginning.  While the things explained in this video are enough to get you started, you can always go to Udemy and see what information he has to offer in his 9-hour course.  He also provides detailed tutorials and guides, as part of his paid courses.

The course is usually $300 however, if you look close enough on Jerry Banfield’s website, you will find a coupon that gives you a discount, giving you the chance to purchase it for only $25.  (no, that’s not a typo).

Content marketing

Jon Morrow is a legend when it comes to creating content.  He was motivated by the fact that a lot of great content was wasting away on forgotten websites that would get far too little traffic and exposure, and decided to find a way to help website owners everywhere.

His solution came in the form of a blog, SmartBlogger (formerly Boost Blog Traffic), which currently boasts over half a million monthly readers.  He obeyed one of the most important principles of content marketing and ensured that his content provided his audience with timely, relevant value.  Furthermore, he used his knowledge of the field and turned his blog into a six-figure income…per month.

Jon’s story is much more impressive than anybody else’s due to the fact that he managed to find a way to earn in a month more than some people earn over the course of an entire year while being paralyzed from the neck down.  The entrepreneur saw a great deal of potential in sharing his knowledge of marketing with other individuals and decided to make it an important part of his blog.  His idea paid off, and he now has a huge following.

However, the element that really turned his website into a hit was the fact that he saw the potential of teaching people how to implement the same marketing strategy that he used for his companies.  He created tutorials and guides which follow the same steps that he makes every time he wants to grow one of his companies.

SmartBlogger offers content that is structured somewhat like the Backlinko.  Morrow usually breaks down marketing tactics into bite-size chunks and offers step-by-step instructions, results, and other information that the readers can use in order to replicate his results.

It is unlikely that you will find guides that are as detailed as these anywhere else.  They walk the reader through every step of the process and offer enough information to ensure that anyone who tries to implement the strategy into his own business has everything that he or she could possibly need in order to build a large following.

In addition to these, Jon also occasionally brings on guests in order to share their strategies in guides that are just as well structured and detailed as his.  This enables the readers to learn from other specialists as well. Some of the subjects presented in these guest posts are Google Analytics, building relationships, etc.

If you take the time to look at the content that Jon posts you are bound to find at least a handful of great ideas that can work for you.

Jon Marrow has a fascinating way of writing and of setting the tone of his articles.  For example, he starts his intro by familiarizing the reader with a new term coined by him.  Over the course of the article, he refers to his audience by “them”.  He then proceeds to explain the terms that he uses and then compares an issue that bloggers usually have, with a sickness.  Naturally, this gets everyone interested in what he has to say regarding a potential cure.

His articles have the ability to stimulate the reader’s curiosity in order to get him or her hooked, and asking for more.  This means that you can learn from him in two ways.  The first is by studying and replicating his approach to writing.  The second is by actually understanding what he has to say regarding how to properly create content.

If you plan on using content marketing in order to grow your website, keep in mind that content comes in forms.  Some may earn money by posting videos on Youtube, others may find their niche among the bloggers.

Social media marketing

As most of you will know, social media is the most powerful force on the internet, and it is growing at an alarming rate in terms of both networks, as well as users.  For most entrepreneurs, social media marketing isn’t an option, it is a necessity, as it enables them to reach a massive amount of people.

The best place to learn everything you need in order to succeed in this industry is Gary Vaynerchuk. He has written 3 New York Times bestsellers, of which two are focused on how to effectively use social media in order to grow your business.  Furthermore, he runs one of the biggest media agencies in the world.

As for his online presence, he is extremely successful on Twitter, having over one million followers.  He also has a show on Youtube which comes out every working day of the week, a Facebook page with well over 400,000 likes, 15,000 followers on Pinterest, and 160,000 followers on Instagram.

He practically has an audience comprised of about two million people.  That’s two million individuals that learn from him and follow his every move.  This brings us to what and how you should learn from him.

First, look at what he tries to teach others, and understand the importance of context.  Learn the specific context of every social media channel and figure out how to share news on all of them.  For example, take a piece of news that you share on your blog.  Then think about how much sense it would make if you were to try and post it on Twitter.  The answer is that it probably wouldn’t make any kind of sense due to fact that Twitter is meant for short-form content.

Learn what goes where in terms of social media channels and you will be alright.  However, if you don’t pay attention to the proper context, your efforts will be for nothing.  Furthermore, learn what works on each of these platforms in terms of content. Those who are successful on Twitch, for example, usually post streaming, live videos, while Youtubers can own their success to anything from prank videos, to make-up tutorials and podcasts.

These are only a few examples.  If you explore each social network, you are bound to find popular people on each of them, and then it is simply a matter of adapting the content to your needs.  Also, keep in mind that it is extremely important to use social media in order to tell stories, rather than to simply distribute news.  These shouldn’t be used as distribution channels for your various links, but ways through which to share your own content.  If you share a link to another website, there is a good chance that you will lose a potential follower.

Gary is also a speaker, and you can watch his talks on Youtube.  However, he is not the only one who successfully learned how to use social media to his advantage.  Look around and you are bound to find more important resources on the internet.

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

As explained at the beginning, pay per click advertising means that the marketer pays each time someone clicks on an ad that he has created.

You practically pay, in the same way, you pay for search engine marketing.  The difference is that PPC allows you to place ads on a large number of platforms, not just search engines.  This enables you to reach people through ways other than websites like Google or Bing.

LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter have implemented this system a while ago, and Instagram has recently joined them.  However, there are far more platforms that allow companies to create their own ads.

Having said that, the biggest of them all are Google AdWords and Facebook.  The latter one, for example, allows you to create an ad that looks identical to a Facebook status update.  You are then presented with the option of picking an audience, by choosing the sex, location, age, and preference (anything from what kind of music they listen to, to what food they like).  The last step is to set your budget based on the amount of money that you are willing to pay for each click.

Once you’ve finished setting up the ad, it will be transmitted to your audience, through their news feed, and in their sidebar.  It will show on both the desktop version of Facebook, as well as on the mobile one (app included).

When people click on an ad, they will be redirected to the page that you’ve specified when you have set up the ad.  This can be anything from a Facebook fan page to a landing page for your products, or any other URL.  It’s a good strategy if you want to familiarize a particular audience with your products and services.

And the best part of using PPC is that the ads are not disruptive.  They integrate into the platform that you’ve chosen without appearing forced or too obvious.  People who see them will only click on them if they are interested.  They won’t be baited in any way.  This means that you will not pay for pointless clicks, and they won’t be annoyed by something coming from your brand.

Users tend to avoid any form of pay-per-click simply because the ads are usually not relevant to their situation, their needs, or their preferences.  There have been many cases in which teenagers have been shown ads for back pain massage clinics, or pills for arthritis.

Luckily, Facebook’s strategy of presenting them as part of their news feed means that they are unable to ignore them, but it also means that they are less likely to register the ads that don’t concern them.  In addition to this, the targeting system used by the social website means that marketers can ensure that the ads will only be shown to their chosen audiences.

If you’re looking for a good place to start learning about PPC, then you can always try AdEspresso.  The software that they provide can layer on top of Facebook’s complicated ad manager and make your job a little bit easier.

However, the most valuable section is the blog one.  Here you will find a guide containing everything that you need to know in order to start using PPC ads for Facebook.

Affiliate marketing

The biggest name in Affiliate marketing is Pat Flynn.  He created Smart Passive Income, in 2008, when he himself was still learning how to sell informational products online.

The first product that he developed and marketed was a course that would help individuals pass the LEEDs exam for architects, called Green Exam Academy.  The product sold well and was quite popular.

However, he wanted to learn more about passive income, which revolves around the idea of earning money without actively working for it.  His curiosity was rewarded, as he has become one of the most well-known individuals in the affiliate marketing industry.

In layman’s terms, affiliate marketing is basically referral marketing, as it enables you to earn money every time an individual uses the links tied to your name in order to buy a product.  For example, when you join Amazon’s referral program, they will send you a list of links for each of their products. You can then post the links wherever you like, and once someone uses your link in order to buy a product, you will get a commission.

This is great due to the fact that it enables you to earn money without having to do anything other than make the links available to your audiences.  However, you do have to choose the products carefully, in order to ensure that they will spark your followers’ interest.  Choosing something that has no connection to what your content is about and problems are bound to appear.  Furthermore, you need a loyal following in order for this strategy to work.

However, if you do have a large audience, then you will be able to recommend a certain product, and also provide them with the link through which they can purchase it.  Insert it in a blog post, or share it as a tweet or as a Facebook status.  You can even include it in one of your campaigns and send it as part of a newsletter.  The possibilities are endless.

Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most reliable types of online marketing.  While many tend to overlook it, it remains extremely effective.

If you’re interested in learning more about it, then your best bet is Bryan Harris, the founder of Videofruit.

Bryan has spent the past 2 years turning his blog into a six-figure business source.  This is an impressive transition in only two years, and his latest course is a testament to his evolution, as it earned him $220,750.

He currently helps others understand how to write convincing emails and how to organize effective email marketing campaigns, however, he started by working as a freelancer, for brands like HubSpot.

He’s truly a master of this type of marketing, as he was able to grow his email lists from 0 to 10,000 subscribers in 2014 alone.  Since then, the number has doubled.  Bryan consideres that an email list is a vital asset in his business.

The term of email marketing basically refers to using emails in order to better communicate with your customers and your audience.  The most interesting part about this channel is that it is more effective when it comes to engagement than any social media network currently online.  It is perfect for those looking to sell products and services.

This is due to the fact that, while we may change our phone numbers and our physical addresses, our email addresses remain the same.  Most people have the same personal email address for periods of over 10 years.  This means that once a marketer starts collecting emails, his list can only grow, it will never shrink, and if it ever does, it won’t be noticeable.

If you intend to use this form of marketing, then keep in mind that it is difficult to change an email address, so make sure that the one you set up as a contact is perfect.

Bryan has also released a course that caters to those who don’t really know where to start in order to build their list, called “Get 10,000 Subscribers”, but he has a lot more content that has been designed to help those looking to organize a solid campaign.

Conclusion

Online marketing offers tremendous potential to entrepreneurs everywhere.  This is not only due to the fact that it frees them from the constraints of a “classic” workplace, but also because it is extremely effective. Whether you want to offer various services, or you want to sell products, then one -if not all- of the above strategies described above can help you.

The best part is that none of the things presented in this guide are particularly difficult.  They just require an open mind and a lot of work.  Success does not come to those who do not push themselves in order to achieve it.