Gone are the days when you had to mass market your product on TV to attract consumers. Today,consumers have become more demanding, they want more attention,and they want to communicate with the company. Hence, if your marketing plan does not include a comprehensive online media strategy, then it is a recipe for disaster. We don’t want to discourage you, rather we want you to realize the importance of online media in this era.

Do you know there are around 3 billion people online and global internet penetration is 42 percent? By 2020, half of the world population is going to be online. Hence, you could say the internet is soon going to become a mass yet personalized medium for marketers.

Moreover, when compared to traditional media, digital media costs far less. Social media, for example, can give you exposure to 1000 people at only $3.

Here we discuss 5 ways of how you can market your startup online:

1. Website

Your website is the primary source of information for potential customers. No matter where they get to know about your business from, they will search for your website. Make sure that you have a well-designed website with a professional logo design to increase its credibility. Also, it shouldnot take a lot of time to load. Often startup owners tend to compromise speed to accommodate creative designs. This is a bad idea. Research shows that 47 percent of the consumers expect a website to load within two seconds. Also, mobile users said that they usually wait for 6 to 8 seconds before they leave a webpage.

Apart from disseminating information, your website also allows you to capture email addresses of potential customers. This helps in email marketing and conducting blogging for improved SEO.

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

There are two ways to drive traffic to your website: organic traffic (Search engine optimization) and paid traffic (search engine marketing). Research shows that SEO and SEM contribute to 60 percent of website traffic. Also, the traffic that you get through SEM is quality traffic. This is because the people are already searching for the product or service that you offer. The best thing about search engine marketing is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Also, the entire campaign is controllable,andyou can adjust the keywords.

3. Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEM is a great tool to drive traffic, but what if you can do it for free? SEO enablesyou to be visible on the first page of Google and trust us, people usually don’t go beyond the first page. Even though SEM appears at the top of the first page, statistics show that 71.3 percent of the clicks are on organic results. Moreover, just like traditional media, SEM is paid,and hence potential customers are less likely to trust it. SEO, on the other hand, gives confidence to customers. The only reason why SEO isa bit difficult than SEM is that you need to have a solid content strategy for it to work. If you cannot do it yourself, you can use SEO consulting services.

4. Social Media

Social media websites were developed initially to connect people with each other. However, now they have become an important asset for marketers. It is a significant medium for organizations to connect with their consumers. According to Marketing Sherpa, 95 percent of young adults in the ages of 18-24 are likely to follow a brand on social media. Hence, there are around 50 million business pages on Facebook and 4 million of them pay the website for promotion.

While Facebook has always been marketers’ top priority, Instagram is now slowly moving up on the list. There are around 500 million people on Instagram who like 4.2 billion posts everyday. Also, users love videos. When the feature was first introduced in 2013, 5 million videos were uploaded on the platform within just 24 hours. Sounds bizarre, but lucky for you as they can help you take your business to the next level.

Social media strategy is workable only if you have clear objectives in your mind. Just sharing content for the sake of it will not get you the results. Moreover, you need to research your target audience to search for the most appropriate platform. For example, if you aretrying to target teenagers, then Snapchat is probably the best tool. Similarly, if your target audience are senior citizens, then advertising on social media will perhaps backfire.

5. YouTube

We all have heard ‘Baby Shark’ by now. A simple nursery rhyme got 2.3 billion views on YouTube and landed a spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking. That is the power of YouTube. Imagine what positivity it can bring to your business. What makes YouTube one of the best channels for online marketing is the fact that it has over 1 billion active users.It is the second most visited website on the internet and today people are watching videos more than ever. To successfully market on YouTube, all you need to do is create a YouTube channel. Regularly update content that interests your customers with catchy titles. Other than that, you can also advertise within videos. You can select your target audience and only pay when people watch your ad for at least 30 seconds or engage with your ad.

We have discussed some of the basics ways of how you can advertise in the digital world. Once you have established the groundwork,you can use other tactics such as email and content marketing. In fact, everything that you use in the digital world can be used for marketing.For example, when you send emails, you can take help from some best email signatures examples to communicate your brand and designation to others.

In today’s world, there is no way you can get away without a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. And if you want a greater ROI, then you need to be clear on your objectives and goals.

About the Author:

Alma Causey is a Freelance writer by day and sports fan by night. She writes about tech education and health related issues. Live simply, give generously, watch football and a technology lover.