Internet Marketing Strategies

The internet is filled with thousands of internet marketing strategies that promise outstanding results with little effort. However, once you actually put them to practice, you realize that most of these are either outdated, or offer very little reward for the effort.

So what can a business owner do? What strategies actually deliver results without breaking the bank? What inbound marketing tools can make a tactical difference?

Here, we’ve compiled 3 proven internet marketing strategies that deliver results regardless of your business size or budget. Put them to practice and you can wave your marketing woes goodbye:

1. Guest Posting

Guest posting is the process of creating valuable content, then publishing it on established publications. It’s one of the most enduring internet marketing strategies around and is used by businesses big and small. The idea is simple: good publications need good content, and marketers need to get in front of an established audience, build brand awareness and bag some backlinks.

So does this mean you can start contacting blogs for guest posts right away?

Not quite.

The changing nature of guest blogging

Around a couple of years back, Google’s sent a ripple through the marketing community by saying that guest blogging is “done” (his exact words: “Stick a fork in it; guest blogging is done!”).

This effectively meant that Google was going to penalize websites that employed guest blogging as a marketing tactic. Soon, hundreds of marketing shops offering ‘guest blogging services’ died down and thousands of websites with countless guest links saw their rankings tank.

However, if you look at your favorite blogs today, you’ll find that blogging is alive and well. Most top publications have posts from multiple authors, often with a link back to the author’s site in the footer.

What gives? If guest blogging is “done”, how come top marketers and publications continue to use it?

Doing guest blogging right

Guest blogging, as it exists today, is radically different from guest blogging as it existed a few years ago. The focus has shifted from getting backlinks to developing an audience. Whatever backlinks you do get are just added bonus; the meat and potatoes remains access to a large audience.

If you want to do guest blogging right in 2015, here’s what you must do:

• Shift your mindset away from getting backlinks to building authority.
• Share your domain expertise with the blog’s readership..
• Be a “thought leader” by sharing cutting edge advice, ideas and innovations.
• Publish your content only on blogs that publish only quality content.
• Avoid publishing on sites in irrelevant niches. For example, if you sell cars, publish on automotive magazines, not medical blogs.

Every time you think of guest posting, ask yourself: “is this a site I would want my brand to be associated with?”

If the answer is no, then it’s best to shift to other tactics.

2. LinkedIn Marketing

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve already heard of LinkedIn. With over 380M members, it is the largest professional network in the world with users in nearly every country in the world. In terms of growth, it gets two new sign-ups every second, making it one of the fastest growing platforms around.

Since LinkedIn is all about professional networking, it’s also one of the best marketing platforms for businesses. Here’s how you can make the most it:

• Use the LinkedIn search feature to find people that fit your target profile. You can then contact them either through email (lookup their email addresses on their company site), or through LinkedIn InMail.
• Leverage the power of LinkedIn groups. Find active groups in your industry and share interesting, insightful content on it. You want to be recognized as a leading authority on a topic – the better content you share, the better results you’ll get.
• Use Slideshare to share presentations. This can not only be a source of leads, but can also help promote your brand through thought leadership.
• Network with people in your industry. Comment and share on their posts, offer your own insights and start a conversation.

LinkedIn marketing done right can be a powerful source of leads, traffic and connections. You just have to cultivate a habit of creating and sharing great content. Irrelevant, rehashed pieces will not only limit your traffic potential, but also hurt your brand in the long-term.

3. Influencer Marketing

“Influencer marketing” is the process of connecting with, and leveraging an influencer’s platform to market your business. It might sound like a new term, but it’s actually one of the oldest marketing tactics around. By piggybacking on an influencer’s reach, you can get your product before a massive audience.

Here are two reasons why influencer marketing works:

1. Trust: Influencers are trusted a lot by their followers. Whatever an influencer recommends or endorsed automatically gets a higher trust quotient. Jay Baer of ConvinceAndConvert, for example, says that as individuals who’ve come to stand for certain values, influencers are often trusted more than brands or businesses.
2. Reach: Instead of building an audience from scratch, you can leverage an influencer’s existing reach to get your product before a big platform. Influencers such as Gary Vaynerchuk or Tim Ferriss, for example, have an audience in the millions. For celebs such as Justin Bieber or Ashton Kutcher, this number is in the tens of millions.

How to do influencer marketing right

Here are some crucial tips you must follow if you want to do influencer marketing right:

• Influencer marketing is a long term investment. Don’t expect immediate results. Instead, develop a relationship slowly and leverage it to over months to get the results you want.
• Practice “communication escalation”. That is, start off by registering on the influencer’s radar through comments on their blogs or tweets. Then send them a few emails. Then meet them at a social event such as an industry conference. And finally, meet up with them in person.
• Give before you get. Influencers are bombarded with requests. Instead of asking for favors, help them out first. It’s slower, but it will lead to lasting relationships.

Remember: influencers are people, not abstract brands. You’ll get the most out of this marketing strategy if you take the time to develop relationships than seeing them as just another marketing channel.

Conclusion

Finding the right marketing strategy for your business can be hard, but if you follow the three strategies outlined above, you’ll have no problem finding an audience for your product. While marketing fads may come and go, these three strategies will continue to bear results for years to come!