If Your Online Marketing Isn’t Working, It Might Be Out of Balance
By: Cassi Lowe
Tags: Online Marketing, B2B, Marketing, Digital Marketing

Online marketing is about more than just getting traffic to your website or getting in front of people. There are four main phases of online marketing that need to be considered. If you focus on only 1 or 2 of these phases, your marketing will become out of balance and ineffective.

All four of these phases make up a complete online marketing system. They are: Attract, Engage, Interact, and Convert.

Use the companion worksheet to brainstorm ideas. It will help you make sure you’re covering all four phases effectively. Click here to download.

ATTRACT

In the attraction phase, your potential customers don’t know who you are. Your goal is to get in front of your target market and drive them to your website. There are many different ways to do this. Below is a list of some of the most common ways to attract people to your website.

Paid advertising

Guest blog posts or appearances

Search engine optimization

Social media

Directories

Offline advertising

Word of mouth

Joint ventures

This is the phase that many business owners focus on the most. It’s a common misconception that if you can get someone to your website, they will buy from you. However, people buy from people they know and trust, and your website visitors don’t know you yet. The next sections will cover how to create that level of trust with your prospects.

ENGAGE

Once a website visitor finds your website, the next step is to engage with them. This phase is all about building trust so that your visitor will take the next step.

First, your website needs to be professional and welcoming to your target customers. The messaging should speak directly to them, so they know they’re in the right place to find the answers they’re looking for.

Engaging content is very important to this phase. Below are some common types of content to publish. Stick to a consistent publishing schedule so your library of content will build up over time.

Blog posts

Case studies

Videos

Podcasts

Infographics

White papers

The purpose of this phase is to establish your credibility. It shows your prospects that you’re a trustworthy source of knowledge.

The content you publish has another benefit, too. It can help you get found in search engines like Google. Other people can also share your content, which increases your exposure online.

INTERACT

In this phase, your website visitor takes the first step towards becoming a client. They perform some type of action on your website, beyond consuming your content.

If you’re selling a higher priced B2B service or consulting, it’s highly unlikely someone will purchase from you without some kind of interaction first. Offer a very low risk entry point for prospects to initiate this interaction. Some ideas for this phase include:

Free ebook download

White papers

Email or video course

Quiz or assessment

Free consultation

Webinar

Resource library

The goal of this phase is to convert your website visitor into a prospect. This means requesting personal information from your website visitor before they can access any of the resources above. You’ll capture more sign-ups by keeping your request minimal and only asking for Name and Email.

The information you provide in this phase needs to be valuable enough for someone to give you their email address, but not so in-depth that it’s overwhelming.

CONVERT

Now that you have your prospect’s name and email address, you can continue to send valuable information, and market your services to them, via email marketing. Their trust in you will grow over time, as you continue to help them solve their problems through your content.

A common strategy is Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” concept. The “jabs” are engaging, useful content, and the “right hook” is your sales call-to-action. This means your valuable content should outnumber your sales messages.

Email marketing is a powerful tool that will help you nurture the relationships with your prospects. A portion of these prospects will take action on your sales messages and become clients.

Now that you’re aware of all four phases, use the worksheet to help you brainstorm ideas for your own business. Click here to download.

CONCLUSION

By using all four phases: Attract, Engage, Interact, and Convert, your marketing will be more effective at converting prospects into clients. If you only focus on 1 phase and ignore the others, you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities. Each phase feeds off of the other phases. They work together to guide prospects toward becoming your clients.

This article was originally published on rosypost.com