Before the invention of the internet, there was a time when marketing your business was an expensive and sometimes ineffective way to reach your target audience. Marketing methods used before the invention of the internet is called “traditional Marketing.” If you look at all the different ways you can market your business today, you’d know that your business has a chance of survival based on how the internet reaches billions of people every day.
In case you weren’t hip to things, people use the internet for almost everything. People search the internet to find certain products and services; They use the internet when looking for local businesses; They also use the internet to interact with some of their favorite brands. All in all, if you’re a business owner looking to grow your business, you need to set your sights outside of the thick yellow pages book and go where all your customers will be… on the internet!
How Do You Reach Customers By Way of the Internet?
Google Ads
There are so many answers to this question that it’s not even funny. You have Google Ads, which is a pay per click (PPC) model where business owners can pay Google a small fee every time a user clicks on their ad. If you invest in Google Ads, you’re paying for your ad to be at the top of SERPs and by being listed at the top of SERPs, your website will get lots of visitors in hopes of them converting to customers.
SEO
SEO is another marketing technique that’s all about getting your website ranked organically. There are several factors that go into SEO. Things like improving page load speed, making your site mobile-friendly, and keywords research all play a role in where your website ranks and how quickly people will find your site.
What is Interactive Marketing?
Interactive marketing is also a marketing tactic that you can use to reach customers by way of the internet but it’s much different than Google Ads and SEO. With interactive marketing, it’s more of a one-on-one, personalized marketing tactic that allows businesses to adjust, interact, and respond to the actions of customers in real-time. If you’re still unsure what interactive marketing looks like, here are a few examples of it:
- Chatbots
- Contests
- Quizzes, polls, surveys
- Video and email marketing
There are actually more types of interactive marketing tactics but those are just a few. As a business owner, if you used interactive marketing effectively, it could convert potential “browsing” customers into real-time customers, which has the potential of shortening your buying cycle.
The reality of interactive marketing is that potential customers aren’t actually interacting with real people but nonetheless, they don’t always know that, and they’re still getting a unique and personalized experience that not too many online businesses are taking advantage of… and for that, customers tend to appreciate it simply for the personalized shopping experience.
How Will Interactive Marketing Help Your Business?
You’ll Have a Higher Engagement Rate
With interactive marketing, your customers will feel like they’re interacting with you directly, even though they’re actually not. How many times have you went on a website and saw a quiz or survey that prompted you to see what personality type you are or to see what type of boyfriend or girlfriend you are based on your daily interactions? We’ve all been enticed by those quizzes at some point.
You Get Customer Feedback
Lots of business owners don’t particularly care for customer feedback simply out of fear of hearing something they don’t want to hear. That’s probably one of the worst things a business owner could do.
Although the feedback you may hear from customers is negative feedback, it’s still feedback you need to know about because that means that your business is experiencing some type of problem that’s taking away from their positive shopping experience. You need to know exactly what that problem is so that you can fix it and eliminate negative feedback.
According to Forbes, by asking for customer feedback, your customers are going to feel important and appreciated and your business will constantly improve. Businesses aren’t a solve one problem and you’re done type of venture… it’s a constant uphill battle that could always use improvement.
You can even use social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram to spice up your feed. By using social media, you can post different products or upcoming sales to get feedback from customers on whether or not the idea is good or if customers even feel like they’ll benefit from the deal. With social media, your posts have the potential to go viral just with a little support from your customers and asking their feedback.
Potential For Expansion
As mentioned earlier, if you use interactive marketing effectively, it can completely change the outlook of your business in such a way that expansion is in the future! If your business is doing extremely well online, just imagine how well it would do as a brick-and-mortar location!
If you’re considering expanding in that way, just know that it’s not something that will happen overnight. You’ll need to hire employees to work in the store, you’ll need to find a credible business insurance company that will be able to provide the policies you need, etc.
All in all, with any marketing tactic you use, there’s always the potential for expansion, you just need to make sure you have all the right tools and resources to make it happen!