We are witnessing the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) unfolding before us. Just as you have information about your product on your fingertips, customers also have information on their hands.

They are connected through a net and they can access data and information anytime and anywhere they want. The digital world is the first place where you get in touch with your potential customer for marketing your products. Knowledge on this alone won’t suffice. We are in 2017 and it is the age of cut-throat competition. Your products may perhaps be the best but to be the first is a daunting task and for this, it is essential to get the basics correct first.

Website

The foundation is laid with your website. Customers first visit websites to check out what you have to offer, to see the descriptions, check if any offers or discounts are there and the shipping rates if they happen to be placed in a far flung region, and so on. For this, the homepage needs to be simple yet attractive. Information must be visible without having too much to scroll. This is important since many customers wouldn’t be patient to see what is down below.

Establishing communication is another factor in having a successful business outcome. Can your customer, if you are a service related business, see a click to call icon above the fold, i.e. without scrolling, and can he by clicking that call you up directly instead of having a service provider do the job.

These are certain tips to be kept in mind while constructing a website in the year 2017. Also, it is the age of smart phones and everything is made available instantly through phones carried in pockets. Search Engine Google had last year stated that it is giving importance to mobiles first and then only desktops and laptops.

Since around 60 per cent of the searches are now carried out on phones it is imperative that you have a mobile friendly website. You need to keep this factor in control else fix it as soon as possible to stay competitive in 2017.

Ad Words and SEO to improve Search Engine Rankings

Google is by default the place where anyone would search for information. This huge search engine has created the most measurable forms of marketing and advertising in history. Google Ad words enable you to reach out to millions in one shot.

You can sell your goods or services to the entire world. Splitting your campaigns and Ad words will be a good idea. The campaign usually must be a base word. For example, you can keep your campaign as “manufacturing” and the ad groups within that key terms can have variations such as “electronics manufacturing”, “plastic manufacturing”, and so on.

Your work will become more organized, creative and you will end up viewing the performance of different terms and create extremely specific ads for your target customers.

Also Read: Strategies To Drive More Traffic To Your Website

Ad words and search engine optimization (SEO) are closely related than ever before in 2017. Google’s Quality Score is a witness to that. Google looks at the content on your website which is the same content contributing to your organic ranking.

It looks at that and the Ad words and how much they are related. If yes then your rankings improve. A good Quality Score can place your company above your nearest competitor.

Quality Scores and SEO are directly interrelated along with the organic ranking and the more time you spend in enriching your content in those directions the better your ranking will become with Google gradually placing it above your peers.

Facebook Lead Ads

Are you on Facebook? It is an often asked term. Facebook has more than 800 million active users and 200 million logs on to the medium on a daily basis. Your Facebook page is the extension of your website and it needs to surpass your website in terms of your interaction with the customers.

You can spend some time daily on browsing through web pages that have used Facebook to the optimum and reproduce their formula on yours as well. Facebook will help you create fan pages and for this, you need to frequently post new content such as videos, short messages, audio visuals, replying promptly to comments from viewers, get them to press the like button, and in the process develop a one-to-one relationship with your client.

Develop an interactive page and get a lively community of people to discuss your business among them. Cash on to the opportunity brought forth by the digital world and achieve extraordinary results.

Mobile internet marketing, which also includes App marketing, can help you drive engagement to your brand, grow your customer database and get more sales. established fact that more than 50% of web visitors browse through mobile devices. In fact, Amazon.com has recently released stats that showed that 60% of the users did their purchasing in the recent holiday season over the mobile. That amounted to around $1 Billion in sales for Target.com.

A strong mobile marketing strategy is a must. According to target.com, it was reported that more than 60% of its traffic from November to December 2015 came through mobile devices.

In order to benefit as a business owner from your mobile internet marketing strategy, here are a few tips for having a mobile friendly website:

1.Have the right set of keywords

Keep the keywords phrases to a minimum of 3 words, don’t go beyond that. Also, make sure that you make use of local terms along with the keywords. That way, you will be more visible in local searches.

2.Provide contact information

If your business has a physical office, then provide the exact address and location details. Make sure that you include a map. This will enable your customer to find you locate you more easily. If you need to register on Google maps, go ahead and do so.

3.Incorporate the offers on-site

Once you have a campaign running, you also need to have offers incorporated onto your mobile site. Along with the offers, also, place an opt-in form for users to register and receive future promotional offers.

4.Be device friendly

Make sure that your mobile website is compatible with all devices. Update your code, in case, a new device comes along, so that users of this new device don’t miss out on any of your offers.

5.Location-based mobile internet marketing strategy

According to stats, shopping takes place within a 15 km radius of a consumer’s residence. Hyper-localized or location-based mobile advertising, uses data analytic tools and IP geo-location technology to influence social data insights and location data. Make sure that you use this new technology to target people based on their ‘current’ geographical location.

SMS Mobile Marketing

There is a myth that SMS mobile marketing is full of rules and regulations and there are a lot of cases pending in the courts where people have these businesses ‘cornered’. The fact is that SMS marketing is like any other channel like social media and email, where certain rules and regulations (classified under “common sense” category) do apply!

A few SMS tips:

Your SMS campaign has two parts (a) keyword and (b) short code
It also includes a call to action
Add incentives as part of your message ($20 off or 50% OFF)
Make sure you have an opt-in message first so that only willing customers will be part of your list.
As your campaign goes along, analyse how it is going. Also, have a consistency about your campaign and don’t stop all of a sudden.
You may thus, send them relevant offers if they are presently very close to your location using hyper-localized SMS mobile marketing.

Using Whats App and We-chat

You may also use popular chat applications as part of your marketing campaign

If you are targeting Chinese, then get your advertisement on WeChat
If you are targeting India or Singapore, you need to know that WhatsApp is a very popular means of keeping in touch
You may use such popular Apps as marketing platforms and run some popular contests to encourage people to share these contest pictures across their contacts in their network.

Thus you can have the vast expanse of the mobile world at your disposal, and make the best of it using a proper mobile strategy, and incorporating the above-mentioned tips.

When and where do we reach these mobile users with our ads or online campaigns?

According to stats over 90% of these users have the mobiles with them 24×7. That means they can be reached anytime with our ads and online marketing campaigns.

Customer Service

Most of the online products involve shipping, handling, and door delivery; thus, the consumers need you to be there when they have clarifications or complaints. There is no space for a mobile “dead air”. The services must be managed efficiently and appropriate communication channels must be kept open, all the time!

There are so many innovative ways to do mobile marketing and so much literature written about it, that most people really don’t know where to begin. Here are a few more ideas:

Discovering new ‘mobile habits’

For e.g., taking a “Selfie” is a popular hobby, it can be exploited to serve your business ends. Photo contests can be held, where people click selfies with your products and stand to win goodies.

Selfie Campaign called #KissForPeace

Axe Deodorant capitalised on this selfie craze on Valentine’s day in 2014. Going with their tagline, “Make love, not war”, they asked couples to take selfies of them kissing each other, in order to support their cause for peace. This generated 10,000 tweets on Twitter and 8,000 on Instagram. The company also cross-promoted this contest on other media like TV and even the Billboards in Times Square.

The IKEA way

Ikea has recently come up with a mobile Application (App) , where you can take pictures of your home, and then place the desired furniture (from the 3D IKEA catalogue) in that space and see how it looks. Now this can automatically attract lots of signups and downloads, product awareness as well as sales.

Mobile App marketing – develop an innovative App

You may plan your mobile app marketing strategy along those lines. For E.g., if you modify cars, then you can have a similar application which can do the below tasks.

Users will be able to select their car model from the 3D – library display in the app.
They can choose to colour the car according to their choice
They can add a spoiler, bumper, halogen lights, and other accessories, carpets, seat covers etc, and see how their car looks like thanks to the App’s realistic 3D simulation capability.

Having an ‘app marketing strategy’ results in the below advantages:

You will be visible to your prospective customers all the time.
It is a direct marketing channel, where your services and products can be got at the touch of a button.
You can also be sending updates and offers directly to customers.
More the app gets downloaded, more is your customer database – it is as simple as that!

If all these ideas are confusing and still you don’t know where to start, then look around to find a success story and take-off from that point. Success in the world of internet mobile marketing is just a matter of spotting the opportunity when it comes along and making the most of it before your competitors do.

Top 3 Ways to Market Your Business Online in 2017