Online marketing that works

People get confused about Online Marketing, "Is that social media?" I get asked.  The answer is that social media plays a part in online marketing, but there's more to it than that.  The key to success is to have a strategy to share your knowledge and raise your profile in a number of online locations.

So what should be included in your online marketing portfolio?

• Social media - but don't just put information everywhere you can find, choose the networks where your target audience hang out and then post information that those people want.

• Blogs - your own, where you can share your knowledge, give advice, provide tips and 'how to' items, and other people's blogs either by intelligent comments in related subjects or by guest blogging.  Don't overlook inviting people with a similar target market to yours to guest blog for you.  They'll promote it to their followers who will learn about your expertise at the same time.

• Articles - placing appropriate articles on sites such as ezine Articles is a great way to raise your profile, but remember they need to be unique for each post.  It's worth submitting articles to the online journals that your target market reads too.

• Newsletters - it's rare that people will voluntarily sign up for a newsletter on your website, but if you offer them a tempting report or 'How to ...' download they are usually willing to part with their contact details.  A well-written, lively, focused - and short - newsletter is a great way to keep those people warm, until they're ready to buy what you're offering.

• Reports and White Papers - a report or white paper is simply a collection of information on a specific subject that explores the current thinking, research, state-of-play and can position you as a thought leader.  However, remember to keep a check on the reports or white papers you offer to ensure they continue to be up-to-date.

• Ebooks - Creating an ebook around your area of expertise is a great way to gain a reputation as an expert.  If you get it published on Amazon for Kindle too you'll be opening it up to a huge marketplace. 

• Elearning material - If you know how to put together courses that can be shared using either video clips, pdf files or webinars then you've got a valuable tool to engage people.  You can offer free tasters to tempt people to sign up for a paid programme.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but certainly it reaches far beyond Facebook, Twitter and Linked In!