12 Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Newbies
Marketers have enough on their plate to worry about without being bombarded by too many things to learn at once. But that doesn’t mean they can take an approach that’s too timid and narrow just because they dove into a career where there’s a lot to take in and apply.
What often happens is you’ll immerse yourself in this industry and pick a path to go down – excited to get started. You try to stave off overwhelm when picking one niche and one business model out of many – and you carry that over to your marketing strategy.
Instead of trying to do everything, you stick to one thing. Unfortunately, it’s not a good idea to have a single focus with your marketing plans. It’s fine to be in one niche, but you also need to monetize in various ways – and achieve those financial goals through several methods.
The reason you do this is because change is always taking place, and you need to not only mitigate any risk (like algorithm changes, consumer behavior or new rules and guidelines on platforms) – but also set your business up for success by allowing these marketing methods to work in conjunction with one another for a more effective outcome.
Below, I’m going to walk you through a dozen of the most powerful marketing methods you can use in your business. I’ll use the fitness and survival niches as examples for you, and then you can apply what you learn to your own business.
Strategy #1: Content Marketing
Content marketing, in general, can take many forms. It can be the use of text or other media formats and can be used anywhere including your blog, social media, emails, and more.
For the purpose of this strategy, we are going to designate it as an overall concept where you are focused on giving value to your target audience consistently so that you cultivate a relationship with them where they are willing to spend money with your brand.
The benefits of using content marketing online is that it’s going to position you as a leader in your niche and help you build trust with an audience that is very skeptical in general.
Whenever you are publishing relevant content on your website, search engines as well as humans will take notice of this fact and pay more attention to it. By having valuable content positioned to represent your business, you’ll be able to attract leads, get people on your list, and cater to them in the coming months and years.
This is one of the most cost effective marketing strategies a newbie can use. All you have to do is brainstorm and research content ideas that you’re target audience will care about and then do a good job delivering information they find valuable.
This is one marketing tactic that pairs well with others. For example, it goes hand in hand with SEO (search engine optimization) marketing. In order to implement this strategy well, you have to understand your audience very well, being able to identify their pain points as well as their goals.
The content you develop has to resonate with them, and be delivered on a regular basis so that they begin to four months connection with your brand. With content marketing, don’t make the mistake of thinking quantity supersedes quality.
It’s better to have fewer, yet premium content pieces than it is to publish a bunch of garbage online just to meet a certain quota. It’s also important that you learn how to do more than one type of content marketing, being able to leverage text and other media formats as well as content for a variety of purposes.
Content marketing also requires you to be proactive in promoting what you publish. You can’t expect people to simply stumble upon a blog post. You have to be willing to drive traffic to it using other marketing strategies, such as social media marketing.
Another thing you need to do is make sure you don’t ignore the feedback of your readers. Pay attention to comments and if someone has a complaint, instead of shutting down, listen and see how you can be a better niche leader.
Strategy #2: Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another budget friendly marketing option all newbies should consider. With this particular strategy, your content will published on third party platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram (to name a few).
But with social media marketing, it’s not just about where you publish. It’s about the kind of content you’re using to grab the attention of and cater to your niche audience. It’s also about engaging with them – answering comments and developing a reputation as a solid brand.
This is a strategy where you can position yourself as a leader, drive traffic to your landing page, and convert followers into buyers. One of the main things it requires is consistency.
You don’t want to discount the power of having social media marketing in your corner. It’s far easier to reach an audience by immersing yourself into their active hub than to achieve a top ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and hope they type in a keywords phrase that you rank well for.
With social media marketing, you’re part of the conversation. The drawback is, you’re not in control over your account fully, as you are with your own domain. If a platform wants to ban you in an instant, they can – so it’s important to abide by their rules and guidelines to maintain the health of your account.
Social media marketing works best if you find out where your followers are most active. This will depend on the demographic as well as the topic. You might find success on YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram – but discover your audience it’s active in large volume on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (X).
Marketing on each platform varies, too. There are lax rules in some places (like having the ability to blatantly market on YouTube in the description of each video) and stricter on other platforms (like TikTok only allowing a link in your profile’s bio).
Make sure you go into social media marketing with a plan. You don’t just randomly publish content. You need to have a position for your brand and what you want to be known for and ensure every piece of content has a goal to achieve.
One great thing about social media marketing is that it fosters a sense of community and conversation. You not only get to respond to comments, but on some platforms, other creators will respond to your content and generate more interest in your account – all built into the platform.
Consumers spend a lot of time on their favorite social media platforms. If you can immerse yourself into their world and be available to help meet their needs, your brand will be able to profit from it.
Don’t make the mistake of blowing up your brand’s reputation by feeding the trolls. This comes with the territory, and you have to maintain a professional stance in communicating with others, learning how to block and move on or address it in a way that showcases your cool, calm attitude.
You also don’t want to spread yourself too thin. Start with one main social media platform and gradually add others on as you begin to master them. Make sure you regularly review your analytic data to see what kind of content your audience is enjoying the most.
Strategy #3: Email Marketing
“The money’s in the list,” they’ll tell you – and they’re right! Having a list of subscribers that you can engage in email marketing with is a very valuable asset for your business. You don’t have to wait for them to visit your site – you land your promotions right in their email inbox.
This is a strategy where you can start off using free tools (even top platforms like AWeber have free use until 500 subscribers) and then gradually pay incrementally as you build your list and reinvest your profits.
To leverage email marketing, you have to come up with an incentive – usually something like a free report to give them in exchange for their name and email address. Once they sign up, you begin the email marketing process.
It’s starts with a warm welcome to the list (and here’s your free gift) and continues on for the entire time they stay subscribed. You want to continually show value to them to have a good retention rate.
There are certain things you have to master, too. These include things like learning how to craft an attention grabbing the subject line that stands out in their inbox, knowing how to write the body of your email with a strong call to action that gets results, and knowing how to tailor your messages so that they are personalized to whatever segment of your list you are addressing.
Make sure your emails are a balanced mix of informative and promotional messages. You don’t want to churn and burn your subscriber list by going too hard on your push for profits because it takes time to build trust.
Email marketing is another cost effective way to reach your audience and earn money. It’s also something you can use to earn in a variety of ways, such as promoting as an affiliate or selling your own products and services.
Make sure that once you set up a list, you sign up for it and test it for full functionality on different browsers and tech gadgets – including mobile devices. You want to see if the message displays well for everyone.
When segmenting your list, you can split them up by demographic details, by their interests, by where they are in the buyer’s journey, and so on. There are also some things you never want to.
Never buy a list of subscribers who did not give you permission to email them. Don’t spam them, either – especially if what you’re sending only benefits you. In every email, don’t forget to tell them what to do next with a clear call to action. And routinely clean your list and remove unsubscribes and bounced email addresses.
Strategy #4: SEO Marketing
Search engine optimization marketing is another option that pairs well with content marketing. There are millions of consumers going to Google and other search engines looking for information they need.
They’re hoping to get a good list of resources, and Google is careful to curate the best ones. They have guidelines for getting these coveted positions. First and foremost is publishing relevant content.
Using keywords and phrases in your content – in the body, the title, the images and tags – helps search bots understand what your content is all about when they visit and crawl your site to help rank it in the right position.
You want to rank high on page 1. Google is looking for more than just relevancy, though. They need the content to be well-written and packed with value, exhausting the topic so visitors walk away satisfied.
They will check to see if any authority sites link back to you, so a good backlink strategy will go a long way in helping you. And there are technical factors to address, too – such as how long it takes your pages to load and whether or not your site is mobile-friendly.
SEO marketing is very beneficial to you because it’s a free source of organic traffic – people who are truly interested in your content. The results are often long-term, but you have to pay attention to algorithm updates and adjust your strategy to suit their demands.
By having a top ranking site, you’ll gain the trust of consumers more easily, and experience a flood of targeted traffic that you can convert into buyers and subscribers. To achieve success with it, start by diving into massive keyword research so you’ll know what topics to cover.
Optimize your content well – from the title and tags to the meta description and navigational categories. Test your site’s technical abilities to ensure a fast load time and track the traffic and where it’s coming from using analytics.
Don’t get carried away and attempt keyword stuffing. It’s not about quantity, but effective use of words instead. Never engage in black hat tactics – keep everything above the board and don’t try gaming the system.
Strategy #5: Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a strategy that is growing in popularity now that the monetization aspect of it has exploded across different social media platforms. Instead of simply using social media to publish content and generate leads and sales, influencers go one step beyond that.
You have the ability to become a micro or major influencer yourself, or simply leverage other people’s influence to your benefit by networking with them and arranging for special promotions on their account.
Typically, influencers have a following based on their own personality, whether it’s with a YouTube audience, TikTok, Instagram, or elsewhere. This is something you can use to network with others and get more eyes on your account and ultimately brand recognition or to generate a buzz about your products and services or even your insight.
There are platforms you can go to and find influencers to hire. You can also find them naturally or organically on the platforms that you want to leverage and reach out to them to see if there’s an arrangement that can be made where they will mention or work with your account to help you get more attention.
You don’t have to work with a celebrity or household name influencer in order for this marketing strategy to be effective. In fact, sometimes, smaller influencer accounts have a more dedicated and rabid following because they get more direct interaction with the influencer themselves and are not just one name out of millions.
One of the benefits to using influencer marketing is that it feels authentic as opposed to a promotional piece of content that looks like you’re trying to sell something. Make sure that you check to ensure that the influencer has the right kind of audience interested in your topic – and not just numbers.
Try working with people to develop a friendship that’s genuine and recommendations that are real. You don’t want to harm your brand. Also, follow up and analyze the results so you can continue marketing with the right influencers.
Strategy #6: Pay-Per-Click Marketing
If you have some money to invest in your business, and that might not be now, but someday, you’ll want to use pay per click (PPC) marketing to promote your business. This is when you advertise on platforms like search engines and social media, but you only pay whenever someone clicks on your ad link.
You always want to start off with a small invest as you learn the ropes, and make sure your ad is targeting the right people and converting well for you – with results. Clickthroughs are going to be harmful to your budget if no one is buying whatever product or service you’re promoting.
The benefit of this form of marketing is that it’s fast and effective. You don’t have to wait for a site to rank or for your follower numbers to go up. You can start running ads and have visitors the same day.
You want to learn the different types of pay per click and period these include things such as display ads, or ads in social media and search engine results that will show up at the top of the listings.
You can get very specific with who you are targeting, including what geographic region they live in, the time of day your ads run, and where they show up. You also get to stay in control of your budget and make sure you are not going past your maximum budget for the day.
Start by conducting some research into keywords that have high volume and lower competition and work on crafting some compelling ad copy that grabs their attention and motivates them to click through.
It’s not just the ad you have to think about, though. You also have to think about what they see when they arrive on your landing page. Make sure that copy is optimized so that it converts well for you.
The good thing is, you can adjust your campaign on the fly and make changes to your bids, ad creatives, and keywords whenever you see data that alerts you to the fact you need to make tweaks.
Some of the mistakes you need to avoid are targeting the wrong audience, using keywords that are too broad and have too much competition, or setting an unrealistic budget that is going to be spent by the platform no matter what, causing you to lose a lot of money in a short amount of time. You also have to make sure you include negative keywords so that your ads don’t appear for things you don’t want them to show up for.
Strategy #7: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is probably one of the most attractive options for newbie entrepreneurs. It doesn’t cost anything, if much to get started and you can begin earning money by simply promoting other people’s products without having to create your own.
The promotions can be done on your own website, or you can use social media channels to use this form of marketing. As long as you are selecting the best products for your niche audience and conveying why they need it, you should be able to convert fairly easily.
With the affiliate marketing, you will sign up on platforms like Amazon, ClickBank, Share-a-Sale, Commission Junction, Warrior Plus, JVZoo and others and find products that are relevant to the needs of your target audience.
Then, you will apply for approval to be able to promote those products in exchange for commissions, which are typically paid out anywhere from a week to 60 days. This is a marketing strategy that goes hand in hand with content marketing and social media marketing, because you will be using content on these platforms in order to promote products as an affiliate.
You can target luxury, high-priced products or lower cost products that will pay you based on volume of sales because they are easier to convert with consumers. This is something that can scale well because your existing content that is published will continue earning for you over time.
It’s important to look for reputable vendors or merchants, and not just products that are going to pay you well. Ideally, you will own or get a review copy of the product so that you can give an authentic review, but that’s not necessary in order to engage in this marketing strategy.
What you don’t want to do is spam your audience with links to products that are not relevant to them. Your affiliate marketing strategy isn’t just about promoting, but about adding value to those promotions so that even your product review is viewed as beneficial to your target audience.
Strategy #8: Video Marketing
Video marketing is another great strategy for newbie marketers, and even if you feel nervous about the thought of being on camera, you can still use this strategy with faceless video marketing where you are using screen capture recording or stock photos and clips to create your video content.
What you have to keep in mind is that not everyone is interested in reading long blocks of text. Some people like to consume short and long form video content that educates them and helps them make decisions about what they need to do next.
Not only can you start a video channel on a platform like YouTube or TikTok, but you can also embed your videos directly on your blog so that your content marketing strategy now has a multi layered media format.
The videos you produce might be product demos if you are creating a review as an affiliate, or they might be explainer videos or how to videos that educate your audience about something they want to achieve or a problem they want to overcome.
Not only can your videos promote products and services for you to earn from, but the video content itself can be monetized if you qualify for creator funds. These are paid based on the number of followers you have, the number of views you get, and so on.
You have to be careful that you not only have the right messaging in your video, but that you optimize the video content just as you would your own blog. That means the title and description needs to have relevant keywords in it, as well as grab the attention of the viewer.
You have to pay attention to things like thumbnails and hashtags and remember to link out to whatever page you want to drive traffic to. There are usually analytics built into these platforms so that you can see which videos are having a big impact on your viewers and which ones are being overlooked.
Pay attention to what length of video is most appreciated by your target audience, and time your publication of those videos to whenever your audience is most likely to be active on these social media platforms.
Keep in mind that you don’t just want to spit facts onto a screen, but connect with your viewer on an emotional level, whether it’s by using storytelling or by simply conveying information that is going to deliver relief or motivation to them.
Don’t make the mistake of uploading poor quality video productions. If there’s a lot of noise in the background or the camera is shaky, this is going to be off putting to your audience and they will not become followers of your account.
Strategy #9: Live Stream Marketing
Live stream marketing is similar to video marketing, but slightly different because it has a two way level of communication between you and the viewer. While an uploaded video on YouTube might enable you to engage with people who comment whenever you happen to log into your account, a live stream gives the viewer a chance to ask questions and engage with you right then and there.
This media format is not prerecorded, so you don’t have a chance to edit anything and Polish it to perfection. You have to be ready to connect with your audience in an interactive manner.
This is a very fun and personal interaction between yourself and your viewers. You get to host Q&A sessions, give value on the fly, and you can engage in live streaming on a variety of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch.
With many of the platforms, you have to meet certain criteria in order to host a live event, so you may need to focus initially on getting your follower count up and the number of hours of views that you have up to an acceptable level.
This is a great way to interact with your audience and send them to your lead magnet landing page to get them on your list or to promote a product directly to them if they ask you a question about something they need a solution for and you have the ready answer in the form of a product that you have created.
This is also something that you can repurpose after the fact. If you have a recording of the live stream event, you can upload that for others to watch, even if they didn’t get to participate first hand.
What you don’t want to do is start a live stream when you don’t have a plan ahead of time period you don’t have to read from a script when you go live, but you do want to be organized and know what you are going to talk about in a structured manner.
You also don’t want to go live when you have low quality video and audio. You want to have good lighting and good sound so that they can hear and see you adequately. You also need to make sure that your Internet connection is stable because if your live stream glitches and freezes, it will frustrate your viewers.
Strategy #10: Retarget Marketing
Retargeting is re-capturing the attention of someone who showed interest in your brand but then abandoned it for some reason. Sometimes it’s a lack of true interest, but other times it might just be hesitancy or even a distraction.
You’ll be showing ads to people who expressed interest in your site, your content or other ads they were shown. They may have even put a product in their cart, but then abandoned it before completing the purchase.
In order to achieve this, you use a cookie on their browser to track their web movement so you can serve them with ads on other platforms. You’ll likely see an increase in conversions when you use this strategy because the more they see your branding, the more trust and recognition they develop with it.
All you have to do is set up a retargeting pixel on your site to track user behavior so that you then have a retargeting audience. If you segment them (such as abandoned cart visitors on one list), it allows you to tailor your ad more effectively.
Don’t forget to set cap limits on how frequently your ads are shown to the same people. You don’t want to become a nuisance. When you do get a clickthrough, don’t make the mistake of just sending them anywhere on your site – they need to go to a specific place to follow through on a previous action.
Strategy #11: Podcast Marketing
Podcast marketing is growing in popularity – and before you move on thinking you don’t have a studio or fancy equipment, don’t worry! There ae podcasters who record their show on their smart phone in a quiet room in their home.
Podcasts don’t cost you anything to produce initially – you can level up with equipment and other things as time goes on if you want to (optional). There are many who prefer to listen to podcast shows as they multitask or even relax, so this is a great media format to test with your audience.
It allows you to have an on-going broadcast that is uploaded on a schedule you feel works best. That might be weekly, a few times per week, daily, or Monday through Friday.
They can be as short or as long as you want them to be. You can have co-hosts or guests who appear on your podcast, too. This is a great networking tool. If you don’t want to start your own podcast, then position yourself as an available niche leader who can go on as a guest for other people’s podcasts (they’re always looking for guests).
You can also use this marketing strategy as a paid ad option. Many podcasts allow you to buy advertising on their show by sponsoring an ad with them. So there are different variations of how this marketing strategy can be useful (and you can try all three if you want to)!
You get the benefit of a very targeted audience and by speaking about the niche, it lends credibility to your authority. You can also have or be on a podcast that allows audiences to call in and interact with you.
Don’t make the mistake of failing to produce a show that’s worthy of listener loyalty. You need to give value consistently and make sure you’re leveraging the show notes and verbal intro and outro for promotional purposes.
Strategy #12: Data-Driven Marketing
Lastly, there’s data-driven marketing. While many newbies just test out things and move on if money doesn’t flood in, you want to take a careful and strategic approach and analyze data so that you can make adjustments.
Very rarely does an entrepreneur do everything perfectly right off the bat. They have to make tweaks to their strategy. This is where data helps. You can get website analytics, email marketing data, data from social media and more.
This tells you how users are behaving with your content. You’ll know where they came from, how long they stayed, what they did while there. You’ll know if they engaged with content, who your audience is (demographic details), and what time they were most active.
All of this gives you ample opportunity to improve your content and get a better return on your investment of time, effort and money (in some cases). But you’ll also be armed with information that helps you better serve your audience.
You will spot patterns and gain insight into what you should be focusing more on or what types of products and solutions your people need. It helps you predict your next move and make plans that will beat the competition.
Don’t make the mistake of getting too bogged down in the data details to the point where you feel paralyzed and unable to take action. Look at information and then test something new to see if it works based on what you’ve learned.
Online marketing is an exciting career with many different ways to achieve your financial goals. There’s never a boring moment. You get to test many different strategies and experience the joy of seeing your business grow over time.
Now, you have a dozen different marketing methods in your toolbox. You can dabble in them all at once or spend a month at a time focusing on mastering each one for an entire year.
Make sure you give yourself freedom to make a customized strategy out of each one. There’s no one size fits all approach to content marketing, for example. You can have your own style that aligns with the overall concept of leveraging this method.
There will be many of these marketing strategies that explode your business growth – and some that have lackluster results. Once you exhaust your options for tweaking and improving something, don’t be afraid to cull it from your list if it isn’t working for you. And always be on the lookout for new ways of doing things to promote your online brand.
