“Digital Marketing” or “Internet Marketing” are umbrella terms that cover a wide range of online marketing strategies, services, and tools. While many businesses can get super specific about their online marketing campaigns and strategies, individuals who manage or own a small business should be familiar with the “big ones” to get a decent notion of where to start.
Countless small businesses have used these major internet marketing services to drive traffic, generate leads, and attract new clients. Investing in one, two, or all of them is a terrific strategy to help build your small business over time.
Here are the top nine internet marketing services to consider if you’re looking to grow your small business.
9 of the Best Internet Marketing Services Offered by Professional Agencies
1. Website Strategy
The first thing any reputable Internet marketing agency will do is to look at your overall website strategy.
Your website is your small business’s doorway to the internet. Therefore, it is the most important part of your internet marketing efforts. There are numerous things about your website that could potentially damage your credibility online and overall search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Proper use of H1-H6 tags, images, functional links, and fast page load speeds are just a few examples that can add tremendous value to your website for both the end user and the search engines. A good internet marketing agency will thoroughly examine your website to verify that every aspect of it is performing to your advantage.
The primary goal of any good website should be to increase leads and sales. An internet marketing agency can help ensure that prospects and clients are seamlessly guided toward your services through your website.
2. Website Design & Development
A solid, professional business website is the foundation of any great internet marketing strategy. That is why most internet marketing services begin with web design and development to ensure that your site looks great.
Aside from the design, your site must be functional, user-friendly, and responsive or mobile-friendly. A quality web design agency will work towards designing and developing a site that meets your criteria while assuring you that your website continuously works to bring new clients your way.
A professional website should consist of:
- A user-friendly interface and layout
- An attractive design that follows your small business branding and represents it well
- Responsive or mobile friendly
- Content that is both easy to read and engaging
- Images and media (audio and videos) that are appealing
- Technical and on-page optimization to attract traffic
- Take into consideration accessibility for blind, low-vision, color-blind users, and those with limited mobility
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google is the most popular search engine in the world and brings in tremendous amounts of traffic to small business websites all across the internet. With so many people looking for goods, services, information, and brands, most companies can’t afford to ignore search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is always going to be at the top of any list of internet marketing agency offerings. That’s because it has an impact on all of your internet marketing activities.
SEO is about improving your website and online profiles to rank better in search results so that prospective clients can find you. The internet can be a great equalizer; without good SEO practices, your internet marketing efforts are for not.
Prospective clients may never notice any of your digital marketing efforts if you do not use good SEO. This is due to search engines’ ability to pick which websites show when users perform internet searches. The search engines make this decision using complicated algorithms that assess various parameters to see if your website matches what the searcher is looking for.
SEO professionals are up-to-date on all of the newest criteria for getting your website in front of the ideal clients. They understand how to optimize all of your material with relevant keywords, backlinks, internal links, and local SEO methods.
An internet marketing agency’s services may fine-tune every part of your website to gain favor with search engines.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing utilizes the age-old art of storytelling to increase awareness about your small business. It aims to build relationships with potential clients and establish you as a partner in satisfying their needs. It’s a subtle way of winning clients without direct advertising.
The fundamental goal of content marketing is to provide value to clients while subtly promoting your services as a solution to their problems or queries.
Content marketing usually includes videos, blogs, vlogs, infographics, landing pages, geographical landing pages, and social media posts.
5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
When most people think of “ads,” they might imagine television, magazine, or newspaper ads. But did you know that many small businesses have nixed traditional ads in exchange for pay-per-click ads (PPC ads)?
Google Ads, Instagram Ads, or Facebook Ads are a few examples of PPC advertising platforms. These platforms work to drive traffic and leads at a determined cost-per-click (CPC). As the acronym suggests, PPC advertising charges a fee for each user who clicks on your ad. This internet marketing service enables small businesses to generate leads more quickly because they are not dependent on the organic reach of SEO or social media. You may start driving traffic and leads immediately with a small marketing budget and gradually scale up over time.
PPC requires some refinement to get right, so deal with a reputable PPC expert to ensure you are targeting the right audience, accurately configuring ads correctly, and generating the best results for the lowest cost possible.
6. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
It’s estimated that “in 2021, over 4.26 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost six billion in 2027.” (Source: Statista)
While the majority of business owners are aware of the major social media marketing (SMM) platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), not every small business does SMM right.
To be successful on social media, you must be well-versed in each platform. Different social media platforms appeal to different demographics, so you can target the right clientele for your small business. It’s not enough to post random content and hope for the best; small businesses must take a strategic approach. That’s why SMM is a major part of internet marketing, as most small businesses need help establishing a data-driven, effective social media strategy.
7. Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest internet marketing techniques, but it’s still one of the best ways to generate leads. While it has been around for ages, it has drastically changed. Small businesses can now get laser-focused with their targeting, build their lists by the thousands, and produce hundreds of new leads month after month.
The key to managing an email contact list is to know them to a T. Then, you can utilize email personalization and targeted service offerings.
Email marketing is a major category of internet marketing because there is a lot of money to be made in having a solid email list. Small businesses should hire professional email copywriters and strategists to get the best results regarding email opens, clicks, traffic, and sales.
8. Quality Link Building and Backlinks
Link building is an integral part of any internet marketing and SEO strategy, and it can be risky for inexperienced small businesses. Backlinks are great for your SEO as the more links you have pointing to your site from all over the internet. The more people will click on them, increasing your website’s traffic. It’s just simple math. But the problem is when you get bad or spammy links. Google and the other search engines place severe penalties on spammy links and can even suspend your small business website if they suspect “black hat tactics” or foul play.
When other websites link to yours, it boosts your credibility in the eyes of search engines and internet users.
There are numerous link-building strategies, but all of them require email outreach to some degree. These techniques include:
- Anchor Text Strategy
- Competitor Backlinks
- Guest Posting
You must be careful if you choose to do any of the above. The danger is that you could attract penalties if you post a link from a spammy or irrelevant site back to yours. A reputable white-hat internet marketing agency will help you find the best sites for this type of guest post.
9. Integrated Internet Marketing Strategies
Most internet marketing agencies will use integrated digital marketing strategies to ensure you’ve covered all your bases. Instead of a catch-all strategy, this methodology guarantees that all of your marketing initiatives are purposefully linked and complementary.
For example, an agency might craft a blog post, share it on your social media channels, tweak it into another post for a guest posting site, and even convert it into a video or animation.
This way, you can get more mileage out of a single idea and engage with your audience through their preferred channel.
One should never consider content marketing services in isolation from one another. In most instances, a combination of internet marketing agency services works best.
Take a Major Step in Your Internet Marketing
It can be beneficial to go back to basics and study the fundamentals of internet marketing. In essence, internet marketing is about getting your small business noticed online, and there are many methods for making this happen.
In this guide, I covered the primary internet marketing services you can use to grow your small business, but these are just the beginning. I recommend working with a dedicated internet marketing agency to lay out a strategy tailored to your small business, which might involve one or all of the services I outlined.
Want to take a major step in your small business’s online reach and really grow your business? Contact me today for a free no-obligation consultation!
