7 Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Online Business Quickly

So you launched an online business. 

Now you need to figure out how to grow it.

Here are seven marketing strategies that can help you with that:

Marketing Strategy #1: Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

The term “affiliate marketing” refers to a business arrangement where an individual or a company agrees to sell someone else’s products or services in exchange for a commission from each sale. 

Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing

Striking affiliate partnerships with people who have audiences that overlap with your target audience can be a great way to get a brand-new business off the ground.

This marketing strategy doesn’t require any capital: you can simply start sending cold emails to potential affiliates and pitching them partnerships.

We would argue that the best way to go about is to create a webinar funnel and then pitch potential affiliates on a partnership where they promote your webinar to their audiences and then you host the event and split the proceeds with them. 

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have any major drawbacks except for the brand damage risk if you choose to partner with the wrong people. 

You might want to do some research to see if a potential affiliate is someone you don’t mind being associated with your brand before you reach out to them.

It’s probably best to stay away from individuals who lead questionable lifestyles, are constantly embroiled in drama or have a penchant for stirring up controversy. 

How to Get Started With Affiliate Marketing

1. Build a webinar funnel for your business – Check out “Perfect Webinar Secrets” if you want to learn how to create webinars that convert. 
2. Create your dream affiliate profile with clearly defined qualification criteria.
3. Go to Fiverr, find a lead generation expert, and pay for 100 leads that meet your qualification criteria.
4. Start reaching out to these leads via cold email and pitch them affiliate partnerships. 
5. Once you have emailed all leads from your spreadsheet, take a moment to evaluate your approach. Is it working?

Marketing Strategy #2: Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is about building a following on social media and then driving traffic from social media platforms to your sales funnel. 

Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing doesn’t require any capital: all you need to do is pick a platform, create a profile and start posting content and interacting with other users. 

These platforms are designed to get people to spend as much time on them as possible and their algorithms appear to be primarily optimizing for engagement.

This means that if you can consistently generate engagement, these algorithms might help you tap into the massive user bases of these platforms by boosting your profile. 

Building a social media following takes time, though. Be prepared to put in at least 12-18 months of work to get to the point where you start gaining momentum. 

How to Get Started With Social Media Marketing

1. Choose a social media platform
2. Create a content schedule that you can keep up with indefinitely
3. Set aside time every week to batch-create content. Schedule it with MeetEdgar or Buffer
4. Set aside time every day to interact with your followers and reply to their comments

Marketing Strategy #3: Newsletter Marketing

What is Newsletter Marketing?

Newsletter marketing is about launching a free email newsletter and using it to build an audience so you can then promote your offers to. 

Pros and Cons of Newsletter Marketing

Newsletter marketing has a low startup cost: the most popular newsletter app Substack is free, while ConvertKit has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and Ghost’s pricing starts at $11/month. 

You can start with a weekly link roundup format and then gradually increase the scope of your newsletter over time. 

It’s also worth noting that a newsletter is an asset that can be sold on a marketplace like Duuce. 

This means that if your business idea doesn’t work out but you nevertheless manage to build a newsletter in that niche, you might be able to still have an exit by selling it.

Newsletter marketing is more challenging than social media marketing. Why?

Because subscribing to a newsletter is a bigger commitment than following someone on social media so it’s more difficult to persuade people to do it. 

Plus, you don’t get help from the algorithms, unless you are on Substack which has a recommendation feature. 

All that being said, you can use social media marketing to promote your newsletter and get subscribers that way.

Also, if you want to launch a newsletter, make sure that you are in it for the long haul because growing it is going to be a slow process and it will probably take years for you to reach the 10,000 subscriber milestone. 

How to Get Started With Newsletter Marketing

1. Choose email marketing software. Substack, ConvertKit and Ghost are the most popular options. See which one suits you best. 
2. Create a newsletter schedule. Publishing your newsletter weekly is ideal. You want to send each issue out on the same day of the week at the same time of the day so that your subscribers would know when to expect it.
3. Prepare one month’s worth of newsletter issues and schedule them in advance. 
4. Start promoting your newsletter on social media. Post sneak peeks the day before you publish a new issue and encourage your followers to subscribe. Make sure to also feature a link to your newsletter sign-up page in your bio. 
5. Consider also promoting your newsletter with paid advertising if you have the budget for that. 

We recommend watching this video if you want to learn more about growing newsletters:

Marketing Strategy #4: Podcast Marketing

What is Podcast Marketing?

Podcast marketing is about launching a podcast and using it to build an audience so you can then promote your offers. 

Pros and Cons of Podcast Marketing

Podcast marketing has a low startup cost: all you need to get started is a decent microphone and audio recording software.

It’s worth noting that making podcasts is a more laborious endeavor than it may seem – there’s much more to it than just talking to a mic.

Making each podcast episode worth listening to will probably require extensively researching its main subject, creating an outline, and then editing the audio before releasing the episode. 

There’s no denying that the podcast market is beyond saturated at this point so carving a share of it for yourself is going to be difficult, especially considering that major podcast app algorithms don’t give much love to brand-new podcasts.

That being said, if this medium appeals to you, it’s worth considering these statistics that have been floating around in the podcast space for a while now:

• 90% of podcasts never release more than 3 episodes. If you can manage to release four, it will put you in the top 10% of podcasters in terms of the number of episodes published.
• Meanwhile, if you release 21 episodes, that will put you in the top 1% of podcasters in terms of the number of episodes published. 

It’s unclear what the source of these statistics is so it’s possible that they are entirely made up and have been memed into existence. 

However, even if the numbers themselves aren’t accurate, the general trend probably is because it’s the same with everything: the Internet is littered with abandoned blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, you name it.

This means that you can get ahead of your competition simply by sticking to something for a long period of time. 

So if you want to launch a podcast, go into it knowing that it will be difficult to gain traction but commit to releasing 100 episodes no matter what. 

In all likelihood, by the time you release your 100th episode, you will have built an audience!

How to Get Started With Podcast Marketing

1. Get a decent microphone and choose audio editing software
2. Come up with a concept for your podcast – Why should people listen to it?
3. Create a content schedule. One episode per week is ideal
4. Record your first episode and release it
5. Promote your first episode on social media
6. Take audience feedback into account and implement it in your next episode

Marketing Strategy #5: YouTube Marketing

What is YouTube Marketing?

YouTube marketing is about building a YouTube channel and then driving traffic from YouTube to your sales funnel.

Pros and Cons of YouTube Marketing

YouTube marketing startup cost will depend on the complexity of your setup: some content creators start out by talking into their smartphone camera while others invest in either building their own filming set or renting a studio. 

You also need to account for potential post-production expenses. You will either have to edit your videos yourself or outsource them to a professional video editor. 

This marketing strategy is best suited for people who feel at least somewhat comfortable in front of a camera. Very few individuals are natural at that but the learning curve is going to look different depending on your starting point.

It’s worth noting that YouTube’s algorithm appears to be more favorable to small creators than the algorithms of other major platforms, so you might be able to get in people’s recommendations early on, especially if you have great content.

YouTube also seems to be less ephemeral when compared to places like Instagram, Twitter, or even TikTok. If you make a video on an evergreen subject, people might still be watching it five years from now. 

Vanessa Lau, an entrepreneur who built a massive following on various social media platforms and then disappeared for a year, made an interesting video where she touches on this:

Overall, YouTube marketing is a resource-intensive endeavor but it can pay off handsomely if you continue uploading videos consistently for an extended period of time.

We recommend committing to doing it for at least a few years. That should give you enough time to grow your YouTube channel to the point where it starts gaining momentum. 

How to Get Started With YouTube Marketing

1. Come up with a concept for your YouTube channel – Why should people watch your videos?
2. Create a professional-looking YouTube presence – This includes your channel art, your About page, your profile image, etc. 
3. Create a content schedule. Ideally, you want to upload new videos weekly, on the same day of the week, at the same time – But content quality is more important: it’s better to publish less frequently but ensure that your videos are valuable to your target audience.
4. Create a content plan – Type in various general search terms related to your niche into the YouTube search and look at the search suggestions that come up. These are the long-tail keywords that you want to target with your videos.
5. Make sure that each video you make is the best video out there for that keyword – This will require doing competitive research. Look at what’s already ranking for that keyword and figure out how you can make your video better. 
6. Promote your lead magnet on your homepage, in your video descriptions, and at the end of each video.
7. Interact with your viewers in the comments – You can generate engagement by asking a question designed to encourage discussion and pinning it as a top comment. Make an effort to reply to every comment from your viewers!

Bonus: Repurpose Your YouTube Videos Into Shorts

If you are making regular videos for YouTube, you should consider repurposing that content into shorts and posting it both on YouTube and on TikTok. 

This will allow you to capitalize on the short-form video trend that is likely here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

Marketing Strategy #6: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the practice of optimizing websites and web pages with the goal of generating organic search traffic.

Pros and Cons of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization has a low startup cost: all you need to get started is a website where you can publish your SEO content.

Using Ahrefs for keyword research and Clearscope or Surfer for content optimization can help you get results faster. Consider investing in these premium tools if you can afford them.

It’s important to understand that SEO is extremely competitive. Typically, when entrepreneurs think about it, they think about ranking on the first page of Google for their target keyword. 

And for a good reason: only 0.63% of people who use Google Search click on something on the second page and beyond. Practically speaking, if your content doesn’t show up on the first page of search results, it might as well not exist.

Considering that Google only displays ten search results on its first page, getting on it is already quite a challenge.

But it’s actually even more difficult than that. You see, the majority of clicks go to the top three search results, with the top search results getting 27.6% of the clicks on average. 

So realistically, if you want to get organic search traffic, getting to the first page may not be enough, you need to aim for one of the top three spots. 

If you decide to use search engine optimization to build a niche blog, you need to go into it with your eyes wide open. It’s going to be tough!

That being said, if you are willing to invest time, energy, and money into creating SEO content and building backlinks to it, you should be able to get your blog off the ground in a year or two. 

How to Get Started With Search Engine Optimization

1. Do keyword research to find a promising keyword
2. Create SEO content designed to rank for that keyword
3. Optimize that SEO content with content optimization tools
4. Publish that SEO content on your website
5. Build as many backlinks to that SEO content as you can

We recommend going through Ahref’s course “Blogging for Business” if you want to learn more about SEO. It’s available for free on their YouTube channel:

Marketing Strategy #7: Paid Advertising

What is Paid Advertising?

In the online marketing context, the term “paid advertising” typically refers to using social media ads and Google Search ads to promote your offers. 

Pros and Cons of Paid Advertising

Paid advertising has a significant startup cost: running ads is a skill and mastering it will require a lot of trial and error. 

Consequently, you will inevitably end up burning money on ads until you figure out how to run them profitably. Consider it your tuition fee. 

However, once you do master paid advertising, it’s like a superpower: it gives you the ability to generate targeted traffic immediately.

This allows you to quickly test a bunch of offers, see which one resonates with your target audience the most, and then double down on it.

How to Get Started With Paid Advertising

1. Choose a platform. 
2. Create an ad campaign designed to promote your lead magnet. 
3. Start running that ad campaign with a small daily budget ($5-10/day). 
4. Keep tweaking your ad campaign until you get it to profitability.
5. Start gradually scaling your ad campaign once you are sure that it’s profitable.

Want to Learn How to Grow Your Business FAST?

Generating traffic is not enough.

You need a system for converting those visitors into leads, leads into customers, and customers into repeat customers. And that’s what sales funnels are all about!

Our co-founder Russell Brunson created the Value Ladder sales funnel and then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year and eventually grow it to $100M+. 

He is widely recognized as one of the world’s top sales funnel experts and has taught thousands of other entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses FAST with sales funnels. Want to learn from him?

The best place to start is Russell’s best-selling book “DotCom Secrets” where he covers everything that you need to know in order to build a sales funnel that converts.

This book is available on Amazon but you can get it directly from us for FREE. All we ask is that you cover the shipping!

@russellbrunson

They say you shouldn’t pick favorites… But this book is my favorite in the secrets trilogy 🙂

♬ original sound – Russell Brunson – Russell Brunson