Integrating the three main components of an interactive campaign (your website, social media and recurring communication efforts) can provide a powerful marketing force to establish credibility and loyalty for your brand online. Broadening your presence on the web and creating a regularly recurring communication strategy will keep your community involved and streaming back to your website where they’ll turn the conversation into the conversion.

Figure 1: The three tiers that make up a basic online marketing campaign

Asking for more information or acting by purchasing are two conversions you can measure. The more conversions you have, the higher the return on your marketing investment (ROI). The three-tier approach is a simple and accessible place to start an interactive marketing campaign.

Tier one:

The first step is to establish a home base—this will usually be a website, however many people just starting out can create a customized social media page (such as MySpace or Facebook) that can act as a central location for customers to visit. The first tier acts as a central anchor point for your presence online.

It is important to invest in a professionally-designed website or social media page to establish credibility for your brand. Your customers will base their first impression of your business on your site, so it’s worth doing right the first time.

Tier two:

The second step is creating a social media presence. Placement on popular social media sites is an easy way to position your brand in high traffic areas. You can find these sites by doing a little looking around online, or getting advice from someone who has already done the research. Social media can help you build brand recognition as well as link customers back your website.

Using social media to create a larger footprint on the web will build credibility in two main ways:

• Brand identity/familiarity—the more your brand is seen, the more popular customers assume you are.
• Increased ranking in search engines*—when you rank high, customers assume that your services are worth finding.

*Note: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the complex process of positioning the content of your website to be found more easily by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. There are two aspects of SEO. “On-site SEO” involves adding keywords to your site’s metadata as well as creating keyword-rich content, and “off-site SEO,” which involves backlinking, registration with search engines and more.

By increasing your presence online, you will also foster growth for your community by providing a place for them to gather. Create forums for discussions on Facebook, Yelp or Digg, and encourage happy clients to give positive reviews on Google Local, Merchant Circle and LinkedIn.

Tier three:

The final step is adding recurring communication, such as an e-newsletter or blog. This is the most proactive phase of the basic campaign. Recurring communication reaches out to your audience to keep your brand fresh in their minds. E-newsletters and blogs also reinforce your credibility by positioning you as an expert in your industry.

Intimidated by blogging? Take heart: Your recurring communication can be short and sweet—just a few sentences on what’s going on with your industry, and some information of value for your audience to take away with them. As I mentioned earlier, giving your audience something of value for free helps build loyalty and trust.

After you create your brand’s home page (your website), you create farther-reaching tiers that can capture traffic and bring it to your site. With a little love and a lot of communication, you can sit back and watch your community grow.