Before we get to the main part of the article, we need to answer the main question: how do you know if your online marketing is not effective? The answer is very simple: if you don't analyze the final result, i.e. the result you want to get in the end, it means that your online marketing will not bring the desired success. So, if you need to lead a person to a purchase, then you should track all the way through. If you only track the cost per click or the cost per lead, it will not bring any positive result.

Now let's answer a number of topical questions about Internet marketing. And the first question is this:

Which promotion methods are losing their relevance today and which are gaining popularity?

Today, classic banner advertising, or rather its use for small and medium-sized businesses, is increasingly losing its relevance. If earlier any small online store decided to run ads, for example, on forums and placed banners or something else there, now it is no longer relevant. Display advertising, which is difficult to measure and has little effect, is gradually dying out. SEO as such is also dying out, because nowadays, promotion by high-frequency keywords, for example, "buy an iPhone", is less and less relevant, because there is a lot of traffic, and it is not clear what a person means. And it's also worth noting that contextual advertising will be ahead of all this, it already occupies the top four positions, and in the end, you will come across SEO in the second or third scroll. Therefore, SEO is not dying out at all, it is just changing. Teaser networks and banners are no longer effective by themselves, the approach to using video has changed a bit, etc. But, in general, everything that was there is still there and has become stronger. For example, while we used to be able to measure some results in the media, but could not properly target them, now we have the opportunity to target a specific target audience.

What is the most effective online marketing tool in 2020-2021?

The question is rhetorical, as different tools are suitable for different types of business. We can distinguish 7 types of business for which progress in online marketing will be completely different: B2B, services, goods, media resource, educational sites, e-commerce marketplace, SAAS, and sometimes you sell something by subscription. Where you will use more local search on maps and promotion through them, let's say it's about a local business of some services. For example, if you have a service station, massage parlor, etc., it will work better there, and if you are an online store, then contextual advertising, SEO, and price aggregators are the ideal sales scheme for you. For example, if we take a product that is somewhat similar to e-commerce because you sell goods both there and there, but for a product, the number one promotion model is promotion through social networks, which means creating an emotional connection with your customer. And then the promotion channels are connected. If we talk about B2B, then everything is different. In B2B, it is better to use various targeted mailings, forming a narrow community around you, for example, it can be telegram channels, Facebook groups.

Should a business owner engage in online marketing himself or hire a marketer?

It all depends on the stage of your business. That is, if you can hire an Internet marketer for at least 80% of work, then you should hire him. If it's 50%, you should use their services on a freelance basis. If you can't even hire an Internet marketer for 50% jobs, then you should do Internet marketing yourself.

But more often than not, any business needs internet marketing. If you have a website or a page on a social network and you don't take any action to promote it, you will have no effect. You need a systematic approach. You can do it yourself, but it will not give the desired result because you will have too much workload. In any scenario where you have already launched a business and you need internet marketing and you cannot handle it yourself, you should hire a marketer.

Are there any businesses in 2021 that don't need to be online?

Oddly enough, in 2021, there are still businesses that do not need online marketing. For example, it can be farmers, because there is still a scheme of working with traders. Large factories do not need to use the network, because they produce material for other businesses, so they are already known and there are not many of them on the market. Everyone else is recommended to go online.