Global Business Loan Marketing – Digital Strategies for Success
If you don’t have an effective marketing campaign, your online website or platform is not likely to realise its full potential. If you operate or are thinking of launching a business loan platform to attract a global audience, getting your marketing strategy right is key. In this blog, we identify the best digital strategies and how to implement them.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing, sometimes also referred to as online or Internet marketing, is one of the most effective and powerful ways to generate awareness and interest in the online products or services offered by your website or platform. As the word ‘digital’ implies, this form of marketing uses various digital avenues, including things like e-mail, search engines, social media, and text messaging.
To ensure you get the best results from your digital marketing endeavors, it’s important to understand which tactics will best suit your target audience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the cornerstone of digital marketing. Without it, websites will languish somewhere out there in hyperspace and receive very few visitors. Applying SEO principles to your website or platform can change all that. It’s all about driving organic traffic to your site.
What is organic traffic? It’s the term used to describe the number of visitors that come directly from the the search engine results pages generated by search engines like Google and Yahoo, rather than from paid advertising.
When you consider the fact that approximately 8.5 billion searches are done on Google alone every day, you’ll understand that it provides a huge opportunity for businesses wishing to promote their products and services. A high ranking on SERPs is the key to driving more traffic to your site.
SEO works by:
- Optimizing websites and the content contained in web pages and ensuring they are created in accordance with SEO principles to rank higher in search engine results.
- Aligning websites to correspond with the way search engines go about their search operations.
- Ensuring website navigation is designed to make it easier for search engine spiders to crawl over the site to carry out their searches.
- By using appropriate keywords to create high-quality content that resonates with the most popular search criteria.
Research conducted by Search Engine Journal found that 49% of respondents confirmed that the proper use of SEO delivers the highest ROI (Return on Investment). You can train yourself in the best use of SEO principles by taking courses such as the HubSpot Academy SEO Practice Certification program, or you can hire professional website designers and content providers to do it for you.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
With Pay per Click advertising, you are charged a fee each time someone clicks on your digital ad. The amount you are charged will be determined by the platform on which you’re advertising, the potential traffic your post could receive, and the number of competitors who are willing to pay for similar adverts. The largest pay PPC platform in the world is that provided by Google Ads.
Paid Online Advertising – Google Ads
Another form of paid advertising comes in the form of Google Ads. It might seem to some that we are promoting Google in this business loan blog too much, but the fact of the matter is that with 89.74% of the search engine market belonging to them, Google is far and away the biggest and most popular search engine on the planet– and then by some.
You can use Google Ads in various campaigns:
- App ads
- Demand Gen campaigns
- Display ads
- Performance Max Campaigns
- Search ads
- Shopping ads
- Video ads
The type of campaign best suited for a business loan or business loan comparison platform should be based on marketing goals, brand strategy, and how much time and money you can invest. There is a ‘help’ page to assist with finding the best option.
Mobile Device Marketing
With an estimated 4.88 billion smartphone users in the world today, it comes as no surprise that mobile marketing has become one of the most popular forms of digital marketing for business loan and business loan comparison platforms. Let’s take a quick look at smartphone usage in certain countries using data from the Statista website:
- Denmark – Over 5 million – more than 80% of the population.
- New Zealand – 4.99 million – over 97% of the population.
- Norway – Over 5 million – nearly 90% of the population.
- South Africa – 23.3 million – just under 40% of the population.
Mobile marketing is typically carried out via SMS messaging, with text open rates being approximated around the 98% mark. Then there are mobile apps, a market that is expanding rapidly.
Social Media (SM) Marketing
The number of people using social media globally is over 5.93 billion. The potential for business loan marketing is immense and one that many entrepreneurs take advantage of. While Twitter and Facebook are the platforms chosen by many business loan marketers, LinkedIn is reportedly the best-performing organic distribution platform, However, bear in mind that the most favored can vary country by country.
The Importance of Content Marketing
The term ‘content marketing’ covers many forms of marketing, including blogs, eBooks, infographics, podcasts, and videos. Unlike blatant advertising, content marketing is more informational and serves to educate and guide readers to specific marketplaces such as the business loan sector.
According to data published by the Content Marketing Institute, more than 70% of B2B companies use this type of marketing. It’s 62% cheaper than traditional marketing methods, generates three times as many leads, and is preferred by over 70% of businesses and entrepreneurs when carrying out research.
It’s a great way of conveying knowledge and authority on any specific subject and can be used to promote a loyal following. If you are a skilled content creator, you can create your platform’s content on a DIY basis, or if you have sufficient money in your budget, you can employ professionals, be they copywriters, videographers, etc.
Email Marketing
Research carried out by Statista reveals that, on average, businesses earn at least €23 for every Euro spent on email marketing. In some sectors, like retail, e-commerce and consumer goods, the rate is as high as €34. However, it is totally dependent on collecting the email addresses of those looking for or showing an interest in securing business loans, so it’s very much a follow-up strategy.
You can buy special email marketing software programs which help with collecting email addresses and categorising by prospects’ preferences, countries, etc. This type of software can also help with email design, scheduling, and measuring metrics.
However, if you do decide to pursue this option, you need to ensure that your emails don’t contravene the rules and regulations regarding CAN/spam.
Country-Specific Business Loan Marketing
A useful tool for enhancing your business’s online presence in specific geo-locations is Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. When you’re marketing in different countries, you can create variances of your business profile for each specific country and edit and manage them all with ease.
You could, for example, have a profile for clients in Denmark with a link to Erhvervslån, one of Denmark’s leading online comparison platforms for business loans and loan brokerage.
If you were to publish a profile for those looking to secure business loans in New Zealand, you might provide a link to businessloan.nz, a comparer of business loans from NZL $5,000 to NZL $2 million.
Suppose you have a profile page targeting business owners and entrepreneurs seeking commercial loans in Norway. In that case, you might consider including a link to bedriftslån.com. This loan comparison platform gathers various types of loans for consideration – secured or unsecured business loans, lines of credit, invoice financing, fixed-term loans, etc.
Were you to create a profile page to attract business loan seekers in South Africa, you could include a link to the businessloan.co.za platform who offer to compare business loans from R1 to R1 million.
Google Business Profile can help you with other things, too, like selecting appropriate keywords. You can use it to create posts and updates, respond to public customer reviews and post answers to new FAQs., and do it all on a country-specific basis.
The best thing of all? – Google Business Profile is totally free.
Pay careful attention to currencies. Even in the EU, only 19 of the 27 member countries have adopted the Euro. For example, Poland still uses the Zloty (PLN zl) as its local currency, and Sweden uses the Swedish Krona (SEK kr). Other non-EU countries mentioned in this blog, New Zealand and South Africa, use the New Zealand Dollar (NZL $) and the South African Rand (ZAR R), respectively.
Regularly Monitor Your Marketing Campaigns
As you can see, there are many different options when it comes to business loan marketing methods. Some may work better than others, so it is important to keep tabs on them and analyze how each is performing. You can then invest more money in the ones that perform well and spend less or ditch the ones that are underperforming. It’s important to ensure you get the best ROI.
Concluding Thoughts
No online business is likely to succeed without a good marketing plan. We hope the options we have provided you with above are of interest and that one or another, or a blend, will be suitable for your business loan/business loan comparison site. Making your propositions country-specific is essential if you are operating on an international basis, as is the constant monitoring of metrics to ensure your marketing campaigns are delivering results.
