Digital marketing has taken over the global industries. With billions of active users online, there could be a number of unexplored areas your business can invest in.
But to gain from that, you need to carry out digital marketing effectively:
#1. Refresh your creative content
It’s a world where you can’t remain stagnant.
Your marketing team needs to be on its toes 24/7, coming up with creative content to engage viewers. Make sure you do the following:
- Don’t display the same content repeatedly
- Make ample use of infographics because a visual is 30 times more likely to be read than text!
- Post content that is either entertaining or helpful
#2. Adopt the ‘You attitude’
Flourishing industries coupled with online platforms mean that the roles are reversing and consumers have more influence in purchase decisions.
Businesses need to make it all about the customer to have an edge over other brands that are selling the same product:
This is incorrect. As a marketer, you need to know how to elicit a response from your customers.
Why would the customer want to help the business out? There is no incentive for the customer to take action. Here’s a better way to phrase it:
The customer will now fill the form so that his/order is placed as soon as possible.
In the first scenario, the customer had nothing to gain from the situation, so not all consumers will take action if you phrase your content this way.
It is these little differences that put businesses ahead of others as they display professionalism and tactics that effectively elicit responses.
#3. Research, research and more research!
If you want your brand to be successful, research is crucial. The time and money you invest in researching will eventually help you cut down costs. How?
If you know that your target market lives in areas near Brooklyn, you can focus your marketing efforts on them instead of the entire New York City. Similarly, if you know which channels they use most actively (i.e. social media, billboards, newspapers, magazines, SMS) you’ll be able to target them through the most promising channels.
Research costs in the short run will be profitable in the long run, so especially if you own a startup, don’t skimp on this!
#4. Invest in the right places
The key to success is to work smart, not hard.
Suppose you’re uploading 4-5 articles on your blog weekly, yet you’re getting no traffic on your blog. You’re posting great content and still coming up with nothing. Why?
Your content may not be Search Engine Optimized.
Similarly, you may have an up and running website but you’re not generating any leads. What do you do?
Invest in a good web designer. Know what works for you and what doesn’t. If you outsource, make sure you hire trusted professionals that will do the job just right.
More importantly, if you feel like you’re getting better quality at a higher price, go for that. It’s best to create a balance between the two to use your resources productively as a small business.
#5. Improve your SEO
The end goal is to get your website to rank higher on Search Engines. Google provides certain guidelines, digital marketing tips and you can also find SEO stats that your business can follow to improve your Search Engine Optimization:
- Descriptive links
Not only do descriptive links improve your website’s SEO, but they also add value for readers, especially those who suffer from disabilities or are screen users.
Moreover, URLs that read ‘Click here’ have no search engine value, so it’s better to use something that explains what your link is about:
- Alt tags
Alt tags, or alternative text descriptions, are a great way to allow search engines to locate your page which is crucial for browsers that are text only. Always describe your media or visuals with alt tags:
- Meta-data
When designing your website, your web designer needs to make sure each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata i.e. information about the contents of your page.
There are a number of different types of metadata that you can incorporate into your strategy i.e. Title metadata, keyword metadata, and description metadata:
#6. Create a mobile optimised website
Have you ever opened a website on your phone that has a very small font and does not fit on your mobile phone screen?
If you have to zoom in infinitely just to view the content, it’s likely that the website is not optimised for mobile phones:
But why go through the hassle of modifying or creating a new website?
As of 2019, 53% of all paid Google search clicks in the US were traced to mobile phones, so if your website isn’t optimized, you’ll lose out on more than half of your web traffic!
Here’s how to optimise your website for phones:
- Test your website using Google’s free mobile-friendly test
- Create a separate website instead of modifying your old one
- Improve your website’s loading time
- Enable features specific to mobile phones, for example, touch.
- Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages
#7. Create good customer experiences
Times have changed now that businesses no longer stick to phone helplines. Every modern business is offering SMS, social media, website or other digital marketing tools to cater to their customers.
But how do you create a good customer experience?
Hire social media or customer representatives that are available at maximum hours (depending on the resources you have) to help customers out with confusions, complaints and feedback.
To lighten the burden on your employees, incorporate automation into your strategy:
Turn on Facebook’s automated reply feature so that customers can be dealt with right away, especially if your customer representatives aren’t available!
With industries that sell parity products which are similar in nature, it’s things like better customer service that give them a competitive edge.
Take salons, for example. Every salon offers hair and body services, but it is their expertise and customer relations that gives them an edge over other businesses. I myself prefer Toni and Guy, a salon that provides me with a personal stylist who I trust for advice and have developed a relationship with over the years even if I’m charged a premium over other brands.
Similarly, online businesses need to invest in their employees and train them to build relationships with customers so as to build brand loyalty.
#8. Advertise on the right platforms
One of the best things about digital marketing is that advertising is so cheap and yet so effective. But to make sure that you’re earning a Return on Investment (ROI), follow these digital marketing tips:
- Advertise on the platforms that your target audience uses
Don’t just advertise on all the trending platforms. They may be the most used platforms currently but the question is, is your target audience using them?
Do your research and pick the two platforms that your audience uses most frequently. This way, your marketing team will be able to focus on producing better content, rather than trying to divide their energy and resources between all the platforms.
Moreover, you’ll achieve a higher ROI since your target audience will be more active on the chosen platforms and thus, more likely to see your advertisements.
- Don’t leave out Google
No matter how much you narrow down your advertisement platforms, you can’t leave out Google, because everybody uses Google! Whether you’re targetting a niche market or conducting business in a competitive industry, your target audience definitely uses Google as it dominates 77% of the market:
You can advertise on Google using Google Adwords. It’s a great way to get your website to rank the highest, which means it’ll show up at the top when users search for your product or content:
- Specify your ad’s target audience
Social media platforms like Facebook will allow you to specify your ad in terms of the age group, location, gender and other characteristics of your target audience:
By defining the demographics and psychographics of your ad, you’ll be able to target it towards your brand’s most likely users, thus increasing your ROI further.
#9. Geo-fencing
If you’re looking for the trendiest marketing method right now, this is it. Geofencing is a virtual perimeter for an actual geographical area which is dynamically generated – as in a radius around a point location, or a predefined set of boundaries.
But what is the purpose of a geofence and what makes it so effective? Andrea Mocherman, VP of Marketing, says:
“What is increasingly becoming a more and more effective tool for marketers is utilizing geo-fencing in combination with digital advertising to engage consumers at the right time, with the right message to drive in-store traffic. These types of campaigns typically generate three times the amount of foot traffic and produce a 27 per cent increase in sales on average. What makes geofencing so powerful for marketers is the ability to target consumers based on their interests and engage them by delivering offers that will push them down the path to purchase. Geo-fencing allows marketers to draw a virtual fence around any address or point of interest and send a notification when a customer crosses that line. Whether it’s a small business owner or a large retailer, they can use this technology to grab a customer’s attention before their competition does to deliver timely offers that will drive in-store traffic and ultimately revenue.”
So basically, geo-fencing is a great way to grab the attention of users in a specific, chosen geographical region for marketing your brand.
#10. Incorporate influencer marketing in your strategy
Never doubt the power of reviews and influencing personalities.
Instagram’s influencer marketing is a $1.7 billion dollar industry. People see Gigi Hadid styling an outfit, they’ll buy it.
Even Kate Middleton is channeling street style like Zara which is giving teenage girls some serious inspiration. The channel? Instagram.
Once you’ve chosen which social media platforms are best for your brand, dig in deeper and find out the most influential personalities there. Partner with them and your sales will sky-rocket!
However, this is something only major corporations can afford, so small businesses can always partner with local influencers and get the ball rolling from there. Get brands with a high following to review your business or give a shoutout.
These small steps will help you greatly in getting more followers, and it’s all a gradual process to eventually becoming a market leader.
Conclusion
Incorporating these digital marketing tips into your strategy and customizing them to the needs of your business will ensure optimal success.
The beauty of the digital world is that your brand doesn’t necessarily need to be backed by a huge amount of resources, a creative idea and a few digital marketing tools will take you a long way with all the digital mediums that are present.
Focus on your unique selling point and quality of ideas that you offer to your customers to help increase your brand’s growth. Here is some more digital marketing faq that are sure to help your business.