Are you trying to create a difference in the digital marketing world?
Digital marketing is such a vast and varied industry. The world of digital marketing has a number of moving parts that are constantly changing.
In order for your business to make a mark in digital marketing you need to understand and maximise these 8 key areas.
1. Web design
Your website is one of the most essential parts of your business.
It's your home online, and where many potential customers will turn for information about your products or services. In many cases, your website will be the first impression your business makes on members of your target audience.
Your website exists for three reasons:
- Reputable
- Sell something
- Capture leads
Many people talk about driving traffic to your website or in particular your home page.
You do not do this, you drive traffic to specific landing pages.
This means that your site needs to be effective in attracting and keeping users' attention and encouraging them to convert.
A well-designed site can make visitors want to stay longer and keep them more invested in what your company has to offer.
It also builds trust with potential customers. In fact, one study revealed that 94 percent of respondents mistrust a website because of certain design elements so if you haven't updated your site in a while, your potential customers are likely to notice.
A professional website is necessary for your online advertising campaigns to be successful.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Your website can be a great marketing tool but only if your potential customers can find it.
The best way to make this happen is with search engine optimization or SEO .
By investing in SEO, you can improve your website in ways that help it rank well in search engines like Google for searches related to your products or services.
SEO involves incorporating keywords related to your products or services on your site, so that when users search those keywords in search engines like Google, relevant pages appear in results.
You can identify the best keywords for your pages by doing keyword research to see what your target audience is searching, as well as which keywords your competitors are targeting.
You want to choose keywords that are used by your target audience and will attract them to your site.
You can improve your site's SEO by publishing original content around your target keywords, as well as earning links from other authoritative sites online.
With the right strategy, you have the potential to improve your rankings, gain more traffic, and generate more leads and conversion.
3. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Pay-per-click , or PPC, is an online advertising model that allows you to place ads in search engine results for specific keywords.
While SEO focuses on earning rankings through content and optimization, PPC essentially lets you pay for placement for your target keywords.
If you're new to PPC, Google Ads is the best place to start, because it allows you to place ads in Google search results.
PPC works on a bidding system in which you select target keywords, then compete with other advertisers to place ads in the search results for those keywords.
If your bid is among the highest, you'll earn placement above organic search results and if someone clicks, you'll pay your bid amount.
One of the biggest advantages of PPC is that (as the name implies), you only pay when users click on your advertisement. This means you don't have to worry about wasting your budget on people who aren't interested in your business or ignore your ads.
This feature makes PPC one of the most powerful Internet advertising strategies for companies today.
PPC is also an effective advertising strategy because it can start generating results the minute you launch a campaign.
Unlike SEO, which takes time, PPC can create sales and conversions immediately.
As an example, an HVAC marketing strategy that uses PPC could start generating phone calls immediately, like for maintenance requests, emergency services, and more. That's immediate revenue for that business!
PPC also works well in combination with SEO, because combining the two gives your business multiple opportunities to appear in search results.
When people search for keywords related to your products or services, you want them to see your company in search results.
If you're not yet ranking organically, PPC is a great way to reach them and if you are already ranking organically, you have a chance to appear in two different spots on the results page.
And if you're wondering if PPC ads are an effective way to generate traffic and conversions, the answer is yes.
Overall, PPC is an effective online advertising channel that can work within any budget and increase your online visibility.
4 Social Media Advertising
Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram present huge opportunities to reach and connect with your target audience.
That's why these sites are quickly becoming some of the best ways to advertise online.
Social media is a great place to advertise because there are so many consumers on these platforms.
In fact, eighty-one percent of American adults have a social media profile meaning the chances are high that at least part of your audience is active on social media.
You can also use social media platforms to run advertisements for your company.
Social platforms let you select your audience based on standard demographic information like age, gender, and location, as well as advanced options like interests and behaviours.
This allows you to reach the users that are most likely to be part of your target audience, and maximise your results with each campaign.
For example, if you operate a garage door company, you may use social media to target users within your service area.
Your garage door advertising campaign may go even further, focusing on demographics of your target audience, like marriage status, age, and gender, to build a better ad.
Fifty percent of B2B marketers find social media to be a ‘very' or ‘somewhat' low-cost option for advertising so if you're looking for a cost-effective advertising strategy to reach new customers, social media is something to consider.
5 Social Media
Social media marketing is the process of creating content for social media platforms to promote your products and/or services, build community with your target audience, and drive traffic to your business.
With new features and platforms emerging every day, social media marketing is constantly evolving.
Social media marketing is all about meeting your target audience and customers where they are and as they socially interact with each other and your brand.
While social media marketing as a whole is incredibly valuable and beneficial to your business growth your strategy will differ based on which social networks your audience spends their time on.
6. Content marketing
Content marketing is a great way to indirectly advertise your business to consumers by providing them with helpful or interesting information.
You can create content in the form of blogs, videos, infographics, and virtually any online format.
Regardless of your industry, publishing original content is an extremely effective way to connect with your target audience. When you share information that your potential customers and clients find interesting, they'll be much more likely to trust your brand.
Content marketing can also establish your company as an authority and build your online reputation. When your target audience sees you reliably publishing new information within your industry, they'll have confidence that you're a leader in your field.
In order to be successful with content marketing, you have to keep up with a regular publishing schedule.
Companies that post 16 times or more a month see four times more traffic than companies that only post a few times a month.
This can seem like a difficult and time-consuming commitment, but it can be made easier by partnering with an agency for copywriting services
Written content isn't the only route you can take, though you can also create content in the form of original graphics.
Visual elements can grab users' attention, and when combined with interesting information, can make them want to spend more time on your site.
Plus, infographics are easy to share on social media, meaning they improve the chances that your visitors will share a link to your site with their followers.
If you want to take things a step further, videos are one of the most effective ways to engage visitors.
Creating original video content can be slightly more work-intensive than writing a blog post or designing a graphic, but when done well, the results for your business can be significant.
Content marketing is one of the best online advertising methods because it can support other marketing and advertising efforts, like social media, paid search, and even SEO. That's why businesses make content a core part of their strategy.
7. Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, but still one of the most effective advertising strategies and marketing techniques. When you use email, you can reach individual members of your target audience directly in their inboxes.
Emails are a great way to connect with your current and potential customers. You can send newsletters, information about new products or services, and deals tailored to different segments of your audience
As a result, email is an extremely cost-effective channel (which is why it's one of the best ways to advertise online). In fact, for every dollar you spend on email, you have the potential to earn an ROI of $44 Of course, reaching this high potential means continuously testing and improving your emails over time but one of the ways to fast-track your results is to incorporate personalization.
8 Video Marketing
While YouTube is what many people think of first, video marketing can be utilized across social media platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram stories and Snapchat.
If your videos are short, concise, and entertaining, people will be more likely to share them on other social media sites.
This can have a more substantial impact if an influencer is well-known on the platform, and can put their hat into the ring. These leaders of the industries can help spread the word for your products or content quickly.
Know your target audience, find where they are, and get to work.
The single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video.
No matter what you’re selling, no matter what your company does, if you don’t have a video marketing strategy for the biggest video platforms, you are going to lose.
For an effective digital marketing strategy you need to combine these 7 elements to create a difference in today’s competitive world.
