The World Wide Web is expanding fast. To compete with your fiercer competition, you need to have a solid digital marketing strategy to back you up.
Now, for those businesses that are just entering the world of digital, it may be difficult to understand different online marketing practices and choose the right ones.
Not to mention that most small businesses operate with very limited budgets and cannot afford to experiment with the tactics that don’t deliver results.
If you’re not what digital marketing practices to choose for your business, here are a few tips that may help you.
Types of Digital Marketing to Consider
Before we dive into defining your marketing goals, let’s first discuss different forms of digital marketing.
Content marketing
Just pushing your sales pitch aggressively doesn’t work for your customers. To get them to buy from you, you need to engage them and earn their trust. And, to do so, you need to start publishing quality content.
Also read: 5 Inbound Marketing Tips for Promoting Your App
The types of content vary and they depend on your audiences. These could be long-form articles, case studies, research studies, whitepapers, as well as interactive content types like videos, infographics, photos, quizzes, and charts.
SEO
Did you know that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine? Precisely because of that, you need to optimize your site for search engines.
SEO includes a wide range of practices, from handling the technical aspects of your site and keyword research to on-page optimization and link building. This tactic is not only about increasing your visibility. It also helps you boost brand authority and stand out.
Also read: Strategies in Social Media Marketing You Need to Know
PPC
The organic search takes time. As your customers click on a few first links in the SERPs, showing up on the second or third page on Google won’t boost your online presence.
This is where PPC steps in. As it has a prominent position in the SERPs, it will increase your brand visibility and drive more clicks. Also, both Google Ads and social media advertising have great targeting options, getting you noticed by the right people.
Also read: Top 5 Advantages of Social Media Marketing for Your Small Business
Social Media Marketing
The majority of your customers are on social networks, so promoting yourself on these channels is inevitable. A good social media marketing strategy lets you evoke emotions in your followers, humanize your brand, increase user engagement, and promote your content and deals to wider audiences. Plus, your inbox and social media listening tools are a treasure trove of customer information you can use to improve your marketing strategy.
You can also automate your social media posts, there are many tools available online such like Facebook Auto Poster by MaherPost.
Email Marketing
Email marketing may be old, but it’s still one of the most powerful digital marketing tactics. It is a great way to promote your deals, as well as your latest content, as 99% of your customers check their email daily.
A great email marketing strategy starts by building a great mailing list. and this can be done efficiently with the help of an email scraper such as Klean Leads. Another way to inspire people to give you their email addresses is to incentivize them. There are numerous lead magnets you could use, such as delivering exclusive studies and content or offering discounts to your online courses.
Tie your Marketing Tactics to Actual Goals
Now that you understand what the major digital marketing types are, you need to choose the ones that work for you. Of course, these tactics aren’t mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they go hand in hand, helping you market to the right customers at multiple touchpoints.
However, when starting off, you need to focus on those tactics that will help you reach your goals without exceeding your digital marketing budget.
This is why you first need to set clear marketing goals.
Brand awareness
Many startups and small businesses find it challenging to compete with greater businesses. To stay relevant, some of them turn to franchising. This is one of the best business ideas for many cash-strapped entrepreneurs, as they will have a full support of a larger, recognized brand.
Still, if you’re starting your business from scratch, you need to find users’ attention and get them to remember you. This is where paid ads will be important, as they will put you in front of the right customers instantly. Combine it with a good content strategy and you’re golden.
Solution awareness
If your SEO rankings are good, maybe poor solution awareness is the reason why people don’t buy from you. In other words, your customers are not sure how you can help them solve their problems. To fix that problem, start by polishing up your content marketing campaign and create articles, guides, and videos that truly help your customers. B2B businesses could also invest in publishing comprehensive case studies that emphasize the problem their clients had and show how their product helped them solve the problem.
Also, mind how you present yourself on social networks. Use these channels to provide insightful feedback to customer answers and complaints and participate in their conversations continually.
Traffic
Driving traffic to your site is the main goal of your digital marketing strategy. It helps you generate more leads and turn them into paying customers. Now, there are numerous ways to generate high traffic, but SEO and content marketing is your priority. No matter if you are a B2B or B2C business, a startup or a franchise business, this is an investment in the long-run. Apart from boosting your traffic, writing quality content and optimizing it for search engines will also position you as a credible online resource.
Conversions
Converting visitors into customers is every business’ paramount. Now, if you’re promoting time-sensitive deals and want to boost your sales faster, then PPC is the right option for you. Email marketing can also increase your sales and ROI substantially. According to a recent study, for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can get $44.25, which is a nice ROI for a small business.
Make Realistic Decisions and Stick to your Budget
When just entering the digital marketing waters, be careful. Trying out different digital marketing tactics may be interesting, but it costs, too.
Start by building a solid website- this is where everything starts.