If the internet really is 90% porn, the other 10% is digital marketing tips. It makes sense: eCommerce is growing at an astounding rate and even successful brick-and-mortar businesses can’t survive without some form of an online presence. Digital marketing is a necessity, and everyone is looking to stay ahead of the competition, so digital marketing tips are fast becoming a new currency.
The problem is, everyone is claiming to have the secret key to marketing success. I, on the other hand, am not going to pretend these are some secret tips that no one else knows about. If I knew any, I probably wouldn’t be telling the world about them, I’d sell them to the highest bidder. However, what I can promise you is that, by following these tips, you’ll be doing better than your average competitor.
The Basics
Let’s establish what is quickly becoming the bare minimum for digital marketing. First, marketing your business without Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is like fighting blindfolded, so make sure your web presence is all geared towards being noticed by algorithms. This means your websites, your social media presence, everything.
Second, making this presence mobile-friendly. Mobile devices are already the number one way users of all ages are accessing the internet, and just under half of users would switch to a competitor if your website is not optimized for mobile.
Thirdly, learn as much as you can about your market. That means taking advantage of analytics and data to figure out who your target audience is, what they like, what platforms they use; any byte of information you can get might help your conversion.
There are a lot more things that could fall under basic requirements for digital marketing, but at least with these three you know you’re off to a good start. Now let’s look at some specifics that will help you truly capitalize on digital marketing.
Content: Quality, Not Quantity
In a busy market, it’s tempting to try and outperform your competitors on content creation. If they put out one blog a day, you try two, if they get an Instagram account, you start a YouTube channel. However, it’s important to remember to only produce valuable content.
If you churn out mediocre or badly produced content, no one will be interested in following you no matter how much you post. Delivering something of good quality on a regular basis will make much more of an impact on your customers, and make it much more likely they stick around and investigate your products.
Keyword Intent
When it comes to SEO, keyword research is unavoidable, but make sure you’re going about it the right way. For example, the volume of searches for a particular keyword is often secondary to their intention. Eileen Dubrovnik, a marketer at Academicbrits.com, explains more: “Google’s algorithm no longer gives the searcher exactly what they’ve searched for, it tries its best to guess the intention of the search and deliver that instead. It’s how it knows that you’ve misspelt a search term, or why, if you search for ‘weather’, it gives you the forecast in your area rather than a definition of the term.”
Use this knowledge to your advantage by planning for keyword intent, rather than keyword results. Try searching for your most relevant keywords and seeing what comes up first. You’ll know from the top results what ranks best, and therefore what content to aim for.
Like keywords, it’s also important to apply inbound marketing. This type of marketing relies on the efforts of search engines such as Google or Yahoo to promote your website.
Check the following advantages of inbound marketing:
- Increase Traffic: Applying the best inbound marketing tips will help you increase traffic. In order to gain visitors, you have to provide them with relevant information with good keyword intent and relevant links.
- Drive Sales: When you get into the first pages of the search engine results, you can expect to get more people to visit your website. When your website is popular and relevant, it becomes easier to convince people to purchase the product you are selling. If people are buying products, then the chances of making money increase.
- Reasonably Priced: You need not pay for advertising and it does not involve putting up a physical shop. Hence, this kind of marketing is very inexpensive and will help you get to the top of the Google search engine results.
Text Over Email
If there’s something quick you want your customers to answer, like a feedback form, send it via text rather than email. Texts are far more likely to be read than emails, partly due to the fact that they have yet to be fully exploited as a marketing medium.
Take a look at the benefits of text messaging to promote your business:
- More affordable than other marketing methods
- Targeted and direct to the point
- Easy to open and read
Sequential Ads
With targetted advertising following customers around the internet, it can be easy for your marketing to bore and irritate rather than engage. If a customer sees the same banner ad every day on social media it will eventually blur into the background, and if the same video ad appears before everything they watch they’ll be more inclined to skip every time.
One way to avoid this is by injecting some variety into your ads with sequential advertising. This allows you to circulate a variety of ads for you, your website or your products in a predetermined order. The result is the same level of targetted advertising, but something that helps you tell a story about your brand or products without desensitizing your customers.
Enable Messages With Google My Business
With Google improving its intent searches, searches for your business will produce a card with helpful links like directions, contact details, and your website. One relatively new feature on these cards if the message function, which connects searchers directly to companies they’re searching for.
Taking advantage of the message feature is easy through the Google My Business app, and represents the fewest steps between discovery and engagement and a great way to convert through searches. Make sure you keep on top of your messages and reply at least within 24 hours, if not sooner, or your messaging privileges will be revoked.
Marketing During Coronavirus
I’m writing while the coronavirus pandemic is destabilizing world economies, disrupting social lives and changing the ways in which we interact with others. Carrying on business at this time is fraught with uncertainty and challenges, but there are some things you can be doing to adapt your marketing practices to lockdown life.
Of course, online marketing is more essential than ever before. Web presence is not only important for sales, but for communicating with customers about changes to business practices. For this reason, social media engagement is particularly valuable now. It’s also a great time to invest in pay-per-click advertising, as there are more eyes than ever on internet-enabled screens.
Above all, however, it is important not to make any panicked decisions. Many companies are making the move to entirely online work environments without fully considering the long-term implications. Resist the urge to make any sweeping decisions about the direction of your company, at least not without the careful and considered thought you would normally.