In this day and age, no one can mention advertising for small businesses without noting the success of common digital marketing practices. As most, if not all, consumers spend a great deal of their time online, digital marketing is able to appeal to a wide range of people with limited effort. In order to create a digital marketing strategy that truly works, businesses need to focus on implementing the most popular platforms and strategies available to modern entrepreneurs. Below, Summon.co will discuss five of the most common efforts that business owners look to in order to achieve success.
1. Marketing On Social Media
Social media marketing is perhaps the most highly sought after and common method of reaching consumers using popular platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The average person spends about 145 minutes per day on social media and over 54% of our world is present on social media platforms according to Statista. Facebook still remains the most popular platform with an average of 2.74 billion users monthly along with YouTube that manages to clock 2.29 billion users. Whatsapp and Instagram are also worth an honorary mention as they both yield well over 1 billion users.
Did you know that there are over 100 different social media platforms to choose from? Fortunately, this provides your company with the ability to pick and choose the platforms that make the most sense for your products or services. All you need are one or two known platforms that can highlight the best aspects of your business, and that’s where you should focus all of your efforts.
Social media is ideal for building awareness of your brand. This is achieved through constant direct communication with your consumers while also posting information and interesting content. The right social media marketing strategy doesn’t just help cement your company in the minds of prospective consumers, but it allows for more traffic to your website.
Your company cannot solely rely on a Facebook presence, and here’s why:
*As you don’t own your Facebook page, you can’t control what happens to it.
*Your pages may be forced to advertise competitors.
*There are limited options for designing your page.
*Many people in your intended audience may not be active on Facebook, and in actuality, only 6.4% of Facebook posts are liked.
2. SEO or Search Engine Optimization
Regardless of what your company sells, it’s important that prospective buyers are able to find your company in search results using popular keywords. Google is perhaps the most notorious search engine as your success or lack thereof determines how well your company succeeds. For this reason, it’s important to spend a portion of your marketing budget on search engine optimization. Bear in mind, the higher your company ranks in search results, the more organic traffic your website will experience which in turn results in a higher capacity for success.
SEO is a complex form of marketing, but at its root, it often entails using the following strategies:
*Enhancing user experience on your website.
*Providing high quality content.
*Optimizing your website to load well on mobile devices and to accommodate voice search.
*Employing relevant search terms throughout your website as well as choosing quality backlinks.
3. Paid Search Engine Marketing
Though SEO is still the most common way to get ahead in search results, paid search marketing is also a great way to get your company’s name out there. Using carefully constructed quality ads in popular search engines like Google will allow you to target your ads to your intended audience and lead them back to your website. By increasing the traffic flow to your website, you can enhance your conversion rates.
Google AdWords is a fantastic way to take your marketing efforts to the next level. By using this tool, you can gather better insight into the most popular keywords used in your industry and analyze the actual outcome of your campaigns.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing requires you to create content that drives more traffic to your website or social media pages. This content should always remain authoritative and relevant to your industry and business. Usually, things such as case studies, testimonials, guides, ebooks, articles, and videos will all fall under this umbrella term.
Choosing to distribute quality content through social media channels will allow your company to gain the trust of many potential consumers. You can build better relationships and hone trust when you deliver content in an authoritative manner.
5. Email Marketing
Though many will claim this form of marketing is outdated, the statistics surrounding its success don’t lie. In fact, for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you will likely earn back at least $42 as a return.
Keep in mind, this statistic is only reliable if you carefully compile your mailing list and only include consumers that actually want to hear from your company. Spamming inboxes of people who don’t know anything about your company won’t earn you good ROI.