The ways we incorporate marketing strategies to promote our business will continuously evolve, as new technology and better communication methods enable marketing to reinvigorate business ventures in a digital environment. In the past ten to fifteen years, marketing has become a buzz word again.
More people than ever before find themselves on the internet, so with digital marketing, marketers can capture customer attention. Digital marketing, or online advertising, are terms used to describe marketing efforts done through the internet including social media marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization, and content marketing. While online marketing should be a top priority in today’s consumer climate, remember to maintain traditional marketing efforts to promote your business with multiple mediums. In this article, we will focus primarily on digital marketing.
With more people being glued to their computers and mobile devices than ever, digital marketing has become king in developing consumer awareness of products and services. You can’t have a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy without incorporating digital marketing.
If you want your business to succeed, you will have to learn to utilize various online channels to engage your customers and build brand awareness. Below, I outline some ways that your business can connect to customers using digital marketing.
B2B (business to business)
In traditional business-to-business marketing strategies, your goal is to help generate leads for decision makers already in the market for what you’re selling, then get them to speak to your salesperson. The main idea when establishing an online B2B marketing strategy is to convert quality leads into customers through your web page and other online channels. You can use LinkedIn’s new feature for products with Product Pages, and you can also use groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to source key decision makers.
You will have to look into the type of leads you’re trying to attract and tailor your digital marketing efforts to fit your audience. It will help to know who your audience is and what their interests are. Once you know who they are, what they want, and why they want it, it’s going to be easier to narrow down what they want to see.
B2C (business to consumer)
If your company is focused on doing business directly with the consumer, your digital marketing efforts will guide them through the buyer’s journey via the appropriate digital marketing channel(s). You’ll want to introduce yourself to your audience, tell them what it is you’re offering, and why the product or service you have will be useful to them. Similar to B2B strategies when selling to businesses, you need to know the who, what, and why.
Your digital marketing efforts will help build relationships with people you have never met before, and you will have the chance to persuade them to select you over your competitors.
Before we jump into the details of the digital marketing channels available to you, you must first figure out your ideal audience – buyer’s persona. Knowing your ideal customer is essential when creating the most effective marketing plan for your business.
Knowing the right social media platforms your target audience uses is incredibly important. This will help you incorporate the right tools with the specific user base you want to reach. Without this information, you won’t know which tools you will need to focus on, which will end up wasting your precious time and resources.
You need to be aware of all the pain points and routines your audience has in their lives. It will help you stay focused and prepare the most ideal marketing plan.
Here are some things you should consider when imagining your perfect consumer:
- Are they a morning or evening person?
- How do they start the day?
- Do they commute to work with a car, bike, walking, or public transportation?
- Are they working from home?
- What are their internet browsing habits?
- What social media platforms are they on?
- How often do they read their emails?
- Are they single? Married? Divorced?
- What are their hobbies?
- What is their Income level, education level, etc.?
Social Media
It’s obvious that social media has changed the way people interact. Over 88% of all businesses in the U.S use social media as part of their digital marketing strategy. The personal aspects of social media allow you to build valuable relationships with your consumers and engage with them in a more personal way. Gary Vee, a self-proclaimed social media guru, argues that it’s important to be on all platforms relevant to your image, but to focus on the most relevant ones so as to not to exhaust yourself in the process. Figure out which ones work best for you, and focus totally on one, two, or three. Read ‘Crushing It!’ for more tips from Gary Vaynerchuk.
Content Marketing
Lead generation and brand awareness is an essential part of digital marketing – that’s where quality content comes into play. If content marketing is properly implemented within your digital marketing efforts, it will drive traffic to you from a variety of different content hosting mediums.
Social media can be one of many places online for you to publish valuable content for your audience, as well as implementing blogs, ebooks, and establishing a regular email list.
Keep in mind that content can be anything reinforcing the value of your company to your potential consumer. Remember to keep content relevant to your business and audience.
Banner Ads
Most of you have already encountered these when using the internet. Banner ads are exactly that – banners on web pages that link you to the page they are advertising. Ads can be effective, but they don’t target specific groups or demographics; it’s essentially casting a big net to catch consumers who aren’t looking for you.
Pay-per-click is how you are charged for this service. Depending on your user conversion rates, this might be a great option for you. If your clicks don’t convert to consumers, then move on to another approach.
Google AdWords
With Google AdWords, your exposure is targeted through thorough keyword selection. Keywords that are typed into the search engine by a user that match your selected keywords will bring up your ad.
Facebook will offer ads that are targeted on a more personal level. The information that can be found on Facebook varies greatly – anything from the city the person is born to the location he or she last visited. You can narrow down to your exact demographic and location if applicable.
Facebook advertising will allow you to target the consumer with specific individual variables.
LinkedIn is a more professional social media networking platform. Many people use this to make valuable connections and develop relationships that they can later incorporate into their business, or to find a potential future employer.
The information that is gathered on LinkedIn is more tailored for marketing campaigns that are actively trying to reach out to other companies. Ads placed on this platform are perfect if you are looking to build B2B relationships.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important part of online marketing. Focus on establishing and maintaining contacts with online users through a regular email with helpful content about your product or service that is intended to serve the user. Your user is the hero of the story, so give them ideas of how to use your product. Whether the goal is promotional or informative, and whether you send weekly or monthly blasts, email marketing nurtures your company’s relationship with your customers.
What is the goal of an email marketing campaign?
Utilize this list to ensure your communication is appropriate:
- Use a tone that your recipient understands.
- Check grammatical and spelling errors.
- Write one continuous message.
- Make the content relevant to your recipient.
- Plan and outline with continuous ideas that all make sense together.
- Send at the right time of the day. (Choose this based on when your target checks their email.) Data is key here; you will find everything you need with a quick search.
- Write a relevant, appealing subject line.
- Your communication should be concise and spot-on.
Content Marketing
Content marketing uses a format that’s mostly text, but it can also be visual, audio, or video. Engagement is created when the user finds value in what is shared – usually it is some combination of educational, shareable, original, relevant, compelling, entertaining, practical, telling a story, relevant, useful, easy, etc.
Analysis
The beauty of digital marketing is all the available data you can gather and then use to your advantage. Almost all of your digital marketing efforts can be tracked and studied, which will allow you to continuously adjust and improve. Anything from your social media profiles’ metrics, to your website performance, to the amount of people who visit and read your blog can help you with your marketing strategy. If something doesn’t work the way it should, you’ll have data backing it up.
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