September 26, 2022
Digital marketing encompasses advertising and promoting businesses online through tactics like search, social media, content creation, and email marketing. As consumers rely more on digital devices and the internet for information, shopping, and entertainment, having an online marketing strategy is essential for reaching and engaging with customers.
Transitioning marketing efforts online comes with many lucrative advantages:
In the past, smaller enterprises struggled to afford expensive print, TV, and radio advertisements. Digital channels like social platforms and SEO provide much more accessible promotion options to compete with bigger brands. The internet allows all companies to have global reach from day one on equal footing.
Online data and analytics empower businesses to strategically target marketing messages to the consumer segments most likely to buy from them. Demographic, interest, and behavioural data inform sophisticated audience targeting. Companies waste less budgets broadcasting to unqualified people and see higher ROI concentrating efforts on high-intent individuals.
With very little upfront investment, businesses can launch online promotions through owned channels like social, email, and blogs to generate interest. These not only cost less than offline ads but often perform better thanks to better segmentation precision. Digital ads also enable detailed cost tracking to calculate return on spend.
Unlike traditional media, digital marketing comes with in-depth performance analytics. Platforms provide insight on impressions, clicks, conversions, lead quality, engagement levels, rankings, and more. Analysing metrics identifies winning strategies to refine as well as underperforming areas needing adjustment.
Communicating through digital paths not only broadcasts promotions but also fosters customer relationships through conversations and content tailored to their preferences. Audiences feel more personally connected with brands engaging 1:1 across digital touchpoints.
Executing a successful digital strategy means selecting the right mix of channels for your capabilities and audience:
SEO includes optimising websites to perform well on search engines like Google so people can discover your business organically when searching relevant keywords. This earns qualified traffic to your site without paying per click. SEO considers factors like:
Maintaining an SEO-friendly site ensures customers searching questions that you answer or products you sell can reach your digital doorstep through organic rankings.
PPC ads on platforms like Google, YouTube, and social networks drive targeted traffic to sites by paying when users click your promotions. You choose related keywords and set daily budgets. Sophisticated systems automatically optimise to convert searchers and website visitors into buyers. Well-configured PPC complements SEO efforts.
Promoting on networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to raise awareness and interact with customers has massive reach thanks to billions of active users. Content like behind-the-scenes imagery and videos fosters authentic connections to turn followers into buyers. Paid social ads also enable hyper-targeted promotions.
Content like blogs, ebooks, webinars, videos, and visuals not only attract and inform ideal buyers but also earn trust and goodwill. Focus content on topics and questions your audience cares about to provide value and position your brand as an industry thought leader. Promote content across owned sites, social, email, and more to maximise impact.
As one of the highest-converting digital channels, email marketing is a must. Collect subscriber contacts and build engagement through promotions, re-targeting, and valuable newsletters. Send purchase receipts, cart abandonment reminders, customer satisfaction surveys, and personalised offers based on purchase history and activity.
With growing mobile usage, ensuring sites are optimised for smartphones and tablets is essential to avoid frustrating customers with slow load speeds or awkward formatting. Creating easy-to-click buttons and sizing imagery properly improves conversions. Location-based push notifications and SMS messaging also connect with on-the-go users.
With many routes available to reach digitally-savvy buyers, Hiring digital specialists like Right Hook and developing an effective coherent strategy is vital rather than deploying disjointed one-off efforts. Documenting goals, researching your audience personas, choosing platforms, planning campaigns, and monitoring analytics should steer decisions.
Set benchmarks for digital marketing success based on business objectives like:
Defining goals focusing on quality over quantity sets meaningful success metrics. Rather than chasing vanity metrics like social media follower counts, identify points of value.
Avoid guessing what your audience may want by conducting detailed buyer persona research to map out key demographics like age brackets, location, gender breakouts, income ranges, education levels, and household profiles.
Note their motivations and hesitations about purchasing products like yours plus information consumption and buying patterns. Define what value they expect from brands in your industry. Validate assumptions through surveys and social listening.
With robust audience insights, identifying where to interact avoids wasting time on channels they don’t frequent. Analyse platform demographics and past campaign performance to double down on fertile territory.
If your customers tend to be middle-aged women not often active on TikTok for example, focus efforts instead on Facebook. Similarly, tech-savvy prospects may be better targeted through YouTube video campaigns rather than print ads. Match digital channels to audience activity and preferences for efficiency.
Informative, engaging, and relevant content provides value to prospects during their buyer’s journeys, building trust and affinity for your brand along the way. Map content to address their points of uncertainty and questions around industry topics they research.
Addressing the informational needs of high-intent targets positions your company as an authoritative expert source rather than purely promotional. Welcome new site visitors with gated offers in exchange for contact details to nurture them with helpful content over time to convert.
The beauty of digital marketing is abundantly clear in measurement opportunities. Rather than flying blind on campaign performance, data reveals what resonates.
Monitor metrics like email open and click-through rates, social content engagement levels, website visitor-to-lead conversion rates, SEO rankings over time, and cost per conversion on paid platforms.
Monitoring key metrics shows if your strategy is working:
Higher visitor numbers and lower bounce rates indicate you’re reaching broader audiences with compelling reasons to click in. Prioritise pages and posts gaining momentum with readers.
For both ads and email, higher CTRs signal relevancy between targeting and creative executions. Improve segmentation and test creative variations to drive up interest.
If more prospects take desired actions like downloads, event sign-ups, link clicks, or purchases, your content strategy and sales funnel are converting. Review analytics to identify points losing dropoff to improve.
Divide campaign costs by the revenue generated to monitor positive ROI across digital channels. Drop unprofitable platforms and scale up best performers for efficiency.
Sales shouldn’t be viewed as one-time transactions. Analyse customer repeat order rates, average purchase value, and referral levels. Use those insights to nurture long-term loyalty through better experiences.
Implementing a thoughtful digital marketing strategy tailored to your business and audience is key to success in the digital era. Monitor performance metrics carefully and keep adapting as the digital landscape evolves. By avoiding common pitfalls and leveraging the latest trends from experts, small businesses can unlock impressive growth through online marketing.
