The digital landscape is becoming increasingly cluttered. It’s no longer enough just to set up a website and hope for the prospects to stumble across it. With all the digital noise out there, the chances of your site earning real traffic without a cohesive marketing plan are slim.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies approach their digital marketing strategies in much the same way they do their offline efforts. That’s a recipe for disaster, as the two are very different. Not just that, but you’re missing out on some amazing possibilities in terms of mobile channels that can really boost your business.
Contents
Why Are Companies Falling Behind in This Area?
In most cases, it’s more a case of not knowing exactly where to start. There’s so much information online that it can be tough to create a focal point. Everyone has their own opinion on what works and what doesn’t.
It also doesn’t help that the marketing flavor of the month keeps changing all the time. Thanks to the range of different advice, companies tend to dip into different areas without focusing on one technique at a time.
The result is that they dilute their efforts and miss out on real rewards. Social media marketing, for example, is still a hot trend. Businesses mistakenly believe that it’s best to focus their efforts here to grow their business.
This is counterproductive. Search engines drive 300% more traffic to your site than social media.
And below is an infographic that will tell you the seven digital trends you must know for a successful digital marketing campaign.
We’re not saying that you should ignore social media at all; just approach it in terms of your overall SEO strategy. We won’t go into details now. If you’d like to see how this can work, check out our post How to Use Instagram to Improve Your SEO.
How to Create Your Own Digital Strategy
We’re recommending that you reboot the whole thing and start from scratch. Assess where you are right now in terms of traffic, conversions, and so on. We’re going to use this as a benchmark to measure your progress later.
Set Your Goals
Now consider what changes you’d like to see. What is your target traffic? What kind of conversion rate would you consider successful? You need to create a target to aim for.
Assess Your Target Market
Spend some time on this one. Get to know your target market inside and out. Who are they? What needs do they have? Where do they hang out online? What do they look for online? The better you know your target market, the better you can find a strategy that will work for them.
Say, for example, there are a lot of DIY enthusiasts amongst your target market. You could post tutorials as part of a content marketing campaign. If you have a lot of car enthusiasts instead, it might be useful to post comparisons of different models and information about maintenance.
Your aim with digital marketing should always be to improve your customer experience. Making your company a valuable resource means that prospects will form a positive image of the company and keep checking in to see your new posts.
Even if they’re not in the market for your product now, you’ll be at the top of their mind when it does come time to buy.
Now take things a step further. If your target market was looking for a product like yours, what phrases would they use? Think about the solutions that the product offers and what phrases they might use to find those solutions.
Let’s say, for example, that your company sells vacuum cleaners. Clearly, “vacuum cleaners” would be a term that your audience might use. They might also use terms like “electric carpet cleaner,” “dust buster,” and so on.
If they’re looking for a vacuum cleaner, then they want a clean home or office. So it could also pay to use terms like “Get rid of dust and dirt.” You get the basic idea.
Start With an SEO Strategy
Setting things up so that you start to get organic traffic is one of the best business investments you can make. Start by checking your website and how it measures up in terms of your target market. Have you incorporated some of the key phrases you came up with in the previous section?
Looking objectively at your site, is it something that will appeal to your target audience? Will they take one look and leave? Or will they want to explore further?
Keep in mind the following tips when assessing your site:
- The site should load in three seconds or less.
- Images are important but use the right ones. They should be optimized for web use and add real value to your site.
- What content is on the site? Is there some longer form content that will keep someone occupied for a little longer? The longer someone stays on your site, the better it looks to Google and the other search engines.
- Is the site easy to navigate? People should be able to find what they’re looking for without thinking about it too much. If this is too hard for them, they’ll look for a site that’s easier to use.
- Is the site flawless? Act like there’s a grammar Nazi on your tail all the time. Bad grammar and typos not only look bad to readers but also to the search engines.
Once you have a solid on-site SEO strategy in place, you can move forward with your overall strategy.
Consider Content Marketing
Content marketing is a tactic that produces results over the long-term. It can take a while for it to start driving significant traffic to your site. Don’t let that put you off, though. This is one marketing strategy that boosts your brand image and also builds your traffic over time.
The idea is simple. You create content in tune with what your target market wants. Those tutorials that we spoke about earlier are a perfect example. Here’s the rub, though – the content cannot have any sales component to it at all.
Instead, you’ll be posting on yours or someone else’s blog. Your bio can link to the company, but the content must be purely informational.
The key to getting content marketing right is to commit to posting regularly for at least the next six months. It can take that long to start gaining real traction, but only if you’re consistent in your efforts.
Now Look at Social Media Marketing
Now that you’ve spent some time building your organic traffic, you can move over to social media marketing. Choose the top two platforms that your target audience uses. Starting with fewer sites allows you to focus better and build a following more easily.
Any more than two and you’re bound to start feeling a little overwhelmed. Two social media profiles expertly managed with consistent posts will net you far more followers than 10 poorly managed profiles.
Final Notes
That’s about all. With a digital marketing strategy, it’s better to get it right one step at a time than to try and do everything at once. What steps will you take next? Let us know in the comments below.
About the Author:
Nick Galov, Hosting Expert and Content Manager. Nick is on a mission to improve the world of web hosting for some time now. When not geeking it out, he enjoys lager and football.
