Digital Marketing

As the internet becomes more and more accessible all over the world, internet usage amongst people is increasing exponentially. Increased internet usage has altered people’s habits in many ways – including the way people shop and buy products. Simply speaking, offline marketing simply isn’t effective anymore and this is unlikely to change anytime in the future as internet connectivity projects are at the forefront all over the world.

With this change in habits, marketing strategies need to adapt as well. If you think of marketing as a means of connecting people with needs to companies that can provide the required services, then it makes sense for marketing to take place where people spend most of their time – the internet. Enter digital marketing. Digital marketing simply means any form of marketing that happens online. Traditional forms of marketing such as print ads, phone, or any other form of physical marketing simply cannot compete with the reach that digital marketing provides.

 

The importance of digital marketing cannot be understated. In this day and age, every company must not only have a social media presence but also have a well-defined digital strategy. If you think of your revenues or sales as the company’s destination, then internet marketing strategies provide a map to reach that destination. You know your objectives but lack the direction to achieve them – Digital marketing specialists can help you navigate through this issue.

 

Even though companies might hire specialists to craft and deploy their digital marketing strategies, they must still know the structure of a well-defined digital marketing strategy to ensure that such a strategy indeed functions as a roadmap towards the ultimate goal. A company needs to follow the following guidelines:

 

1. Brand Definition: A company needs to clearly define how it wants to be perceived by the audience. An internet marketing campaign or digital marketing strategy then needs to make sure this image of the company is clearly presented through online campaigns. A company’s unique selling point (USP) must clearly come across its online campaign.
2. Define your audience: A company must clearly identify its target demographics. This is also known as identifying buyer personas. This is important because different demographics may use a company’s product or services for different reasons and therefore may need to be enticed through a different strategy or a different social media platform or both. More than demographics, companies also need to think about the motivations that drive their audience towards their services.
3. Goals: A digital marketing campaign needs to address certain specific goals. The company needs to define these goals and goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely aka S.M.A.R.T. goals. Think about the short term and long-term goals that you need to achieve and how a digital marketing campaign will help you achieve it.
4. Pick a Digital Marketing Strategy: Think deeply about your goals and target demographics and select a strategy that can best address your needs. Below are some of the powerful digital marketing strategies:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is more commonly known, deals with improving a website so that it ranks higher in the search engine results thereby directing more traffic to the website. The more the traffic to the website, the more chances of pulling off a sale. Typical conversion rates (visit to a site leading to sale) are 1%-2%. This means only 1 or 2 out of 100 visitors are likely to purchase from your website. Thus, it becomes imperative to bring in as much traffic as possible.


• Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising: Pay-per-click advertising is also a common digital marketing strategy. In this form of advertising, companies essentially bid on certain keywords and if the users’ search includes those keywords, the ad is displayed above organic results. If the users’ click on your ad, then you have to pay for that click. For example, you bid on the keywords ‘thermal wear’ during winter. When a user search term includes ‘thermal wear’ – your ad will be displayed above other organic search terms. Once a user clicks on your ad, he/she may be directed to your landing page where a clear action button should be displayed prominently to convert this visit into a sale.


• Content Marketing: Content marketing involves generating content in form of blogs, pictures, videos, or infographics that provide valuable information to your target audience. The idea here is to reach, engage, and interact with users via the content.


• Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing. The aim here is to stay on top of the minds of potential customers. Email marketing creates brand awareness and customers may not immediately want any service or product but when they do, the idea is the company would be on their mind. Another benefit is that companies can create personalized email campaigns for customers purchasing a specific product or visiting a specific webpage.


• Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing also aims to build brand awareness by running ads on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, etc. With close to 3 billion users worldwide on Facebook alone, the reach of social media platforms is far and wide and across If leveraged correctly, social media marketing provides excellent means of increasing engagement with users.


• Voice Search Optimization: Search queries differ when using voice instructions vs text instructions. As smart devices such as Amazon Echo becomes more and more popular users are likely to use them to search rather than write text in a search engine. Similarly, Siri and Google voice search is also likely to increase over the next few years. The intention here is to grab the coveted featured snippet spot or position zeroin google search results. This is a highly coveted spot and marketers clamor to grab this.


• Video Search Optimization: Adults spends approximately five hours a day watching various kind of videos and therefore video content is another effective way to reach customers. Videos are also an excellent way of convincing users why your product can suit their lifestyle and business.

Once a company chooses a certain marketing strategy, fix the budget, brainstorm the strategy, launch your campaign, and track your results. The success of a marketing campaign depends on execution and there are marketing specialists available which can help navigate a company through all these phases.