Let’s begin with the understanding of “what is digital marketing” and then explain further, “why digital marketing is important”.
Digital Marketing is the evolution of technology, mostly online with search engines, websites, mobile/tablets, text messages and various applications. One of the major benefits of digital marketing is that it streamlines processes that quickly connect the communication between the marketing messages of your business directly to current and/future customers. An extension of this perspective is find a way to “meet your target audience where they are.” Now that mobile devices are at the forefront of purchase decisions digital marketing is the best way to grow your business and stay top of mind with your target audience simultaneously. An important fact to note about the potential performance of digital marketing is the percentage of purchases that are made online daily using mobile devices.
eCommerce Mobile Stats – source OuterBoxDesigns.com
- 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months
- 77% of American’s own a smartphone
- Over 230 million U.S. consumers own smartphones
- Around 100 million U.S. consumers own tablets
Now that we have identified the influx on mobile purchases, attracting the attention of a society that has a limited attention span is the next challenge. According to Microsoft the average human being now has an attention span of eight seconds. So your overall digital marketing plan needs to have an ability to focus and sustain your audience. To grow your business today, automating digital processes is a smart way to go. You can slowly adopt elevated levels of digital marketing into your marketing process by testing first and implementing only the best performing tactics. Remember the alternative to thinking digital is slow profitability and ultimately being pushed out of business.
As a business owner your goal should be to insert your brand into the lifestyle of your target audience. The way to successfully accomplish this is to “be where they are and engage with them often”. This truth will help you to get new business and create loyal brand ambassadors. It is the responsibility of all brands/businesses to share relatable experiences and stories with your target audience that evokes emotion and encourages likeability. To do this successfully today requires engagement tactics and consistent actions with deep data integration.
Some of the common marketing tactics in the digital space that are highly recommended for all businesses in 2019 is to focus on: SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing, advertising via Facebook/ Instagram, Yelp and PPC (pay-per-click). What we must remember about marketing is that our goal should always be to focus on customers and creating relationships, not making a sale. Value.Value.Value. To validate this point we must understand keywords and how they play into the overall strategy of digital marketing. Everything is about your keywords, hyperlinks, alt tags, backlinks, etc. How does your business best answer the questions that are entered in search queries? That is how you have to view your digital marketing strategy to have a lasting impact.
It is important to note that digital marketing is different from traditional marketing because it has the ability to quickly remove ineffective marketing tactics and replace them with powerful, effective, efficient and user-friendly flows of two-way communication. We know that success in life evolves from preparation and planning and your digital marketing campaigns are no different. Align each action with a business goal, solve a problem and fill a need.
Today, Digital Marketing takes priority as the most critical and key component to your overall marketing campaign. Since technology has changed the way we do business, traditional marketing should not be overlooked although digital marketing takes the main stage, both are needed to grow your business. Depending on your target audience, the percentages of each will vary. If you are still uncertain about the significance of digital marketing, consider your personal relationship with your cell phone. The amount of time we spend on social media, or researching from our mobile device on google before making a purchase has likely tripled over the past two years.
One major tool that is driving a ton of conversions for brands is retargeting ads. This new phenomena can be effectively used to generate new business. The action is triggered by a Google search for a specific item from your desktop of mobile device, within minutes of leaving a site, you can begin to get ads for that specific product/service. This tracking can be segmented for hours or days depending on the brand. This is an example of what is successfully motivating online purchases through digital marketing.
So as your prospects are researching products and services online, your digital marketing strategy will target new business. Digital marketing has the ability to be at the pinnacle of your top performing marketing tactics if done right. Doing business in 2019 without considering for the dynamics of digital marketing /mobile purchase patterns is a big mistake.
With the right strategic plan in place, you can have an effective digital marketing plan that is set to keep your business on track to meet your annual business goals. There are many lead source funnels that can generate a pipeline of new business opportunities for your company that have the ability to enhance your customer service engagement, by setting up a system for follow-up and lead source evaluations. Every new prospect that interacts with your business gives you a chance to adequately add value and grow your business simultaneously. This is the mindset your marketing campaigns must adopt since movement is fast and frequent, your processes must be efficient.
By delivering the right information at the right time to the right person, you will get new business. When is the right time? That is the big question that can be best answered by exploring historical data, surveying customers, having competitor intelligence and knowing your market well. If selling more products and services is a part of your business goals, adding a digital marketing component will help you to accomplish that set goal.
How To Use Digital Marketing To Increase Sales
Once you decide what marketing keywords/audience/median/geography to focus on, having a clear picture of the actions you want your leads to take is important.
Digital Conversions To Track
- Complete a web form
- Send an email
- Text phone numbers
- Start a live chat
- Purchase your product/ service from landing page
Digital Marketing Significance Answered
Almost all existing businesses have some form of digital presence, which is most easily represented by social media channels. If your business does not have an active social media process, stop reading this article and get started today.
Key Benefits of Social Media Marketing
- Highly visible SEO
- FREE form of Advertising
- Build Brand Awareness
- Share Interactive/engaging content
- Goal: Bring context to the conversation –“WHY” buy YOUR product/service.
Facebook Statistics – source Sprout Social
- Average time Facebook users spend daily: 20 minutes
What that means for you: You have a short time period to make an impression.
- Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1-3 pm
What that means for you: You have the potential to reach more people and drive higher traffic to your site.
- 68 % of Americans use Facebook
What that means for you: Facebook should be a top choice to reach a broad audience.
Instagram Statistics – source Hoot suite
- Average time users spend on Instagram: 24 minutes a day.
What that means for you: You have a limited time to make your impression.
- Top three highest traffic times to post: Sunday 5:00pm, Monday 7:00pm & 10:00pm, Tuesday 3:00am & 10:00pm
What that means for you: This is your best chance to grow your audience and maximize engagement.
- There are 1 billion Instagram users
- Age 65+ 118.3 million (2%): Age 55-64: 30 million (3%)
- Age 45-54: 68 million (8%): Age 35-44:131 million (15%)
- Largest number of users: Age 25-34: 270 million (32%)
What that means for you: Your prospects are likely on Instagram – don’t overlook this platform for business.
Top Performing Social Media Platform
- Instagram is the largest visual platform in the world.
- Retails brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Tiffany, Nike, and Reebok are pushing more products to people who came to their site from
Next Steps…
Advertising with search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo, email marketing with platforms like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp and uploading videos to mainstream sites like YouTube are the usual digital marketing high performing suspects.
When your business places technology at the forefront of marketing decisions you will notice a difference in the influx of engagement from customers and prospects. Using online networks to support your traditional marketing campaigns has become the pinnacle of the marketing evolution and is now considered the most common way that people get information and create two-way conversations. Using digital marketing to spread the word to current customers about new product concepts is an inexpensive market research method that is smart business.
There are many aspects and dynamics to Digital Marketing, which offer your brand many options to see business growth. If done right, digital outlets can catapult your business to expand globally.
To successfully integrate a digital marketing strategy it is recommended that you map out a plan, allocate a budget and establish key metrics that are clearly defined and aligned to your business goals. The budget allocation is very important since the resource to continue a process once started is crucial. Many of our clients at Marketing 4 Real Results have asked us for advice on the best method to implement a digital marketing strategy and we always assign a sales and marketing funneled approach and attach to effort to a key metric that has the ability to push the needle forward, not merely brand awareness. The goal for all marketing campaigns should include simple and efficient ways to grow. By combining your target customer data with ABM (account based marketing), cloud based/automated (CRM) customer relationship management and assigned benchmarks, your digital marketing campaigns are off to a good start.
Top Trending Digital Marketing Tactics To Consider
- Mobile friendly website (SSL certificate)
- Social Media Channels FB/Instagram/ LinkedIn
- ORM Online Reputation Management–Review Sites
- Google | Yelp | Facebook
- Videos –create stories
- SEO Search Engine Optimization
- Automated Email Marketing
Search Engine Optimization Matters To Your Digital Strategy
Your digital strategy should be aimed at increasing your online presence with search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. By leveraging the combination of organic SEO (search engine optimization) your online presence will be improved over time and the content on your website will be an add value to those seeking to do business with you.
There is no easy solution to accomplish a successful digital marketing strategy, although beginning with the end in mind is the best way to ensure success. By consistently adding content to your website your organic search results will increase over time and begin to drive your business closer and closer to the top of the first page of search results. It is crucial that you know the relevant keywords and search terms/keyword phrases that are driving your new business and this can be found with the free Google Analytics tool. Doing this successfully requires research and consistency and frequent changes overtime. Your digital marketing efforts beginning from your websites copy and coding extends to an ongoing commitment to quality content that answers your target audience questions and makes a direct connection.
How To Track and Identify SEO Keywords?
- Track SEO tools: BrightEdge
- Identify SEO tools:Answer the Public.com
- Define a specific list of SEO keywords based on terms that matter most to your brand (think product, service and industry).
Digital Marketing with Marketing with Real Results
At Marketing 4 Real Results we allocate an adequate amount of time to all new campaigns to ensure our clients are successful in their digital marketing efforts. The advantages we offer are a lot different from the contemporary approach to try everything – we only try what we know works based on proven results with other clients. We shun away from the shiny object syndrome and focus on revenue generating activities that produce results. We recommend both traditional and digital marketing initiatives to maintain an integrated marketing strategy that support your entire business. We maintain a goal to attract customers, build brand awareness and brand ambassadors simultaneously. We work with you to find the perfect duo of content, platforms and processes that will take your business to the next level.
Take the lead in your industry with a Digital Marketing Campaign from Marketing 4 Real Results.
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