Digital marketing is a fundamental aspect of business today. As the western world becomes increasingly digital, using this platform as a marketing tool has never been more important. Put simply, digital marketing is a method of promotion that brands and businesses use to connect with potential customers. There are a number of ways to do this via the internet and digital communication including everything from email and social media to paid advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO). In this article we are going to share our top digital marketing tips.
Understanding the different types of digital marketing
When it comes to digital marketing, there are a number of different tactics you can use to reach and interact with your target audience.
Search engine optimisation
The foundation of any effective website is SEO. There are different elements that go into it but all have the same end goal- to improve your website visibility and increase your websites ranking on search engine results (SERPs). One of most important digital marketing tips when it comes to SEO is to consider the following elements:
- Keyword targeting
- Quality content
- Number of authoritative backlinks
- Excellent user experience
To find out more about SEO best practises- take a look at our previous article.
Unfortunately, SEO is a marketing tactic that very often gets overlooked because it is a long term approach where results take time to show. However, what many people don’t realise is that this approach is probably the most sustainable. Once you begin to establish visibility on search engine results it can serve your business for years to come. Put simply, SEO is the closest thing you will get to an autopilot for driving traffic. The best part about SEO is that it is cost effective, once you have developed a strategy and completed tasks, they only go up in value over time. Even after you have stopped investing in SEO, the assets don’t just disappear. With time you could be generating organic traffic to your site and paying little to no money to do so.
Content Marketing
Although content marketing links to SEO, it is important to digital marketing in its own right. Unlike traditional advertising, instead of enticing the target audience with the ‘potential value’ from a product or service, instead it offers value in the form of free written material. To get the most out of your content it is important to take SEO into consideration so that your content ranks highly on search engines results and is visible to your potential customer.
PPC advertising
PPC stands for pay per click and is a digital marketing advertising model used to drive traffic to a website. As the name implies, for this form of digital advertising you pay on a pay per click basis, if a user clicks on your ad, you pay a fee to the publisher.
This model is a short term method that creates fast results making it cost effective. Unlike SEO, with PPC you will need to continue to pump money into it in order to see results. We often recommend utilising both forms of digital marketing in order to achieve the best results meaning you are more likely to get quick wins as well as creating the opportunity for long term organic growth. The PPC model is frequently used in the paid advertising space whether it is a paid ad on search engine results like Google or social media advertisements on the likes of Facebook or Instagram.
Social media marketing
Another marketing method that can be extremely effective is social media marketing. It is a means to drive traffic to your website and increase brand awareness. There are two main routes you can take with social media (or you can do both) which is simply making social media posts with relevant hashtags, this method won’t cost but won’t reach as many people. The other method is paid social media advertising which works on a cost per click basis and allows you to narrow down a specific target audience who you want to reach.
Social media is great because it enables you as a brand to engage in a two way discussion online. Some popular social media platforms for digital marketing include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. More or less all of these platforms offer built in engagement metrics which will allow you to track the effectiveness of campaigns allowing you to learn and improve.
Email marketing
Although our favourite digital marketing method is SEO, email marketing is a strong contender for the second favourite. The concept is simple and involves sending a promotional message, generally with a call to action. A good way to capture potential customers’ emails is by including a ‘sign up for discount’ or ‘sign up for more information’ popup or form on your website. The first of our digital marketing tips when it comes to email marketing is to ensure that your emails are wanted, to do this be sure to include an ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out’ option on your forms.
Here are our top tips for an effective email marketing campaign:
- Get personal
- Monitor performance
- Try A/B testing
- Include a CTA (call to action)
- Send cart abandonment chase ups
There are a number of email marketing tools you can use to create and send email campaigns effectively. If you use Shopify you will have access to Shopify’s email system. This is a great help as it is super affordable as it allows you to send up to 2500 emails per month for free- after that its a pay for what you use basis. If you your web hosting solution is not Shopify, not to worry there are other customer relationship management tools available to use:
- Mailchimp
- Convertkit
- Hubspot
Digital marketing tips
Combine SEO and content marketing
SEO has existed for a long time, but as Google has got harder, SEO has got harder. In order to rank highly on search engines, you need to ensure your content is meeting enough of the ranking factor requirements whilst creating content that is useful and relevant to readers.
Be visible on social media
Social media is only becoming more and more popular, this means now more than ever it is crucial to have a visible presence on social media platforms. You can utilise social media to reach new audiences, increase brand awareness, network and converse with potential customers.
Build an email list
We’ve already covered email marketing as a useful marketing technique, however, in order for it to actually be effective, you need to start building an email list as soon as you can in order to have people to market too. To build a list make sure you have an option to sign up to an email newsletter form on your website, once you have built up an email list be sure to deliver valuable content.
Use SEO and PPC in tandem
As mentioned, in order to achieve the best return on investment we recommend investing time and money on search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising. This is to make sure you achieve results in the short and long term.
Monitor and analyse results
On the less creative side of marketing is analytics. This is another one of our crucial digital marketing tips which helps pave the way to digital success because it allows you to identify areas for improvement, where you might be going wrong and what works.
Know your customer
Another digital marketing tip is to make sure you know your customer. This means analysing current market trends, researching keywords and targeting customers based on what they search for.
Want to find out more digital marketing tips?
If these tips have been helpful please let us know. If you need help with any of the above do not hesitate to contact us. We offer a range of digital marketing services tailored to suit the needs of your business. Our Digital Team can offer your business a strategic marketing plan with actionable insights to skyrocket your brand to the next level. To get a free SEO health audit of your website contact us.
