Growing your business requires mastering how to market on digital platforms. If you’re not used to working in the digital space, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends and how fast they change.
Digital marketing follows many of the same principles of offline marketing, but it also provides unique opportunities to reach people almost anywhere and anytime. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from a strong digital marketing strategy. If you’re running a small business, you can’t live without it.
We’re here to help you boost your online marketing! Here are seven important examples of digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing incorporates everything in the online marketplace that helps bring more people to your website. When more people learn about you through online methods, you increase your visibility and potential to generate new business.
Your digital marketing strategy must be an ongoing, evolving plan that stays current with changing trends while delivering a steady flow of new traffic to your website. A robust digital marketing plan incorporates the following top strategies and tools.
1. Social Media
Remember when social media was strictly “social?” It’s been a while! While social media remains one of the best ways to stay connected with friends and families, it’s also one of the most critical types of online marketing for your business.
Your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn business pages should help drive traffic to your website. By creating smart, engaging posts that help inform users about what you do, you encourage people to interact with your posts and learn more about your services. Do your research to learn about the most effective types of interactive posts and how to use each platform for marketing your business to a social media audience.
2. SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the use of keywords and other strategies to help online users find your website through organic searches. When someone types in a search that could relate to your business, you want your business to land on the first or second pages of the search results page.
Effective SEO strategies require researching the most-searched keywords for your type of business and applying them to your online content. Your website also needs to be SEO-friendly to attract the highest volume of traffic and drive more business.
SEO can be tricky, but it’s critical to master this concept for your digital marketing strategies. Use a digital marketing agency like Falcon Marketing and Art of War SEO to help you develop and implement a successful SEO plan!
3. SEM
No, that’s not a type! Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is also a critical type of digital marketing. Where SEO boosts your organic online traffic, SEM targets specific audiences with paid digital ads.
Your ads appear on search engine results pages when people search for the type of services your business offers. Where the ads land and how often they appear depends on the ad and your choice of payment structure for each search engine.
Ads are highly customizable, including the demographics you choose to fine-tune your potential audience. However, it’s easy to waste marketing dollars on the wrong SEM strategies. Make sure you research the best ad strategy for your business.
4. PPC
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) follows closely along with your SEM strategy to bring more traffic to your website. PPC allows you to choose specific keywords or search phrases that trigger your ad’s appearance on a search results page. However, you only pay to be there if the user clicks on your ad.
It can be a useful tool to bring more qualified leads to your website. When a user clicks your ad, they indicate that something in your ad encouraged them to learn more about what you can do to solve their issue. Effective PPC strategies work hand-in-hand with your SEO and SEM strategies to increase your paid traffic and generate more business for you! However, to create a truly effective PPC strategy, you need key insights about your target audience that most businesses don’t have, especially if they’re new. Therefore, the key to success is to hire a PPC agency that is not only an expert in PPC but also has the key insights into your target audience. A representation of this would be like if you owned a transmission repair shop then hired an auto advertising agency to provide PPC services for the business. In this case, the automotive PPC agency is much more likely to have the key insights into your target audience than a general PPC agency.
5. Content
Content marketing is another must-have for your digital marketing strategy. If you ever wondered why so many websites have blogs, it’s because content marketing works!
Don’t worry. If you’re not a writer or have no desire to write your blog posts, there are plenty of options to generate blog content for your website. However, not having a blog can mean you’re missing out on valuable traffic and potential business.
Business blog content helps position you as an expert in what you do. Most online searches lead users to blog content. Search engines want to provide the best experience for searchers. When a user searches for the answer to a question, a search engine prefers to answer those questions with links to well-crafted blogs that use good SEO strategy.
Use blogs and other types of web content to help more potential customers find your website and generate more business.
6. Your Website
Using SEO, SEM, social media, and excellent blog content will bring more traffic to your site. What will they find when they get there?
If your marketing strategies are working well, you don’t want to lose new customers that land on your website but can’t find what they need. Make sure your website is a soft and user-friendly landing spot for incoming traffic. It should be easy for viewers to navigate through the information that led them to your site, learn more about you, and find out how to contact you.
7. Emails
Good email strategies are significantly different than much of the junk that hits your spam email folder. Effective email marketing provides information to clients and potential customers that keep them informed—without triggering an “unsubscribe” response.
Offer helpful information, special offers, and include videos in your email content. Be careful not to email too often, and always keep your content relevant to your business.
These Examples of Digital Marketing Must Work Together!
When these examples of digital marketing don’t work well together, you could lose valuable traffic (and new potential customers!). Make sure each of these tools plays their part well and supports your overall digital marketing and business goals.
We hope you found this information helpful! Be sure you check out more of our business articles!