In a nutshell, digital marketing is about using digital channels, platforms, and tools to promote and advertise products or services, engage with customers, and build brand awareness. It can be a powerful medium to expand your reach and grow your customer base, as it offers many opportunities you might not otherwise have access to due to a limited budget.
Aside from being cost-effective, digital marketing campaigns increase your chances of reaching the right customers and generating leads by targeting specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behavior. It can also be easily measured, analyzed, and adjusted, which means that you can make data-driven decisions and optimize your campaign to achieve better results.
But there are many ways to do digital marketing and not all of them may be suitable to your company’s needs. “There are limitless paths potential customers can take to reach your website; you have to identify the best one for your business,” says Skyler Malley of FirestaterSEO.com.
This is why you must understand what each strategy does and what problems they are meant to solve so that you can pinpoint the ones that could deliver your desired results. Here is an overview of digital marketing strategies and their benefits to help you get started:
1. Investing in Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO or Search Engine Optimization helps you optimize your website to improve its visibility on search engine results pages. The primary goal of an SEO campaign is to increase organic web traffic as well as other purposes like branding and reputation management.
Implementing SEO is suitable when you want to improve brand awareness, have trouble ranking in search results, or notice your web traffic going down despite releasing content regularly. Keep in mind, however, that SEO is more of a long-term strategy and can take about three to six months before showing any results, so don’t get too disappointed or give up quickly if you don’t see positive outcomes in the first few weeks.
2. Developing a Social Media Presence
Social media platforms can not only help businesses tap new and highly segmented potential customers but also allow them to convey their brand message, mission, and values directly to their target market. Moreover, communication goes both ways, as customers are also given a platform to converse and interact directly with the brand.
If you find that your brand has a weak relationship with your customers or that your users have low loyalty to your brand, this strategy might be just what you need. As you continuously respond to comments and messages on social networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you show your customers that their feedback and opinions matter, which then enables you to build more solid relationships with them.
3. Capitalizing on Paid Search
Paid search advertising can be a highly effective way for your business to reach your target audience and drive traffic to your website by displaying your ads at the top of search engine results pages. You can bid on specific keywords or phrases you want to target, and the search engine will display your ads based on various factors, including bid amount, relevance, and ad quality. As such, when users search for specific keywords or phrases, your ad will appear at the top of the results, above the organic site recommendations.
This strategy could work for you when you’re struggling to get enough traffic to your website, your business has a specific product or service you want to promote, or you want to compete with larger businesses. It can also help you maximize your resources when working on a limited budget because, unlike traditional advertising methods, you typically only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This way, you can control your expenses and maximize your available resources.
4. Creating an Email Newsletter
Email marketing has proven to be an incredibly cost-effective and powerful marketing channel for businesses, giving about $40 return on investment for every $1 spent. This high ROI can be attributed to several factors, such as the broad reach that email marketing provides, plus its ability to deliver personalized and targeted messages.
You can consider running an email marketing campaign when you want to increase customer retention, drive website traffic, or improve engagement. If you are launching a new product or service, email marketing can also be a great way to promote it because you would be able to generate buzz and drive sales by sending targeted emails to users who are specifically interested in similar offerings.
5. Adding an E-commerce Storefront
E-commerce is another digital marketing strategy that can help you reach a wider audience, increase sales, and grow your business. It would be particularly beneficial if your brand already has a solid online presence with a significant following, you cannot showcase your complete product range in your physical stores due to limited space, or you want to offer more convenience for your customers.
Aside from these, an E-commerce store helps build trust in your brand because it shows that you’re serious about providing quality products or services at competitive prices. It also enables your customers to browse and buy products directly from their mobile devices, increasing your brand visibility and making it easier for people to purchase from you.
