Nearly every business industry is getting more competitive day by day. To stay ahead, you have to be where your customers are and where you can obtain more opportunities: online.
Today, there are five billion internet users worldwide. A survey from Salesforce revealed that most consumers (85%) conduct research online when they need goods and services, and the most used channels are websites (74%) and social media (38%). The fact that many purchasing decisions start online is enough to make digital marketing a part of your business strategy.
What’s digital marketing, anyway?
Digital marketing is the promotion of products and services through digital channels like websites, email, social media, and mobile applications. Simply put, digital marketing is marketing that happens on the internet.
And why should businesses tap into this marketing technique?
There are many good reasons why a brand needs an online marketing strategy, but one of the most important is because it helps you reach a wider audience. Even better, you can target a highly-specific audience and put your efforts into only those who will most likely purchase from you.
Digital marketing is also much cheaper than the traditional marketing methods you can think of – print, billboards, television, and direct mail. Many strategies, such as social media marketing and email marketing, can help build your digital presence even with minimal spend.
Getting Started with Digital Marketing
For beginners, getting started with online marketing can be overwhelming. Terms like search engine optimization, qualified leads, responsive web design, and backlinks might scare you and keep you from taking full advantage of this most underpriced form of marketing. But as long as you can get a good understanding of how digital marketing works, you’ll be on the right track.
Here are some ways to put your business on the online map:
- Begin with a website.
- Implement an SEO strategy.
- Invest in PPC advertising.
- Make the most of social media channels.
Tip #1: Begin with a website.
Besides the fact that a website can make your brand look more professional, consumers nowadays trust businesses with a website more than those who only have social media profiles. It’s best to work with an expert web design company to ensure your new website looks exactly how you want it and does the following:
- Reflects you and your brand.
- Has compelling content.
- Highlights your products or services.
- Captures data for lead generation.
- Answers your visitors’ questions right away.
- Provides a seamless experience on all devices.
- Has clear calls to action and contact information.
Once you have your professional website up and running, it’s time to make sure it’s findable by people and search engines – which leads us to our second tip.
Tip #2: Implement an SEO strategy.
Putting up a website doesn’t necessarily mean your customers can already find you online. If your site is built with search engine optimization in mind, you’re fortunate because it will generate organic traffic right away and start ranking you on Google. But if you are yet to apply SEO to an existing website, we suggest you start with an SEO audit.
SEO audit checks the overall health of your website and provides suggestions that can help you craft a solid SEO campaign. Keyword research and implementation, metadata, backlinking, and content marketing are some of the techniques that shouldn’t be missing in your SEO efforts.
Tip #3: Invest in PPC Advertising.
SEO is a promising strategy that can spur the growth of your business. But it has one downside: it takes so long to show tangible results. If you’re an aggressive business owner who wants quick outcomes from your digital marketing efforts, PPC is the right course to take.
Also known as paid advertising, PPC or pay per click is a method where businesses pay a search engine like Google or a website owner every time a user clicks or views their online ads. It’s a quicker way of gaining traffic and leads than generating them organically. According to statistics, PPC brings twice the number of visitors compared to SEO.
Here are the common types of PPC advertising:
- Paid search ads
- Display ads
- Social media ads
- Remarketing ads
- Gmail sponsored promotions
Tip #4: Make the most of social media channels.
Embracing social media for your business is no longer an option. It’s a must to increase your patronage and boost your ROI with little to no cost. We bet you’re aware of how much people use social media to search and learn about a brand. Almost all your potential customers are there, so why aren’t you?
However, to make the most of the popular social networks, you need to have a solid social media marketing strategy. Don’t be “everywhere”—research which platform your customers use the most and focus your efforts there. Optimize your profile, grow your followers, develop compelling content, and be consistent. Remember, regular posting results in more engagement to your page.
Here are the best social media sites to market your business according to tech.co:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
Becoming a better digital marketer doesn’t happen overnight. Keep learning and implementing the quick tips we listed above to gain the online presence your business deserves.
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