First, let’s start with the basics. What is digital marketing?!
Digital Marketing is any marketing that involves an electronic device and or the internet. We are more digitally connected now than ever, so utilizing digital marketing is not only smart, it’s imperative to your company’s success. The best part about digital marketing is that it’s often low cost or free. It can seem complicated, but over the last decade, we’ve learned to use it to our advantage and identified some tips and tricks along the way.
Here is a list of tips to help you become a savvy digital marketer.
• List out your goals. Do you want to create brand awareness? Are you hoping to increase the traffic to your website? Do you want to get leads and increase sales? (Honestly, who doesn’t want to do this?!) Create a metrics tracking system, so you know what efforts are working and which are not. Track everything from email opens & clicks, to the number of followers you have on social media platforms and the number of likes on each post, to the number of people that have visited each page of your website and how they got there. (This can all be done using marketing automation systems, which will be covered below.)
• Once you have determined your main goals, come up with a plan. Write it all down and have a clear vision of what your digital strategy will be moving forward – on both a monthly and a yearly basis. While you are laying out your plan, be sure you -
• Determine what websites and tools you will need to obtain and set your focus.
• Many companies use Marketing Automation tools that can help with social media posts and planning, create and send out
marketing emails, and track traffic to your website. This data is very helpful at pinpointing what your customers are looking for,
how they got to your website in the first place, and what pages they spent time on to help determine a potential need they might
have.
• Don’t try to “do it all” when it comes to social media marketing. Maintain a presence on the websites where your customers spend the most time and do that well. B2B companies tend to focus more on LinkedIn and Twitter marketing, whereas B2C companies tend to focus more on Facebook and Instagram marketing. Once you figure out where your niche audience is, that will help you determine where you should spend most of your time and efforts.
• Now that you know what websites you will use as tools, and which social media platforms you want to focus on to communicate with your audience, it’s time to start posting and sending emails.
• Always create an image to use with social media posts that grabs the attention of your audience. Most people tend to be easily persuaded by visuals, so rather than just a simple text post, reel your audience in with a clean, crisp image that helps to relay the message of your post. Remember to keep the text on your image to an absolute minimum. Short and sweet, with just enough information to gain their interest. Many digital marketers like using www.canva.com to create images for free (creates eye-catching images very easily, and quickly too!) However, there is a paid PRO version for a nominal fee as well. This version allows even more functionality.
• When sending emails, think about what it takes for YOU as a consumer to open and read an email. If an email has a funny or catchy subject line, you’re much more likely to open that email and see what it says. With that said, if you open an email and it contains a novel of content, that’s almost an instant delete for most. Be clear, concise, and straight to the point. And always end your email with a clear call to action. “Contact us here to learn more” or “Click here to purchase a t-shirt” – whatever service or product you are selling, make it super easy for your customer to take the next step.
• Be consistent. Whether sending marketing emails to prospects or posting on your social media platforms, do it regularly! If you research a company, when you’re considering buying a product or service, via their social media platforms, and they appear stagnant, they’ve already caused a reason to raise questions about their trustworthiness and legitimacy. The internet is full of people and companies you can’t trust. Potential customers want to see that you not only are a real company, with real people – but that you also respond to people when they comment or ask questions on your posts and maintain an open line of communication with your audience.
• Finally, make sure you are always staying up to date with digital marketing strategies. The hardest part of digital marketing is that it never stays the same. You need always to be learning and consistently read the latest articles, listen to digital marketing podcasts, or join webinars that will allow you to stay up to date on the latest and greatest of the digital marketing sphere.
Hoping these tips are helpful. The best part of digital marketing is it truly allows us as marketers (or even non-marketers) to be as creative as we want to be. It’s a vast resource. Utilize it to your advantage!
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