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Business leaders understand the value digital marketing plays in attracting new customers and retaining a competitive market presence. Knowing how to effectively execute a digital marketing strategy starts with having the right strategic foundation.
Boosting your digital footprint is best done when you can connect your website, email, social media and advertising channels into one cohesive, integrated plan. We’ve outlined a few ways you can go beyond the basics to make your digital tactics work harder for you.
Have a Customer-Centric Website
The first touchpoint with a customer is often your website. It is your digital engine and store front. This is the first spot to make the right impression with prospects, and where you can really set yourself apart from the competition. Your website content should focus on your customer’s core needs and connecting those needs to your products and services quickly and easily. Ensure your brand values and core services are fully visible and can be seamlessly navigated. You should view a website as a gateway to bring customers and prospects into your sales pipeline. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and build your site with their specific questions and needs in mind.
SEO-Optimize Your Content
It is easy to overlook marketing tactics like SEO and keyword optimization, but this is a key step in building your digital marketing strategy that you can’t afford to overlook. Knowing how to fully optimize your content better connects people to your website and helps your brand gain stronger presence in Google searches. Executing an effective content strategy includes knowing the keywords your prospects and customers use to find your products and services. Once you know the terms and phrases your customers are using most, you can use this information to support your content plan. It is not the only thing that matters with respect to content strategy, but it’s a key element often overlooked.
Fully Leverage Email Tool Insights and Capabilities
Today’s email marketing tools utilize both behavioral analytics to show you how people interact with your digital channels and campaigns and predictive technology to give tips on when you can send emails to get the best results based on historical patterns. Take advantage of these rich data insights and create targeted campaigns during the optimal times for your most engaged audiences.
When email campaigns spark strong engagement, don’t lose momentum after one campaign. Determine who deserves a personal follow-up message and keep all engaged contacts in your regular communications pipeline. Similarly, if you don’t get the reception you had expected on the first few attempts, take a step back and evaluate your tactics. Consider using A/B testing to see which message resonates best. Ask the right questions as you refine your strategies. Was there a clear call-to-action? Did your content offer value to the prospect before selling your product or service? Did you pick the optimal time or day to launch the message? Regularly audit your email campaign strategy to determine if and when your messaging and timing needs tweaking.
Get Social in a Smart Way
Most brands know they need social media. The trick is creating content that cuts through the noise. Your social media strategy shouldn’t just focus on promotional content that reads like a PR or sales ad. Social media is designed to be a platform for sharing, connection and engagement. That’s exactly the type of messaging that’s going to catch your audience’s attention. Your social media content should be useful, engaging and highly shareable.
Above simply using trendy hashtags and relevant tagging, create posts that spark conversation and encourage your audience to share with their own networks to expand the narrative’s reach. Go beyond the basic PR posts and craft content that adds value to what your audience is actively thinking about in their daily lives. Useful content that educates your audience is not only more likely to be shared and boost engagement, it also builds long-term brand value and sets your organization apart as a thought leader.
Pursue a Focused Investment in Digital Advertising
Besides using your website content, email marketing campaigns and social media, your organization should invest in digital advertising that can help you draw more eyes to your marketing assets. Organic efforts can only provide so much reach and awareness alone. By leveraging digital advertising, you give your brand the opportunity to be more easily discovered. Rely on tools that encourage customers to engage with the content assets you publish across your website. This will quickly connect prospects to authentic content and help strengthen your brand presence.
The easiest way to start is to pick one channel that effectively reaches your target audience and invest an extended time in testing that channel’s contribution towards your goals. Too many businesses new to digital marketing try one to two small things once and give up. It takes multiple impressions over time and multiple form factors to increase brand awareness, consideration, and even conversion. Resist the temptation to throw in the towel too early.
Leverage Marketing Technology to Scale
Brands are often hesitant to build digital marketing frameworks because they fear the time and resource investment. Luckily, there are countless marketing software technology tools that can automate the most time-consuming aspects of your marketing activities. Automating email sequences, social media and posting of content on a website can all be done more efficiently with marketing software tools that help teams effectively manage how and where content marketing assets are posted and shared. These tools are also designed to provide insightful metrics that help your team track results to measure against your goals to ensure you are effectively leveraging your efforts best across all your digital marketing channels.
Collectively, all of these tools are designed to help you think more strategically about how you interact with customers, how you present your brand across your digital channels, and what role you serve in your customer’s daily lives – both personally and professionally. Technology is a great starting point for growing your digital footprint, but to really make impressions last, investing in the right digital marketing partnership will provide a comprehensive vision to bridge the gaps that exist across many organizations that don’t employ a strategic marketing approach. If you’d like to have a conversation to explore these ideas in more detail, book a free consultation today.
