Whether you are actively marketing digitally, but with no defined strategy, or you’re just starting to dip your toes into digital channels and tactics, if you are not leveraging the power of online marketing effectively, you could be missing out on huge revenue potential. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
Let’s get into the more common types of online marketing activities. Make yourself comfortable and settle down for the ride…
Paid online advertising
A more traditional aspect of your online marketing strategy, paid online advertising is the method of using digital channels to pay for traffic and, ultimately, leads.
This channel relies on researching where your target audience can be found online. For example, what do people search for on Google? Do they hang out on social channels?
Once you have this information, you can pay to get in front of people with a special offer or unique value proposition to entice them to click through. Two of the more effective and popular types of paid online advertising are pay-per-click (PPC) and social media advertising.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Harnessing the power of PPC advertising in your online marketing strategy is a fantastic way to get in front of the right audience. Largely dominated by Google Ads, which owns the majority market share of online advertising, getting the most out of this platform can get strong results for your business.
There are different types of PPC, but the most common type is the paid search advert, where you bid on specific keywords to become more visible in search results (web and mobile) and pay every time someone clicks on your ad to land on a specific page of your website. Other types of PPC include display advertising, retargeting, Gmail ads and Google Shopping ads.
Sounds simple right? PPC is more science than art, and specialists combine a deep understanding of Google’s algorithms as well as consumers’ purchasing behaviour to dominate over organic search results and competitors. Ads are also subject to Google’s auctions to assess their relevance and validity.
Bespoke keyword research and considered ad creation are key to a successful PPC strategy, which is why many companies choose to hire an expert resource in-house or engage with specialist agency support.
Social media advertising
In the “olden” days, social media advertising was all about increasing the number of Facebook Page followers, but with the organic reach of business pages taking a massive hit with recent changes, social media advertising joins the ranks of traditional paid online advertising, where businesses can pay to attract customers to their website.
When choosing which social networks to advertise on, look at networks that perform well organically for your business, or research where your target market hangs out. Each platform comes with its own advertising management tools for businesses, as well as detailed audience targeting options and multiple opportunities for testing campaigns.
Businesses are free to manage their social media advertising accounts, but when it’s key to their online marketing strategy it can be a huge demand on time. Agencies can offer support to maximise advertising potential and increase return on investment, from devising an effective strategy and producing show-stopping visuals, to accurate audience targeting and retargeting opportunities.
Content marketing
Instead of buying traffic, content marketing uses organic methods to earn traffic and drive sales to your website through the creation of engaging, relevant and valuable content that captures the attention of search engines and audiences alike.
What is content?
Any media that you create counts as content:
- Website content
- Blog/News
- Infographics
- Social media
- Video (including YouTube)
- White papers/online guides/reports
- Podcasts
- Webinars
What sets content marketing apart from general content is the creation of content for a clearly defined audience with the goal to drive conversion. This blog post you are reading now is an example of content marketing.
Your target audience can be discovered by building example personas of your customers to understand their likes and dislikes and supported by keyword research to identify what terms they search for in Google. The task for content marketers is to write content that responds to user queries, encourages click-through and converts people.
Digital marketing offers a wealth of opportunities to support your content marketing by promoting it through paid advertising channels such as display advertising, social media advertising, sponsored content and more.
Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the strategy of getting your website’s content to rank higher in search engines to drive more (and quality) traffic to your website. Unlike PPC, where keywords are paid for, SEO requires longer-term thinking through technical and content optimisation of a website. It can take time to see the results of your SEO activities, but high-quality, optimised content that meets the requirements of Google’s crawlers will eventually increase the volume of organic traffic to your site.
All aspects of a digital marketing strategy feed into each other, and an SEO strategy informs the production of strong, high-quality content that generates traffic and engages readers into action. It relies on knowing what your target audience is searching for, the phrases they use and the types of content they engage with.
With a willingness to learn, it is possible to adopt basic SEO techniques. However, if there’s a lack of in-depth SEO knowledge in the business, or you are not getting enough traffic to your website, then it’s worth hiring an SEO specialist in-house or engaging the services of a digital marketing agency.
With the majority of B2B customers and online shoppers turning to Google search, agencies are best placed to help set strategic goals around SEO, carry out detailed data analysis and keyword research, and make recommendations for improvements that will pay dividends for years to come.
Email marketing
Still one of the most effective digital marketing channels, email marketing is one of the highest converting online marketing channels for many businesses.
Most of that is down to its ability to nurture longterm relationships with customers. Content direct into their inbox that engages and entices customers develops a currency of loyalty that maximises opportunities for upselling. This strategy is essential, for example, if your business has a longer lead-in before sale.
Email marketing is a powerful and sophisticated tool, with strategies ranging from segmentation and personalisation, to automation (emails triggered by actions) and dynamic content.
Reporting and insight
Essential to any online marketing strategy is tracking the performance of your online campaigns, whether that’s sales, engagement or brand awareness, to get the in-depth knowledge you need to plan your next steps.
Most digital channels include built-in reporting services to monitor your return on investment. If you are using an agency for your digital marketing services, ask them to break it down into understandable chunks and get advice on optimising your campaigns for success.
So now you know the basics, you might feel ready to start your digital marketing journey! If you’d like some help with any of the topics mentioned above, get in touch below! We’d love to hear from you.