Digital marketing involves marketing to people using Internet-connected electronic devices, namely computers, smartphones and tablets. Digital marketing focuses on channels such as search engines, social media, email, websites and apps to connect with prospects and customers.
Digital marketing has evolved to the point where an immense array of specialists consult with brands to develop effective strategies or implement programs. If you’re new to digital marketing, or lack experience or resources, you should consider engaging an experienced and versatile digital marketing consultant.
Definitely. Though companies in many business categories continue to approach digital marketing with skepticism, avoiding digital marketing denies your business access to the media the majority of consumers turn to first and at all hours of the day.
Blowing their own horn. Yes, of course, the primary goal of marketing is to create leads. However, in the age of digital media a brand-centric, salesy approach deflects interest in your company. Make your marketing customer-centric.
Second biggest mistake: Far too often, digital marketers start and stop. You need to contribute a steady flow of content to the channels you use.
Websites that go for long periods with no updates and new content are unlikely to perform well or support any useful digital marketing objectives. Though a static website technically qualifies as a website it’s bound to be more than a digital brochure that produces little or no leads.
Mobile phones are the most used technology in the world. Most of your prospects spend the majority of their media time—and hours—using a smartphone. Mobile marketing focuses on mobile strategies like messaging, mobile applications, and mobile websites. A brand that ignores mobile marketing is doomed.
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of educational and/or entertaining information assets for the purpose of generating brand awareness, traffic, leads and sales. Marketing content is generally free and does not explicitly promote your brand as an ad would.
A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience. Elements of content marketing strategy include establishing objectives, audience personas, a value proposition, content marketing mission statement, a buyer journey map, and plans for creating, promoting and analyzing how content marketing assets and programs perform.
Email, social media, search and other elements of your digital marketing mix will depend on delivering useful content. Though video outlets, podcasts, and media galleries present other options, a blog is by far the most used tactic for distributing marketing content on a channel over which you have complete control.
There can be no all-encompassing answer to this question except to say you should create content buyers will find relevant and useful. Leading candidates include blog posts, articles, ebooks, infographics, microsites, videos, courses, case studies, newsletters, visuals and various forms of interactive content.
First understand this: search engines will learn to index your site as often as you publish content. However, neither your audience or search engines value garbage content. The answer(s) to this question is you should (1) create content as often as you can create great content, and (2) you must consider your costs and ROI.
Hmm… a hotly debated question. I submit short-form content takes its rightful place on social media channels where the audience is flying fast and taking in oodles of media. Long-form content tends to perform better on search and gives your blog more substance to help establish your expertise.
Great headlines are the key to getting people to read, watch or listen to your content. Over time, however, your reputation becomes a factor too, so you need to build and honor it. I like to say, “The goal of your content is not to get people to visit your website; it’s to get people to subscribe to it.”
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of using onsite and offsite tactics to help get content presented by a search engine. Done well, the practice increases the quantity and quality of your traffic.
The majority of web traffic is generated by search and those that come by way of search have a greater degree of commercial intent than most other channels.
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online properties to generate traffic from location-based searches. It helps businesses promote products and services to local customers when they need them.
Keywords are the words and phrases searchers use—usually with search engines—to find relevant pages, images, videos, or any kind of information when looking for answers, knowledge, products, or services. SEO professionals consider keywords and the topics they suggest when optimizing content for search.
This question is the source of endless speculation and debate because search engine companies such as Google will not answer it. Experts generally agree rankings are based on relevance and authority, but the factors that determine them are many—and inconsistent. The best way to achieve a high search engine ranking is to create one of the most thorough web pages possible for a specific keyword or topic.
You can pursue a variety of strategies to earn mentions and links. The three most prolific are likely to be: (1) Secure opportunities to write guest posts on influential blogs (2) Create relationships with influencers in your industry, and (3) Consistently create and promote content worthy of mentions and links.
PPC stands for pay-per-click. Essentially, it’s a way of buying web traffic. Advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Search engine advertising is the most popular form of PPC, however numerous channels including Facebook now offer PPC ad models.
Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ads fit the form of the platform where they’re placed. While PPC and social media ads technically qualify as native advertising, most native advertising is articles published or promoted on editorial sites. Native advertising has grown steadily because (1) it’s not ignored like display ads are and (2) it’s not filtered by ad blockers.
You may remember advertorials, that is, editorial style content paid for by an advertiser. Sponsored content is a modern relative. It’s content published on behalf of a sponsor. It tends to be native in form. And its creative may be produced by the publisher or brand. Many publishers have created divisions devoted to writing and designing sponsored content—from articles to videos, infographics and microsites.
A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and data. Personas generally include customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. They should reveal insights about the buyers’ decisions including attitudes, concerns and criteria that drive buying decisions.
The answer to this question must be turned over to HubSpot, the company responsible for inventing the term. “Inbound marketing is focused on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer’s buying journey. Potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.”
Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not need to fight for potential customers’ attention. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust and credibility for your business.
Marketing automation is software that manages marketing processes and campaigns across multiple channels. It streamlines lead generation, segmentation, lead nurturing, lead scoring, measurement processes and more.
An effective marketing automation tool helps identify your audience, create the right content, and automatically trigger actions based on customer behavior.
Data-driven marketing refers to having strategies and processes to leverage data to gain deeper insight into what customers want. When you understand the who, what, where, when and why of how consumers respond to your marketing efforts, you’re empowered to make better decisions and further enhance and personalize the customer experience.
Performance marketing focuses on programs in which you pay for performance, that is, when specific actions such as clicks, leads or sales occur. The goal is to achieve measurable conversions. Performance marketing campaigns take place in digital environments so it’s essential to have precise tracking tools.
A marketing funnel is a model that represents the stages of a buyer’s journey from the first interaction with your brand to a purchase. The funnel metaphor is relevant because it narrows as it progresses, that is the probability of sales decreases at each phase of the funnel.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of conversions from your digital property, typically a web page. CRO involves executing tactics to improve the elements on your site (or app) through testing. Relative to your marketing funnel, CRO focuses on moving prospects to the next stage.
Interactive content calls for action (interaction) from the prospect beyond reading, listening or watching. In return, participants receive real-time, personalize results they care about. Activities such as answering questions guides prospects to specific results in that address their problems and challenges.
Chances are your audience is active on one or more of the major social networks where billions of people spend time daily. Brands that understand the power of social media marketing and commit resources to it can boost awareness, drive traffic, interact with customers, drive sales, build loyalty, and win advocates.
Consider first the top social channels in terms of active users: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Determine where your audience spends their time. Research the demographics and behavioral patterns of the users and consider the type of content you’ll share.
Your brand is now in the hands of your audience. You can’t “control” what’s said about it. But you can join the conversations, show you care about your customers, and add value.
No. Granted, you don’t want to give rise to a social media free-for-all that could confuse your audience. However, you should consider expanding your team with an employee advocacy program designed to empower employees to contribute to the conversation and amplify your brand’s voice.
Personal branding is the process of using online and offline tactics to market yourself individually as a professionally. Digital media has helped create an emphasis on personal branding for all types of hiring and purchase decisions.
A lead magnet is a free offer you make in exchange for an email address (and possibly additional information). The purpose is to inspire prospects to join your email list by offering something of value. Examples include an ebook, guide, report, assessment, cheat sheet, tool, template, webinar, course, or a coupon.
Email is stronger than ever. It’s more popular than any social media. It’s more private. More personal. More reliable. Most people rely on email and check their inbox multiple times each day. If you want to communicate directly with people who actually grant you permission to market to them, email is marketing is essential.
Only if you want to waste your money and get in the SPAM business. Most email service providers don’t allow you to use purchased lists. You need to grow your email organically (see the lead magnet question). A small list of real prospects has more value than a large list of strangers.
Lead nurturing is marketing to prospects—usually via email—to move them further “down the funnel” and keep them involved and engaged with your brand. Consistently interacting at key points during the sales process will inevitably improve conversion rates and drive sales.
It’s wise to send regular updates your subscribers with news of new content, new products (or improvements), events, and so forth. It’s not wise to expect your email list to expand fast simply by offering a newsletter.
The reason marketers love video so much is online consumers love it. More than a billion hours of video are consumed on YouTube each day. Video is a flexible and engaging content format. It’s easy to share across multiple platforms. Smartphones and digital editing have made it far easier to create video, so the potential for a high ROI is great.
A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that instructs the viewer to take a specific action. A call to action is typically written as a command, such as “Buy Now.” In digital marketing a CTA generally takes the form of a button or link.
The simple answer to this complex question is to create value. You need to identify and communicate a promise to your customers that resonates on an emotional level. Start with this question: How can we improve the lives of those we serve?
If you want to do professional marketing you need a professional copywriter. The role of a copywriter is more important than ever in the content-driven digital media world. Well-written copy builds brands, connects with the reader and inspires action.
Google Analytics is a free website analytics platform that gives you insights into how users find and use your website. With Google Analytics, you can track ROI for your online marketing and review important metrics to make informed decisions. The bulk of Google Analytics categorizes data into acquisition, behavior and conversions.
A practical approach to marketing metrics should include establishing which key performance indicators (KPIs) are most important for the growth of your brand. As a starting point, consider metrics that reflect your progress regarding traffic generation, conversion, and marketing costs and create a dashboard to track them monthly.
Paid digital marketing programs should create results immediately. On the other hand, programs such as content marketing, email list building, and search engine optimization require persistence and patience. You might see some results in a matter of months; however, it’s likely to be six months to a year before you realize some of your traffic and conversion objectives.
In short: no. People follow your brand on different platforms for different reasons. This means that you can’t expect to have exactly the same audience across all platforms. That being said, unifying the audience is something you can achieve through storytelling. We’ve discussed this in our Snapchat vs. Instagram comparison. Brands focusing on visual content don’t necessarily have to rely only on one of the two platforms. Instead, they could start a story by posting the “making of” on Snapchat and the more polished photos on Instagram.
Here’s where the difference between quality and quantity becomes obvious. Posting frequent updates where you’re asking people to follow you or to bring in more followers is obviously not going to work. Buying followers might sound like an enticing solution, but it’s not a viable one. Paid followers aren’t particularly known for engaging with content, and neither are they loyal.
Some brands have this common misconception that social media is a place full of negativity. Even if it were so, it’s better to know that there is a place where customers express all sorts of opinions, rather than being oblivious. When it comes to handling this type of comments, you only have two options. First of all, you can choose to address your customers’ concerns in an attempt to regain their trust. Bear in mind that in some cases there can be no retention if you’re not doing so. Even satisfied customers will start questioning your customer service standards if they notice such approaches. Secondly, you can turn to the content moderation solutions provided by the social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram are only two of the social networks that provide comment filtering options.
The best frequency really is something that you need to figure out on your own. Something you need to take into account is how active your audience is. After doing so, you have to find a balance that the audience is comfortable with. You definitely don’t want them to start unfollowing you after flooding their newsfeeds. Neither do you want them to ask themselves if you’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. There are some guidelines, but you can only find the best frequency by experimenting.
If you’re having a hard time raising awareness for your products or services, social media advertising might be the best option you have. You shouldn’t rely on this approach every time you post an update, but boosting updates every now and then could have a major impact.
Research conducted by eMarketer at the end of 2015 concluded that 76% of B2C respondents relied on promoted posts and only 61% of these users believed that paid ads are effective. Out of the 74% of those surveyed claimed to use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for their efforts. In addition, 59% of respondents rated these three networks with 4 or 5 out of 5 points for effectiveness.
Things don’t look so good in the B2B department, where less than 50% of social marketers believe paid ads to be effective. To make sure you’re not throwing money out of the window, make sure the platform you choose for is the one your ideal audience spends the most time on.
After selecting the right platforms and planning the campaigns, you should decide what metrics to check in order to determine the ROI. In one of our posts on this topic, we’ve discussed reach, traffic, engagement and conversions on social media, and why each of them is important for measuring return on investment.
Social Media ROI = (Return from social media – cost of social media marketing) / cost of social media marketing
Using the above formula you can determine how the results compare to the initial goals. It’s best to look at as many metrics as possible, in order to ensure that any changes are minor.
Content often dictates the type of strategy you need to adopt. As different social media platforms focus on different types of content, the chances of successfully carrying a strategy from one to another are slim.
There’s platform-specific content, and then there are platform-specific constraints. For a long time, Twitter has had the 140-character limit in place, and the only way to transmit more was to embed an image. Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are far more liberal from this perspective. Even if you decide to cross-post content on these 3 platforms, you need to remember that the audiences might differ.
Spamming, having multiple profiles on each platform and not interacting at all with the audience are some of the practices you should steer clear of. Some of these actions cause confusion, while others will determine your audience to downright unfollow and/or even report you.
Inconsistency is one of the main traps you could fall into. That could mean starting on a platform and abandoning it just to try another one. It could also mean publishing updates in a frantic manner. Putting some logic into how, when and where you post the social media posts could tighten the relationship with your audience. If not for anything else, your audience could learn when to expect your updates.