59.5% or 4.99 billion – You must be wondering what these numbers are.
It’s the number of active internet users worldwide. It’s a lot, and it continues to increase every day. With the introduction of the internet, the way people shop and buy has changed – meaning online marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be. Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and at the right time. Today, you need to meet your audience where they are already spending time: on the internet.
Enter digital marketing – any form of marketing that uses an electronic device or the internet (essentially, any marketing that takes place online). So, why should your business invest in digital marketing? Here are three main reasons:
- You can target only the audience most likely to purchase your product or service through social media targeting features and SEO strategies. This allows you to send your targeted audience personalised, high-converting marketing messages.
- It is more cost-effective than traditional, offline marketing. So, if you want a higher return on investment at a lower cost, invest in digital marketing!
- With digital marketing, it’s possible to get up-to-date information and real-time data on the metrics to help you analyse and develop strategies (for instance, how many people saw your website or post).
Now that we’ve told you about the reasons for using digital marketing, here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common digital marketing tactics and the channels involved in each one.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Think about this situation – Have you ever had to go to page 2 of Google to find something? Hardly right? The first page of Google receives 69% of search traffic; the second page receives 13%. By page 3, you’re virtually invisible. So, what can you do about this?
Answer: Search Engine Optimisation.
In simple terms, this is the process of optimising your website to “rank” higher in search engine result pages (basically, put you to Page 1) to increase your visibility and success. The channels that benefit from SEO include websites, blogs and infographics. There are several ways to approach SEO to generate qualified traffic to your website. These include:
- On-page SEO: This type of SEO focuses on all of the content that exists “on the page” when looking at a website.
- Off-page SEO: This type of SEO focuses on all of the activity that takes place “off the page” when looking to optimise your website.
- Technical SEO: This type of SEO focuses on your website’s back-end and how your pages are coded. Image compression, structured data, and CSS file optimisation are all forms of technical SEO that can increase your website’s loading speed – an essential ranking factor in the eyes of search engines like Google.
Content Marketing
This term refers to creating and promoting content to generate brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, and customers. Content marketing is heavily optimised with relevant keywords and search terms that customers would use when finding your product or service. The channels that can play a part in your content marketing strategy include:
- Blog posts and emails
- Infographics, captions and hashtags
- Search Ads
- Websites
Social Media Marketing
This practice promotes your brand and your content on social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It is possible to share and post various content on social media, from videos to infographics to blog articles. It is the perfect strategy to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business.
Email Marketing
Companies use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences. Email is often used to promote content, discounts, and events and direct people toward the business’s website.
When done right, email marketing delivers powerful results with a high return on investment. It is fast, cheap, and one of the best tools to build a strong, long-lasting relationship between your brand and customers.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is a method of driving traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time someone clicks your ad. One of the most common types of PPC is Google Ads, which allows you to pay for top slots on Google’s search engine results pages at a price “per click” of the links you place. Other channels where you can use PPC include:
- Paid ads on Facebook
- Twitter Ads campaigns
- Sponsored Messages on LinkedIn
- Display, video and search ads on Google, Yahoo, Edge and other search engines
Now that you have a basic understanding of digital marketing, why it is needed and which channels and methods can we use, maybe it’s time to invest in it.
At Accountsdept (apart from giving you the best accounting services), we, together with Smartstaff, will help you craft the perfect digital marketing strategy to both meet and exceed your requirements. We will create a tactical digital marketing strategy, which informs, engages and converts within your target audience. We help to make your business better, stronger and more adaptable in this digital world.
So, if you’re thinking about working on your digital marketing strategy, get in touch with us. We will be happy to help!
