In the last couple of years, online marketing has changed the game. Thanks to the rise of social media and the evolution of online marketing platforms, businesses can now target and engage with prospective customers in ways that were previously impossible. Even six-figure brands have found their reach severely restricted by traditional methods, leading them to reconsider how they engage with consumers.
Although the field is still new, a business owner can experiment and learn from the best in the industry. In this article, we will give you a comprehensive guide to the most up-to-date techniques so that you can become an effective digital marketer.
Set The Right Online Marketing Budget
When we think about digital marketing, the first thing that usually comes to mind is spending money. After all, you’ll need to buy a computer or smartphone to do your job, and even then, you’ll need software to run your campaigns.
Setting a budget is essential in any business. However, it is especially important in digital marketing. In a world of cut-throat competition, you never know when a lucrative deal could come up. Also, you’ll want to keep an eye on your spending, especially if you want to target small and medium sized businesses that may not have the budget for expensive ads.
Nowadays, there are plenty of affordable options for effective digital marketing. You’ll find free platforms like Google Adwords, which can be used to gain valuable insights into your customers’ behavior and determine the most effective methods to engage with them. Furthermore, you can use free tools like Google Analytics to track the results of your campaigns and decide if your investment towards paid ads is truly paying off.
Deciding on the right budget for your online marketing campaign is essential. Too often companies spend excessive amounts of money on expensive ads that don’t generate the desired results. As we’ve established, digital marketing is a constantly changing field, so make sure that you’re keeping up to date with the latest news and trends by regularly checking out industry blogs and online magazines.
Use The Right Keywords
To put it simply, keywords are the words and phrases used to search for products or services on a certain platform. Keyword research is essential to any business that wants to do effective online marketing, and it’s especially important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
It seems obvious, but doing keyword research means looking at things from the point of view of a customer. That is, you’ll want to find the words and phrases potential customers are using to find your product or service. After all, if you want to attract the right audience, you’ll need to ensure that when they look for your product or service, they find you. For instance, if you sell shoes, you might want to look into the words “shoes” and “sales” because these are the words the customer will use to find what they need.
You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner to easily find the most popular keywords for your product or service. Once you have your keywords, you can use a tool like Google Adwords to find the cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-mille (CPM) to determine how much it costs to get a click-through or view a video with ads.
Create And Use A Website
A website is an online directory of information that is constantly updated and maintained by the business. Having a website is an excellent way to engage with potential customers, as it provides a steady stream of new content that they can browse through at their leisure.
A well-designed and highly functional website can do wonders for the SEO of a business. To learn more, check out this blog post by HubSpot on the five things every business website needs.
A website acts as a storefront for a business, so it’s important that it looks great and that the information is presented clearly and attractively. Additionally, a business website should always be accessible and up to date, even if it isn’t regularly updated. This is because potential customers may stumble upon the site at any given time, whether through a Google search or another type of web traffic.
Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines
Blogs are a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. While they can be a bit of a chore to write and maintain, they provide a very valuable service to businesses. If you’ve ever tried to do some research on a particular topic, you’ll know how difficult it can be to find the information you need. Having an expertly written and maintained blog is a great way to ensure that you’re always abreast of the latest news and trends in your industry.
There are several ways to make your blog more searchable. The first step is to ensure that your posts are well-written and that they adhere to a clear and consistent structure. Make sure that all your blog posts are interesting, well-written, and have a clear call to action. In other words, if you’re trying to promote a product or service, make sure that readers know exactly what they should do next.
Additionally, make sure that your blog posts are focused on a single, specific topic with succinct, well-written content. While it’s great to have a general blog post about your industry, it’s worth its weight in gold if that general blog post leads to a solid foundation of information about your product or service.
Your next step is to build a small library of blog posts that are focused on topics that you think will be valuable for your customers. When a potential customer comes to your site and sees that you’ve consistently posted valuable information, they’re much more likely to stay and utilize your services or purchase your product.
Optimize Your Social Media For Search Engines
Once you’ve got a successful blog, it’s time to move on to the next phase of digital marketing: social media. Like websites, social media is an excellent way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. Additionally, it can be used to build a small following of people who are already dedicated to and interested in your product or service.
On social media, you’ll find a variety of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. While Facebook and Instagram are both great for connecting with customers, Twitter is more suited for sharing and discovering new content.
Similar to a website, your job on social media is to provide valuable information to your customers in a way that they find useful. To that end, make sure that you’re always sharing interesting content that will appeal to and educate your audience. Additionally, make sure that you have a strong hashtag for each post. This will make it easier for people to find and follow your content if they’re interested in your industry.
Every business is different, but most can agree that having an expertly maintained social media presence is an essential component of digital marketing.
Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Finally, we come to the most essential part of digital marketing; SEO. SEO is the process of increasing the traffic to your business website via organic search results on search engines like Google.
Like with all the other methods in this guide, doing SEO right means using white hat SEO techniques, which means following the advice of search engine optimization experts and avoiding the use of black hat techniques, the latter of which can get your website banned by Google.
To learn more about SEO, make sure that you read this valuable guide by HubSpot. Not only will it educate you on the best practices and tips for optimizing your website, but it will also put you in touch with a local SEO expert who can help you get started.
Hopefully, this article has given you a clear understanding of how to do online marketing right. From picking the right keywords to creating a convincing website, everything ties into one simple but essential concept; target consumers where they are and make sure that they know you were there before the competition.