In today’s world, the line between marketing and sales has blurred. Marketers are now expected to have an equal hand in driving leads and converting them into paying customers. But knowing what techniques work best across different platforms is not easy. That’s why we’ve curated this list of the most effective online marketing tips to grow your business.

1. Integrate Multiple Marketing Channels

The digital landscape is ever-changing, and what worked in one place or time may not work in another. This is why brands must be prepared to constantly innovate to succeed. To stay ahead of the curve and be relevant to our audience, we should be integrating different marketing platforms and experimenting with different techniques. The best businesses to emerge today integrate multiple channels such as SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media.

Take Duane Reade, for example. This New York City-based company owns and operates 761 pharmacies across the United States. They also own or operate 46 drugstores in foreign countries, such as Canada and Great Britain. In 2020 alone, Duane Reade generated $17.9 billion in sales and serves over 12 million customers per day.

To grow their business, they utilize every available channel. Duane Reade runs ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and they even use Twitter to engage with their audience. They use email marketing to drive people to their website to make a purchase, and they use SEO to boost their presence on Google search results pages. They use their own pharmacies’ websites to drive traffic and make sales, and they use their own branded product lines (e.g., Sudafed, Bufferin, etc.) to promote their businesses.

2. Measure the Success of Each Channel and Optimize On the Basis of Data

Each of the marketing channels we’ve discussed so far plays a crucial role in driving business growth. But measuring the effectiveness of each channel and optimizing based on the data collected can be tricky. This is where analytics programs like Google Analytics come in handy. With these programs, you can track the performance of each channel and adjust your strategy accordingly.

For example, you could compare the performance of your website’s organic search traffic to the performance of your PPC campaigns on GoogleAdWords. If you discover that your organic search visitors are converting at a much higher rate than your pay per click campaigns, you may decide that investing in online marketing is the way to go. You can also measure the performance of your emails and adjust your strategy to maximize the impact. This way, you can be sure that your efforts are paying off and guide your decisions toward more effective channel combinations.

3. Use Big Data To Your Advantage

Big data can help businesses gain a better understanding of their audience and what resonates with them. This doesn’t mean that every business needs to become a data-miner or use advanced statistics to track customers’ every move. However, having access to data such as age, gender, interests, and past purchases can help businesses tailor their online marketing strategies toward more effective channel combinations.

Take The Body Shop, for example. This luxury skincare brand not only collects data on its customers but also uses this data to its advantage in marketing. To find out more, the brand’s marketing team uses Google Analytics to track visitors to their website. From here, they can segment the data to find out more about their audience. They then use this information to create personas and use case studies to highlight how these particular customers use their products and which ones they may not need. The Body Shop claims that this approach helps them to more effectively target their digital marketing activity and build trust with their audience.

4. Experiment With Digital Marketing Techniques

Just because a method worked for one business doesn’t mean it will work for yours. One size does not fit all when it comes to digital marketing, and this is why you should be constantly testing different strategies and measuring their effectiveness.

Take HubSpot, for example. This popular marketing automation platform allows businesses to test different marketing strategies and track their effectiveness. To do this, they use A/B testing, which randomly assigns participants to receive either treatment A or treatment B. Participants in the study typically start with a small group and watch the results to determine which approach worked best for their audience. The key is to continually experiment and find what resonates with your customers.

5. Consider The End Result And Not The Means

At the end of the day, your goal should be to grow your business. This is why you want to focus on the results of your experiments rather than the tactics you used to reach these results. Instead of thinking about how you’ll measure the success of your digital marketing strategy, consider what will make you happy, successful, and comfortable in your role as a business owner. The key is to find a balance between the two.

Take Goop, for example. This luxury fashion brand uses digital marketing to promote their products and grow their business. To do this, they monitor the performance of their different marketing campaigns using Google Analytics. The results of these campaigns help them to decide which platforms and tactics are working and which ones they should avoid.