The digital landscape is changing, and traditional brick-and-mortar marketing is becoming outdated. More and more consumers are discovering the convenience and freedom of online shopping, and in turn, are demanding a digital lifestyle.
If your business isn’t online or it is but you feel it could be operating at its best potential, it’s time to consider how you can engage with customers digitally.
Here are seven steps to creating an online marketing culture in your business.
1. Master the Art of Online Marketing
To thrive in today’s digital world, you must understand the ins and outs of online marketing. This includes everything from SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click), and content marketing, to building a brand voice and digital strategy. It’s essential that you understand digital marketing and how to put it into practice.
2. Identify Your Audience and Learn Their Needs
Who is your target audience, and what’s their needs? You can’t effectively promote products or services if you don’t have clear answers to these questions. Ideally, you’ll enter this stage of the process with the end goal of serving your audience with content that is both relevant and authoritative.
To put relevance into practice, consider the types of content you’re currently producing and the platforms you’re working on. Are you creating blog posts for digital marketing purposes or are you simply replying to comments on your Facebook page? If you’re not sure, review the metrics for your existing content to determine the answers to these questions.
Knowing your audience’s needs is only the first step. Once you do, you can create content that is more relevant to their needs and use online marketing to promote it. But, to be effective, your content must also be of a high quality.
3. Use Advanced SEO Techniques To Position Your Site At The Top Of The Search Results
SEO is simply the process of optimizing your site in order to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). If your site isn’t performing well or if you feel like it could use some improvement, it’s time for an SEO audit. This will help you identify optimization opportunities and assess the effectiveness of these techniques. In addition to SEO, consider using other digital marketing tactics to gain a competitive edge, such as content marketing, PPC (pay-per-click), or social media.
4. Build A Team That Can Scale With You
It’s essential to have a team that not only understands your market and the problems you’re facing, but can also help you solve these problems. In a nutshell, you need specialists that are dedicated to your success, and scaling a digital marketing team is no different. A good SEO partner, for example, will help you get to the top of the search results for your chosen keywords, and manage your account during the process. They’ll also help you determine the keywords and phrases you should be focusing on.
5. Identify Your Channels
You can use your website as a starting point for your online marketing efforts, but that’s not the only platform you should be focusing on. Instead, consider identifying any other platforms your target audience uses regularly, such as Twitter, YouTube, or Flickr. Create a list of pros and cons for each channel, and determine which one you can use to the greatest effect.
6. Measure The Results Of Your Efforts
Once you’ve created a good foundation, taken the time to identify your audience, and determined which platforms you can use to reach them, it’s now time to measure the results of your efforts. This means compiling key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic or lead generation, and analyzing them against objectives you’ve set for the project. A quick way to determine the effectiveness of your online marketing is to track the movement of prospective customers from one platform to another.
The first step is to set a benchmark and review how you’re performing against it. For example, if you’ve determined that YouTube is the most effective platform to reach your audience, consider setting a goal of 500 views per video, to determine if you’re meeting the objective. This will also help you identify areas for improvement.
7. Update Your Technology And Tools As You Progress
As you continue to grow and evolve as a business, you’ll eventually reach a point where you need to update your technology and tools to remain competitive. One of the best things about digital marketing is that it is constantly evolving and changing, so you’re never truly stuck with one technique. This can make it much easier to gain an advantage over your competitors. To maintain a competitive edge, consider setting a goal to learn and implement new technologies as they become available. Your SEO team will help you identify opportunities to improve your site, and you can use that feedback to help better your services.
In summary, creating an effective digital marketing strategy is about putting a methodical, strategic plan into action. If you want to master the art, there’s no other way around but to begin at the beginning and work your way up. Good luck out there!