The way we communicate has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Thanks to the rise of social media, the way we share our stories and engage with the world around us has shifted. Today, more people use social media platforms to connect with friends, family and professional contacts than they do traditional email.
This shift towards online communication has opened doors for businesses, allowing them to reach and engage with their target audiences wherever they are. While traditional brick and mortar stores still exist, an increasing number of businesses choose to operate solely online. If you’re interested in creating a digital marketing strategy to help your business grow, keep reading.
Why Online Marketing?
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably already aware that running a business purely online is a popular choice amongst entrepreneurs and small businesses. The perks of operating an exclusively digital store are numerous!
From marketing to sales, to finding new customers, everything is accessible online. You can test marketing methods and new products without risking any financial investment. Having an online storefront also makes it much easier for customers to find and connect with you – whether you have a physical location or not.
According to HubSpot Blogs research, 84% of consumers prefer to research products and places online rather than in person. Additionally, 71% of consumers prefer to purchase products online that they couldn’t try in person due to the lack of space. With the convenience of an online store, you can provide a quality experience for your customers even when they’re researching or purchasing from a distance.
How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
To ensure your business reaches its full potential, you need to have a clear idea of how to approach digital marketing. A business or brand marketing strategy defines your goals and objectives, and sets a benchmark for measuring your performance. Without one, it’s hard to know where you are spending your time and how you’re progressing towards your goals.
A marketing strategy may include everything from SEO to PPC, depending on your business’ needs. To create one that’s informed by the best practices from marketers worldwide, you should consult with an outside marketing professional – like an experienced digital marketer or campaign manager – to get personalized advice and guidance on how to move forward.
The following sections will walk you through the process of creating a marketing strategy for your business.
Set Your Benchmark
The first step in the strategy creation process is to set your benchmark. What do you hope to see from your digital marketing efforts? What are your objectives and expectations?
Your benchmark doesn’t have to be complex – a goal of acquiring 100 new customers per month is a simple yet effective benchmark. Setting a benchmark allows you to easily gauge your performance and determine if you’re progressing in the right direction. If you’re not reaching this benchmark, you could consider changing your approach or exploring additional tactics to increase your organic traffic.
Determine Your Target Audience
Determining your target audience is an important part of any marketing strategy. After you’ve set your benchmark, you can determine the type of people most likely to buy your products or services.
When developing your target audience, think about who you’re marketing to and what they want. A good strategy will consist of a mix of demographics and psychographics – especially if you want your business to appeal to a variety of audiences. To create a solid foundation for your marketing strategy, you should first consider who your ideal buyer is, then build a profile of them. Once you’ve got that, you can start to define their interests, hobbies and demographics. The more you know about your customer, the more you can tailor your strategy to reach them. For example, if you know that your ideal buyer is made up of Millennials, you can take this into consideration when creating your marketing plan. You may decide to focus on attracting this audience to your store with social media campaigns and online marketing.
Create Key Performance Indicators
“Key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t metrics that you’ll track regularly throughout the year, but rather metrics that you’ll use to determine whether or not your strategy is working,” according to HubSpot Blogs. When you have clear and consistent KPIs, it’s easy to track your performance and make necessary adjustments to ensure that you continue to improve. You can use a variety of tools to track KPIs, from web analytics to Google Analytics.
Select Your Marketing Channels
Once you’ve determined your target audience, you can start to think about which channels will be the best for reaching them. While SEO, PPC, and content creation are essential to any business’ digital marketing strategy, you need to consider which platforms your ideal buyer uses to engage with the world around them.
These platforms might include email, social media, websites, and apps – and each one plays an integral role in determining your business’ digital presence. For example, did you know that 72% of consumers have bought something while on the phone? Email marketing is a highly effective way to capture and retain customers, so it’s worth considering as part of your strategy. Remember that what works for one business may not work for another – what’s most important is that you find what works for you.
Create Key Phrases
To make your content discoverable, you’ll need to consider the keywords or key phrases that customers might use when searching for your products. When creating content for your strategy, use key phrases rather than simple words. When someone searches for a product or service using a key phrase, they’ll frequently see results for other businesses that use the same term. Using the example from the beginning, if you listed your URL as “https://bobsamedical.com” in the website’s content, you could also include the following keywords: SAVERSEEN, HMOs, POSITIONS, ACUPYSNES, DRILLS, and LASERS.
Think of a few key phrases that you might use to find information about your product or service. Once you’ve got those, you can start building content – like blog posts, webinars, etc. – to support those phrases. Ideally, you’ll want content that’s around 500 words to accomplish this.
Creating content for your strategy doesn’t have to be hard. With a little bit of planning and research, you can easily find topics that are relevant to your industry and niche. If you want to get started, check out these SEO tools that can help you find the right keywords and phrases to help your blog or website rank higher in search engines. Not ready to create content yet? Check out these SEO copywriting tools that can help you build articles for your site. The right content can help not only with SEO, but also with conversion – increasing the chance of getting a lead, making a sale, or just persuading someone to take action.
How To Approach SEO For On-premise Businesses
For on-premise businesses, such as restaurants and fitness centers, SEO can be a daunting task – you’re not just competing for organic searches, but you also have to worry about paid search, display ads, and social media. If you don’t want to tackle SEO yourself, it’s often easier to hire an expert. However, if you’ve got the budget, internal resources, and time to dedicate to the task, here are some tips on how to approach SEO for on-premise businesses.
Optimize For Mobile
According to MarketingCharts, as of June 2020, 86% of American adults use mobile phones to access the internet. It would be safe to assume that a majority of those people are searching for products and services online. To reach this audience, you need to make sure that your site appears seamless on mobile phones.
To achieve this, you need to focus on three key areas:
- Responsive design: creating a single website that looks great on any device.
- Speed: making sure that your site loads quickly regardless of the device.
- Content: creating content that’s easy to understand and compelling.
To find out how easy it is to create a single, responsive website, check out this free tool from StudioPress: Build a Better Website Using Content Organizer. To test the speed of your site, try using Google’s Speed Test tool. For SEO experts, consider using a tool like SEER Interactive’s SERPS Watch. With these tools, you can track your website’s performance across major search engines including Google, Bing, and Yola.
Use Video
According to HubSpot Blogs, video content is on the rise. People are using video to learn about products and services, find deals, and communicate with businesses.