In the world of business development and branding, digital is all the rage. But what is digital marketing and how can we use it to grow our businesses?
Definition of digital marketing
Digital marketing is the advertising and promotion of businesses and their brands through digital media channels. Currently, digital media includes websites, social media, radio, television, cell phones and even traditionally non-digital forms of media such as billboards and signs.
For the most part, any marketing media delivered electronically is considered digital marketing.
Only various forms of person-to-person (P2P) marketing, print advertising, and direct marketing are not part of digital marketing. Even then, print ads, direct mail, print directories, billboards and posters are all beginning to connect with their digital counterparts. With things like URL landing pages, QR codes, web banner ads, online directories and text codes, traditional marketing and advertising almost always have a connection to digital marketing.
Why focus on digital media?
Marketing agencies, business owners and consumers are driving the shift to digital media. The ever-increasing demand for quantifiable results makes the shift to digital a dream for digital marketing agencies. Most digital media, including websites, social media and mobile advertising, are much easier to track than traditional marketing media such as print advertising.
For business owners, many forms of digital advertising are very inexpensive. A web presence, engaging customers in conversations via social media and email marketing are inexpensive alternatives to print advertising and direct mail.
These digital channels are accessible to businesses of all sizes and help level the playing field for startups, small businesses and independent consultants seeking new markets.
For consumers, the fast pace of life makes digital advertising indispensable. When consumers need goods and services, the days of flipping through a phone book to find them are over. Today, we pull out our mobile devices or head to our computers to find answers - and we find them quickly.
Use digital media to grow your business and your brand
Regardless of the size of your business - large or small business (SMB) - you can effectively market your business through low-cost digital channels. The foundation of your marketing efforts will be your website. Invest wisely in your website and make sure it does the following:
Properly represents your company and brand (look and feel, messaging).
It addresses your target audience appropriately
can be found by Internet users on the main search engines
it is up-to-date and easily navigable
offers multiple channels of communication with customers
is linked to other marketing efforts.
It is recommended to work with a professional web design company that is skilled in web development and search engine optimization. Since your website is the starting point for all other digital channels, it should be considered one of your primary business investments.
Once your website is complete, the next steps are to launch monthly or bi-monthly email campaigns and communicate with customers via social media. If you have a very tight budget, these activities can be done in-house (by someone with the necessary knowledge) or at a low cost by an outside digital marketing agency. Make sure all your efforts lead customers back to your website, where they can fully engage with your company, products and services, and choose the channels through which they contact you.
If you want to be more aggressive with search marketing, you can spend some of your digital marketing budget on search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Many businesses today rely heavily on being found online to gain new customers.
A common misconception among business owners is that just having a website is enough for customers to find it. This is not the case. Your site must be built with specific keywords and phrases, metadata, page content and linking strategies that will help it reach the top search rankings.
Since many keywords and phrases are in fierce competition for top rankings, you will need to supplement your organic SEO efforts with pay-per-click advertising. Setting up pay-per-click advertising campaigns can be a bit daunting, but with a little time, effort and instruction, this too can be done in-house, or for a reasonable cost by an outside digital marketing agency.
Beyond email, social media marketing and search engine marketing, there are a host of other digital marketing efforts you can venture into. Mobile advertising, radio, television, electronic billboards and more are all available marketing avenues. Whatever digital efforts you choose, they should all tie back to your base - your company website.
If you have the means, a wise investment would be to hire the services of a digital marketing agency to help you with your marketing efforts. Today, many digital agencies offer several levels of service to meet the needs of businesses large and small.
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