You might be asking yourself, what the heck is digital marketing? You might also be asking yourself how, exactly, does it affect your company’s growth? These are excellent questions! Now here are some answers for you. Digital marketing is a bit of an umbrella term – it encompasses a variety of marketing techniques that are targeted, measurable, and (here’s the big one) interactive. Instead of traditional marketing through print, television, or radio ads, digital marketing takes place primarily online, and the goal is to get your target audience’s attention, encourage regular interaction with your brand, convert them to customers, and if all goes well, brand ambassadors. That process is also known as the “marketing funnel“, and though the techniques have changed over the past few years, the end goal remains the same: satisfied customers who recommend your brand to others. So what sort of techniques are used in digital marketing? Glad you asked!
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
You’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO) before, but maybe you weren’t quite sure what it meant. Well, SEO refers to best practices that help your business rank higher in Google search results. These higher rankings don’t happen through paid advertising, but rather strategic use of relevant search keywords. Let’s say you own a vegetarian restaurant in Washington DC. You might think that your site’s keywords should just be “vegetarian restaurant”. But if you type that into Google you’ll see that there are hundreds of results, and very few are relevant to your restaurant. But what if you went after the “long tail” of keywords – a specific set of keywords more tailored to your business. So instead of “vegetarian restaurant” you go with “vegetarian asian restaurant U Street Corridor”. Suddenly the results are narrowed in to your neighborhood and the type of food you serve – which means there is FAR less competition than there is when you use generic keywords. That is search engine optimization. At least the start of it…
SOCIAL MEDIA
Yes, we’ve written about social media before. But it’s importance hasn’t decreased since we started writing about it – with more social networks and users than ever before (and those numbers continue to trend upwards) having a strong social presence is crucial for any growing brand. Think of your social media presence as your public persona, your way to connect with current and potential customers. You don’t need to bore them with the details of your internal workings – instead catch their interest with how you can help solve their problems! But don’t just talk about yourself. Social media is about being social – post funny pictures, ask questions of your followers, hold live chats – there’s a whole host of techniques you can use to interact with your audience, and the more human a face your company has, the better your reputation.
EMAIL MARKETING
Ah, the good old email newsletter. Some people hate them, some people love them, but the truth is, they can be incredibly effective at converting your audience to customers. The key is to offer content that your audience will be interested in, and pursue – not just emails that get tossed in the trash. Few people will care that you’re expanding your business – but if you send out a Grand Opening Invitation with a coupon, you bet you’ll get some clicks! If you’re curious about how else companies use email marketing, HubSpot has some great examples on their blog.
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
So the other night I went to a clothing website and bought a dress I’d been eyeing. Ever since then, ads for that site and others have been showing up on websites I visit. This has also happened when I’ve bought headphones, language software, you name it. Website advertisements are just one aspect of display advertising, which refers to text, image, and video ads that appear on websites. Unlike pop-up ads of old (oh, the 90’s!), website advertisements are not meant to distract you from the content you want to view. Instead, they work as the first part of that marketing funnel – awareness. Once you’re aware of a company, you’re more likely to check out their products and services, which can lead to a purchase. All this happened because that company put an advertisement on a website you like to visit. Smart, right?
ANALYTICS
Ok, so you’ve implemented all these strategies into your marketing. How do you know if they’re effective? That’s where analytics come in. Analytics is the whole “trackable, measurable” side of marketing. By using data like email opens, advertisement clicks, and social interaction, we can figure out if your marketing efforts are paying off. Inbound marketing software can even track every step of a customer’s journey – from first site visit to purchase – letting you tailor your marketing to customers on the individual level. How cool is that?!
Like I said, the goal of digital marketing is to get customers into the marketing funnel, using technology-based techniques. Digital marketing is incredibly effective, and brands that take advantage see significant growth. If you want to get started with digital marketing, or even if you have a few more questions you’d like to ask, shoot us an email at [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear from you!