An established brand and a high-converting website are essential, but when it comes to digital marketing in 2019, there are so many possible strategies to pursue that trying to figure it all out on your own will make your head spin! After all, there seems to be an endless amount of social networks, platforms, and tools at your disposal.
In fact, many people become so overwhelmed by everything that digital marketing entails that they give up before even trying. And for those who do try, it can be very disappointing when their money is lost due to a failed marketing campaign. But don’t worry. This article is going to break down all the different kinds of marketing strategies that exist today and catch you up to speed as to which is right for you.
Social Media Marketing
What is it?
- Online platforms where communities share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content
- Social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many others
- Many digital marketing agencies are coming to understand the power of social media
- Various platforms are being used to the advantage of digital marketing campaigns
Who Needs it?
- People looking to create brand awareness
- Companies trying to increase their client retention rates
- Retail storefronts as they must connect with their local communities
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Technically, few businesses need social media as a digital marketing strategy
- Especially B2B companies that have been established for years
- However, everyone can definitely benefit from social media as a marketing tool
Why it Works
- An online social presence increases your accessibility
- It creates a way for you to network with people all over the world
- The best way to develop a loyal following
- Transparency builds trust
- Consistency is an absolute
Why it Fails
- Incorrectly trying to use social media as a sales tool
- Lack of posting schedule or social media strategy
- People fail to be consistent so they give up because they don’t see results
- Content does not reflect brand’s values
- You don’t understand the different uses of the platforms, i.e. Facebook vs Instagram
What’s the Return on Investment?
- ROI for social media isn’t always tangible or quantifiable
- An ROI can be measured on how much an online community means to you and your business
- Chances of solid return in followers and indirect sales increases when you hire professionals to develop a strategy
Social Media Advertising
What is it?
- A digital marketing strategy where your products or services are promoted online
- Facebook and Instagram ads are the most beneficial for social media ad campaigns
- Ads for your business will show up on numerous people’s social media feeds
- One of the most influential forms of social media advertising is influencer marketing
- You can pay influencers to speak about your products
- In turn, they will quite literally influence their audience
- This ultimately directs traffic to your business
Who Needs it?
- Businesses that want another source of relevant traffic
- Anyone looking to increase online sales
- Business looking to capture a niche audience or appeal to an exact persona
- Business looking to capture a different target audience
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Businesses who are not concerned about increasing sales immediately
- Businesses who do not want to tap into new markets or verticals
Why it Works
- Business can create a hyper-targeted strategy using Facebook ads based on buyer behavior
- People respond well to advertisements when in the right frame of mind
- People respond well to advertisements endorsed by their network
Why it Fails
- Giving up too quickly and not accepting time is needed for A/B testing
- Poor photography and images
- Copy is not relatable or relevant
- Call-to-action is not engaging or inspiring
- Landing page linked to the ad is disappointing or confusing to the viewer
- People have never heard of your business so there’s no trust
- Influencer marketing fails because the wrong influencer was hired for promotions
What’s the Return on Investment?
- Very similar if not identical to ROI for social media
- It’s all about how much you put in versus how much you make from it
- First take note of how much money you yield from social media in a given timeframe
- Then calculate how much your expenses were in the process
- Divide your profit by your investment and you’ll have your ROI
Retargeting
What is it?
- Ads that follow people from website to website
- When someone leaves your site without buying anything, a cookie traces them
- Ads are inserted on other websites to get the viewer to return to your company’s site
Who Needs it?
- Businesses that have an e-commerce store
- Businesses that are subscription based
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Businesses who sell to the public sector based on bids and contracts
- Businesses that don’t currently have a website
- Businesses that don’t have a well-designed website that converts
Why it Works
- Upon visiting a website, not every viewer will commit and make a purchase right away
- When you see the name of a business over and over again, it becomes familiar
- People often stick to what they know so familiarity is an advantage for you
- On average, users see your ad 8 times before they make a purchase
- The more they see it, the more inclined they’ll be to ultimately buy from you
Why it Fails
- Some people install an ad blocker on their computers to prevent retargeting ads
- You are targeting the wrong demographic
- Cookies malfunction and do not accurately trace the viewer
- Some software, like Apple’s Safari, do not allow tracing for more than twenty-four hours
- Oversaturating your potential client, which turns them off rather than encourages them
What’s the Return on Investment?
- Retargeting ads result in some of the best ROIs
- You pay for ads but you make back so much more in the form of sales
- Upwards of 200% of your investment when properly executed
Newsletters and Email Marketing
What is it?
- Amazing opportunity for businesses to connect with their current audience and customers in a casual way
- Excellent method of following up with potential clients
- Great way of keeping the interest of current clients by sending them updates and promotions
Who Needs it?
- Smaller businesses eager to build professional relationships with their readers or customers
- Companies that sell products or services that change or evolve
- Anyone looking to update a following about business-related endeavors
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Companies and that thrive mostly on social media platforms like YouTube or SnapChat
- Establishments that shouldn’t come off salesy, i.e. doctors office, dentists, divorce lawyers
Why it Works
- Golden opportunity to transform prospective clients into long-term customers
- Emails are a way of making sure your business is seen
- Email marketing and newsletters make campaigns far more successful
Why it Fails
- Your information is bland, canned and of no real value
- You aren’t consistent and don’t send enough emails
- You send too many emails and it floods people’s inboxes
- Your title’s and descriptions don’t move recipients to open the email
- People unsubscribe because you purchased an email list
What’s the Return on Investment?
- Email marketing costs you very little money
- If anything it’s more time-consuming than it is expensive
- Since sending emails and newsletters is not costly, your profit margin is far greater
- ROIs of upwards of 440% have been achieved via email marketing
Blog Writing
What is it?
- A space for crafting articles discussing a variety of topics that are all related to your niche
Who Needs it?
- Companies that specialize in a particular niche
- Businesses that have the potential to educate their audiences, so pretty much every business
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Blog writing is always a bonus, so every company should do it
- Every company with a blog is viewed as being more credible than those without
Why it Works
- Increases your credibility
- You’re providing people with valuable content
- Interesting content will cause people to continuously come back for more
Why it Fails
- Spreading false or misguided information
- Blog posts are too lengthy
- Topics are not interesting to the audience
- You’re trying to sell a product or service
- Your information is too basic and not informative
What’s the Return on Investment?
- Blog writing will likely to increase your following before it results in immediate sales
- Your ROI is contingent on the price-points of your products and services minus how much you pay for blogging services
Search Engine Optimization
What is it?
- SEO = search engine optimization
- Helps you align your web copy with the algorithms of search engines, like Google
- Arguably the most important form of digital marketing
- Assists you in getting ahead of the competition
- Includes tactics like keyword research, backlinks, and featured images
Who Needs it?
- Businesses that are entirely web-based
- Companies that rely heavily on SERPs for their company’s success
- Stores that have a physical location can benefit from SEO, too
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Companies that cannot be found online
- If this is you, however, consider changing that
- Every business should have an online presence, even if you only operate in-person
Why it Works
- SEO works best when it stays up-to-date
- If search engines announce a change in their algorithms, read about the updates
- Adhere to changes in algorithms
- When content complies, websites start climbing to the top
- The only way to eventually bring your website to a #1 ranking on SERPs
- Unlike Pay-Per-Click advertising, the benefits of SEO remain for years to come
Why it Fails
- People expect immediate results
- You aren’t keeping up with analytics and changing tactics accordingly
- You’re working with outdated SEO techniques
- The keywords you are trying to target are far too competitive
- On the other hand, you haven’t chosen a niche so your content is too vague
- You’re not appealing to your target audience
What’s the Return on Investment?
- SEO is costly because it is a long-term investment
- You are not likely going to see results right off the bat
- Best indication of how well your SEO campaign is going is by looking at SERPs position
- If you are higher up in the results, your campaign is working
- If you cannot even find your site on SERPs, then you might need to adjust
Local SEO
What is it?
- Local SEO is a way of attracting people located in certain cities
- To better explain local SEO, let’s pretend you’re in an unfamiliar city
- Say you’re looking to get your hair cut by a professional
- Since you do not know the area well, you’re more likely to use the internet
- You’re less likely to wander the streets and hope that you find a hairdresser’s studio.
- Let’s say you open your mobile browser and you type “hairdresser near me”
- The phrase “near me” is an example of local SEO
- It refers to the use of keywords, such as “near me” or “in my area,” as part of the text
- Including city-specific information in your web copy will increase your local SEO
- Including a map or directory somewhere on your website is also local SEO
Who Needs it?
- All businesses, no matter where in the world you operate
- For instance, if you are a web developer who works remotely, local SEO can benefit you
- Say you work out of your home in New York City
- Say there’s a real estate company in California with web design
- Without the use of local SEO, the Californian real estate team would not know about you
- By including California as an area you service, you will end up expanding your clientele
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Everyone business can benefit from local SEO
Why it Works
- Increases your reach
- Expands your findability
- More people will be able to view your website
- Your name is recognized beyond the scope of your physical location
Why it Fails
- You target areas that you cannot service or provide products to
- Your address is inaccurate
- Your titles and meta-descriptions are not tailored to each location
- Your business is not registered with local directories
What’s the Return on Investment?
- ROI for local SEO is easier to calculate once business starts rolling in
- Keep a running list of how many times people find you online with city-specific terms
- Ask clients and customers how they found your business
- If even a small percentage of your business is from online, local SEO is benefiting you
Pay Per Click Advertising
What is it?
- PPC, or pay-per-click, is when you pay for your content to be promoted
- A digital marketing technique that will cost you money right off the bat
- When people find your website on their own, it is called an organic view
- When you pay for advertisements on search engines, it is called PPC marketing
- Requires that you pay a set rate for every click your sponsored post receives
Who Needs it?
- E-commerce stores that rely on online traffic for sales
- Companies that need to promote a product or service right away
- Startup’s that want to leapfrog competitors already established and ranked highly in the search engines
Who Doesn’t Need it?
- Websites that don’t sell or promote anything
- Businesses that don’t offer any promotions or specials
- Websites that already have a strong online presence yielding a healthy ROI
Why it Works
- The pay-per-click strategy is incredibly beneficial when executed well
- Many people who view your ad will end up purchasing a product or service from you
- PPC marketing makes content more visible and drives more traffic to your website
Why it Fails
- Ads weren’t optimized over time, but instead, just reused over the months
- PPC ads are not being presented to the right audience
- Call-to-action was inaccurate or unrelated
- Keywords targeted in your PPC campaign were either too broad or too specific
- Your monetary investment into your PPC campaign was too low to be effective
- You reached a demographic that caused low-quality traffic
What’s the Return on Investment?
- Relies on how many clicks convert into a sale
- On average, click-through rates are roughly 2%
- This means 2% of people who view your ad will click on it and visit your website
- Comes down to how much you spend versus how much your receive in return
- ROI = overall profit minus initial cost, divided by cost
- Depends on your website traffic
How to Choose the Best Digital Marketing Strategy
Now that you have learned about some of the most common digital marketing techniques, you might be wondering where to start. After all, how do you know which strategy your business will most benefit from? That’s an excellent question, but the truth is that there is no direct, one-size-fits-all answer.
If you would rather not trial-and-error your way through a digital marketing campaign, it is wise to turn to the professionals. Digital marketing agencies like Link Encounter can put together a customized strategy for your business. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us today! We are more than happy to walk you through the process.