As a modern-day marketer, you must be no stranger to the term “digital marketing.” When the first banner advertisement appeared online in 1994, the world of marketing knew at once that we would be heading into the future at a rapid pace. And we sure have. From age-old banner advertisements (that have become quite an annoyance with time) to promoting your brands over Instagram Stories, digital marketing surely has evolved.
You need to devise smarter and actionable digital marketing campaigns to get customer engagement at the peak. Here’s a quick overview of the 10 useful digital marketing strategies that you can use to propel your business forward.
10 digital marketing strategies you need right now
Here are ten digital marketing strategies that can boost your revenue. Mix and match to find your sweet spot, and define concrete points of measurements to bring those greens your way.
1. Landing page marketing
Think about how tastefully five-star hotels decorate the foyer and lounge area by the concierge’s desk and receptions. It is the first place you walk into when at a hotel, and the proprietors want you to vibe the luxe and comfort to create a lasting first impression. Walking into an aesthetically pleasing environment immediately sets in an aura of reassurance (in the brand). The landing pages to your website are just like the welcoming foyer and lounge area at deluxe properties.
You must go all out to make all those who do land themselves on your landing pages feel quite taken by your products and services. There must be factors of relevance, conciseness and appeal to the products or services that you offer. Since time is money on the web, your landing pages should also cut to chase without sounding overbearing or the “pushy sales” type.
2. Search engine optimisation (SEO)
If you have not heard of SEO or search engine optimisation by now, you must have been living under a rock. These days you cannot escape the far-reaching impact of search engine optimisation. Be it Google, Bing or Yahoo, strategising your marketing efforts for search engines has long been a much-favoured practice. Every effective SEO strategy aims at attracting organic traffic to your website. You should also be focusing on that (if you weren’t already, that is).
Mixing inbound and outbound links with optimised, keyword-rich content should be your SEO goal of the year. Top that with a good deal of knowledge on search engine algorithm updates, and you have a winner! We have come a long way (22 years, to be exact) since the advent of the first SEO strategies, and you should do all that you can to make the most of it.
3. Search engine marketing (SEM)
This one packs in your best SEO efforts with a paid marketing scheme. Since search engine results pages usually display paid ads on top of the organic ones, you need a viable strategy for SEM as well. Search engine marketing lets you place strategic posts (in the form of paid advertisements) on the search engine results page. It is a proven way of increasing traffic if studies are anything to go by. The plus side is, paid posts and advertisements look EXACTLY the same as organic ones with the only exception being an almost unnoticeable ‘ad’ tag next to the URL. As you can see in the picture, paid posts get first spots on search engine results pages. You need to draw up an effective search engine marketing strategy right now.
4. Social media marketing (SMM)
Social media reigns supreme in the 21st century. Now that we have Instagram Dailies, Facebook Stories and Snaps on Snapchat, content for social media needs to be catchy, relevant and functional at the same time. B2C businesses would do great if they amped up their social media marketing strategies. Whether you run an nursingassignment help website or one that rents out second-hand wedding gowns, you need to use social media more to fortify your digital marketing efforts.
Engage users, make them take part in two-way interactions, and use social media platforms to the best of your advantage and drive home the right kind of results. Brands like Airbnb, Disney, Charmin and Urban Decay are killing it with their social media marketing campaigns, so what are you waiting for?
5. Email marketing
Yeah, you might think DMs and video calls work better in this Smartphone-ruled era. But believe it or not, the good ol’ email is on the rise. Radicati’s market research for the years 2017-2021 put the number of emails sent and received by businesses globally at increasing by 4.4% on an average. With personalisation settings and buyer demographics by your side, there is no end to what you can do with the correct email marketing strategy.
Killer subject lines, a crisp opening note, giveaways on subscription, and a plethora of strategies can come handy for email marketing this year. If you had put emails in the backburner, it is time you thought about your digital marketing strategy once again. The sheer brilliance in email marketing from Ponchos and Postmates can teach you a thing or two if you require a heads-up on this aspect.
6. Content marketing
You must have heard the saying that goes like, “Content is king.” The sheer relevance of the saying holds true even to this date. Whether it is your new television commercial or an Instagram poll, curating content that attracts customers by the hordes to your website is imperative for this one. From getting under the skin of your target audience to personalising emails, there’s a lot you can do to play around with content. What’s more, a whopping 86% of B2C marketers and 91% of B2B marketers figure in content marketing as a viable digital marketing strategy.
So, your competitors are most likely using it too. Brands like Rolex, Hootsuite, Burberry and Hubspot have really turned around the content marketing game. It is time you took a leaf out of their page and amped up your content marketing strategies as well.
7. Online advertising
An age-old practice when it comes to the Internet, online advertising has not lost its relevance. Platforms like Google AdSense allow you to launch advertisements directly into the content sites. As always, placing your ad strategically alongside a relevant blog is the key to success here. Since you can now configure the settings of your advertisements according to keywords, location, and buyer demographics, your digital marketing strategies can all come out to play here. Take your moment under the spotlight, hit the right notes, and get those clever ad spaces for your business.
8. Mobile marketing
Smartphone is the future and there is no denying it. Yes, we might be heading towards devices that are handier than the current Smartphone models. However, as each week passes, we come across yet another new design for one Smartphone brand or the other. The Esendex business communication providers report a 94% global average open rate (SMS) for mobile marketing. A $5 opt-in for SMS marketing campaign resulted in a 163% increase in opt-in rates for Lifetouch Portrait Studios, for example. Once cash in on that point, and you may open the door to promising conversion figures this business quarter.
9. Affiliate and associate marketing
Similar to delegation, affiliate marketing works by dividing your promotional efforts to a supportive group. You need to pick smart affiliates or businesses that would promote your product for free. You only need to pay for your affiliate per conversion. So that saves a great deal of overhead costs for your business. You get to have a crazy amount of exposure on the Internet through affiliate marketing. One look at the Amazon Associates, and you’ll know what I am talking about. Affiliate marketing is not only a pretty good way of levelling up your digital marketing game, but also pays off in terms of conversions.
10. Viral marketing
Finally, viral marketing lets you hit the jackpot with your digital marketing strategies. It rolls every strategy mentioned above into one and hits the bulls-eye. Quite an uphill task, this one. But that does not mean that it is unachievable. Whether it is a meme, a short piece of content or a music video, you have got to put your best shot out there to achieve viral marketing success. On top of all that, you need to promote it right across all channels including YouTube and Twitter.
Maximum exposure is THE aim for viral marketing. So, make sure your brand is ready to make the jump before you commit yourselves to something this huge. Here’s your inspiration from Real Beauty Sketches, a viral marketing campaign by Dove that garnered around 114 million views on YouTube in the first month.
In conclusion
While all of the strategies discussed above are effective, you need to figure out what works best for your business. Apart from the standard procedure of choosing SEO and social media marketing, you need to pick strategies that drive home positive results for your brand. Invest in a dynamic digital marketing team, get some new-age tools, and revamp your strategy for online marketing this year. Godspeed!
Lea Longo is a Australia-based digital marketing expert. She is also associated with MyAssignmenthelp.com.ae as a custom assignment writer. A part-time blogger, she enjoys penning enlightening pieces on business trends and marketing advice for budding marketers of modern times.