Starting a business feels like climbing Mount Everest. The constant battle that comes with getting your business known and battling the competition can be physically and mentally exhausting. But when you experience success, it feels like the thrill of reaching the top.
No matter how good your business journey is, the truth is that every business goes through a plateau. Sales may have slowed to a standstill, perhaps there is a lack of employee engagement or innovation, or your competitors have captured the attention of your audience. This is normal. Calm doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over, however. The right tools can help get your business back on track.
Digital marketing has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to reach new customers and drive growth. Businesses need a variety of digital marketing strategies to be successful. In this article, we’ll explore how digital marketing can help a business grow and the strategies you can use to make it happen.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a marketing method that uses multiple digital strategies and channels to reach customers, who spend most of their time online. Think of it as the opposite of traditional print advertising. Reaching your audience through newspapers or billboards used to be the norm. You can now reach customers via email, pop up on their social media pages, and answer their questions on Google Search. If you can meet them where they are, you’re more likely to be top of mind and make a sale.
What are some popular digital marketing strategies?
There are a variety of ways to connect with your audience online, but not all strategies work for every business. Before launching a digital marketing campaign, you must have a clear understanding of how it supports your overall goals. You also need to understand how each method works. While there are a few more strategies available, we’ll explain some of the main ones below:
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results pages. Think about how often you go to the second or third page of Google search results – rare, right? This is why getting to page one is so important, and why so many people are strategically trying to rank number one.
Improving a website’s ranking is done through various techniques such as keyword research, meta tags, and link building. You want to make sure you’re answering questions that people are actually asking to increase visibility, and you want to get those questions answered correctly for credibility and authority. SEO is an important tool in driving organic traffic to your website, attracting new customers and driving business growth.
content marketing
Content marketing emphasizes creating, producing and sharing content designed to attract and engage your target online audience. This strategy and SEO go hand in hand. If you don’t have informative content on your website, you won’t be able to improve your search engine rankings. While content marketing includes website content, like blog posts, it also includes social media posts, videos, online courses, and even campaigns that generate interest in your brand’s products or services.
The process of creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage prospects can be an effective tool for building trust, establishing authority, and ultimately driving growth. In fact, 72% of marketers who claim having a solid content strategy is key to their success have increased their content marketing budgets to continue seeing growth.
If you’ve prioritized content marketing and aren’t seeing the expected results, you might want to consider running a content analysis to see how you can optimize your material. While improving your content is always a plus, you also want to make sure to revise or remove any outdated or incorrect content. This can hurt your rankings and authority.
pay per click advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a type of digital advertising in which a business pays for each click on the ad. If you have not run such campaigns as a marketer, you must have seen them as consumers. Whether scrolling through Facebook or Google, PPC ads line up the page to promote products and services that are specifically catered for.
PPC advertising can be a powerful tool for attracting new customers and driving growth. The traffic these ads generate typically brings in more revenue than the click costs, and the searcher is usually already committed to buying when clicked. PPC ads can help expand your customer base because they are specifically targeted. Plus, PPC advertising is often one of the fastest ways to grow your audience. While SEO is a marathon, PPC advertising is a sprint that delivers a quick return on investment.
email marketing
Email marketing allows businesses to promote products or services through email campaigns. It can be an effective tool for driving conversions, but what’s especially notable about this approach is its cost-effectiveness. Email is an owned medium that requires less initial outlay than traditional advertising. Research shows that for every dollar spent on email marketing, businesses see approximately $36 in return. For retail and e-commerce companies, this number will even increase.
This strategy is also beneficial because it allows you to send messages directly to consumers and can be personalized for repeat customers. With personalization becoming increasingly important across industries, email marketing has proven especially beneficial. You can thank customers for their purchases, offer product recommendations, and offer rewards for special occasions or even referrals.
social media marketing
Social media marketing, as the name suggests, uses social media platforms to promote a product or service. It can be an effective tool for building brand awareness, engaging with customers and driving growth. Statistica reports, “As of 2022, Internet users worldwide will spend an average of 147 minutes per day on social media per day, up from 145 minutes the previous year. This trend has continued to increase over the past 10 years.
If marketers should learn anything from social media usage trends, it’s that they need to have a social media presence. Choosing the right platform for your product or service is very important. If you’re selling retirement planning services, your primary audience won’t be on TikTok. But if you sell beauty supplies, clothes, tech, or food, TikTok could be the ticket. Platform popularity varies by demographic, so knowing your audience is crucial.
influencer marketing
While it’s important for your brand to have its own presence on social media, working with influencers allows your business to leverage its connections to grow your audience. Media elites prioritize building relationships with certain demographics, so partnering strategically with them can increase visibility and even boost sales.
The study found that 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations when purchasing products. Influencers can have an impact even when consumers don’t shop. In fact, the same research shows that 40% of consumers buy something after seeing it on social media. Several studies have shown that influencer recommendations are more effective than friend recommendations. It shows how authority influencers come to be, which is why this marketing strategy is becoming more and more mainstream.
Digital marketing is an essential tool
From SEO to social media marketing, there are a variety of strategies you can use to attract new customers and drive growth. It’s important to remember that no single strategy alone will necessarily drive growth. You need a combination of different tools and strategies to achieve your goals.
It’s also important to make sure you measure and analyze your digital marketing efforts. Take advantage of the analytics tools and software available to track the performance of your website, campaigns and social media channels. This will help you understand what works and what doesn’t. You can then adjust your strategy accordingly. This will also give you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop more effective campaigns for the future.
