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If you are a startup entrepreneur, you need not be told of the importance of the web in the context of spread and growth. Everything has an online presence but merely having a web presence is not sufficient. You need to market yourself and capitalize on it. Here we discuss the best digital marketing strategies for building your brand and penetrating markets.
The 7 Areas to focus to create a digital marketing strategy
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
The process of improving your website, either organically or paid, to make it rank higher for keywords or phrases in search engine results. A higher position in the search results for keywords means more people will be exposed to your start-up which means more conversions.
The main objective of SEO is to bring higher and related traffic to your website. The targeted audience is defined as sets of people who are more likely to search and purchase the products and services you are offering. For example, if you are a pet groomer, your targeted keywords would be “pet groomer” and “pet makeover”.
People who are searching for pet grooming services will encounter your business in the search engine results when they search for the aforementioned keywords or any related variations. Since SEO focuses on the targeted audience to bring to your website, you are more likely to get a conversion.
SEO is effective because it crosses every member of your target audience whether you are starting off the search on a search engine or already in your buying funnel. The purpose of SEO, if we define in a nutshell, is to ensure that you are in the first position of search engine results.
Why? Because 90 percent of users don’t visit the second page and more than 30 percent of users don’t click the second result. Because we are focussing on bringing more people to your website, it is essential that we take into notice these factors and constantly strive for at least the first page, if not position.
2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
In PPC, you bid and pay for the keywords that you want your ads to show up for. When a user searches for that keyword, you, being the highest bidder, will get to show your ads above the organic listings. When a user clicks on your ad, you will make payment for that click.
As we see that in PPC as a digital marketing strategy requires you to pay for the results and not the ad space. For example, you want your ads to show up when a user searches for “cutlery”. So you would bid for the keyword “kitchen cutlery”, as it is more comprehensive in nature.
PPC is majorly focussed on people who are ready to buy your products or services. These people are more convertible into sales and thus you also get a better return on investment. When the user arrives on your landing page, he will see a call to action (CTA) button and proceed with it.
For start-ups, PPC can be a booster because the return is higher than investment. Surveys show that on average, businesses are getting USD 8 for every USD 1 spent on Google PPC. If your keywords are naturally ranking higher, using PPC in combination with SEO can propel it further.
And as far as PPC is concerned, you are not limited to search engines. Social media and many popular apps to offer the provision of advertising through PPC. Although the returns are lower than Google but trying out other platforms helps you to expose your business to an altogether fresh audience.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a form of marketing where consumers and potential buyers are reached out to and engaged with through rich and valuable content. The content includes not just regular pieces of information compiled in the text but also blogs, infographics, videos, and podcasts.
Content marketing is not a direct proposition to sell a product, so you don’t address the customer directly to sell a product. Rather, you create content around it and then offer your product or service. So, we can say that unlike PPC, which is upfront, content marketing is a little time-taking digital marketing strategy.
For example, if you run a resort chain on the beaches of Thailand, you could write on the weather, festivals around the year, activities that your resorts are carrying out, tours, packages, and more. Articles or videos or even podcasts on these will individually target specific keywords for which you will do SEO later.
Regardless of your format of content, the importance is to provide value to the audience. The content should be informational and not just created to push forward a product or service. So, ensure that the content is high value, rich in resources, and free from any plagiarism.
The best part about content marketing is that it doesn’t require a heavy investment and if set up properly, it continues to generate revenue without many efforts later. It has the ability to connect with your target audience through the buying funnel, and that too at double the usual conversion rates.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is focussed on two directions simultaneously, retention of existing customers and acquisition of new ones. It is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies, which ensures returning buyers. Similar to content marketing, you create email messages to send to your existing or new buyers.
Through email marketing, we grow our audience and keep on refining the existing campaigns to retain the existing users. Emails comprising of newsletters, new offers, discounts, or any other related news, are sent to new and old buyers on a periodic basis to keep them reminded of your brand whenever they think of buying a product again.
So in a way, we are keeping our business afresh and afloat in the raging competition and inviting users to make secondary purchases through our website. For example, Amazon sends emails regularly to its new and old customers whenever a new phone is launching.
When a prospective buyer would think of buying the new phone, he will come to Amazon to complete his purchase. This way, the old customer is retained and new ones will be too sought. One of the benefits of this strategy is that you can also distinguish your audience and send personalized emails.
More than 80 percent of companies’ use email marketing and the returns too are staggering. As a start-up owner, you will not only take more than you give but also increase your brand presence and client retention. Email marketing still creates 50 percent more leads than other methods which explains it shouldn’t be missed out at all.
5. Social Media Marketing
When we speak of digital marketing strategy, how can we miss out on social media marketing! A social media marketing campaign is focussed on bringing users, enhancing brand presence, and increasing conversions through ads and promotions on social media platforms.
The best social media platforms to promote a brand are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Usually, every business has the scope of marketing and advertising on all of these platforms but certainly, there are some exceptions. The major area of focus here is to increase brand awareness and conversions.
Social media marketing does this by creating and promotional content, together with interacting with users. Whether it is a product launch or announcement of a new sale, social media has a wide scope for everything. Today, less than 30 percent of companies are on social media which makes it a lucrative and less competitive space.
Speaking of another figure, users today tend to connect with brands and businesses in an informal way, for which social media platforms are great. Users also tend to rely on social media to check out the perception of a brand. They also seek their friends and family member’s opinions for this.
All of these factors collectively imply that you can connect with your users and create a better image and develop brand value by increasing your followers on Instagram, Twitter, etc. and start interacting with them. Your company’s public profile is a big trust factor because it serves others users to check out how well are you in offering products or services.
6. Voice Search Optimization
Voice search optimization is the way of optimizing new and existing content for voice searches made by users. Why is this important for a digital marketing strategy? Because we are seeing substantial growth in voice searches made over Google and voice assistants. The aim is to earn your website the featured snippet position in Google search results.
It is important because various voice assistant gadgets pick the featured snippet in response when asked a question. Since search queries aren’t always in a standard form, voice search optimization becomes necessary. So a user may ask, “What is the weather outside?” and another may ask “Weather forecast for today”.
By featuring in the snippet position, you will increase brand’s online visibility to consumers, which leads to store visits, product purchases, and more. People are using their smartphones and smart home devices to establish a search and with the snippet position, you will ensure that you are featured in the response.
And now with technological advancement such as smart homes, you can see the potential of voice searches in the future. Some facts that may further cement this for you include – 50 percent of adults use voice search feature each day. More than half of voice activated speaker demands promotional brand content.
This is a good way to pitch in your brand and offer sales, discounts, or coupons – in short, anything that brings them to your brand’s landing page. Voice search optimization is a wonderful thing which is only going to see spike in competition in the time to come. It is better to go for it now!
7. Video Marketing
Video marketing intends to grow targeted audience, retain existing customers, and increase a business’ reach through video content. The videos are often shot professionally or at least with a basic setup, which offers information and rich content through interviews, graphics, or POV.
Video marketing has different forms and some of them are tutorials, announcements, BTS (behind the scenes), events, interviews, and instructional. Regardless of your video type, you intend to develop brand awareness and gather more targeted following. Higher brand awareness later results into higher conversions.
Video in digital marketing strategy has shown improved conversions by a mind boggling 85%! Couple it with social media marketing and you can do wonders. So basically, you just have to create valuable, high-quality, and original content for users. They need not be in a serious tone and setup at all.
A typical adult spends up to five hours a day watching videos on different platforms. Now suppose you create a video campaign and put it through Instagram and Facebook. Through video promotional content, you will fetch higher brand awareness. Since we are using social media here, you can be assured of newer targeted audience too.
You can shoot funny videos, behind the scenes where users can see your production units, instructional videos from which users can learn, and others. It all depends on your creativity and how willing are you to push your brand presence. When 90 percent of users credit videos for making decisions in purchase, why are you lagging on this opportunity?
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