Digital Marketing: a topic that can sound overwhelming to a business owner if they haven’t had recent hands-on experience with it. They know their goals, but how do they meet them? Let’s break down some of the basics to help you get started.
What’s the First Step?
If we think of the first steps from a customer or user standpoint, it begins with research. They are in need of a product or service, and want more information before making a decision. Where will they start? The internet.
For a business, this means your first objective should be creating an informative, user-friendly website. Some of the basic elements to include are:
- Information about your product or service
- What makes your product or service unique or different from potential competitors
- How to purchase or obtain your product or service
- Business information (history of your business, contact information, etc.)
Search Engine Marketing
Your website should also be optimized for a type of digital marketing called search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is a way to appear on search engine results pages for various phrases, questions, or keywords. This will make it possible for your website to be found by users searching for your product/service. SEM is split into two categories: search engine optimization (SEO), and paid search ads (PPC).
SEO accomplishes your goal organically by designing content on your website as well as your website’s code to rank higher in search results. Search engines will crawl your site for matching keywords and phrases and determine where you should rank for searches.
PPC, or pay per click advertising, is just that: advertisers only pay each time an ad is clicked. This is similar to SEO in that you are still matching keywords to searches, however you are able to bid on the exact keywords or phrases you wish to show up for when searched, or while users are browsing the internet. Both methods require you to have relevant information (keywords) pertaining to these searches on your website.
Social Media
To go along with your website, it is helpful to start building a social media presence for your business. Due to the volume of users on these platforms, social media is a great way to build your brand awareness, increase traffic to your website, and promote your product or service. In 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, and 90% of Americans between ages 18-29 are using these platforms. If those statistics are not enough, according to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. It’s safe to say that your social media pages are just as important as your website when trying to relay information about your business.
To summarize, it is important to have a solid and consistent social media foundation where potential customers can be directed to learn more and connect on a more personal level to your brand.
Next Steps
Having a nice website and a cohesive social media strategy is a great beginning, but there’s always room to build. This is when you start thinking about how you will get the attention of new customers or retain existing customers – and take your search engine marketing efforts to the next level.
- Other methods to consider when building a digital marketing strategy include:
- Content marketing (blogging)
- Email marketing
- Video marketing
- Social media advertising
- Remarketing
At this point, you might want to consider getting help from marketing professionals to bring together a full digital marketing strategy. This will enable you to focus on your business and customers, while they bring your marketing vision to life.
Shout It Out Design can assist with all of the tactics outlined in this article and build a complete marketing strategy unique to your goals. Contact us today to learn more about digital marketing, and how our solutions can help your business succeed.
