Digital marketing refers to any marketing that happens on the internet. There are many channels, from content and social media marketing to paid display ads and so much more.
Digital marketing is vital, as it allows you to directly target those interested in your product or service, provides various points of contact with your customers throughout their buying journey, and allows you to build relationships with your audience.
Additionally, roughly 87% of shoppers start their buying journey through digital channels, demonstrating just how important digital marketing is to all types of businesses.
With this in mind, Hyphen Creatives is breaking down a few of the most important digital marketing channels, and how to use them to your advantage to generate quality leads from your target audience.
Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to planning, generating, and distributing all types of content, including videos, photos, social media posts, and blogs, to entice and retain customers. It’s a popular channel, as it allows brands to build trust and speak directly to what customers care about. The more value you add, the more customers are likely to do business with you.
A strongly defined, organised marketing strategy is essential when starting the content creation process. Including buyer personas, a value proposition, clearly defined goals, and a comprehensive content creation and distribution plan in your marketing strategy will help you create content that attracts your audience. Researching your audience’s pain points and framing your content (and your brand) in a way that solves their problems or answers their questions is a great way to start.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an effective way to build your brand awareness and cultivate a community of loyal customers. It involves using various social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and more, to interact with potential customers and ensure you reach as many people as possible. With over 4.6 billion social media users worldwide, there’s a social media audience out there for you, no matter your industry or what you offer.
To find your audience, have a look at your competitors’ social media presence and the type of content they produce. If they have a large following, it’s a good sign that people are interested in your industry. Once you’ve had a look at their feeds, try to see how you can improve what they’re doing to let your brand stand out.
Setting goals for your social media content as part of a larger marketing strategy will also help ensure you create the right type of content. Other considerations for your social media strategy could be:
- Leveraging relevant influencers to promote products and services where possible.
- Creating content that people would want to engage with rather than showcasing what you offer.
- Finding and using relevant hashtags.
- Experimenting with giveaways.
- Embracing experimentation.
- Conducting comprehensive research into your audience to create relevant content that addresses their needs and desires.
It’s also important to keep an eye on your followers’ comments and respond to any feedback they share. This shows them you’re listening and reminds them that there are real people behind the brand.
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves sending marketing material directly to subscribers’ email addresses. It’s a direct marketing channel that allows you to send custom messages to an audience that’s already interested in what you have to offer.
For email marketing to work, however, you need email addresses. To turn potential customers into subscribers, you need a clear benefit and a strong call to action for people to hand over their email addresses.
Before getting started with email marketing, you need to decide what you want out of this particular marketing channel, whether you’re looking to promote products and services, increase brand awareness, etc. Create a content plan that aligns with these goals and your overall marketing strategy.
Your first email to subscribers should then aim to set expectations, or even reward them for signing up. Creating two versions of each email with different subject lines will allow you to test what your audience engages with, allowing you to get a better idea of the type of content that resonates best with them.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves improving your website’s ranking on search engines like Google and Bing. It’s closely linked with content marketing, as consistent, high-quality content about relevant topics will have a favourable impact on visibility and website traffic.
When getting started with SEO, an important first step is keyword research. This will help you find the topics your audience is interested in. Your written content, image descriptions, and page URLs should feature these keywords, as this allows Google to understand what your content is all about.
Once this content is published, internal linking helps users and Google navigate your website easily. Backlinks are also a powerful SEO ranking factor, so work on developing a strategy to get other websites to link back to yours.
Ensuring your website is technically efficient is equally important, as this allows bots to find your content and rank it accordingly. Continuously monitoring your website will help you detect and resolve any issues, like broken links, slow loading speeds, etc that may prevent your pages from ranking.
Are You Ready to Maximise Your Marketing Channels?
If you’re interested in taking advantage of all your marketing channels and using them to refine your marketing strategies, get in touch with the expert digital marketing strategists at Hyphen Creatives today at info@hyphencreatives.com to find out how we can help you.