Implementing a killer digital marketing strategy for your business!
Every single day, you see a new business set up next to you, increasing your competition. With the increase in the number of online purchases, having a strong and successful digital marketing strategy is vital. The tricky question is “where do you start”? “What is the information that you need to convey”? And how do you measure your results? In this article we will be discussing some of the key points that as a business owner or a stakeholder you need to consider.
Know your business:
The first and most important point is to know what you are selling. Your business might be about selling a product, service or both. Based on what you sell, your goals, customers, market and your social media marketing strategy changes. This is why you need to understand what kind of business you are into and always keep coming back to the same keypoints before making any decisions.
Set a clear goal:
Goals can be anything relevant to your business but make sure to have at least one and it has to be measurable. You can set short term and long term goals.
A few examples include :
- increasing website traffic within 3/6 months
- increasing brand awareness
- getting users to subscribe to your newsletter
- downloading resources from your website
- purchasing a product or a service
- availing offers or deals
Getting users to subscribe to a newsletter or download any article will let you know if users are interested in your product/service, these goals do not bring in any revenue but do let you know if there is an interest for what you have on offer. Try to include goals that let you calculate your Return on Investment (ROI).
Know your customers:
Whether you do your business online or offline, the customer is paramount. When having an online business, you want to make sure that every ounce of traffic that comes to your website is a potential customer, though it is not always the case. There are ways to make sure that the majority of the website traffic can be potential users. How?, first by identifying who your customers are. For example, try to create different personas who could be your potential customers. Give them a name, age, gender, income and relationship status. You may have three or more personas depending on your business type. If you have a business in Tasmania and you are selling any baby product, you may want to design one of your personas as a woman, based in Tasmania (or Australia) who is a mother, having a baby aged 0-3 years and who has a minimum income of $30000 p.a. Having clear and defined personas will let you know how you want your content to be featured on the website. Also, personas will help you to understand what kind of keywords these users typically use to search and find a service/product similar to your business. You can then include these keywords or related phrases on your website.
Know your market:
Marketing a product that is already in demand may seem easier than trying to market a product that has less or no demand. Some products or services may not have much demand in the area where your business is located but they may be in demand in another area or even country. Hence market research or trying to understand the demand and supply of the product/service that your business offers, is essential. Invest enough time and resources to get to know the current market for your product and then plan on how to increase the demand for your product. Likewise, a product/service that is in major demand will definitely have a lot of suppliers, who in turn are your competitors. In such cases, invest time to perform deep and thorough competitive analysis assessing their websites, keyword ranking, content, paid ads and so on.
Social media marketing (for brand awareness and leads):
Social media has helped a lot of new businesses to improve their online presence. This is by far, the easiest and cheapest way to advertise your brand. Having said that, it is really not necessary to be active in all the known social media platforms. Also there are some particular media websites for niche markets. If you are a B2B business, then you can explore and connect to potential users through social media accounts such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. If your business falls into a certain niche like music, sound or arts, you probably should research on the major websites where you could connect with a large audience interested in music/arts rather than being active on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Analyse your data:
Data analysis is extremely important for any business, be it local, national or international. The data that your business generates, including offline and online data has to be collected, classified and analysed on a regular basis to understand where your business started and where you are now. There are various web analytics tools used for Data analysis. You could also import your data to tools such as Google Analytics to perform further research. If you are doing well, then keep up the good work. If not, then it’s time to revisit your strategy!
