What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing refers to any kind of advertising done using online platforms or over the internet. It can also sometimes mean non-internet marketing strategies, such as SMS and on-hold mobile ringtones. The most common forms of digital marketing these days include social media, blogs, email marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, and other associated methods.
Digital marketing was started somewhere around the late 1990s with little impact but is currently the most influential medium of advertising for any business. It is capable of reaching a much larger audience across the globe and increase your sphere of influence.
How businesses can have maximum gains from digital marketing
Digital marketing has proved to be a great leveller when it comes to marketing and advertising. It gives equal opportunities to big and small businesses to market their products and bring forth their services for the world to see. Because everyone has access to the internet today, even small firms can advertise their products and services within a budget and still be visible to their target audience.
A well-planned and well-executed digital marketing strategy can create a huge impact on the market, particularly for small and medium businesses.
Here are a few ways to maximize your gains from digital marketing.
Start with your own website
If you have long term goals for your business and wish to sustain in this competitive market, it is best to have a website of your own from the very beginning. Most people today rely on the information provided on the site to judge how useful your products or services could be to them.
If you already have a website for your business, you must keep it updated with all the relevant information that a customer may look for. It might be a substantial investment at the beginning, but the long-term benefits of having a good website are definitely worthwhile.
Create a blog
Once your website is up and running, you can now invest enough time in creating a blog. A blog can be a great way of attracting an audience to your website. People usually end up discovering new sites while looking for information on the internet.
If you have blog posts on topics relevant to your business with SEO-optimized quality content, it can direct more traffic to your website. You can start a blog page on your own website, or you could open a blog on any other free blogging website too. But adding your domain name to your blog address, which is usually a paid service, could add more value to it. Relevant and informative blogs can get you more shares on social media and help you reach a much larger audience.
Search engine optimization
In digital marketing in any form, search engine optimization, or SEO, is key. Just having a website or blog is not enough. These tools are of no use if you can’t be seen on search engine result pages. And to be visible in search engine results, you have to optimize the content for your website and blog accordingly.
There are a number of ways to ensure search engine optimization. Conduct research on keywords and increase the keyword density in your content. Use backlinks in your blog that redirect to your website. Optimize the images used, optimize for voice search, and incorporate keywords in the titles and descriptions.
These are some ways of optimizing your content. There are many other standards that need to be met to appear at the top of search engine results.
Use social media
Social media is no longer just a place for teenagers to chat with friends or find new people. It is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools today.
When everyone, even people in their 70s, uses social media, you can imagine the extent of the audience you can reach out to. Social media marketing is one of the most important parts of your digital marketing strategy.
You can start small by creating a page for your business on Facebook and Instagram, which is free. And gradually, as your business picks up, you could upgrade to paid plans in order to boost your posts and reach out to more people. You could also invest in paid advertising on popular social media platforms.
Another recent trend is to get a social media influencer to endorse your product. Social media influencers are trendy people on these platforms that millions of people follow and listen to. If you can have a social media influencer from a relevant field endorse your brand, you might have an advantage over others.
Localize your marketing
This is particularly important if your business has a target audience or operates only in a specific location. There is no point going all out with advertising. Your ultimate goal is to entice potential customers and convince them to buy your product or use your service.
Make sure that you address people from nearby locations only. You can use local search directories, like Facebook’s Marketplace, Google My Business, and Bing to list your products or services so that nearby prospective customers can find you.
