While some traditional marketing methods, such as billboards and event marketing, are still effective today; in the fast era of technology, businesses are relying more and more on digital marketing to promote their products and services. It has become paramount for any brand that wishes to reach its maximum potential to establish and maintain a strong online presence, in order to keep up with their competition and engage their target audience.
With all the digital marketing options available today, how can a company determine which tools are the best to help achieve their business goals? Truth is, the answer strongly depends on the type of business they are conducting and the company’s target audience. Below is a list of five of the most effective marketing channels that can bring you one step closer to meeting your objectives.
Email Marketing
While this is more of an older tactic, email marketing does not fail to deliver, with market studies showing that it can give businesses a ROI of up to 4,400%. The main goal of email marketing is to build a customer base with email addresses that you can later use for advertising.
The best way to encourage prospects and customers to give their email address is by offering up something in exchange. From discounts to exclusive content and various contests, people will feel more open to share information if they feel they are given something in return.
When reaching out to your customers over email, keep in mind that nobody likes to be flooded with ads. You can use email marketing campaigns to build up your brand’s reputation, by always sharing educative content regarding trends or other valuable information about your industry. This way, your customers will not see the ads they are receiving from you as “yet another spam”.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Some believe that Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is the most important digital marketing strategy, as it is one of the fastest ways to reach your chosen marketplace. The main advantage of PPC ads is that users who reach a certain website will always see them, even if they choose to scroll past them.
Ads are targeted by either search words, time period, geography, language and type of device. They are based on the audience’s interest, which means your brand will only reach potential customers who are interested in your products. PPC ads offer fast results and can target a large number of prospects, while also allowing companies to have granular control over their budget, as you can decide how much you want to spend daily or monthly.
In order to effectively use PPC ads, you should focus on learning more about your audience, in order to select quality keywords for your ads. Creating landing pages that match the visuals and contents of your ads also add to a cohesive brand image and help give out the right message of your business. Ultimately, make sure the ads are optimized for all devices, including computers, tablets and phones.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
93% of online experiences begin by using a search engine, which makes SEO an extremely useful marketing strategy. And when you think about the fact that Google is processing more than 100 billion searches per month, it is easy to understand why having a high rank in the search results can be a tremendous advantage for your business.
SEO is a marketing strategy that optimizes the website content (images, keywords and text) for search engines, in order to boost a website’s ranking in search engine results. This helps websites improve the volume and quality of their traffic. If done well, improving the search engine ranking can get your business a better conversion rate and raise brand awareness.
There are various techniques to successfully implement a SEO campaign, such as using relevant keywords, submitting your company to online business directories, creating backlinks and keeping your website content fresh.
Social Media Marketing (SSM)
Social media is by far the most powerful movement of the internet era, which makes it easy for business owners to leverage on it to raise brand awareness. The number of social media users is increasing day by day, and businesses are constantly assigning more of their marketing budget towards SSM.
However, not all social media platforms are suited for every type of business and a good digital marketer should be able to select the most appropriate one, depending on your targeted audience:
- Instagram: good for food, lifestyle, fashion and luxury brands, as well as travel and, most recently, real estate. The primary target audiences are millennials and teens and it focuses more on image and video content.
- Facebook: you can use it to reach out to general consumers and is suited for all types of businesses, from finance to automotive, retail and marketing. In the past few years, Facebook has gained even more popularity with seniors, so if you have a business that targets people aged 55+, this is the best way to reach them.
- Twitter: like Instagram, Twitter is more suited for millennials and teenagers, making it a great place to spread the word about your business through short texts and key messages.
- LinkedIn: this is a more business-oriented platform, which makes it a great tool for connecting with other professionals, especially if your products and services are targeting organizations or entrepreneurs
Affiliate Marketing
If your plan is to reach a more global audience, you need wide exposure to other locations. Affiliate marketing is a great way to do so, without involving too many extra costs. The concept is quite easy to understand and implement, as it implies offering a percentage of the selling price to affiliates who help you close that sale. This means that the only cost you will be having is the commission towards the website or blogger who refers customers that actually purchase your product. This generates quite a large ROI number and helps you gain access to your affiliates’ audience.
People commonly use the terms Internet marketing and online marketing with the same meaning as digital marketing.