Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past few years you’ll all know that digital marketing is a fundamental part of any marketing strategy. In fact, we no longer really distinguish between digital marketing and traditional marketing, it’s all just marketing! There are very few businesses that don’t operate in some shape or form within the digital world. Even if it’s simply using your own personal social media account to write a post about your business, it all still counts as marketing yourself digitally.
The options are vast and continually increasing in the digital arena, so how do you know what the right platform is for you? A client of mine, a local flower shop, used Facebook adverts to increase their online sales and it really worked for them! So surely the local printer should use the same platform to generate new business from local companies too, right? Wrong.
Just because a platform has worked really well for one business doesn’t mean it will definitely work for another. It’s like advertising in Angler Magazine when your customer is interested in baking. You need to choose the right platform (a magazine in this analogy) to reach your audience.
So where do you start?
Firstly, and most importantly, understand your objective. What exactly are you trying to achieve? We all want to sell more, but your objective needs to be specific. Are you trying to increase your online conversion rate? Or are you trying to drive customers to your shop? It’s not a one size fits all approach.
Secondly, who are you trying to talk to? It’s vital you understand fully who your audience is. It used to be enough to know their postcode, age and gender, but not anymore. We need to REALLY understand our audience; What do they like? Where do they hang out (digitally as well as physically)? Who are they ‘friends’ with? Who do they admire and look up to? What line of work are they in? This is called their ‘Persona’.
A complete understanding of your customers’ and potential customers’ journeys is required to develop a strategy that talks to them, in the correct tone, at the correct time and using the most appropriate method.
This vital piece of work will ensure all of your marketing initiatives work as hard as possible for you. Niche targeting and identifying the right digital method for you will ensure your budget is not wasted and your conversions are high.
The Digital Daze
So now we are clear on what the objective is and we fully understand our customer ‘Personas’ we can get cracking! Below I have briefly listed a selection of digital marketing methods alongside their pro’s and con’s. I hope it helps you develop a robust and successful digital marketing strategy of your own.
Websites
Think of websites as your shop, even if you are not an ecommerce site! By this I mean your website is where people can visit you, understand exactly what you are selling, what services you are offering and find out information about your brand and business. Not all businesses need a website, but I highly recommend it, as they can be a powerful tool for lead generation, remarketing and vital for being seen on Google with effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Don’t assume that if you aren’t selling your products or services online that you don’t need a website. And also please don’t assume if you have a website you will automatically be seen. On the contrary. Once you have your website up and running, you need to tell people it’s there.
Social Media
This has become an incredibly powerful tool over the past few years for businesses around the world. Currently in the UK Facebook alone has over 44 Million users. Can you imagine being able to target 44 Million users with budgets as small as £100 a month? There are no TV channels or Magazines with that reach and it would most certainly cost you more than £100! But again, you need to select the right platform for you.
People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them. This is an extremely powerful tool for B2C marketing and can be extremely cost-effective.
Instagram is a photo sharing app which allows users to assign filters to photos and share them with followers. With more than 25 million businesses actively using Instagram to market to their audience, millions of consumers also use it to shop. A perfect match! The visual content is extremely appealing and helps consumers with the buying decision. The growing network of Instagram actually helps brands and retailers leverage visuals to better describe and detail their products. As part of the Facebook network, advertising on Instagram is also extremely reasonable.
Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ system that allows you to send and receive short posts called tweets. Tweets can be a great lead generation and brand awareness tactic. The con is that the tweets are very short so you have to be concise with your message, but it’s pretty cost-effective to advertise on Twitter and it works well for both B2B and B2C audiences.
This is the number one platform for B2B marketing. There are currently 630 million professionals on LinkedIn and you can reach all of them, or drill down to create your perfect niche target audience. You can use this free platform to organically grow your network by creating stimulating and relevant posts, or you can create and post adverts to generate new business leads. The con is this is a relatively expensive platform compared to the other social channels however, the price is justified due to the quality audience available to you.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing isn’t dead, it’s most definitely alive! Businesses can improve their reach and visibility, allowing them to engage and convert more leads on a consistent basis by creating a regular email flow. Targeting can be niche and best of all most systems are FREE below a certain audience volume.
Measurement is a Must!
So you’ve picked your platform, or combination of platforms, now you need to make sure it’s working for you. I love using digital platforms for their analytics capability, having real time results from your marketing campaign at your fingertips, including how many people have seen, clicked, opened, or bought from it. This ensures you’re always on top of managing what’s working and what’s not. You don’t need to worry about sending your Angler Magazine to baking enthusiasts because even if you do, you can quickly take it back and send it to your Anglers with Digital!
Conversion
Ensure your investment is not wasted by creating suitable landing pages to optimise the conversion rates. Understand your customer’s journey to you and serve them the content they are expecting and interested in.
The digital marketing landscape is forever changing. If you’d like more information on what the best platform for your business is, please get in touch and let us walk you through the most suitable digital solutions to achieve your business objectives.
Contact us today on contact@purpleoctopus.co.uk or visit www.purpleoctopus.co.uk.
