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5 Ways to Make Your Digital Marketing More Effective
With millions of potential customers online at any given moment, digital marketing is one of the most efficient ways to reach out to existing fans and new potential ones.
However, digital marketing is much more than posting a Tweet or sending out an email.
People are bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages each day. Businesses need to ensure their messages stand out and get noticed.
Most importantly, these marketing efforts need to deliver results.
In this article, we will help you take your digital marketing efforts to the next level and ensure each campaign is more effective. You will feel confident in combining all of the different digital marketing options to create a complete, results-driven marketing campaign that will capture the attention of your customers.
Tips for effective digital marketing
Digital marketing is equal parts art and science. You need to mix creativity with proven marketing strategies to create an effective campaign that will provide the results you are looking for.
1. Set goals and objectives for each campaign
Far too often, marketers set out with undefined or very loosely defined goals. This is a detriment to any marketing campaign as setting goals has been shown to be tied to success.
Clearly defining goals and objectives should be one of the first steps of every digital marketing campaign. Of course, it’s easy to say you want to increase sales or visitors but those goals don’t really mean anything. 1 new sale is an increase. 1000 new sales is an increase.
When setting goals, you need to ensure they are defined and measurable.
A lot of people use the SMART method when developing goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based). Instead of using a basic goal like increasing sales you could make a SMART goal that says you want to sell 40 of your newest product launch by the end of next week.
Of course, goals don’t need to just revolve around sales. In the digital marketing world, you may set goals for increasing social media followers, increasing email subscribers, or increasing engagement on social media posts.
No matter what you set out to do, always start with a clear goal.
2. Define your demographic and speak to them
The right combination of words and images that excites one potential customer may not work for another. The people you are speaking to online vary greatly based on a combination of age, gender, geographic location, income, and a whole host of other factors.
Creating customized marketing campaigns that cater to each unique demographic you serve is a fantastic way to make your marketing efforts more effective.
This begins by simply defining who you want to speak to. Are you looking to target professional women in their 20s or older men nearing retirement? The way you speak to those two demographics will differ greatly.
By defining your audience for a given campaign, you can speak to them in a way that will resonate much more than some generic message. Before you begin writing copy, choosing images, or building a strategy, you should identify who you hope to target with your digital marketing efforts.
Financial services are a great example of businesses that must clearly identify their target audience. A financial advisor would not have the same conversation with a retiree as they would with someone who is just beginning to save their money.
Why would a digital marketing campaign be any different?
3. Always assess the success of your campaigns
The thing about the next digital marketing campaign that you run is that it will not be your last. Professional sports players watch tape of their previous games so why shouldn’t professional marketers review their performance in order to improve?
Once a digital marketing campaign is complete, you should not wash your hands of it. This is your chance to see what worked, what didn’t, and why you think certain aspects were more or less effective. Using that information, you can make your next campaign even stronger.
Additionally, you can be testing success during your campaign with a process called split testing.
Split testing involves using two or more variants of marketing copy and images in order to see which combination delivers the best results. As you assess the success of your campaign, you can adjust for future campaigns or, if the current campaign is ongoing, improve it on-the-fly.
One basic example of split testing would be to send two slightly different emails to different subscribers on your email list. You can then monitor which email is getting the most clicks, sales, or responses and use that style of copy or design in future communications.
4. Nothing is set in stone
The first point of this article was to set clear, defined goals and build a strategy to meet those goals. Now we are saying nothing is set in stone. On the surface, these two points may appear to be in contradiction to one another. However, they are both equally important.
Setting clear goals is important and should always be the first step of every campaign. However, some campaigns do not go as planned. Responses or sales begin to trickle in slower than expected and, suddenly, the campaign is looking like it could be a bust.
At times like this, you must be prepared to pivot some of your strategies in order to reach the final goals you have set out. If you were split testing copy and none of the copy performed well, you may need to address the wording you are using as a part of your campaign. The goals and desired outcomes are not changing but, instead, you are looking for a better way to reach those goals.
This is one of the best features of digital marketing.
Marketers can change strategy quickly if they are able to identify issues or concerns with their campaign. This simply would not be possible for high-frequency television campaigns, mail outs, or in-person contesting.
5. Create marketing standards and develop a voice
No one wants to read cookie cutter social media posts or emails that look exactly like the posts and emails from other brands. Do you have a clear method of developing, launching, and wrapping up your campaigns to ensure consistency?
All these factors are a part of the marketing standards you create for yourself.
Most marketers know what they want to do, when they want to do it, and how it should look. However, very few actually create a set of campaign guidelines that define timelines, methods, and strategies. As a result, it becomes very difficult to develop a unique voice when crafting new marketing campaigns.
In addition, as your marketing team grows, it is more difficult for new staff to get up-to-speed regarding how you want things done. Developing standards, writing them down, and following them for every campaign will ensure you get the results you want.
Most importantly, you can use these standards to ensure that your brand’s voice is seen and heard through every email, social media post, and blog update.
Of course, if you are following all of the tips in this article then you know these standards do not have to be set in stone. As you grow and develop, you may change these standards to better suit the needs of your brand.
Wrap up
As mentioned, digital marketing is equal parts art and science. Developing a voice for your brand, identifying your demographics, creating a plan, and carrying out that plan are all ongoing challenges that you must tackle before and during each digital marketing campaign.
Creating effective digital marketing campaigns can help you effectively increase sales, followers, and website views.
In addition to the right strategies, you need the right tools. Campaign Monitor allows you to create beautiful email marketing campaigns that can help you deliver on the goals you have set. Test different types of copy and images to see what resonates most with your subscribers.
With Campaign Monitor, your next campaign can be your best campaign. Try it for free today!
