How many times have you checked your phone today? Browsed the internet? While the internet has become a staple in many of our lives, the number of people online still increased by 5% within the last three years.
Since the first newspaper or radio ad, marketing has always been about meeting your audience at the right time and in the right place. Today, that means meeting consumers where they spend the most time—the internet.
How can you market to people on the internet? You need to implement a holistic digital marketing strategy that attracts, engages, and converts your target audience. Let’s take a look at how your digital strategy can work together to build brand recognition and ROI.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on the internet and electronic devices. You can leverage multiple channels, like email marketing, social media, and search engine optimization, to quickly communicate with leads and current customers. You also have full control of your budget and design, which allows you to get creative and test which channels engage your audience best.
Benefits of digital marketing include:
- Lower cost
- Global reach
- Measurable results
- Competitive advantage
- Personalization
To get started on the digital landscape, it’s essential to understand the most common digital marketing tactics and channels. Here’s a quick breakdown of our favorite:
Email marketing
With 59% of consumers saying email marketing influences their buying decisions, email is a great way to promote your new subscribers, events, promotions, and more. By following email best practices, you’re able to target your subscribers with personalized and relevant content that targets their needs through segmentation.
72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email.
Source: Really Good Emails
Social media
Popular channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all help you build brand awareness and generate leads. With more than half of the world now using social media, these platforms offer you the perfect opportunity to interact with your audience with relevant, authentic, and entertaining content daily.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine result pages to earn more organic traffic. Through developing valuable content, you implement high-ranking keywords, backlinks, and proper coding to attract both search engines and end users to your website. The more people you have browsing your website, the more likely your website will appear in relevant search results.
Digital marketing helps you develop a holistic approach to growing your business. Your channels can all work together to drive website traffic and conversions by cross-promoting each other. For example, grow your social media community through email and include keywords in your blogs. By developing a comprehensive strategy, you can provide multiple touchpoints to your audience and drive conversions.
How to measure the success of digital marketing?
Compared to traditional methods like radio or billboards, digital marketing makes measuring results much simpler, with the ability to review success in real-time. With modern analytic dashboards and proper tagging mechanisms, you have a clear understanding of what digital channels are performing well. Depending on which channels you choose, consider measuring the following metrics:
- Click-through rate
- Impressions
- Lead buying cycle
- Website traffic
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
Does it really matter?
Implementing digital marketing for your business is no longer a luxury; it’s a standard.
Imagine researching a local service, only to discover they don’t have a website, social presence, or any sort of reviews. You’d likely move on to a competitor because you’re unable to conduct research. Due to how the average consumer interacts online to find services or brands, digital marketing is critical to your business and overall brand awareness.
What now?
While a complex marketing ecosystem houses different tactics, digital marketing allows your brand to appear credible to modern consumers. Your digital presence has the opportunity to make a lasting impression on your audience that will improve your engagement rates and increase your overall ROI.
Ready to kick off your digital marketing strategy with email? Learn about how email marketing elevates the user experience.