‘Digital marketing’ seems like a bit of a buzzword and many smaller business owners aren’t quite sure what it covers. In fact, digital marketing is one of the best and most important ways to reach your customers. Done properly, this type of marketing content development and strategy is targeted, effective and cost-efficient, which is why you should make sure that if you adopt it, you’re doing it properly.
Types of digital marketing
What is digital marketing? Essentially, it’s using digital technology – pretty much anything that is online or uses a screen – to get the message out to your customers. It differs from traditional marketing in that you have to understand the various channels, how they are used and what potential they offer. The strategy of marketing your business, however, doesn’t really change. You should still be thinking about your customers – who they are, what they want, how they find you and how you build up a relationship that keeps them coming back for more.
Paid vs. unpaid – there are two main ways of marketing digitally – paid and unpaid. Paid includes things like Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, marketplace advertising on places like Amazon or Ebay and influencer marketing, where you pay someone with a large following on social media to review or advertise your products. Unpaid, also referred to as organic marketing, is where you don’t pay for a digital advert, but you use techniques like search engine optimisation (SEO), blogs and other content marketing to raise awareness and profile.
Outsourced content marketing services will advise you to do a bit of both – paid and organic. That way, you’re targeting your audience in more than one way, increasing your chances of being seen, and also backing up the commercialism of your paid adverts with the credibility of good organic search engine rankings or content sharing.
The most commonly-used digital marketing activities are:
- Search engine optimisation – using keywords and phrases in your website and marketing content to increase the chances of people finding you through online searches.
- Email marketing – targeted marketing to a dedicated list of subscribers
- Social media – using channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with the right audience
- Video marketing – using video to connect with your customers, offer tips and advice or showcase products
- Blogging – unique written content that demonstrates your expertise, opinions and credibility
Getting digital marketing help
Digital marketing is exciting. It opens up a wealth of opportunities for your business. But it must be done well, and with a clear strategy behind it, and that can take time. From finding affordable email marketing services to hiring a virtual digital assistant, there are several ways you can embrace digital marketing without having to spend all your time managing it.
There are, for example, plenty of companies offering SEO services for small business, or you might choose to investigate virtual assistant agencies, who can help you to make sure you have the right plan for your business and that your plan is executed well. They will help to narrow down the activities that it is best for you to concentrate on – you don’t have to leap into all your digital marketing at once – and work with you to formulate a plan that targets the right people at the right time with the right message.
Measuring digital marketing
One of the reasons businesses love digital marketing is because it’s so much more measurable than traditional approaches. You can see exactly how many people have viewed or interacted with your posts on social media; you can see exactly how many people opened your email marketing and clicked through to your website. With a plethora of useful stats and measurement available to you, you can begin to really target your efforts, meaning that each marketing pound spent is more likely to give you a great return on investment.
If you need help with digital marketing content development, channel management, paid advertising or more, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.