What do you do when you wake up in the morning? You automatically reach for your phone and check the updates. Along with Facebook messages, WhatsApp updates and news updates, you see various notifications and updates of sales, discounts, and gifts from e-commerce sites. Most of these are push notifications that appear on your notification bar every morning. It is different from watching commercials on the TV or coming across print advertisements in the magazine. These advertisements are parts of the digital marketing campaigns of leading brands, merchants and retail platforms you have used on a regular basis. The beauty of digital marketing is that companies get to leverage it to reach thousands of mobile phones, laptops and desktop users around the world in a single day.
What are the different parts of digital marketing you should know about?
Have you ever received sale notifications or discount coupons in your inbox? These are parts of email marketing campaigns that form an integral part of the digital world. In short, there are hundreds of digital channels you can leverage to reach your wide consumer base around the world.
Paid search
Over the years, digital marketing has evolved to suit the media consumption habits and browsing habits of the users. It has led to the creation of paid search. Paid search aka pay-per-click (PPC) ads are the sponsored results you see during your daily Google searches. You may have also seen sponsored results while browsing social network platforms like Facebook and retail platforms like Amazon. Paid results are flexible, and they keep brands visible. In recent times, paid searches have acquired the ability to find context and relevance in the content. Therefore, the content of the sponsored ads varies between users depending on their browsing preferences and habits.
Content marketing
Content marketing is another form of digital marketing where a website garners more traffic from search engines and social media sites by crafting value-adding content. Apart from informing the human users about the purpose of the site and the nature of the products/services the company provides, the content also informs the search engine bots about the presence of the site. In the era of content, every websites are adding more content every day. Therefore, the quality and quantity are essential. Your website content should be a valuable source of information for your visitors. It should educate, inform and entertain. Check out Mill Creek internet marketing to learn more about the different forms of content and their power over the audience.
SEO
What is the heart of content marketing? Most marketing veterans already know that search engine optimization (SEO) is at the heart of any content campaign. Good content can lead you to the crescendo of success, but no content is good enough without the presence of SEO. Search engine optimization might sound like befriending the search engines for the sole purpose of ranking, but in 2018 it is a lot more about website quality and usability than it is about visibility to the search engines only. SEO is a great way to boost your organic traffic and to increase your conversion rate. Right now, SEO is a lot more than keyword research and link gathering. It is about becoming visible to the relevant audience from a specific locality like Mill Creek. SEO has evolved from a mere strategy to gain visibility to art that balances the user experience (UX) against the search engine friendliness.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is an essential aspect of digital marketing. Over 47% of the total internet users are now on Facebook as well. If you want to capture the attention of millions of users without toiling across the market, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are your best bets. One advantage of working on your social media marketing strategy is spreading your organic reach via social media. Your existing users in Mill Creek are likely to post their opinions about your events in the city on their platform of choice. Their friends and followers will be able to see their reviews and share them further. That gives you access to potential new users in Mill Creek without paying the exorbitant prices of PPC or CPC. The only requirement for an astounding social campaign is the presence of high-quality content that enthralls the other users to react and share.
Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest and most trusted methods of reaching existing customers. With a populated emailing list you can reach hundreds of people at one go. You need to work out the segments and the demographics before you send out the emails. The only difference between the emailers of the past and those of today is the format and addressing. People love hyper-personal content that goes beyond addressing them by their first name. You need to employ new-age tools to track their likes, dislikes, and wish lists. Sending them updates about products that are back in stock and sale on their wish-listed items will get you higher CTRs than sending out general season’s greetings mails. Email marketing is a robust tool for customer retention as well. Well-time, relevant and strategic emails can work better than paid ads for many retailers.
Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing is imperative for companies of this generation. SMS, MMS, and in-app marketing methods are all relevant to mobile marketing tactics. One of the most effective ways includes push notifications. As we have mentioned before, almost all smartphones are compatible with these mobile marketing methods. However, there is more to mobile marketing than working on the delivery mechanisms. You need to think about the coordination of your marketing channels, the content of the ads and the relevance of the same. If your customer was browsing real estate in Mill Creek yesterday, it does not make much sense to offer them updates on the sale of cars today! With enough relevance, you can not only increase customer retention, but you can also unclog the sales funnel by moving the abandoned carts forward toward conversion.
PR and digital marketing
Several leading corporations now outsource their digital campaign planning due to the multifaceted nature of the field. Apart from the aspects we have already mentioned above, PR and brand awareness are other parts of a robust digital marketing game. Positive reviews, mentions on third-party websites, listings on Google My Business and blog reviews are great ways to garner the favorable attention of any search engine. These are some fantastic ways to create an SEO friendly presence of the web. PR teams are indispensable when the time comes to establish a brand’s organic presence on the internet.
Why should you automate the marketing process?
There was a time when even the multi-million dollar corporations in the US carried out each wing of digital marketing manually. They had dedicated teams to monitor the progress of search engine marketing, email marketing, and other marketing strategies. At this moment, startups and small businesses are booming all around Washington. They demand a leveling ground for competing against the big fish of the business world. It is only fair to offer them a chance and a fair fight. As a result, most marketing agencies are now offering the option of automation to everyone. The concept is as simple as it sounds – the use of toolsets to complete the marketing tasks and meeting with the objectives.
Marketing automation has become a platform that aims at tying the digital marketing platform together. It encompasses the budgeting, planning, execution, monitoring and analysis of the individual strategies that add up to a complete digital marketing plan for a business. Most importantly, a wholesome marketing automation initiative can measure the progress of your brand regarding key performance indicators (KPIs) and gives your marketing team a way to quantify the results of their marketing endeavors. This platform measures the ROI of the investment in the digital campaigns of your company. It will also help you understand which campaigns are working and which ones require a thorough overhaul.
Why should you outsource your digital marketing needs?
Besides planning, execution, and monitoring, there are other parts of a great digital strategy. Whether it is SEM or SEO, you should run audits of the plan to see how well they are working to give impressive returns. Running in-depth audits of a website can take days for any team. One needs to check for broken links, missing ones, 404 errors, 301 and 302 redirects, the speed of each page, technical aspects and their mobile friendliness to stay on top of their marketing game. However, outsourcing the digital marketing requirement means the vendor already has extensive infrastructures in place for the analysis of the ongoing plans. At the same time, it gives your internal team to choose new technologies that can benefit the site and platform regarding optimization and visibility.
Digital marketing is an extensive field that demands in-depth knowledge, dedication, and patience. Most companies that are emerging right now do not have the time, and resources to customize the features of digital marketing for their benefit. Whether it is SEO, content marketing, email marketing, SEM or PPC, each type of digital marketing requires extensive customization to accommodate the brand’s personality, priorities, the user’s preferences, demographics, and local search trends. It is currently impossible for any corporation to focus on each aspect with equal commitment. That is why working with digital marketing agencies have become one of the top priorities for almost all business leaders in the market today.
