Digital marketing has modified how communication is performed. Your business must be agile and quickly adapt to your customers’ expectations. An effective digital marketing plan must include a range of proven online marketing strategies. Read on to find out the top strategies to implement in your marketing efforts to reach your target audience.

Online Presence

Having a website is the norm for today’s businesses. Because of evolving trends, you can’t just create, publish and forget about your website. Nowadays, websites are breathing and living entities, which must be nurtured. Ensure that your website is highlighting your industry expertise and that it provides the best solutions to your prospects.

Your business’ website must be a platform comprising of top-quality and relevant content, which engages your audience and provides an entertaining and informative user-experience. Your prospects must easily get the information they need. Also, your website must be a tool, which gathers information such as sales leads.

A successful website must include a variety of components and specifications. The site must cater to your target audience’s needs. It must be responsive and compatible with a wide variety of mobile devices. You must include CTAs (Calls to action) related to price queries, white papers, or demo appointments. Include updated testimonials and highlight your social media pages. The website’s content must comprise of useful industry-related information. Ensure that you regularly audit and update your website. Highlight how your business can resolve customers’ pains better than your competition.

Top-Quality Content for Better Ranking in the SERPs

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Search engines focus on delivering top-quality user-experience. Sites, which provide relevant information earn increased visibility and rank higher in the SERPs (Search engine results pages). Google’s Amit Singhal states that Google’s Panda algorithm update ranks websites with high-quality content higher than low-quality content websites. Content drives Google’s organic traffic. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 92% of marketers believe that content creation is either “very effective” or “somewhat effective” for a site’s optimization.

With no search engine optimization (SEO) strategies in place, you can’t attract new visitors to your website. And without visitors, you can’t develop your business online. SEO allows search engines to discover your site and rank it higher in the SERPs. Because SEO is complex, your best approach is to hire an expert to improve your site’s SEO. You can also work with a specialized SEO company, which can provide and implement effective long tail or short keywords to make your site discoverable.

Consider other marketing strategies to improve your SEO efforts. Create a blog section on your site. A blog improves your site’s SEO and helps to position you as an industry thought leader. Your expertise helps your clients and attracts new customers to your website. The marketing cycle is constantly evolving. Make prospects return to your website by publishing relevant and useful content. You’ll gain visitors’ trust and increase conversion rates.

Another important element to SEO success is external engagement opportunities and guest posts, which can link back to your website or your blog. You can also increase engagement rates with video, which can be used to educate your audience. Users react positively to video content because they see a face connected to your brand. Include different varieties of content such as e-books, infographics, case studies and white papers.

Online and Offline Marketing Integration

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Integrate your offline and online marketing strategies to optimize your marketing strategy. Offline physical branding makes your brand memorable. Consumers are very visual. About 90% of the information your brain processes is visual, according to The Next Web. Combined with the 8-second attention span, businesses must act fast to attract and keep prospects’ attention. Physical branding opportunities comprise brochures, notebooks, stickers, name badges, or t-shirts. Get creative and your business will become more visible. Promote your business’ message and logo to attract prospects.

Consider sponsoring events and networking sessions to connect with potential customers. Events are one of the best opportunities to cross over the online and offline barriers. You could also donate your office space for an event, which is relevant to your prospects and customers. Face-to-face conversations and human connections build memorable experiences, which can optimize your customers’ perception of your business.

Drive people to your social media channels, your website, and landing pages through radio, television, and offline ads. Use landing pages to measure the success of both online and offline promos.

Social Media Exposure

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Because of the complexity of social media marketing, you may be tempted to avoid it. It’s an intensive and time-consuming marketing strategy, which requires hard work to maintain your visitors’ engagement. But social media is here to stay. Social channels such as Instagram are surpassing other older platforms like Facebook in popularity. 

Marketers must be consistent with posting on social media platforms. Engage with your target audience by following them, reply to comments and offer top-quality content. Build relationships with your followers by sharing their content for linking opportunities. Also, encourage your followers to share your content to expand your reach on social platforms.

Use social media channels to capitalize on your blog’s content. Posts, which direct visitors to useful information provide relevant content and increase the results of your SEO strategies. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for b2b marketing. Consider cross-promoting across the variety of your social media channels.

In your social posts use engaging visuals and graphics and useful information. Include industry tips and news. Provide solutions to your customers’ problems. Use video testimonials and connect to instructional “how-to” videos created by your company. 

Redefining Your Target Audience

Digital marketing offers exponential reach. You can accurately define your demographics and invest in the most effective campaigns. You can create campaigns through Google or on social media channels. Most platforms allow you to refine your target audience while the campaign is running.

This capability combined with immediate access to analytics will help you adjust your campaigns to achieve the best results. You will also minimize your costs and reduce the risk of failures. Use free online tools such as Google Analytics to measure success. It allows you to understand the success of your online marketing strategies and how they are influencing your target audience.

Wrapping It Up

The best way to start your online marketing strategy is to list all your online assets such as blogs, websites and social media pages. If you are using an analytics tool, check out the digital assets which generate the most leads or conversions. This will help you gain relevant insight into what has been performing well for your online business.

Determine which segment you want to develop. Do you want to build your social media pages? Or do you want to focus on SEO? Consider your available budget and what you want to invest money into. After determining the online marketing tactics that best suit your company, create a customized content calendar. 

Don’t forget it’s never too early or too late for you to implement the best digital marketing strategies. These tactics allow you to easily include digital marketing into your overall marketing plan.

Author Bio: This article was written by John Cotter of Cotter Marketing. John specialises in the sale of industrial products online and knows the importance of creating an effective digital marketing strategy.