Now that you have decided to build your digital strategy, what’s next? In Part Two of our “Changing Your Business Model to Survive” series, we’ll explore popular digital marketing platforms and channels available and weigh the pros/cons and features of each.
Your digital real estate is just as important as your physical location. Consumers no longer pick up the phone to call; they’re looking to connect with you online—at any time, from anywhere. When it comes to building or revamping your website experience, there are many options available varying in scalability, price, editability, and speed to market. Here is a sampling:
Social Media Marketing allows you to engage with current and potential customers at every stage of the consumer’s purchasing journey, allowing you to tell and share your brand story, engage with customers, and build trust among audiences. With a defined strategy and frequent presence on social, you’ll retain and create loyal customers, increase website visits, develop leads, and improve conversion rates. Most important, you’ll learn about your customers’ wants, needs, and behaviors.
There are two components in social media marketing (1) Organic Social and (2) Paid Social:
Each social platform has its own merits and best practices:
Since COVID-19, social media has become the second most popular digital activity. In our post “The (Re)Rise of the Influencer“, we discussed the surge in traffic to social platforms. Our third part of this series will discuss optimizing these campaigns and the reports you’ll need for decision making.
Paid Search is an essential component of an effective digital strategy, providing you the capability to reach your audience instantly based on their activity in search engines like Google and Bing. Paid search provides a host of benefits, including the ability to target your competitor’s customers.
Paid search encompasses several model types, including PPC (pay-per-click), CPV (cost-per-view), CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions), and CPA (cost-per-action):
The types of Paid Search ads you choose will depend on your marketing and business objectives, goals, and budget. There are many Paid Search options available varying in price and visibility. Effective campaign strategies may employ multiple methods to guide prospective clients and customers to their final purchasing decision.
Are you looking to speak directly to consumers who have opted-in to receive information or learn more about your business? Email marketing allows you to engage current and prospective audiences whose email address you already have captured via other marketing efforts. Better yet, you can target specific customer segments based on prior actions or behaviors, such as previous purchases or shopping cart abandonment. Segments help convert prospects into customers, build and maintain brand loyalty, and drive website traffic and conversions.
Email marketing platforms include smaller business programs like MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor. Larger businesses will benefit from programs offered by Mautic, HubSpot, Adobe, and Salesforce.
Now that you understand some of the benefits of the common tools available in your digital marketing toolkit, stay tuned for part three of this series—we’ll discuss the best practices to implement your online presence, as well as to measure and optimize success.
Missed Part One? Read it here.
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