Common digital marketing strategies

The goal of every business is to grow and prosper. In today’s world of smartphones and online connectivity, people are putting aside the more traditional marketing tools in exchange for online marketing. Your website is the gateway to your business and by using these strategies, you’ll earn new customers and see your conversions soar.

SEO

Search engine optimization uses keywords and other strategies to organically improve your search rankings. Google has a complex algorithm that takes many factors into account when determining search results rankings. The company has kept these factors close to their vest, but there are tactics that we know generate positive results. Optimizing your site for specific keywords and phrases and creating good authoritative content will go a long way toward improving rank. You can also seek out backlinks and remove negative backlinks by disavowing them.

SEO is a journey that takes a few weeks or months to see major changes. The changes will likely be gradual, but once you’ve broken the top 10, you’ll understand how important SEO is to your digital marketing.

PPC

Google has their own advertising platform that uses pay per click advertising (PPC) to generate clicks and revenue for your site. There are five separate forms of Google advertising: search, video, mobile, shopping and display. You can participate in all or one. It’s up to your specific strategy and budget.

It starts by creating a campaign and choosing various keywords that you want your ad to show up for. You then bid on those keywords and set a daily budget. For example, if you wanted to bid on the phrase “expert electrician,” then you would choose a per click amount and then Google would place your ad when that specific keyword is searched. It won’t be all the time, and you’re competing with other companies for those spots. The more you spend, the better chances your ad will be seen. With pay per click, you pay for every click the ads generate, regardless if the click results in a sale.

PPC is great for creating immediate sales and conversions.

Social Media

There are several social media platforms out there, from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Pinterest. Each one has different audiences that want different things. Social media marketing is all about engaging with that audience and developing a relationship. It’s not about sales, but a good social media presence will eventually bring sales.

Facebook and Twitter are great places to directly interact with your customers. Daily tweets and posts filled with photos and videos will grab attention. When a customer comments or tweets back, make sure to acknowledge them and answer back. Facebook allows customers to leave reviews about your business that you can reply to and provide help or thanks.

If you’re unhappy with the reach for your posts and tweets, you can put a little money behind them. This will increase views from the people who already like your page or follow you and reach beyond to people who don’t like or follow you yet. Several social media platforms have advertising, much like Google PPC as well.

Email Marketing

Email marketing has been a tried and true tactic since people first used the Internet. Using your website or even in-store sales, you can gather the email addresses of customers and send them periodic emails and newsletters describing your deals, sales and new products.

Email marketing is an art. You need to create engaging and interesting copy and package it all together in a template that people want to read. There are ways to track how well the email was received by tracking the number of people who opened it and if they clicked to the site, etc. You can use these metrics to create better email newsletters in the future.

Occasional emails are a great way to get pre-existing customers back to your site and to keep your business fresh in their mind. Don’t inundate them with constant emails as that will end up turning them off, and they will unsubscribe from your newsletter.

Digital marketing is necessary for today’s business environment, and careful and planned execution of these strategies is the key to online success.