The digital world of today provides an array of opportunities to connect with your audience and grow your business beyond four walls. However, you will first need to understand what action you want your audience to take after reading your blog post or talking to a chatbot. By combining a relevant driving action with the right digital marketing strategy, you can be certain to achieve the best results. Therefore, to guide these decisions, we have curated a list of the best ways to utilise digital marketing to grow your business.
1) SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) should be at the heart of every digital marketing strategy. Essentially, SEO is the process of implementing specific techniques, both on and off page, that help to improve a website’s search engine ranking for certain keywords and phrases.
Through the creation of well-optimised, relevant and unique content, improved website performance, and acquiring backlinks from other websites, businesses can enhance their online visibility and drive more traffic to their site.
The general benefits of SEO include:
– Increase in quality traffic
– Low cost (compared to PPC)
– Greater ROI than other forms of advertising
– Builds trust and credibility
– Presents opportunity to establish brand identity/voice
Considering the top 3 ranking positions account for 40% of total click through rate, it’s never been more important for businesses to climb above their competitors and secure those top spots. Investing in SEO is, therefore, becoming more of a necessity than a choice.
2) Websites
A website is more than just a digital marketing tool, it is an extension of your business and should be considered a vital part of business growth. The creation of a website may seem common for most businesses, but updating your website is just as important. For a website to achieve the best results it must evolve with the design trends of the time and developments in the user experience.
The expectations of the user will only increase due to technological advancements across the online market, and a website must be able to adapt to these developments. This evolution also expands to the mobile market, with the now essential requirement for mobile-friendly websites due to our handheld society.
Current website design trends to consider include:
– Full responsiveness
– Optimised Images
– Bold Colours
– Three-dimensional artwork
– Asymmetric layouts
These are only a few examples of current trends, with other design choices being dependant on your website marketing strategy and what you want to achieve through your online presence. However, with a solid website strategy, you will have the best chance to clearly communicate your brand to your audience.
3) Chatbots
It’s predicted that “by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human”. The evolution of automated processes is a trend we cannot ignore, with the use of chatbots representing an effective digital marketing tool for business growth. Chatbots are responsive, prompt, patient, and allow you to automate repetitive tasks.
1-800-Flowers was one of the first Facebook Messenger bots, whereby customers can order flowers or gifts for delivery using the chatbot, without any need to access the online store. The Facebook bot includes status updates and even purchase suggestions. More recent expectations of chatbots include the ability to resolve queries or answer questions, with 35% of 18 to 64 year-olds choosing a chatbot as their preferred method. This type of artificial interaction saves an inordinate amount of time, allowing your business to focus on the most relevant tasks.
4) User Generated Content
According to a survey by Bazaar Voice, over half (51%) of Americans trust user-generated content (UGC) more than other information on a company website (16%), while Millennials are three times as likely to use social media to get opinions on products to buy. These statistics are proof that the majority of consumers will trust the word of other consumers, and applying this towards a digital marketing strategy can provide substantial business growth.
The ease of user content creation and the ability to respond, answer, and engage with customers has greatly improved through technological advancements. Therefore, promoting the use of UGC and audience interaction across all available channels is a free method that gives your business transparency, which from the perspective of the consumer, can lead to a trustworthy reputation.
5) Video Marketing
To visualise where the future of video content is heading, Hubspot teamed with Uscreen to create an informative infographic. Examples of varied video content include live streaming, 1 on 1 videos, vlogs, 360-degree videos, and virtual reality. All of which seem to project more of an interactive and immersive experience, whereby customers can substantially interact with your company brand.
More importantly, video content is gradually becoming SEO-friendly. AI is able to transcribe audio, allowing for searchable video content. Using the expertise of a creative digital marketing agency like Champions Digital, that focuses on innovative, SEO-driven video content, can really give you the extra edge to help you stand out from your competitors online.
6) Influencer Marketing
The ability to work with an influencer can project your brand to a wider audience. As individual’s, they have developed a following who trust, engage and will listen to their messages. Therefore, instead of using standard methods of marketing to the consumer, an influencer can promote your campaign for you. Even the influencers agree, as 70% feel that the most effective way to collaborate with brands is through an influencer marketing platform.
The best form of influencer marketing is a combination of social media and content marketing. These combined with communication and respect can help to form a successful digital marketing strategy, as well as healthy relationships with relevant influencers.
7) Email Marketing
The art of writing the perfect email for the right audience will always be a discussed topic among digital marketing professionals. However, it is still an essential method for any campaign, as 73% of marketers rate email as the number one digital channel for ROI.
The increased personalisation of emails for specific customers allows your marketing strategy to become much more focused and well-suited to the right audiences. And this can include a variety of content such as advertisements, discounts, newsletters, blog notifications, business updates etc. The consumer will feel more involved with a personalised email and can help to improve your business reputation.
8) Social Media Advertising
One of the biggest benefits of social media advertising is the ability to receive a consistent return in sales from the first day of a social campaign. Other digital marketing methods will generally take more time before you see any substantial results, and can be costly to do so. However it is the accessibility and responsiveness of social media channels that creates such an effective form of advertising. Statistics show that online adults aged 18-34 are 95% more likely to follow a brand via social networking.
The variety of social media platforms now available creates an array of content possibilities including social networking, photos, video content, and microblogs. All of these can be utilised in social media advertising, providing diversity to your brand, which is an important factor within our digital-driven society.
Conclusion
The opportunities now available for digital marketing strategies has substantially grown in recent years, and this is shaping an exciting future for the marketing landscape. Technological advancements are aiding the growth of chatbots, user-generated content, website design, and high quality video content, while the more standard methods of SEO, content, and email marketing are forever improving. However, it is the power of social media and the influencers who lead the social platforms that can further expand the capabilities of an effective digital marketing campaign.
