Digital marketing is essential for today’s business growth strategies. It is because we live in a digital world that is highly connected. We can talk to anyone around the world through our phones, connect with our fav brands, and interact with them through social media. This helps businesses reach their customers anywhere in the world. But how do businesses do that? They do it through digital marketing.
Brief Overview of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a type of marketing conducted online. Just like regular marketing, digital marketing is also used to either boost sales, build brand awareness, or to promote a product. Various software and digital platforms like Google Adwords and FB are used in digital marketing to reach the target audience.
Digital marketing in itself hosts multiple strategies that can be used to drive business growth. These strategies include;
- Social Media Marketing
- SEO
- Email Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Digital Advertising
Digital marketing can be categorized into three types.
Owned Media
These are the digital assets that are fully owned by your business. The digital assets can be your business’s website, social media profiles, blogs, email newsletters, and mobile apps. You have complete control over these assets and can utilize them however you like. Owned media is mostly used to represent your brand’s visual identity and what it stands for.
Paid Media
Paid media includes any digital marketing efforts that require businesses to pay to get their message in front of their target audience. Strategies such as SEM, social media ads, Pay Per Click campaigns, and display ads are all examples of paid media.
Earned Media
Earned media is anything that leads to organic growth of your brand. Earned media usually includes client reviews and testimonials, high search engine rankings that drive organic traffic, organic engagement through social media, and user generated content (UGC).
Leveraging Digital Marketing for Business Growth
Every business is unique, so are their digital marketing needs. This means that there is no one size fits all digital marketing solution for every business. Brands and businesses have to customize their digital marketing strategies to achieve the desired results. The very first step in this process is to understand your target audience. Understanding the following is crucial for your digital marketing strategies to be successful.
- What channels is your audience using online?
- What type of content do they prefer, enjoy, and share?
- How frequently do they want to see content from a single brand?
- At what time of the day they are most active?
- What type of content or offers make them take action?
These are only a few questions that you need to find the answers to better understand your audience. Another way brands ensure their digital marketing strategies will work is by employing Big Data. Big Data is large sets of data that are either structured, unstructured, semi-structured, or raw. Big Data is stored in exabytes. One might wonder where this data comes from? You’ll be surprised to know that every time we click on an image, make a comment, share a post, or give a like, data is created. This means that 402.74 million terabytes of data is created every day. The reason for employing big data in digital marketing is that it gives valuable insights into user preferences and behaviors. This allows marketers and brands to plan their digital marketing strategy accordingly. Big data also allows marketers to predict any emerging trends.
Now that you understand the first step in successfully implementing digital marketing to drive business growth. Here are ten ways you can leverage digital marketing for your business growth.
1- Content Marketing
Content is the king when it comes to the digital world. Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy. Its main purpose is to attract, engage, and retain an audience. This is number one on our list because without proper content marketing strategy, other digital marketing strategies won’t work. But why? It is because what is the point of bringing an audience to your page or website if they are not going to engage with it? Without proper content in place, how will the audience be forced to take action, like buy a product or share a post?
Content marketing involves the use of content in various forms. Content can be in the form of blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, social media posts, podcasts, emails, and videos. So, if you are looking to leverage digital marketing for business growth, remember, Content is King.
2- SEO
It is the cornerstone of digital marketing success. Besides, what’s the purpose of creating content is it does not reach its target audience. SEO helps optimize your website and content with relevant keywords. This improves your rankings in search engines and attracts organic traffic. You need to have a comprehensive SEO strategy for your digital marketing efforts to bore fruit. A comprehensive SEO strategy includes, website optimization, on-page seo, off-page seo, link building, technical seo, and local seo.
3- SMM
Once you are done with SEO and content marketing, the next step is to leverage social media. Social media can not be ignored whatsoever, when it comes to digital marketing. It is not wrong to say that social media is a pitara of digital marketing opportunities. This gives you a chance to build meaningful relationships with your audience. Once the audience feels valued they turn into customers. Once they have a seamless experience, they then turn into brand advocates. Brand advocates are those loyal customers that support your brand by their own will. This is the best type of marketing a brand can ever want. So, make sure to cater to your audience through social media and make them feel values. Do this, and you won’t even need paid media to drive growth for your brand.
4- Email Marketing
Despite other marketing strategies being introduced, email marketing has truly stood the test of time. Even now, the roi for every dollar spent on email marketing is $36, which is truly impressive. Besides this, consumers also prefer to be contacted through email by their favorite brands. Email marketing is one of the most efficient ways to nurture leads to ultimately drive conversions.
You can also build an email list over time through email marketing. This allows you to segment your audience according to their preferences or interests. After the segmentation, you can easily send targeted emails to each segment of your target audience. By doing this, you not only stay on top of their minds but also make them take action and drive business growth.
5- Influencer Marketing
One of the newest ways brand’s drive business growth is through influencer marketing. It is a type of digital marketing in which brands partner with individuals to promote their products, services, or the brand itself. The most major thing to consider is the influencer you partner with. If you find one that resonates with your brand, then the rest is relatively easy.
6- Video Marketing
Video marketing, specifically short form content, has become very popular nowadays. It is thanks to the global popularity of TikTok. Incorporating videos in your digital marketing strategy helps you convey your message more effectively. Videos also give you the chance to showcase the true potential of your product or service. This also helps you connect with your audience on a more personal level.
7- Paid Ads
You might have heard half cooked marketers say that they’ll grow your business organically without any ads. What they don’t realize is that organic growth can be boosted using strategically placed ad campaigns. Once you have taken all six steps mentioned above, the next step is to use paid ads to immediately boost your online presence. This helps attract your target audience, and all the six steps mentioned above will retain them.
8- Mobile Optimization
Majority of the internet users access content through mobile phones, just like you and me. So, it only makes sense to optimize your content and website for mobile. This makes sure a seamless user experience and maximizes conversions.
9- Explore Emerging Technologies
Staying ahead of the curve in the world of digital marketing is a luxury not everyone can afford. So, if you get the chance, always make sure to employ emerging technologies into your digital marketing campaigns. You can use technologies such as AI, AR, and VR to create more immersive experiences for your audience. This will help boost conversions, and drive business growth.
10- Fostering Customer Relationships
All of the 9 ways you can leverage digital marketing to drive business growth will be for nothing if you do not foster customer relationships. You can do that by delivering exceptional customer service, interacting with your customers, soliciting feedback, and promoting a sense of community. This will help your audience turn into loyal customers and ultimately brand advocates.
Conclusion
Digital marketing world is full of continued innovations and unique strategies. If you want to get the most out of your digital marketing campaign, you need to understand your audience first. You can do that by answering questions like, what channels does your audience use online? And what time are they most active? You can even use Big Data to gain valuable insights into your audience. Using Big Data will also help you stay ahead of the curve. However, gaining insights into your target audience is only the first step. For successfully leveraging digital marketing for business growth, you need to follow all ten ways mentioned above.