Over 60% of marketers say lead generation is their number one challenge. If you’re struggling to generate leads this year, you need a strong strategy. Your digital marketing strategy can help you boost brand awareness, leads, and sales.
Not sure where to start? Here are the eight digital marketing basics you need to succeed.
By following this guide, you can develop a strong digital marketing strategy. Then, you can set your business up for success and long-term growth. Without a strategy, however, you could struggle to reach customers.
Your competitors will reach those consumers instead.
Don’t let your competitors get the edge! Start boosting your business with these inbound marketing tips today.
1. Build Your Brand
It takes five to seven impressions before you produce a smidge of brand awareness. If you want people to recognise your brand, consistency and repetition are key.
It only takes 10 seconds for consumers to form an impression about your business, though. You need to make every second count. With a strong, impactful brand, you can draw in new customers.
Your brand includes your business’s:
- Mission
- Vision
- Voice
- Tone
- Personality
- Color scheme
- Font styles
- Imagery styles
- Logo
It’s important to keep these elements consistent across every marketing channel. Otherwise, you could risk confusing consumers. They might see two different brands and think you’re two different businesses.
A signature color can boost brand recognition by 80%. Meanwhile, consistent branding can boost revenues by up to 23%. You can create brand guidelines to ensure you maintain brand consistency.
Almost 60% of consumers prefer to purchase from familiar brands. By keeping your brand consistent, you can also keep long-time customers. In time, brand loyalty will grow.
Loyalty is sometimes worth 10 times as much as a single purchase. In fact, a 2% increase in customer retention can lower costs by as much as 10%.
Before you use these digital marketing basics, focus on your brand. Define your business and how you want to appear in front of customers. Then, make sure your branding remains consistent across every step of your marketing strategy.
2. Understand Your Audience
Before you can start using inbound marketing strategies, take a moment to compile research. Research is the backbone of any effective marketing strategy. Without it, you’ll only make assumptions about your target audience.
You could struggle to reach and appeal to your customers as a result.
Instead, determine who your customers are and what they care about. If you’re targeting a broad audience, segment consumers by:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Household income
- Marital status
- Language
- Education
- Buying behaviors
- Interests
- Pain points
Create a buyer persona for each customer group. Imagine these personas as real people. Then, you can create a distinct strategy for reaching each group.
Segmenting your audience will help you personalise your content. You can appeal to each persona based on their unique needs and interests. For example, a father of three kids will likely have different interests than a female college student.
Once you determine who your customers are, try to learn more about their interests. What problems are they facing? What questions are they asking?
Gather keyword research to determine what your customers search for online. You can use SEMRush, Google Trends, Ahrefs, or Keyword Planner. These tools will help you find keywords with high search volumes.
You can use these target keywords to create content your customers are already searching for online.
3. Update Your Website
If you want these digital marketing basics to benefit your business, you’ll need a strong website. Consumers can visit your website to learn more about your brand, even after business hours. Think of your website as a sales rep that works 24/7.
It’s important to create a website that offers the best possible user experience. If people struggle to use your website, they’ll leave.
You’ll miss an opportunity to generate leads and sales as a result.
You can utilise user experience (UX) design trends to improve your website. For example, you can:
- Organise text into headings and subheadings
- Use shorter sentences and paragraphs
- Use bullet points and lists
- Speed up your load times
- Optimise your website for mobile devices
- Secure your website with an SSL certificate
- Ensure buttons are easy to click on
- Make sure your forms are easy to fill out
The easier your website is to use, the more likely people will stick around. You can improve your clickthrough rate and dwell times. Meanwhile, your bounce rate will drop.
A lower bounce rate can help improve your search engine ranking. A higher search engine ranking will position you in front of more customers. Then, you can put your inbound marketing strategies to work!
You can use these 10 web design tips to improve the UX on your website.
4. Craft Unique Content
One of the most important components of a strong inbound marketing strategy is content. You’ll use content to draw people to your website. Consumers can learn more about your business and the unique value you can offer.
Focus on creating different types of content, including:
- Blog posts
- Articles
- eBooks
- Videos
- Testimonials
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Lists/checklists
- How-to guides
Make sure each piece of content has a singular focus. Otherwise, consumers might not see the value in your post.
Use your keyword research to determine what type of content to create. Select a single focus keyword for each post. Then, sprinkle in secondary keywords throughout the content.
Make sure to focus on the reader’s search intent. What content are they hoping to find? Remember, understanding your customers can help you create content they care about.
You can use your content to create a lead magnet on your website. For example, you can prompt consumers to share their email to receive a free eBook. Then, you can keep sending them unique content and updates through an email campaign.
Don’t forget to share your content on other marketing channels, too!
5. Start Using Search
About 93% of all online activities start with search engines like Google and Bing. Unfortunately, 75% of users don’t look beyond the first page. If your website doesn’t appear on the top page of a search, consumers might not realise you exist.
Instead, you can use search engine marketing (SEM) to boost your online ranking. SEM includes a mix of marketing strategies. Two of the most effective SEM strategies include search engine optimisation and pay-per-click.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an organic SEM strategy. As you create content for your website, you can optimise each post with a focus keyword. When someone searches for that keyword in Google, your post might appear.
SEO can benefit your business by:
- Boosting your online visibility
- Generating traffic to your website
- Establishing your credibility
- Generating leads and conversions
- Improving your ROI
- Positioning you ahead of competitors
- Helping you appear as a thought leader in the industry
- Helping you build brand trust and loyalty
Google’s search engine algorithm changes constantly. It’s important to make sure you’re up-to-date with the latest trends. Otherwise, your search engine ranking could drop.
First, make sure your website is fast and mobile-optimised. Google uses mobile-first indexing to select page rankings. If you’re not mobile-optimised, your competitors could rank ahead of you.
It’s also important to gather backlinks. Backlinks are links that send readers from one website to your site. You’ll need to gather links from high-authority websites within your industry.
Don’t forget to optimise your Google My Business (GMB) listing, too. Your GMB listing will help you appear for local searches. You can develop a local SEO strategy using location-based keywords.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is exactly as it sounds; you’ll pay each time someone clicks on your digital ad. You can create ads for search engines and social media platforms like Facebook.
PPC ads come in different shapes, formats, and sizes. For example, you can create still image ads, animations, or videos.
Make sure to use a strong call-to-action for your ads.
6. Stay Social
As you start creating content on your website, share it! Post your content on social media platforms. Choose platforms your target audience already uses daily.
Social media marketing can help you connect with your target audience.
As people comment on your posts, comment back. Create a two-way conversation to boost engagement. You might want to work with influencers within your industry, too.
Consider posting live videos and contests as well. Keep these 10 Instagram marketing tactics in mind as you get started.
7. Get Emailing
Email your customers to keep them up-to-date. Let them know when you’re offering new products or services. You can also share your blog posts via email.
Email marketing will help you nurture your leads.
8. Analyse and Optimise
As you use these digital marketing basics, don’t forget to keep up-to-date with the trends. For example, video content and voice searches are becoming more popular. Maybe you want to try your hand at TikTok and Snapchat marketing, too.
Keeping up with the trends will help you remain relevant. Otherwise, consumers might think you’re behind the times.
Set for Success: The 8 Digital Marketing Basics You Need
Don’t fall behind the competition. Instead, give your business a boost with these eight digital marketing basics. By using these inbound marketing strategies, you can expand your reach and online visibility.
Then, you can generate more traffic to your website, attract fresh leads, and boost your ROI.
Want to develop an effective marketing strategy for your business? We’re here to help!
Schedule a strategy talk with our team today to get started.
