1. Search Engine Optimization
The
first tactic is SEO, or search engine optimization. The beauty of SEO
is the fact that you can get your business in front of prospects that
are literally searching for your product or service.
Think
of SEO like the old Yellowpages. The only reason anyone picked up and
flipped through a Yellowpages book was that they were in need of a
product or service and wanted to find a business to help. The same
thing happens every day on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
With
a solid SEO strategy, you’ll be able to get your business to show up on
the first page of Google at the precise moment when your prospects need
your product or service.
2. Digital Advertising
Next,
let’s talk about digital advertising. Forget all of your preconceptions
about advertising for a minute and consider a few facts:
1. With ad networks like Google Ads and
Facebook Ads, there is no minimum investment to get started. You can
get started with as little as a few dollars per day.
2. You can pay per-click, which means
you’re only going to pay when a prospect takes action on your ad (i.e.
shows interest).
3. With YouTube video advertising, any
business can now get a 30+ second commercial in front of their target
audience for pennies per view (again, no minimum investment required).
4. When you set up proper tracking, then
you can see your return on investment and determine where to allocate
your marketing dollars to maximize your profits.
5. Ad networks can now automatically find and
target audiences online that have similar demographics and online user
behavior as your customers. You may want to read that sentence again so
it sinks in. :)
As
you can imagine, I’m a huge fan of digital advertising and all the
options that are now available. Like SEO, you can advertise when your
prospects are literally searching for your product or service. Plus,
you can advertise when your prospects are surfing around on other
websites, on social media, and even when they are reading emails
related to your products or services.
3. Referral Marketing
I’m
not going to spend too much time on this section because everyone is
familiar with referrals. There’s no shortcut with referral marketing
online just like there’s no shortcut off of the internet.
To
create a strong referral network requires real effort to build
relationships with other businesses that serve your target market.
To
get started, brainstorm the other types of businesses that provide
products and services to your customers. Then reach out to see if they
are open to a referral partnership. Some will flat out ignore you. Some
will say no. But if you’re persistent then you’ll eventually build up a
nice stream of traffic to your website from referral sources.
4. Social Media Marketing
This
list would not be complete if I didn’t mention social media marketing.
However, I do need to start off with a warning that too many businesses
are wasting a lot of their time and money on this tactic.
Digital
marketing success is not measured by your total number of Facebook
Likes or Twitter Followers; it’s measured by leads and sales.
With
that said, social media marketing can be an effective tactic to reach
your target audience and drive them to your website to make a purchase.
You just need to keep your eye on the prize and don’t get sidetracked
on a mission to increase vanity numbers like Likes and Followers.
5. Online Publicity
Like
referrals, every business wants publicity. If your business can get
featured in the news then you’ll instantly be top of mind and the
authority in your industry.
But
also like referrals there is no shortcut. As comedian Kevin Hart chants
before taking the stage, “Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody
wants to put the work in!” :)
To
get publicity you’ll need to create (or do) something worthy of press.
If you haven’t already, then get started blogging on your website. This
will get you into the rhythm of creating press worthy content that you
can then leverage to secure a column in an industry news site or online
magazine.
To
see this in action, go take a look at my column on Target Marketing Magazine.
That is the result of good ol’ fashion hard work.
6. Offline-to-Online Integration
The
final tactic I’ll mention here is to use offline-to-online integration.
If you’re already using direct mail, print ads, radio, TV, and/or
telemarketing, or getting offline publicity, then find ways to
integrate those offline campaigns with your digital marketing.
For
example, add a call-to-action in your direct mail letter to learn more
by visiting a page on your website. Or, in your TV and radio ads
instruct your prospects to go to your website to claim your special
offer.
Studies
show that more and more people are visiting business websites to learn
more before taking action. That’s why it’s so important to have a
congruent message in all of your marketing, both on- and off-line.
Here's What You Should Do Now
Now
that you have the top 6 tactics, it’s time to take action. Make a note
about which tactics are missing in your digital marketing and create a
plan to add them in the coming months.
Of
course, there’s a lot more to digital marketing than driving traffic to
your website. You must also convert that traffic into leads and sales
and have the proper tracking in place to measure your results.
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