Entrepreneurs and marketers are finally realizing that good content can mean big results when strategically incorporated into a sound online marketing strategy. Much of that has to do with the digital landscape evolving greatly in the past few years.
Today a business has access to unprecedented resources and the potential for growth is virtually limitless. Digital marketing software companies like SEMrush, MOZ, SE Ranking (my favorite SEO tool) compete to be the best and because of this, they’re consistently innovating. Hence, online advertising tool technology seems to be growing at a much faster pace than that of traditional marketing.
At the same time, it’s easy to become complacent and lose track of goals you want to achieve. So like any other business decision, you need to have a plan in place to achieve your objectives and long-term vision. But which tactics should you focus your budget on?
Here are 5 strategies that you can consider:
1) Start Taking Branding Seriously
It’s high time we start focusing more on ‘branding’ rather than just ‘marketing’. If marketing is getting the message across and encouraging action, then branding is the personality for that communication. If your brand is perceived as not relatable, then your overall marketing strategy is likely going to suffer.
Branding allows your target audience to attach emotions to your business, thereby, building a personality. Financially speaking, branding is free! All you need to do is move the focus of your content, email and social media tactics from sales pitches to engagement.
'Remember that a sales pitch can be forgotten but a personality is what everyone will remember.'Click To TweetCan you add a face to your company? You betcha! Consumers love knowing who’s behind an organization, so go ahead and put your best person or people forward.
2) Gauging Social Media Performance
If you’re investing ample time and resources in social media but aren’t getting the results you desire, then it’s time for a revamp. The importance of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn among others as marketing platforms is only as good as your strategy.
Social media isn’t the ‘get-rich-quick scheme’ that some so-called ‘Gurus’ made it out to be. It takes lots of time and consistent effort to acquire meaningful results. But it still makes sense to use social media marketing, especially, paid. It serves as a great distribution tool for your content and to sell certain kinds of products.
However, your goal should be to grow a platform that you have absolute control of such as your website, not the social media profile. The latter will grow as a result of the great job you do bringing awareness to the former.
You also need to track your results more closely. Other than the analytics provided by each respective platform, there are tools that can help gauge your social media performance more accurately. HootSuite, for instance, is a great tool for scheduling social media posts, creating campaigns and measuring analytics. The most important thing is that you take the right actions based on the reports.
3) Making Emails Interesting Again
If you’ve got an email list and you’re not capitalizing on it, then you’re losing a great source of qualified leads and potential customers. Personalized emails are the way to go in general but don’t overdo it.
That being noted, when you can segment your list based on their interests, buying habits or other metrics, it’s easier to prepare personalized emails. This way you can send highly targeted communication that engages your list and increases click-through rate (CTR). This holds true for both B2B and B2C markets.
There’s massive ROI potential in email marketing but the key is getting the right people to subscribe. This is why offering incentives for people to join your email list may not be as effective as others claim. Think about it this way, if the only reason you subscribed to this blog was to download a free PDF, what’s gonna keep you from opting out in a few days?
Well, frankly, not much! However, if you subscribed to this blog because you enjoy our content and view it as an invaluable online marketing resource, then I know that we’re doing a good job.
4) Implement Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
You want people to see your website on the first page of Google and other search engines when they search for something you provide. So improving your existing SEO strategy or implementing one is a smart decision and perhaps, a no-brainer.
Some of the best practices in SEO today include but not limited to:
- Focusing more on content quality than keyword stuffing.
- Using multiple keywords for specific web pages but structuring the whole website based on a group of relevant core keywords.
- Making your website mobile responsive.
- Including metadata (title and description) for each page on your website.
- Compressing visual content to improve the loading speed of your web pages.
- Using internal links to guide visitors to relevant pages on your website.
SEO remains an integral part of every online marketing strategy because search engines are at the center of the web! They’re currently the portal of choice for most consumers.
5) Get Creative With Content Marketing
Scroll through your Facebook feed and you’ll see that every other post is a shared link to an article, blog, or some form of visual content like an image, infographic, gif, or video. This isn’t a bad thing but content innovation is going nowhere and if your efforts aren’t going anywhere either, then it’s time for you to revamp.
Content can be incredibly versatile but only if you have the right idea of what people would like, including the best way to deliver it. In your monthly plan, you could include a mix of promotional, engaging and educational content. Decide on the best form of content and delivery for your business. The best thing about content is that there’s room for experimentation, so never be afraid to try.
Plus it doesn’t have to be complex either. Look at this great resource that simply lists all the animals in the world from A – Z: https://lib2.colostate.edu/wildlife/atoz.php?letter=ALL
Pretty cool, eh?
Always Reassess Your Online Marketing Strategy
Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C space, make sure that you reassess your marketing tactics in order to stay competitive and relevant. Every strategy listed here, can all work together. So by all means, use them all because they’ll complement each other and increase your ROI.
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