The often overlooked tactic enhances reach, raises brand awareness and drives new customers and clients to your business.
Picture the scene: It’s 2021, and the enormity and popularity of digital marketing is providing entrepreneurs with a plethora of opportunities and the ability to tap into an audience of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential customers, all at the push of a button.
When Facebook first launched back in 2004, it really was the first of its kind. Before that, we had MySpace and a few other platforms I’ve never heard of (Friendster or Hi5, anyone?), but none of them had managed to make the impact that Facebook did, and still does.
Since Facebook, we’ve seen the launch of Instagram in 2010 and TikTok in 2016, plus the addition of Instagram Reels in 2020. Not to mention other platforms such as Snapchat and Clubhouse, all giving us access to a wider audience.
In the past 19 years, we’ve all had the luxury of being able to communicate directly with our fans, customers and potential customers in a way that has never been possible before. But before the advent of social media, businesses and brands were built the “old fashioned” way, using more traditional marketing techniques, such as advertising and face-to-face networking.
Social media seems like the Holy Grail
When the world became more digitized, tools such as online advertising, pay-per-click and email marketing grew in popularity and gave entrepreneurs and brands alike the chance to reach an even wider audience. Data was easier to track and metrics and insights enabled you to calculate your return on investment.
For many entrepreneurs and startup businesses, social media seems like the Holy Grail. Not only do you get to build an audience and interact and engage with your followers, but it’s also completely free at the point of entry. Of course, you can now invest in adverts across all social-media channels, but for someone completely new to the business world, social media is a sensible place to start.
Yet there’s a missing piece of the puzzle here. A modality that’s as old as time, but a powerful force when it comes to sharing messages, raising brand awareness and building on the know-like-trust factor. And that’s public relations.
Everything you say and do is PR
Public relations exists so that you can communicate with your audience. If you Google “public relations,” you will find Wikipedia’s definition: “Public Relations is the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or organisation and the public, in order to affect the public perception.”
So, essentially, everything you say and do is PR, but the platform in which you share your message changes. The tools you use to share your message changes. But the message remains the same. Your audience, generally, stays the same, yet where they hang out may change, based on the launch of new platforms, or the increased popularity of existing platforms, such as YouTube and podcasts.
YouTube first launched back in 2005 and podcasts launched a year earlier in 2004, yet they’ve only really exploded as a business tool over the past few years, giving entrepreneurs and startups the chance to create easy-to-share and easy-to-digest content that their ideal clients will love — content that can then be repurposed across social-media channels.
Back in 2004, when I first started my career in PR, there were really only three types of media outlets to pitch to: print titles, TV and radio. Online titles were seen as the poor relation to print, so we rarely bothered pitching to them as clients didn’t see the value in them — oh how times have changed!
However, because there was less choice, it made it easier to build relationships with journalists and work on features and content ideas with them. Over time, the media landscape has changed, and online started to make a huge impact and podcasts and YouTube channels became prime real estate.
Now, there is way more choice when it comes to gaining exposure, so while you may not consider social media, YouTube or podcasts your typical media outlets, they’re still consumed by your ideal clients, still covering topics that complement what you do, and they still have a ready-made audience of loyal fans that you could (and should) be tapping into. How? Quite simply, by pitching.
One piece of content can be shared and shared again
The way you’d pitch yourself to a podcast host is the exact same way that you’d pitch yourself to a journalist. That is a PR tactic and a skill that publicists have been honing for decades. Now, one of the utterly brilliant, yet often overlooked, powers of PR is that you can take one piece of content and deliver it to millions of people in one go. No other form of communication enables you to do that.
It may take time to build and execute your PR plan. You may not see anything published or broadcast for three to four months, but when it lands, it’s well worth the wait, as your content has the potential to be seen or heard by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential ideal clients and customers. Just think about the circulation of a print publication, then triple it to get an average reach.
Think about the audience size of a podcast, then think how many extra people you can reach by sharing it across your social-media channels. And then think about how many extra people you will reach when the host shares it across their social-media channels. All of a sudden, one piece of content can be shared and shared again, leaving behind a digital footprint and breadcrumbs that can lead even more people to your business.
This is another reason why PR is such a powerful and influential tool — because what you do now is searchable forever. PR isn’t always easy to measure, which potentially adds to its downfall in the ROI stakes, but it’s still a tactic that should be employed, and a muscle that should be flexed, as part of your communications strategy.
PR is yet another way of transporting your business and your expertise to a wider audience, an audience that has been built up and cultivated for decades, that already knows, likes and trusts the outlet and the content they produce.
So, next time you decide to put all your eggs in one basket and focus all of your attention on one particular marketing tool, or one particular platform, ask if there’s a more efficient, more effective way of sharing your message to drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new customers to your business. The answer, in case you missed it, is PR.
It’s an unpredictable time for us marketers. People are still recovering from a rough year, financially, mentally, or both. The last thing you’d think people want are dozens of telemarketing or cold calls, automated emails and clickbait headlines — and you’re right.
The idea of trustworthy and transparent marketing — or simply, responsible marketing — isn’t new. Still, it’s taken on more meaning as many companies with initially small online presences finally moved more assets and more effort into digital marketing. The recent increase in digital marketing seems to mean an endless glut of spam from companies indiscriminately marketing to the masses.
So how do we define responsible marketing? For me, it means smarter, targeted marketing with the customer and their pain points always in mind.
Target the Customers Who You Can Benefit
Marketing has a truly awesome ability. It has the power to reach people at a primal level and heavily influence their thoughts and actions. Because our actions as marketers can significantly impact people, it’s our responsibility to promote our product or service in a way that limits the reach only to those whom we believe can benefit from what we are offering.
There is a lot of really great marketing out there, but let’s admit it, a lot of marketing is really spammy. Spam significantly reduces the quality of leads, and more importantly, it’s annoying and gives all marketers a bad name. We need to evolve past the lazy approach of tossing a wide net with the hope of catching the right fish and instead prioritize reaching a smaller, more targeted audience, specifically relating our solutions to the audience’s pain points. Your resulting lead pool may be smaller, but it will also be filled with far higher-quality leads.
How can you tell if you’re in the spammy vs. good marketing camp? First, take a look at who you’re marketing to. Do you know who your ideal customer is? Are you doing your best to reach that customer? Is your content purely promotional, or are you helping that ideal customer understand how your solution will solve their problem?
Your marketing material should first educate. It should demonstrate understanding of a customer’s problem while describing how your offering can help. At Moz, we provide free educational resources on our website because we know that the more we educate people about how to use SEO to increase the visibility of website (for example), the more likely we are to reach the customers who will benefit from our SEO solutions.
It takes patience. You need to respect your audience enough that you allow them the time and space to take the next step and convert or buy at their own pace — not yours.
Build Trust and Connect With Your Customers
I’ve talked before about how storytelling is the best way for marketers to create lasting relationships with customers. People want to experience something human and latch on to a greater narrative. When people feel you’re talking directly to them, it evokes a greater sense of connection and sparks interest in whatever you’re marketing.
Connection creates lifelong customers. Lifers, as we call them, have more value in the long run than higher volumes of entry-level customers. They’ll spend more on premium products, stick with you through rough times and recommend your brand to others. We connect with and retain lifers through a few core values — empathy, transparency and generosity.
Recently, everyone has had a rough time of it. Adjusting to new standards is exhausting, and the last thing a customer wants is to have to wade through clickbait and spam to find the answers to their problems. When I say empathy, I mean taking the time to see the world from your customer’s point of view. It ties back into your responsibility as a marketer to meet the customer where they’re at and guide them through the journey, rather than pushing them towards something they may not yet want or need. When customers see your commitment to allow them to experience the buying process in their own time, they’ll be far more inclined to trust you.
In light of recent data breaches and questionable data collection, transparency is essential right now . Customers and those interacting with your material need to know their data and information are safe with you. It’s also about showing your interest in new prospects and truthfully communicating who your product is right for.
Respect, Responsibility and Success
People get used to the status quo. Right now, the status quo is dozens of robocalls a day, irrelevant emails and other forms of spam. Is this marketing’s future? I would hope not. Imagine what a beautiful world it would be if we all worked hard to truly understand who could benefit from what we’re offering and only reached out to those prospects. Then focused on educating those prospects about how we can help.
The hope is we all use this power we have as marketers to reach targeted audiences, creating lifelong customers and responsibly guiding them along their journey.
Christina Mautz has served as a strategic marketing leader for some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Amazon and Yahoo!, as well as a few Seattle SaaS startups where she earned the nickname “Chief Problem Solver.” She currently serves as the CMO and Head of Sales for Moz, the world’s leading SEO software company. In this role, she brings her passion for strategic problem-solving to the sales and marketing teams, aligning them with creative strategies to drive growth.
Traditionally, brands advertised in the mediums of the day, namely print (newspapers and magazines), television and radio. While those mediums are still used today, the digital marketplace has opened up a multitude of new digital marketing opportunities, including:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Viral Marketing
In this article we are going to take a close look at the 8 most popular digital marketing mediums, and tell you how they can be used to your advantage.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising model that is used to drive traffic to websites. An advertiser typically pays a search engine (Google Ads, Amazon Advertising, or Microsoft Advertising) when the ad is clicked. You have likely seen PPC in action when you search for something on Google.
In the image above you can see the first two results of a search for “CRM platform” are ads. In fact, the first four results are PPC ads.
Brands bid on a chosen keyword or search phrase, which then puts the ad into one of four ad spaces offered by Google, for example. The cost per click (CPC) is based on the quality score of the site and the competition of the chosen keyword. Brands typically use the tools provided by Google Ads to determine their keywords and the CPC.
Nate Tsang, founder and CEO at WallStreetZen, a stock market analysis service provider, said that pay-per-click marketing can be a very powerful digital marketing strategy when it is done by those who truly understand the practice. “You should only do this strategy if you are familiar with it or hire someone who is an expert in this field. Doing it on your own without the proper knowledge can be a waste of money,” said Tsang. “I have seen many brands waste thousands on pay-per-click campaigns because they are leading them to the wrong webpage or not being specific on what the visitor must do on the page. A successful PPC campaign must have a great and straightforward landing page so you can convert your visitors and not waste your budget.”
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art, as it were, of optimizing a website so that when a potential customer searches via Google, or to a lesser degree, Bing or other search engines, the web page will show up at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP). If a brand sells monitor speakers for recording artists, and they have a local store in Cleveland, Ohio, then SEO could be used to bring the website up in the listings by using appropriate keywords throughout the website, in the titles of the pages, in the meta keyword and description tags, and in the various headers throughout the page or site.
This is not to say that the site or page should be keyword spammed, that is, stuffed with keywords without relevant content. Content is still king, and long gone are the days when black hat SEO tactics can be effectively used. Tactics today should include backlinks to the site from all of the brand’s social media presences, and web pages should include relevant content. Content can be created about the topic, as in our example, a page that discusses the various types of monitor speakers and their use, with links to the various monitor speakers the brand sells scattered throughout the page (this is Content Marketing, which we will also discuss). Keyword and Description meta tags are still used, but content relevance is more important today. Also, especially for localized businesses, having a Google business page, which puts a brand on Google Maps, as well as a Yelp business page, will help to pull a brand up to the top of the listings.
Below the PPC ads are the organic (non-paid) results, which also include the “People also ask” section, which features pages in which a specific question is answered by the content of the page (search engine gold — this tactic is heavily used by SEO marketers).
PHOTO: CMSWire
Often, SEO is done through a third-party company that specializes in SEO, rather than an in-house SEO team or the marketing department. SEO used to be fairly simple, but continual changes in Google’s algorithms have made it more of a precise practice that involves specialization.
Ian Sells is founder and CEO of RebateKey, an online rebate provider, and like many marketers we spoke with, SEO is at the top of his list, because if customers cannot find your website, no business can occur. With so many websites out there on every possible topic, it’s challenging to get on top of the search engine results pages. “Being on top of SERPs, that is, being on page one, gives you a lot more traffic since your site gets seen by more eyes. The advantage of this is, while it takes a lot more effort initially, once your site gains the momentum, you don’t have to spend so much on it, unlike in ads where you have to continuously spend,” explained Sells.
Social Media Marketing
As one would imagine, social media marketing is when brands use their social presences, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, among others, to target their customers. This is accomplished through targeted marketing ad campaigns, “like” campaigns, and posts offering special offers and discounts. Detailed demographic information about gender, ages, locations, times on the site, and more can be used to target specific demographics and groups of people.
“This is actually very powerful since a lot of people are on social media. We’re actually revamping our Instagram strategies as well as our Facebook strategies because we’re seeing the potential of the traffic they bring to our site,” said Sells. “The disadvantage of social media marketing is, sometimes, the engagement stays there. That’s totally useless, if your conversions happen on your site. So you have to make the effort to bring the traffic from your social media handles to your site.”
Content Marketing
We briefly discussed content marketing in the SEO section of this article, when we spoke about creating pages that do not directly sell products or services, but provide information and details about specific subjects that are related to the products or services a brand sells. By providing relevant content that appeals to a brand’s target audience, brands can attract customers to their website, and this content also helps improve SEO for the website.
“Content marketing is broad. In our case, we use several kinds of videos on YouTube, primarily informative ones,” said Sells. “These are helpful to increase awareness about your brand and help people who are interested to get to know your brand, product, or service even more. Sometimes, just a little explanation is enough to convince people to try your service.”
Brad Touesnard, founder and CEO of SpinupWP, a cloud-based server control panel designed for WordPress and he can attest that the right content can be a gamechanger. “We are in the server industry and our most popular blog post compares five of the top server providers. Our experts ran tests on each provider and we shared our results in our blog post. The blog post generated a lot of interest from industry professionals who were eager to see our data,” Touesnard said. “Currently this blog post generates 23.4% of the total search engine traffic to our site and ranks on the first place of Google’s search results for its primary keyword.”
Email Marketing
While many marketers might believe that email is a dying marketing channel, the opposite is true — email marketing is still one of the most effective channels a brand can use. This really shouldn’t be surprising, given the number of email users worldwide. According to a report from Statista, in 2020, approximately 306 billion emails were sent and received each day, with 3.9 billion people using email every day. That’s half the global population! Marketers should take note that according to the DMA Marketer Email Tracker, for every dollar that’s spent on email marketing, the average expected ROI is $42.
Unlike other marketing channels, marketing emails are only sent to those customers who have given permission for the brand to do so — which means they are actually interested in what brands are offering, unlike ads on social media where they do not have a choice but to see ads.
Typically, marketers use email marketing software which allows them to automate the process, send personalized emails, and often includes performance optimization and analytics functionality. By tracking key performance metrics, brands are able to determine which email marketing campaigns are effective, and which ones are not.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is still relatively new, and relies on people who have gained a following on social media either for being entertaining, informative, or being an expert in their field. Influencers typically promote themselves through blogs, videos, and social media posts. Brands look for influencers that are connected to their customers in some way. Perhaps the influencer has a cooking show on YouTube, such as Sam the Cooking Guy. Not only does he sell his own line of cooking utensils and books, but he is sponsored by Catalina Offshore Products and Lars Remodeling and Design. In the case of Sam the Cooking Guy, these two brands recognized that Sam, who has 2.93 million YouTube subscribers, reaches many people who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
“Majority of the videos we have on YouTube by other people are not sponsored. A lot of sellers and buyers really enjoy our products. And to be honest, this is really more powerful than paid ones. People trust other people’s reviews. Videos from influencers or at least people with a following are also helpful. If influencers say your product or service is cool, people who are following them are more likely to try your product primarily because the influencer said so,” explained Sells.
Dave Herman, president of EZ Surety Bonds, told CMSWire that thanks to the constantly changing digital landscape, there are many different types of digital marketing to take advantage of, but not all of them are appropriate or effective for every business. “Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular these days as more and more people gain fame and recognition on social media platforms. This is why a lot of businesses are taking advantage of it. While it really helped many brands grow, not every business can get the growth they need from this type of marketing. It is also not as easy as most people think it is. You need to research the right influencer that will represent your brand and ensure that they get the engagement you need to market your products or services.”
Mobile Marketing
It makes sense for marketers to focus on mobile marketing, given the vast number of mobile users. A report on mobile usage from Statista indicated that in the third quarter of 2020, mobile devices accounted for 50.81% of global website traffic. With those kinds of statistics, it’s pretty obvious that mobile marketing can be used to reach millions of customers.
Seth Lytton is chief operating officer at The Detroit Bureau, an automotive industry news publication, thinks mobile is a big opportunity for marketers. “Millions use their phones every hour. Mobile marketing gives you access to millions at once, and many customers have their phones with them at multiple times during the day. You can accurately determine your audience with mobile marketing,” said Lytton.
That said, as Lytton explained, brands must be careful not to overuse mobile marketing, at the risk of losing their customers completely. “On the other hand, many find ads annoying on their phones,” said Lytton. “Some people go out of their way to avoid some advertisements by using ad blockers, and more still get so annoyed with advertisements that they may blacklist the company entirely.”
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing typically relies on social media networks, but unlike social media marketing, the marketing is done by customers themselves, as they spread information on various social media networks about a product, service, or brand with other people. Marketing is thought to be “viral” when it reaches the point where it’s being shared by the general public, not just the brand’s target audience.
An example of viral marketing is memes, which may include funny text written above an image. Crazy Nate created a meme that features the character Nemo swimming in the ocean, next to a box of McDonald’s fries, with the words “Watching Finding Nemo; Why I Want McDonalds” superimposed on the image. McDonalds obviously had no part in the creation of this meme, but one can be fairly certain that they definitely do not mind that it went viral.
Brands such as Wendy’s, Dennies, and McDonalds will often create funny, light-hearted videos, Tweets, or memes themselves, and post them on social media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other sites. They will then be shared by people who found them to be humorous, and those they shared them with will also share them with others, causing the video or meme to go viral. Here is an example of a Tweet from Wendy’s roasting McDonalds:
Keep in mind that viral marketing is never a certainty — one cannot force something to go viral. Either it goes viral, or it doesn’t. Whatever the case, social listening should be used to monitor mentions of the brand on social media.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many digital marketing strategies that are available to market a brand. Brands are able to take advantage of their social media presences, and use influencers to spread their message, or they can use the more traditional email marketing and content marketing techniques. PPC and SEO are still extremely useful marketing strategies, and mobile marketing has never played as large a role as it does today. Using a combination of these strategies, digital marketers are able to promote a brand’s products and services, and turn leads into customers.
The global pandemic has boosted consumer appetite for shoppable video and accelerated the move towards an on-demand economy.
At The Drum’s Digital Transformation Festival, during a fireside chat, Stuart Heffernan, head of e-commerce at Pernod Ricard, and Nicola Spooner, vice-president of strategy for Unruly, asserted that post-pandemic consumption habits were here to stay and would fuel a shoppable content boom.
On-demand e-commerce
“This past year has been revolutionary for e-commerce,” said Heffernan. “In the space of a year, on-demand retail and players have boomed globally.”
Uber’s acquisition of the drinks delivery platform Drizly, Pernod Ricard’s recent stake in on-demand grocery platform Glovo and the rise of delivery apps in mature e-commerce markets such as the UK all suggest this trend will continue.
Heffernan also remarked: “On-demand will stick around because people get hooked on convenience and are prepared to pay a premium for it. Uber Eats’ alcohol sales have increased significantly – that’s a premium price point for standard products because it is pure speed and convenience.”
Connected TV growth
The two also spoke about the rise of ‘hometainment’ and how it dovetailed with the rise in super-fast, on-demand e-commerce.
Spooner said: “Consumers are accessing more content in an on-demand capacity than ever before. We don’t predict that slowing because now that people have trialled that kind of method of indulging in content, they’re not going to want to let it go.”
She added that while she could foresee a consolidation in subscription services, there would always be a thirst for on-demand quality content. “For brands, that brings an exciting opportunity because we’re delivering a lot of creative shoppable solutions.”
According to a recent study from Unruly, 72% of UK advertisers say connected TV (CTV) is a key part of their video advertising strategy. There is also a huge amount of optimism about the medium’s future, with all media agencies and 77% of brands saying they plan to invest more in CTV during the next 12 months.
The pandemic-induced boom of branded ‘hometainment’ experiences, such as showing how to make cocktails or advice on pairing food and wine, has readied consumers for shoppable content from brands.
Heffernan argued that this would continue to be the case even after lockdowns ends.
“Even if the pandemic has completely gone away by January next year, it will still be cold and wet and I will still be sitting at home. So, if a Jameson brand ambassador reaches me through the right media targeting, then yes, I will engage because it’s something to do on a Wednesday night.”
Unruly’s Spooner said that making branded content shoppable and serviceable by the on-demand apps consumers have grown to depend on during lockdown will induce impulse purchasing.
According to Unruly and research consultancy MTM, 90% of digital advertisers plan to increase their CTV spend in 2021.
“Shoppable content really opens the doors to impulse purchasing,” said Spooner. “If you are watching content around cooking and there is the contextual placement for Jameson’s cocktails or Viejo wines, I – as a consumer – could be inspired and take action immediately.”
From awareness to conversion
Both panellists agreed that TV is no longer about brand-building but about conversion, adding that advertisers should now augment campaigns with shoppable elements.
“There are plenty of ways to add shoppable elements to campaigns,” said Spooner. “It could be a light touch brand bar over the top of an amazing TV creative or an on-screen QR code so that consumers can scan it with their phone, which is location-enabled, and have that experience in their front room in moments.”
Ultimately, shoppable video will allow marketers to build video into every stage of their marketing plan rather than simply viewing it as an awareness boosting tool.
As a b2b marketer, I use internet marketing daily to run my business, create an amazing customer experience and build brand awareness.
But, are we really using it to our best benefit?
To effectively use digital marketing, you have to understand what actually does (and doesn’t) work.
You also need to be aware of which digital channels your consumers are active on and how to create a customer journey that will turn your audience into raving fans.
Knowing what strategies to use will give your brand that extra personalization and rapidly grow your “know, like and trust” factor.
Let’s look at the digital marketing trends that you should prioritize in 2021.
Digital Marketing Trend 1: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is how Google decides if it should show your post, site, or product on the 1st (or 100th) page of search results.
In terms of marketing effort, SEO is a long-term strategy that can bring your target audience to you if you do it right.
SEO is listed as the first trend for 2021 because most marketing experts agree that it is truly the most important aspect of your business, in terms of online presence.
Since the goal should be to always rank on page 1 of Google, you have to focus on effective SEO.
Local SEO optimization is especially important if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront in a particular location so that people find the resources they are looking for in their area..
To do this, you need to learn about keyword research, backlinks, and post layouts.
There are many different search engine optimization courses, but here are a few of my favourites:
Instagram is going to be just as popular (if not more) in 2021 as it was in 2020 as a social media channel. It’s been said that it will surpass Facebook for the number of users this year alone.
That being said, use it to build your business.
But, you have to know the algorithm to boost your engagement which will increase your audience.
Even though this social media platform began with only pictures, you can now post videos, reels, boomerangs, or even go live. To get the most traction, try to utilize all of these features.
How to use Instagram for Content Marketing
Create reels. Instagram uses reels to compete with TikTok. Therefore, this content is currently prioritized more than pictures.o compete with TikTok. Therefore, this content is currently prioritized more than pictures.
Post consistently. Whether you post daily, every couple of days, or weekly, post at the same times. Instagram favours consistent accounts.
Add content to your stories as frequently as you can. Aim for a minimum of 10 story posts per day.
Engage with other accounts in your niche. You can like, comment, save, and follow similar accounts to show up on more feeds.
Use all of the features Instagram has to offer. (This means stories, feed posts, reels, and live videos.)
TikTok is another good way to begin digital marketing.
The latest trend on video is TikTok where users can create short video clips with voice-overs and other fun and interactive content.
This app is known for its ability to allow anyone (regardless of account size) to go viral.
Although you can have a personal account, it is better to stay with a niche topic so that your audience knows the type of content they’ll be getting.
How to use TikTok for digital marketing:
Post a few times a day if you are able to. If not, try to at least post once a day.
Try to stay on the app for a minimum of an hour a day.
Digital Marketing Trend 5: Clubhouse
Clubhouse is a new app that was just released at the end of 2020.
The reason Clubhouse is a hit is because it is a completely auditory platform and is essentially built 100% off interactive content.
You can join groups to sit in on talks or even join conversations yourself. If you are a b2b company, you’ll find lots of inspiration and connections in the platform.
But, as of right now, you have to be invited to join it. This is due to the app being so new, they don’t want it to crash due to having too many users.
Once you do join, though, you get one link to send to a friend to allow them to join.
Once the owners have the app fully setup, they have said they will be opening it up to everyone without needing an invite.
How to use Clubhouse for digital marketing:
If you aren’t yet a member, you can still go ahead and secure your user name. That way, your account name is set in stone.
Once you join, optimize your bio to let your followers know what your niche is.
Digital Marketing Trend 6: Testimonials and Reviews
Get as many testimonials and/or reviews as you can for your products.
Whether you sell courses, e-books, or even physical products, make sure you get feedback.
Not only will this help you improve your products, but you’ll always have good feedback to show potential customers.
How to get testimonials to improve digital marketing:
If you haven’t launched your product yet, you can ask a few people to check it out for free in exchange for a review.
Add an incentive for your customer to leave you a testimonial or review. This can be a discount code, affiliate link, or even a free product.
Digital Marketing Trend 7: Conversational Chatbots
Conversational chatbots are created through machine learning software that creates automated responses on your social media accounts or websites to your customers.
Since we are in an ‘I want it and I want it now’ world, getting an immediate response is a win for your customers.
But, we can’t always be online, right?
That’s why chatbots are a huge hit. You can set up an automated virtual reality response to answer or ask a common question, give your office hours, or even send you an email.
Some programs even allow marketing automation that act as mini funnels taking your audience through an entire customer journey.
How to use conversational chatbots for digital marketing:
Add automated responses to your Facebook page messages and Instagram messages.
Add a conversational chatbot to your websites. This way, if a potential customer has a question, they can get an immediate answer rather than have to wait on you to respond. Oftentimes, waiting for a response can cause you to lose a sale.
Digital Marketing Trend 8: Shareable Content
One of the best ways to get higher engagement (and more traction) on social media, your websites, and your products is to make sure your content is shareable.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the content is technologically shareable. This means that the content itself needs to make the consumers want to share it with their friends, family, and followers.
How to make a shareable content marketing strategy:
Answer questions that are widely asked in your niche. That way, if one person finds it useful, they’re inclined to share it with others.
Make funny content. We all like to laugh, right? Finding ways to add humour in your niche can gain you a lot of engagement.
Use interactive content that your audience can easily participate in. Think: THIS or THAT type questions.
Digital Marketing Trend 9: Branding
Branding is one of the most important aspects of having any business in reaching our target audience.
With digital marketing being a (primarily) visual way to market, make sure you have a clear brand for your audience.
Branding includes your business layout, products, niche, and even your pictures.
How to optimize your brand for digital marketing:
Use a consistent editing style on your platforms.
Create products that fit your niche.
Style all of your social media accounts the same way. (Meaning, use the same filters and colours throughout each account.)
You want your audience to see your products, logo, or pictures and immediately know they’re yours.
Make 2021 Your Year through Digital Marketing Trends
Being a digital marketer doesn’t have to be hard. You also don’t have to follow all the trends at one time.
I recommend picking one digital trend and trying to perfect your usage of it. Then, once you think you have a great grasp of those, try to add another one.
If you utilize these trends correctly, 2021 is bound to be your year!
Digital Marketing Trend Strategies FAQ:
Related articles:
Q: Can I make money with digital marketing?
You can definitely make money with digital marketing. You can promote other people’s products or even make money off of your own products.
Q: Will these digital marketing trends ever change?
As all trends change regularly, digital marketing trends will also change. This is why it is vital to master SEO. But, all 13 of the trends previously listed are great ways to start adding digital marketing into your business.
By Sasha Lassey
Hi, I’m Sasha, an Online Blog and Business Marketing Strategy Coach for Women Entrepreneurs. I have a passion for helping women entrepreneurs achieve maximum success by showing them how to grow their side-hustles online and make more money. I’ve been running businesses and growing teams for more than ten years and I know how hard it can be to learn how to scale your business from beginner to the next level. I’d love to work with you and show you how you can make more money with time-tested online business strategies!
Most marketers had been happily paying for programmatic advertising for the last decade, very proud of themselves for being “digitally transformed.” They were also happily using vanity metrics like CPM prices, number of impressions, and click through rates because those were easy to measure and easy to report. Buying digital ads became as easy as playing a video game, with colorful dashboards that showed them what great discounts they got (“cost efficiency”), the number of impressions they bought (“reach”), and how many clicks they got (“performance”). But this triple cocktail of low price, large reach, and high performance was so addictive because every part of it was faked by fraudsters.
The low CPM prices were only possible from fraudulent or fake sites that plagiarized all their content or used no content at all. Real publishers with real human audiences had real costs of producing the content; so they could not sell ads for very low CPM prices. Further, there’s a finite number of humans that visit their sites every month; so they could not magically manifest a lot more reach. But fake sites could easily do this by buying traffic and doing audience extension. No one can force a herd of humans to all go to the same site at the same time to increase its traffic and audience; but it takes no more than one command line to instruct a vast botnet to generate a large number of pageviews on a site — exactly the amount that was paid for. And these same bots click on the ads too. Not too much or else that would be suspicious. Bots tune their click through rates to be in the 5 – 15% range, which is always higher than real human click rates. This way, marketers are tricked into thinking ads on fake sites are performing so much better than ads on real sites with real humans, so they allocate more or all of their budget to programmatic channels, which are teaming with such fake and fraudulent sites.
Do you see how this all worked together? Larger quantities of ad impressions, lower CPM prices, and better performance — indeed the illusions of vast reach, cost efficiency, and performance — led to what is now known as “digital marketing’s lost decade.” When “programmatic” ad buying really took off in 2012-13, the disparity from reality really took off as well. Note the green and yellow lines in the chart below — those represent humans’ usage of the Internet, social media, and mobile. Those two lines are pretty much flat across since 2012-13; indicating that real humans’ usage had all plateaued, already maxed out. But the blue line representing digital ad spending continued upward. How can this dissociation from reality be explained? Easily, with bots. Bots are simple software programs that can be remotely controlled to automate browsing (load more pages) and simulate desirable human actions, like clicks on ads. It was technically trivial to simulate all the things that marketers wanted to buy — more reach, more clicks, lower prices.
programmatic took off in 2012-13
The rise of programmatic also corresponded with marketers’ digital transformation. Marketers were shifting more and more budgets from offline channels into digital. Conveniently the vanity metrics in digital reinforced the “correctness” of those decisions to “go digital” so they were reported up the line and became the default metrics for reporting on the success of digital marketing campaigns. In the process, marketers lost sight of the real metrics that should matter — business outcomes. Clearly outcomes were not as easy to report — after all, marketers would have to figure out the complex attribution models that determined which sale was driven by which ad or action. What they forgot is that advertisers don’t actually need to know “who” bought the shampoo — which individual person; advertisers really only need to know that people who were exposed to ads bought shampoo at a higher rate than those who were not shown the ads. This was a perfect example of “too much data” from digital channels leading marketers down a rabbit hole that yielded worse insights.
Some marketers have had the courage to run “turn off” experiments with their digital media. What was interestingly consistent is that all of them found that turning off their digital ad spending didn’t change business outcomes — eBay (2015), P&G (2018), Chase (2017), Uber (2019), AirBnB (2020). So what were they spending millions of dollars on in digital, if it were not producing real, measurable business outcomes? We may never know. But what is clear is that more marketers need to check their own digital spending more closely, and do things differently than they have been doing for the last decade — or shall I say “lost decade?”
Marketers should pay higher CPMs by buying ads from real publishers with real human audiences. You know that you have to show your ad to a human before you can get any kind of business outcome right? Showing ads to bots, no matter how low the CPM prices, will drive no incremental business for you, even though it looks really good in the video game called digital advertising — you got the highest score ever this year because you bought more ads than ever before at lower CPM prices than ever before. Yay! But that was not marketing.
total cost vs unit cost
Augustine Fou
Paying higher CPM prices don’t necessarily mean greater costs either. That’s because CPMs are unit pricing (cost per thousand digital impressions). If you bought fewer ad impressions, even at higher CPMs, your total cost could actually be lower. You don’t need the vast quantities or enormous “reach.” It’s not real reach, it’s just the illusion of reach, if you’re not “reaching’ humans anyway. You don’t need to buy as many ad impressions to reach real humans. Humans tend to visit a small handful of mainstream sites repeatedly. Even though they do visit long tail sites for niche content once in a while, the “at-scale” quantities of impressions from the programmatic long tail are also an illusion, that conveniently helped fraudsters feast on marketers’ ad dollars for the last decade.
Finally, accept lower click through rates. Humans click on ads very rarely (when was the last time you deliberately clicked on any ad?). But the lack of clicks does not mean the campaign performed poorly; on the flip side, the presence of clicks faked by bots does mean the campaign performed poorly. Those clicks are not real, and the high CTRs (click through rates) don’t mean real performance. If you understand the above, you will also understand that the single most important factor in digital marketing is getting your ad in front of a human in the first place. Everything else — like targeting, viewability, click rates, etc. — is secondary. Smart marketers are ditching the ad tech targeting (costs more, works more poorly) and simply showing ads to Safari and Firefox users; savvy humans use iPhones (Safari browser) and Firefox browsers; bots prefer to pretend to be Chrome, to earn more money due to ad targeting. Advertisers showing ads to Safari and Firefox users are also getting a great deal — 50-70% lower CPMs — because other marketers are not even bidding on these browsers. Showing ads to humans in the first place always beats targeting for business outcomes, because the targeting may not be accurate and bots are pretending to be the audience segments you target.
After the last decade of digital transformation, marketers should now pull themselves out the “lost decade” of digital marketing based on vanity metrics – low prices, vast reach, high clicks. Time to think differently and do different digital marketing. Pay high CPM prices for ads on real publishers’ sites, shown to real human audiences (finite reach) and low clicks. You will see that you are doing better digital marketing, indeed marketing that actually drives real business outcomes.
I am a marketer of 25 years. I witnessed the entire arc of the evolution of digital marketing. Now I help marketers audit their digital campaigns for ad fraud and optimize campaigns based on accurate analytics. I taught digital strategy at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and Rutgers University’s Center for Management Development. I worked on the “client side” for American Express, and on the “agency side” as Group Chief Digital Officer of Omnicom’s Healthcare Consultancy Group and SVP Digital Strategy Lead at McCann Worldgroup/MRM Worldwide. I started my career in New York City with McKinsey & Company.
If your business strategy fully relied on iOS tracking for survival, your company was probably in trouble before 14.5 came out this week, marketing experts say.
Apple’s iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency for mobile devices gives phone and tablet owners more control over data surveillance — apps tracking behaviour in other apps to customize ads. For marketers, that may mean one of their go-to tools has been taken out of the digital toolbox, or at least will be severely blunted.
Apple made its intentions known that it would require app developers to give users a choice to opt in to data tracking across apps late last year. Facebook immediately hit back, claiming that less-targeted Facebook ads would harm small businesses. Small businesses and agencies that cater to them reaffirmed that notion.
Experts said that while less iOS tracking will change how digital marketing is done, it probably won’t have a big effect on marketing strategy and technology for many large businesses. That’s because in the last two years, marketing teams have worked hard to comply with new consumer privacy laws that lay the groundwork for customer opt-ins on data use.
“If marketers were really being honest about why we’re freaking out about this — and why Facebook is freaking out about this — it’s because shady behaviour begets shadier action, and we’ve been doing it since the dawn of time,” said Liz Miller, an analyst at Constellation Research. “The losers in this situation are companies who look at giving customers control of their own data as a bad thing.”
Who will opt out?
Apple turned on iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency this week, which manifests as a pop-up window in apps. Some developers, however, turned on the features earlier in preparation of iOS 14.5. AppsFlyer, which manages mobile attribution of digital ads — keeping track of what ads drive what activity — analyzed 13 million consumer answers to data-tracking prompts among about 300-plus apps hosted by these early adopters during a three-week period before iOS 14.5 went live.
AppsFlyer found that people opted in for ad targeting approximately 41% of the time. Half the apps had at least 32% opt-in rates. But there was a difference in the kinds of apps people said “yes” to, said Shani Rosenfelder, head of content and mobile insights at AppsFlyer. The more well-known and trusted a brand was, such as in the utilities, shopping or social arenas, opt-in rates tended to be higher.
Brands that had less of a connection to their users, such as game developers, saw lower opt-in rates. Only the largest, most well-known game developers saw opt-in rates comparable with non-game apps. Brands that app users have done business with in the past, such as shopping apps, tend to be more trusted when the opt-in window pops up.
Apple
Apple mobile device users get App Tracking Transparency in the iOS update released this week.
“Things may change, but we are cautiously optimistic that opt-in rates will be higher than anticipated for marketers and for users,” Rosenfelder said. “It remains to be seen what the real opt-in rate will be.”
To persuade app users to opt in to ad tracking, AppsFlyer found that three messages Apple allows developers to put in the App Tracking Transparency pop-up may effectively drive positive results: Opting in helps the app to remain free, opting in helps show users content that is relevant to them and “we prohibit the use of your data for any purpose other than providing you with relevant experiences.”
AppsFlyer notes that Apple prohibits the use of discounts or other offers to induce users to opt into iOS data tracking across apps.
Marketing strategies will change
In anticipation of a drop-off in cross-app tracking data, agencies and consultants who work with marketers have been developing strategies to replace it. The companies that are panicking now are the ones that put off planning for App Tracking Transparency during pandemic disruptions, said Zach Baze, chief intelligence officer at Hawkeye, a digital agency that runs Epsilon adtech as well as first-party data platforms.
The hardest-hit marketers will be those that built businesses on mobile advertising or hyper-targeted ads, and they will have to adjust to survive, Baze said. For small businesses, those ads were cost-efficient. For most companies, though, the loss of cross-app data will reinvigorate the creativity that precision advertising tools made obsolete, and they probably have at least gotten started on cleaning up their first-party data on the customers they already have.
Apple’s iOS moves, in tandem with Google eliminating third-party cookies by next year, will force companies to use that first-party customer data to drive better customer experiences, instead of outsourcing tracking to Facebook and its competitors.
Apple
Tracking via iOS can still happen as it did before — but in version 14.5, Apple forces developers to explain themselves to iPad and iPhone users.
“Responsible marketers have seen this coming; it’s part of a tidal wave of a cookie-less future, and it’s probably a part of a market correction,” Baze said. “Apple is a lifestyle brand, not a data company, so it is diametrically at odds with Google or Facebook. Apple is just looking out for the experience of the consumers that they market to — which is what marketers should have been doing all along.”
Facebook, in a blog post, said small businesses will be adversely affected by the iOS tracking changes. Consultant Athan Slotkin, who works with small businesses and entrepreneurial startups on marketing and business planning, said companies that offer specialized products and sell exclusively online will be hardest hit.
Many small companies, he said, start and end their advertising plans with Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes they aren’t even aware of targeting tools those platforms run to lower costs and more precisely find customers more likely to be interested in what they’re selling.
Slotkin said he advises clients to diversify investment over different online channels, whether it’s straight SEO, TikTok, Clubhouse or other ad platforms. New and emerging social platforms typically offer more organic reach, he said, so they may represent better returns for cash-strapped small businesses. More than that, though, Slotkin advises businesses to collect and invest in their own customer data.
Get their email address, and don’t just get their consent, because that feels a little like it’s under duress. Get them enthused to share their email address because they’re interested in hearing from you and they value what you do.
Athan SlotkinSmall business consultant
“Part of my thought process — even before all this happened — is the value of owning the customer relationship and communicating with them directly,” Slotkin said. “Get their email address, and don’t just get their consent, because that feels a little like it’s under duress. Get them enthused to share their email address because they’re interested in hearing from you and they value what you do.”
CDPs move up in priority
The customer data platform (CDP) is one way to activate first-party data a company owns for marketing purposes. As Apple, Google and privacy-minded legislators put more control over data surveillance into the hands of consumers, CDPs may provide new paths for marketers to reach customers.
Many companies have mixed-vendor stacks for CRM, marketing automation, e-commerce and customer service. CDPs function as a customer data traffic manager to update marketing efforts in real time as customers buy things, browse, call customer service and fill out surveys. In turn, marketing tools can send offers to those customers or add them to campaigns as they reveal more about their preferences and needs.
For their part, CDP vendors are watching how interactions between companies and their customers will be governed by future privacy laws and those already on the books. BlueConic, a CDP vendor, strives to build flexibility into its data management features to anticipate scenarios that go much further than iOS 14.5.
“We need to be looking at the potential that every interaction with a customer will need to be consented — at the moment of interaction,” said Cory Munchbach, COO of BlueConic. “We play that out all the way — every time you come to a website or every time you come in-store, you, as a brand, have to earn the right for the customer to authenticate who they are and give you that identity. That raises the bar on customer experience.”
Optimizely, formerly Episerver, acquired the Zaius CDP last month. Peter Yeung, CIO and general counsel at Optimizely, agrees that companies that are more transparent about their customer data use will be better off in the long run.
As for App Tracking Transparency, Yeung said he feels that Apple is playing catch-up in a marketplace where consumers feel increasingly insecure about data breaches. Apple, he added, also probably wants to distance itself from Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, whose data-tracking methods are under Federal Trade Commission scrutiny.
Yet iOS 14.5 gives a “romanticized vision” of choice to consumers, he said. It sounds good. But anyone who has tried to opt out of data tracking in apps then looks at their Gmail to see what is left, for example, realizes just how convenient personalized notifications and tailored emails are for things like keeping in touch with friends.
It’s great that technology companies are empowering individuals to choose to whom they give their data, Yeung said. Consent will become the product roadmap bedrock for many digital marketing vendors. But personalization is still in early stages, and the experiences will at first have much room for improvement.
“I don’t believe it’s the end of personalization,” Yeung said. “What you’ll find is that technology companies will find ways to become more and more clever in terms of how to create a personalized experience without identifying you as an individual, building a profile of an anonymous user that they kind of, sort of know what they look like or their activities are, but they can’t identify as an individual.”
Hawkeye’s Baze said that CDPs might become the tool that saves personalization, taking it to heights that cross-app tracking never could as marketers begin to use more of their features and integrate them more fully into their tech stacks. But CDP users must first get their data in order before they can effectively deploy those features. His company’s third-party data will enhance the insights that first-party data reveals, he said.
“First-party data is the best data; it’s the most actionable,” Baze said. “But a lot of CTOs have spent a lot of money on data infrastructure the last five to eight years. What they’re finding out is that the data that’s in those is incomplete, badly organized, its hygiene is not good, and it’s not that hardworking.”
The pandemic has many downsides, like the increased difficulty of beginning a new enterprise. Funding, for example, proves complicated as financial institutions become tight-fisted with their money. So, aspiring entrepreneurs find it hard to get cash.
Existing businesses have also been hit hard by the coronavirus, resulting in higher levels of unemployment all around.
Fortunately, many with jobs have saved a substantial amount of money during the pandemic using financial instruments such as tax-free ISA shares and stocks and money market mutual funds. This increase in disposable income could translate easily into golden business opportunities for the savvy entrepreneur.
A depressed economy doesn’t have to mean the end of the world. Hard times build good character and create good businesses. The best way to take advantage of this unique opportunity afforded by the pandemic is outlined in this article, starting with the benefits.
Benefits of starting a business during the pandemic
Common sense dictates that starting a new venture while the world is in chaos is not the best idea. Yet, companies founded during difficult times are better able to weather storms than their fair-weather counterparts.
Because most ventures launch during economically robust times, pandemic-era businesses enjoy the exclusive pleasure of having fewer competitors with whom to deal. During uncertain times, existing organizations do not want to spend money drumming up new ideas. Here lies a gap for an enterprising individual to contribute bold, original ideas to the marketplace.
Lurking in the turbulent economy are increased cost savings for newcomers who wish to open a business at this point. Operating expenses decrease as things like fixed cash outflow – mortgage, for example – can now be appropriated at inexpensive rates. Novice business owners can also benefit from their more influential bargaining power. They are in a position where they can come to agreeable terms with various stakeholders and develop beneficial new business relationships as a bonus.
New businesses stand to benefit from spiked levels of customer loyalty. This consumer-facing advantage contributes significantly to the permanence of a small organization. Country-specific tax incentives also aid business robustness. In the U.K., for example, small businesses receive VAT relief and have grants earmarked for them in the national budget.
Eligibility for government assistance will largely depend on the organization of the business in question.
Use market research to choose the right business type
When uncertainties arise, a sound organizational setup will stand any entrepreneur in good stead. Market research provides a wealth of information that can aid the decision-making process in the early stages of beginning a business.
Studying the business environment – particularly the activities of similar companies – can inspire prospective merchants. In the marketplace of ideas, there is often no need to reinvent the wheel. By offering minor changes to already established, successful commercial concepts, a new enterprise can easily make the best of the pandemic.
Analysing future customers is another way to get valuable information for planned business ventures. Well-organized focus groups allow participants to describe their attitudes towards products or services in their language. This information is necessary feedback for those looking to dip their toes in entrepreneurship.
There are several ways to seize the opportunities afforded by the pandemic. Some business types that are thriving right now include cleaning services, virtual exercise sessions, and mask-making.
COVID-compliant surroundings are in high demand. Both corporate bodies and private individuals increasingly require expert cleaning services in the New Normal. For this type of business, demand will very likely outlast the pandemic.
A healthy immune system is a somewhat effective weapon against the coronavirus. Keeping fit is a great way to boost the immune system. Ordinarily, going to the gym formed part of most people’s health regimes. However, the pandemic tangibly hit the exercise industry. It bounced back through the popularization of virtual exercise. In this way, the fitness market cleverly demonstrated its resilience and ability to reinvent itself.
Using masks as protective gear is common for non-essential workers. Everyone wears one now out in public. As the pandemic rolls on, consumer demand is increasing for chic and trendy masks. For example, many actors during awards season often have designer masks to match their bespoke outfits. Large corporations have contributed to the demand by having their employees wear trademarked masks.
Whatever business type a budding entrepreneur chooses, a key ingredient is the new company’s flexibility.
Adaptability
Part of staying adaptable as a new business is writing a recession-proof business plan. A detailed strategy like this will show prospective investors, vendors, and other stakeholders that the individual behind the enterprise knows what they are doing.
Separating private funds from company funds is a solid strategy that will help a novice firm remain flexible. The wise entrepreneur will open a dedicated bank account for business operations and budget prudently so the new business can endure.
It was mentioned above that cost savings are lurking in upheaval caused by the pandemic. Human Resource is an area in which a company can demonstrate flexibility and prudence. Rather than adding full-time staff members to the payroll, begin by subcontracting talented individuals as needed. If it is necessary to hire any employees, honesty about what the company can afford to offer is a good policy.
Digital Marketing
Marketing online is about more than selling goods virtually. A thriving online personality based on empathy and efficiency helps a business to stand out.
Empathy is enhanced when a business makes clever use of its social media accounts to engage its client base. Companies demonstrate efficiency when they make the most of technology to enlarge their market reach. Innovative email campaigns and user-friendly websites play a big part in crafting a company’s virtual image.
Overall, it is a good business practice to have a robust online presence. Marketing in this way increases the longevity of new organizations.
Conclusion
Contrary to received wisdom, it is possible to begin a small business amidst challenging global circumstances. Success depends on flexibility, a reliable online presence, and a sturdy business plan.
No one knows how long the pandemic will last. Plucky entrepreneurs who show foresight in their business planning will do well in current and future uncertainties.
Aren’t you tired of skimming through the internet and not being able to find a Digital Marketing Strategy that would help you scale up your business and generate steady growth? We were all looking for that magic pill, until now!
What I’m about to share with you is a thought process most elite marketers wouldn’t dare to talk about, just so that they can keep the cream to themselves. I started researching about this a year ago and the information I’ve gathered during this period is every last drop of the good stuff that I’ve shared below.
The Holy Trinity of Digital Marketing
Did you know that global B2C eCommerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021? As more and more businesses are growing, Digital Marketing Experts are constantly calibrating and testing their own strategies to stand out and grow.
However, no matter how unconventional their methods may be, you don’t need to worry. All you have to do is optimize the following 3 aspects of your website and you’re bound to see substantial growth.
Traffic
One of the main focuses of a Digital Marketing Strategy is to drive traffic to your website, and not just any traffic, but relevant traffic. In order to make sure that happens, you have to incorporate keywords throughout your landing page that are relevant to what you’re selling, whether directly or indirectly.
There are 2 ways to drive traffic to your website:-
Paid Traffic
Let’s be honest. Most of the niches are highly saturated and in order to stand out, you either have to come up with something entirely new so you’ll organically thrive or advertise your services. Most successful businesses rely on both. However, advertising seems to be an effective revenue-generating tool if done right.
A good advertisement involves a headline that hooks, and a landing page with an attractive banner and sufficient information about your product.
There are 5 typical sources wherefrom you can drive paid traffic to your website:-
Display Ads – The ones that you see when you’re reading a blog. They’re around the edges, adjacent to the blog, usually in a square or rectangular box.
Search Engine Ads – The ones that pop on top of other search results. They look like the first search results but you see a little “ad” icon to signify that it’s an advertisement.
Discovery Ads – If you’re ever scrolling on Google, YouTube, or Gmail, then you have come across a Discovery ad. On YouTube, it has a panel with an image and “Learn More” is written below it. In Gmail, you’ll find it in Social and Promotion Tabs.
Sponsored Content – When you’re reading a blog and there’s a panel that looks like another blog but it’s actually a landing page, which could be anything from a blog to a product advertisement.
Influencer Marketing – Using social media influencers to promote your product. Lately, this has become just as mainstream as other forms of advertising.
Organic Traffic
When someone discovers your business on the internet when you didn’t advertise it, it means you were able to drive traffic organically on your website. Growing your business organically is a discipline in itself. The fact that people were able to discover you organically, indicates that you did a good job with SEO.
People find you either when they’re searching for you (or for similar services) on Google, or on Social Media platforms (could be Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc). According to Search Engine Journal, 70% of the links people click on are Organic. Even though ads work, it’s clear that a lot of people just skip the first 3 links on Google because we habitually understand that they’re advertisements.
How Do I Maximize Traffic On My Website?
Create a Keyword Database
In generating both organic and paid traffic, you require keywords that resonate with your target audience. What most people underestimate is the power that these keywords hold. Using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc will help you find the right keywords by offering several parameters.
Any SEO expert can tell you that you should use keywords with high search volume and low keyword difficulty, but knowing what keywords to target is a refined process, and if you’re serious about your business, then here’s what you should do:-
Make 5 columns in an excel sheet. One for the keywords, and the other 4 for “Intent”, “Relevance”, “Trending”, and “IRT Score”. Refer to the excel sheet below:-
In the above image, I have taken an example of a web development company and used 4 keywords. Each of these has been assigned a corresponding score between 1 to 4 and has been totalled in the column IRT score. Let me explain what these are and what their implications are:-
Intent – This signifies how transactional is the intent of the keyword. If the keyword is highly transactional, it has a score of 4, and if it’s not at all transactional, it has a score of 1. In the above image, the keyword “Hire Web Developer” is highly transactional, and the keyword “ReactJS vs Laravel” isn’t transactional at all and hence, they’ve been assigned scores 4 and 1 respectively.
Relevance – This will signify how relevant the keyword is for you. If the keyword has a product or service that you offer, then you may rate it between 1 to 4 in terms of relevance. In the above image, the keyword “Hire a .Net Developer” is rated as 1 because the web development company isn’t relevant to the kind of development services they’re offering.
Trending – The more the keyword is trending on Google or any other search engine, the higher will be its trending score and vice versa. In the above image, “ReactJS vs Laravel” is a keyword that has a significantly high search volume on Google and hence, has a trending score of 3.
IRT Score – IRT is simply the aggregate score of the columns “Intent”, “Relevance”, and “Trending”.
If you make a list of all the relevant keywords, you can segregate and prioritize them on the basis of these 3 parameters. The IRT score will serve as an extremely quick and reliable guide since the higher the IRT score, the more important the keyword will be for you.
Optimize Technical Performance
Did you know that the first 5 seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on the conversion rate? According to Portent, website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load-time.
Optimizing page loading speed is only a factor and not a Digital Marketing Strategy in itself. However, improving the overall architecture of your website can help you make sure that your target audience doesn’t wander away from your landing page. Besides, the longer the page load time, the worse it is for SEO performance.
Here’s are some questions you need to ask yourself:-
Are internal pages getting enough internal link votes?
The internal pages of your website should have at least 10 internal links. The more links, the more will be the Page Authority.
Are all pages 3 (or less) clicks deep?
No pages should be more than 3-clicks deep. This is to make sure that your pages are being crawled and indexed well. For Google, more clicks mean less valuable, and vice versa.
Are all internal links using effective anchor text?
Always use exact match anchor text with your links. Here’s a catch though – If you have a huge site, you will end up using several internal links for a keyword in pursuit of site navigation, in which case you need to dial down on external links. You need to make sure that you avoid getting external links otherwise it will lead to over-optimization of the anchor text. Eg. if you have 1000 internal links for “chamomile tea”, be less aggressive on having external links with the same anchor text.
Are there any pages with existing backlinks?
Your top internal linking targets should be pages with high Page Authority. You can boost the page authority by linking pages that already have high authority.
Create Intelligent SEO Content
Having intelligent SEO content serves you in 2 ways – It will help you rank your content and will be interesting to read as well. Most writers can’t get the right mix of these 2 tangents in their content.
Ideally, 80% of your content should be keyword targeted and 20% of it should be a link bait (designed to attract backlinks). This is a long-term strategy to improve the Domain Authority of your website. This means that you’ll be able to rank on highly competitive keywords.
Here are the steps you need to follow:-
Select a qualified keyword – We already discussed this in the above header “creating a keyword database”.
Map the keyword to an existing page – If you don’t have a page targeting this qualified keyword, create a new one. Update and optimize the existing pages before creating a new page.
Only target one keyword on one page – If you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, you either consolidate those pages, and/or delete or redirect the pages that don’t have good quality content.
Create an SEO content brief – In the SEO content brief you’ll hand over to your writer, you can mention the estimated value of this keyword (CPC x clicks), the SERP features that need to be kept in mind, the estimated organic CTR of the keyword, target word count, search intent, how many backlinks you need to rank, etc.
Conversions
Did you know that 92% of your website visitors aren’t ready to buy? We’ve talked about how you can generate traffic to your website to generate more leads, but that wouldn’t mean anything if your leads aren’t getting converted.
What you need to do is nurture these visitors until they become a qualified lead. The majority of those remaining 8% visitors are highly motivated to buy, so even if you use decent keyword targeting and copywriting, you can easily convert these. However, to get the rest 92% on board, you need to create a nurture sequence.
Here’s what you need to do:-
Create a Lead Magnet
Anything that incentivizes the visitor to sign up for your email list is called a lead magnet. It could simply be a free training webinar, a video series, or an ebook. The key is to keep these incentives really simple.
Segregate the Qualified and Unqualified Leads
Just because some visitors signed up via email, doesn’t mean they’re qualified. You can find out which leads qualify and which don’t by using 2 ways:-
New Subscriber Survey – This can include all the basic questions relevant to your target customer.
Use Trigger Links – Send a welcome email with 2 or 3 links and when the subscriber clicks on one of those, they get tagged based on what they clicked. For example, if you send an email saying “What best describes you?” and give 2 or 3 options, and based on what they click on, they get tagged accordingly, so that you can send them relevant content from that moment on. You can use Drip to accomplish this.
Created Automated Nurture Sequence
Now that you’ve qualified those leads and have segregated them into relevant categories, it’s time to nurture them. You have to accept the fact that leads convert instantly. Realistically, you have to treat them as if they don’t plan on buying for the next 6 – 12 months.
You can lay back and take your time to plan how you can add value to these people’s lives every now and then during this period. What you should do is to create an automated nurture sequence and send them value-added material, which will develop trust over time. Next thing you know, they’ll already be sold.
If the nurture sequence is solid, then these leads will be moved into a different automated sequence. This is highly dependent on your business model, but with a successful digital marketing strategy, the goal is to gradually build up and pitch them when the time is right.
Remarketing
You already understand that 92% of your website visitors aren’t interested in buying anything, so basically, they’re just bouncing away from your website without taking any action. This means that there’s so much untapped potential that you’re missing out on, unless you’re remarketing.
Remarketing is the way to reach those 92% by reaching them even when they aren’t on your website. This can be achieved through the following ways:-
Enable Tracking Pixel
A tracking pixel is an HTML code snippet that is loaded when a user visits a website or opens an email. It is useful for tracking user behaviour and conversions. At a bare minimum, you should have Google and Facebook tracking enabled on your website. Depending on the nature of your business, you could enable it on Bing, Instagram, Quora, Reddit, or even TikTok.
Create Intent-Based Campaigns
Based on what pages a visitor is viewing, you can understand their intent and should target advertisements that are designed accordingly. For example, if someone visits your website, read a blog, and just exit, then you shouldn’t advertise to them to buy your service right away.
What you can do instead is move them down your sales funnel and target with a lead magnet that’s related to the blog that they were reading. Heck, you can even split test your visitors, see what induces a favourable response for you and then use that as the main campaign.
Wrapping Up
If you were trying to understand how to reduce marketing costs, I wouldn’t blame you. All these tools can be costly and when you’re starting out, it can be an unexpectedly high expense. You can rely on free tools or consult a Digital Marketing Expert as well.
Hopefully, this Digital Marketing strategy served as an all-encompassing guide for you to understand how marketing really works, and how vast the role of relevant targeting can be. You can do your own litmus test to figure out what works for you.
Devansh is an avid content curator who loves writing about things that are mainly associated with Business and Technology. He writes about Web Development, Designing, Digital Marketing, even Machine Learning, and AI. He’s currently working with RnF Technologies. and has contributed thousands of write-ups for its clients. … View full profile ›
The messages app is starting to become the most sought-after piece of digital real estate among brands and retailers.
Marketers at e-commerce start-ups say they’re increasingly using text messages to promote new sales or product launches. That’s because they are finding it more difficult to get customers to pay attention to emails, as some customers have now signed up for email updates from dozens of brands after a decade-plus of online shopping. Additionally, the upcoming iOS14 update threatens marketers’ ability to use targeted ads on sites like Facebook. As part of the iOS14 update, iPhone users now must opt in for apps to track their browsing histories. If customers don’t, marketers will no longer be able to use their browsing history on past sites, like e-commerce sites, to serve them targeted ads.
Put together, companies are coming for people’s most intimate form of communication, amidst a slew of digital marketing changes. Because people still use it to primarily communicate with friends and family, text messaging is one of the last methods of digital communication that hasn’t been completely overrun by brands. But since it’s still not primarily used as a marketing channel, marketers are still trying to figure out just how many texts from a brand customers will tolerate. Bombard customers with too many text messages, and companies risk alienating with them altogether.
“In many ways, I think SMS is the final frontier of marketing and brand communications,” said Kinfield CEO Nichole Powell, whose start-up sells skincare essentials for the outdoors like bug repellent and moisturizer. “As a consumer, I can see why — I gave up on my personal inbox years ago, and now even social media oftentimes feels quite saturated. There are brands that I’ve followed on Instagram for years, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw one of their posts.”
Investor and marketing strategist Nik Sharma said that part of what is fuelling the SMS boom is brands in search of more ways to “somehow keep [customers] engaged and get them on the path to purchasing something.” According to marketing platform Omnisend, the number of SMS messages sent by the more than 50,000 companies that use Omnisend’s software increased by 378% between 2019 and 2020, while email campaigns were up 108%.
The new SMS playbook
In speaking with marketers at e-commerce start-ups, they say they try to only text customers sparingly — often only a couple times a month. But they’re still trying to figure out what kind of texts — and how many of them — someone will tolerate from a brand. In one of the most criticized brand texts from last year, Fashion Nova, sent SMS messages to customers encouraging them to spend their stimulus checks on Fashion Nova products.
One of the most common ways that marketers are using the channel is texting customers alerting them to sales, as they’re betting that people won’t mind getting a text from a brand if it’s alerting them to a good deal. Brendan Hastings, director of engineering at DTC underwear brand Thinx, previously told Modern Retail that the company used SMS to promote its August sale. He said that Thinx has found that SMS messages receive open rates close to 100%, where email open rates are 15-30%.
Powell said Kinfield hasn’t yet used SMS to promote any sales — her company has primarily used it to poll customers about what type of packaging they’d like to see for future products — but hasn’t ruled it out in the future. “We’d prefer to take the time to get to know our audience and see first-hand what kind of things they like to use SMS [for],” she said.
Eli Weiss, director of CX and Retention at direct-to-consumer brand Olipop, said that his company has found success with using text messages to alert customers to new flavours. On Instagram, Olipop will encourage customers to sign up for its SMS list in order to get first dibs when the new flavour drops.
In December, when Olipop released a limited-time blackberry vanilla flavor, the company received $15,000 worth of sales in 15 minutes from people on its SMS list. Olipop’s email list still drove slightly more sales — but the company has ten times more email subscribers than it does SMS subscribers.
Weiss said that he doesn’t see SMS entirely replacing email — that rather, Olipop will only use it to “communicate with our most engaged group of people.” Weiss said that he plans to stick to sending Olipop customers one or two texts a month. Going forward, Olipop is considering using SMS to sell company merchandise, or to send customers more personalized messages from different members of Olipop’s customer service team.
“SMS is like any fun new marketing thing where right away it can kind of get abused…some brands are now sending three messages a week,” Weiss said. “I think the future is exclusivity and intentionality.”
