
The Complete Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Media has provided companies with a very cost effective medium to market their products and services. For a fraction of the cost one can now keep current customers informed about developments within a company and industry. In the information age, where it is no longer ‘tell and sell’, customers make informed decisions and will likely go with the company that presents the most information about their product or service.
So how does one make absolute use of this splendid medium that is probably within every business owner’s reach? Digital Marketing offers various tools with this can be accomplished.
Website, the digital face of your company
It might seem like the most obvious digital marketing tool, but there are quite a few not-so-obvious things to point out when developing your website.
The most important factor to consider nowadays is whether your website is optimized for search engines, which would include having a mobile friendly and responsive website. A responsive website resizes according to the screen size of the device you are viewing it on, while the text on the website remains at a legible size. If your website is not responsive, you are quite possibly losing out on about 60 percent of potential leads that could come to your site from search engines that favour those sites that are mobile friendly.
Website Maintenance should be a very important aspect of your web strategy. One should always seek to add new information to your website. It might be information about a new development in your industry or about a new product or service. The reason why maintenance is so significant is that it boosts the rating of your website on search engines and it has been proven that most of the visits to each website are by people who have already viewed it. If they are re-visiting the website, you might as well give them something new to look at.
Social Media Profiles, networking online
Many companies rely on referral business. Once you have serviced one company well, they might refer you to someone else. Social media platforms can make that possible, seamlessly. If your customers are also followers on your social pages, their customers and friends could also become your friends and customers.
Social pages like Facebook and Twitter have high ratings and linking back to your website from social pages should improve the rating of your website. One could also attract attention to certain pages on your website by having a teaser on your social page and then linking to further information on your website.
Facebook offers pay-per-click ad campaigns, which ads a very interesting and lucrative dimension to a online marketing strategy. Facebook has very detailed information about their users on their data base, which enables pinpoint advertising. With a Facebook campaign, the web owner can target very specific demographics.
Newsletters, informing your customer base
Apparently, it is up to three times cheaper to sell to current customers than it is to find new customers. The newsletter could bring all your online marketing efforts together. By placing short articles and announcements in your newsletter and mailing them to your customer base, you could create opportunity for more traffic to your website and social pages. There is also the possibility that your customer might forward your newsletter to another friend or colleague. The newsletter is also an opportunity to strengthen your company’s and serves as a reminder to your current customers.
Try to collect as many new e-mail addresses as possible. If you have sales reps that are in contact with potential customers, get them to ask the customers whether they would like to receive marketing material. Always give recipients on your mailing list the opportunity to unsubscribe to newsletters. Remember to clearly indicate your contact details on your electronic newsletter and always try to offer some kind of promotion at the top of your newsletter, indicating the terms clearly.
E-mail signature, marketing every time I send an e-mail
Now here’s one that many companies don’t use to its full potential. E-mail signatures account for a massive amount of traffic to websites and social media pages if used correctly. If your newsletter is in an electronic format, you could also link to it from your signature. Remember, if you are replying to an e-mail, you are not spamming potential customers. If that e-mail is forwarded to someone else, they might click on the links in your signature. E-mails may lie in in boxes for months or even years. Of course, e-mail signatures contain the contact details of individuals at a company which makes it easy for your potential customers to get in touch. The logo in your signature could also strengthen your brand.
Maintain, maintain, maintain…
There is no reason why a website should remain dormant for longer than one week. The internet craves new information and therefore search engines crawl the same websites on a daily basis. The reason why they do that is to find new information. If your website is perceived as a reliable source of new information, it will definitely have a major impact on its rating. That is why large informational websites like Wikipedia do so well. They have new information available on a daily basis.
New information on your website definitely means that you have something to say on your newsletter and social media pages. The newsletter is actually a very good starting point. If you make a point of sending out a newsletter on a monthly basis, the information can also make its way to your website and social platforms. This is cheap, powerful, penetrating marketing.
Talk about it
Once everything is in place and the well-oiled machine is running, remember to integrate it with your other forms of marketing. Business Cards, Sales Reps, Print Media, Stationery and even Billing, should all make mention of your electronic newsletter, website and social media pages.
Linkedin is an excellent platform to get all your employees involved in your effort to fire your internet marketing arrow. Everyone in your office should have a Linkedin profile. It is an opportunity for them to connect with other professionals and tell them about your company.
Tell people about your internet marketing efforts. Integrate it with your daily verbal communication and add people to your online marketing community and mailing list.
Article written by: Leon Keyter