For most businesses these days, digital marketing is an essential pillar in their growth strategy. If you want to scale you will more than likely need to up your online game. Why? Well, it’s very simply one of the best ways to attract more customers. And those customers are of course the lifeblood of your business. Digital marketing is almost certainly the best way that you can increase the flow of these customers from a trickle to a cascade.
When it comes to digital marketing there are a huge number of options open to you. So first and foremost you will need to be strategic. Start with some ideal customer personas, which you can develop from customer research and conversations. Personas are detailed descriptions of ideal customer types. Give your personas names, make them real, sketch out their likes and dislikes, fears and loves. Where do they get their information, where do they shop, what do they watch and listen to, where do they hang out online? From this detailed picture, you should have a very good idea what digital marketing tactics are most likely to be effective for this group.
A successful online campaign needs to be designed, managed, and monitored to reach a wide audience. You will need to use analytics to check and review that your tactics are working.
Customer Research
Conducting thorough market studies is crucial. To a greater or lesser extent, most marketers would confess that they prefer to spend more time in focus group discussions and other forms of direct client input with their organizations.
Marketers can understand what customers want through the research they decide to do with them. Information obtained from consumers has nothing to do with company politics, individual goals, or shifting priorities. Customer support can make or break a business.
Satisfied customers drive good judgments, so conducting research based on the needs of your target audience enables you to organize your time and resources more effectively, and all that can be done through great customer research methods.
Companies that stick rigidly to their five-year goals without considering consumer feedback and market changes may struggle to expand their operations. That’s why many fail after that so-called “trial period”. Even though they’re aware their strategy isn’t working, they’re not listening to the customers’ expectations and requirements, and continue to push with the very same mindset from the beginning.
Those who work more closely with customers will discover that their business has improved. It isn’t rare for new businesses to initially think that a specific demographic make up their target audience before realizing later on that there’s a whole other group of consumers that would actually be more interested in their goods or services.
Therefore, customer research is undoubtedly super important before you set out in that digital marketing world and shape your business strategies!
So what are the digital marketing tactics you can choose from? Here are some of the main approaches to consider for the focused strategies you should develop for each of your core customer groups.
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses text messages to reach customers. This type of marketing is effective because it enables businesses to send personalized messages directly to their customers’ phones.
Additionally, SMS messages have a high open-rate, which means that more people are likely to see your message. And your texts do not need to be static. Conversational SMS from Emotive helps scale Ecommerce SMS automation by interactive messaging to segmented audiences. SMS marketing is generally very affordable. You can send out thousands of text messages for just a few pence each. SMS marketing can be used in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies and integrated with your eCommerce website.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to promote a business. Popular social media sites include Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. This type of marketing enables businesses to connect customers with their brand on a personal and emotional level. Additionally, social media platforms are a great way to share content and drive traffic to your website.
This process is essential for connecting a brand to its customers. By engaging with them on a personal level, businesses can build trust and loyalty, which in turn leads to increased customer retention and higher conversion rates. Conducting comprehensive digital marketing on these platforms is a way for businesses to stay relevant and top-of-mind in the fast-paced world of social media. Further, platforms like Instagram and Facebook now offer targeted advertising capabilities that allow businesses to reach specific groups of users based on their interests, demographics, and behaviors.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the process of using email to promote a business. Customers sign up, typically to receive a regular email newsletter that will give them priority information, discounts and offers from your business. Not surprisingly this is a great way to cement customer loyalty. It also gives you a valuable database of your best customers and in-depth statistics about their buying habits, needs and interests.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing content to attract and engage customers. This is typically through a blog or articles on your website. This content can build customer trust and credibility by, for example, providing indepth product information and guides or answering popular customer questions. In addition, the content on your website will attract new customers to the site through search engines. If customers are asking questions about products face to face, they are also almost certainly typing these same questions into search engines. The more regularly you update your website with fresh content the more search engines are likely to increase the ranking of your site in search results.
Search Engine Optimization – SEO
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for search engines. It builds on content marketing, using a couple of additional tactics to further improve your search results. Link building is the main tactic. It involves trying to get relevant, credible and authoritative websites to link in to articles or content on your site. Google views each link from a respected site as a vote of confidence. It improves your position in the search engine algorithm and subsequent ranking spot. It is important that inbound links are natural and relevant. Buying links is likely to backfire as Google will see when they are not a relevant fit. The best way to attract natural links is by producing excellent content that other sites genuinely want to link to.
Digital marketing is an essential component of any business scaling strategy. Finding the right mix for your business starts with understanding your customers. After that it will always be an ongoing process of trial and error. The digital environment is not static and neither are your business or customers. Keep reviewing, learning and adjusting and watch your business grow.