The Top Three Digital Marketing Strategies
Digital marketing strategies have been appearing on a regular basis for quite a while now. Some of them have faded away, while others have grown continually more important. Which digital marketing strategies should you focus on in this day and age? Here are the top three that every business needs to be using.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click Advertising, also known as PPC, isn’t quite as powerful as it was a few years ago, but it is still one of the leading digital marketing strategies employed on the web today. When you Google a particular term, you can section the listings provided into a few different categories. The organic listings are the natural results that are affected by SEO (which will be discussed later) and then there are paid results.
Simply put, a website or business pays to have their website listed for a particular term. These listings usually have an indicator that they are paid. For example, they may have a yellow background and say something like “sponsored link”.
You can get a website listed near the top of Google search results using PPC much faster than with SEO, but the results are not the same. Most people don’t click on those paid advertisements. They take a small percentage of the clicks, but that small percentage is still enough to make a big difference. One of the great things about PPC is the name itself. You only pay for an advertisement when someone actually clicks that link. Just sticking your ad there on the screen might cost a small flat rate, but that’s it.
You can get a website listed near the top of Google search results using PPC much faster than with SEO, but the results are not the same. Most people don’t click on those paid advertisements. They take a small percentage of the clicks, but that small percentage is still enough to make a big difference. One of the great things about PPC is the name itself. You only pay for an advertisement when someone actually clicks that link. Just sticking your ad there on the screen might cost a small flat rate, but that’s it.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the dominant form of digital marketing utilized on the internet today. It’s not a new form of marketing, but it is certainly going through a lot of changes. That’s to be expected when the company SEO most often relates to also happens to be one of the largest companies in the world.
What is SEO all about? It’s about getting your website listed near the top of Google’s organic search results for a particular term. Remember how the listings were sectioned off previously with one section belonging to paid advertisements? Well, these listings earn their spot through hard work and long-term marketing rather than paying for a specific spot.
SEO is a lot like a competition that never ends. Your website is constantly battling other websites for the top positions for particular keywords. And the website at the top definitely enjoys the most benefits. First, consider that about 94 percent of the clicks on Google go to these organic links. Then, about 37 percent of those clicks go to the very first listing. Each listing after the first gets fewer clicks than the one before.
The bottom line is this: if your website isn’t listed at least on the first page of Google for a particular term, then it’s missing out on most of its potential traffic. Furthermore, being below the bottom three means you’re missing out on a lot. Getting to number one isn’t always feasible, but anything is better than being at the bottom.
Social Media Marketing
A slightly newer form of digital marketing is social media marketing (SMM). This refers to utilizing social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram to increase your brand awareness, grow your network, and bring more traffic to your site. It increases trust in your brand and increases the likelihood of converting visitors into buyers.
SMM is one of those very flexible marketing strategies that will greatly benefit just about any other marketing strategy you have going on at the moment. Having a social media profile should be considered mandatory for any modern business. It lets you communicate and engage directly with your customers on a personal level that isn’t possible via a blog or email campaign.
Social media is a constantly evolving platform. These sites are always releasing new features and functions. In many cases, they keep the businesses in mind when releasing these features. The end result is that they can be used to benefit your SMM campaign to some degree.
The Rest
Feel free to use some of the other digital marketing strategies as well. Most of them work well with the three strategies covered above. In particular, email marketing and content marketing can be very powerful tools for a growing business.
If you are in London or in Romford, Essex or surrounding areas like Havering, Redbridge or even Tower Hamlets, you can contact us