In the past, marketing has relied on advertisements written in local newspapers, or through the posting of flyers around town. Nowadays, technology is the main way that marketing is implemented for businesses across the globe. The development of technology has greatly impacted the way in which companies are able to promote their business. This has led to a greater acknowledgment of companies across various locations. The better you get at creating an online digital marketing strategy, the more brand awareness your company will receive. This brand awareness will lead to a greater retention rate and more orders placed. Online digital marketing is key to promoting your business and encouraging its growth over time. Interested in the steps needed to create a digital marketing strategy? Let’s take a look at the 7 steps below.
1. Create a Webpage with a Great Design
Having a website is the best way to begin developing a digital marketing strategy. Websites allow customers to have 24-7 access to your goods or services, which makes your company more competitive. Your business’s website will be the center of your whole digital marketing strategy, and it should, therefore, be completed and organized well. Customers are more likely to spend time on a well-designed web page compared to one that looks less qualified. The better your website is, the more professional your services look.
Regardless of how much effort you put into gaining customers, your retention rate will rarely increase if you don’t have an attractive website. In terms of psychology, humans won’t remain on a webpage if it’s unorganized and if they’re having a difficult time navigating it. The key to a successful website is by considering how a customer thinks. They want efficiency and don’t want to waste their time, as their time is valuable. If your company’s website is difficult to use or unattractive, you’ll notice they won’t spend much time on your page. This will also cause your competition to gain the potential customers you lose. Always have a well-designed website as the first step of your online digital marketing strategy to ensure customer retention.
2. Utilize Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is the use of words and methods that can help your website appear in a list of search engine results. If your website is search engine optimized, you are more likely to receive more recognition than if it is not. Statistics show that over 50 percent of individuals choose between the first three links that a search engine provides, and over 70 percent never leave the first page. In order to ensure your website makes it to the top page, there are various strategies to follow. Search engines use algorithms to determine what websites suit the customer’s search best, and there are ways to encourage your website to increase in ranking based on the features you use throughout your site.
Some strategies to include in your website for top search engine optimization include using keywords that are most searched that pertain to your line of business, creating great page titles, and the use and distribution of links on your pages. Top search engines like Google and Bing account for these factors and determine how closely related your page is to what the potential customer is searching. For example, if you have a clothing website, utilize the most searched for words in clothing search engine inputs for the greatest business spike. Search engine optimization is a great way to digitally market your business.
3. Market through Emails to Customer Bases
In order to gain customer acknowledgment and brand awareness, it is best to create emails and send them around to your customers and other potential clients that you may come across. This is one of the most important aspects of online digital marketing, as it can require the most time and patience. The best way to send out emails is in a personalized manner, as it makes your customers feel special and acknowledged. If you send blast emails out to everyone on your database, these are not tailored to their needs and they can deem your emails of spam. To avoid this, consider creating personalized messages.
If you’re worried personalized emails may take too much time to send everyone in your growing business, consider marketing automation. Marketing automation, like the service offered by Sharp Spring, can help you attain your marketing goals by having a coded program personalize emails and send them to your customers. Marketing automation is a great tool for businesses who would rather allocate time to other marketing strategies rather than having multiple employees sending individualized messages to every customer on your list. Emailing your customers about potential events or new services you offer is a great way to digitally market your brand.
4. Write Press Releases Online
If you are unfamiliar with what a press release is, it is a written statement made to bring awareness to and promote or announce a business or company of sorts. This allows information to reach the general public of people who are not currently on your email list. Once someone reads a reliable press release, brand awareness is embedded in their head. Any time they hear your brand name or see something that reminds them of this press release, they will remember your company. This can lead to high conversion rates and great brand awareness.
The more people that are aware of you, the better your business will do. If they try out your products or services and are happy with the results, the customers are more likely to promote your business across different platforms and encourage others to test your business out as well. Press releases allow newspapers and other blogs to boast about your company. This gets your name out there and allows for higher business rates. An online press release is a great way to promote and market your company digitally.
5. Write and Maintain a Constant Blog
Blogs allow customers to have a place to go to read up on new information pertaining to your business. This allows them to have a greater interest and develop a connection with your company. The more people that read and follow your blog, the better your customer rate will be.
Some options of blogs that you can write to digitally market and promote your business include anything from new item or service release dates, or just typical occurrences that your company is going through. These posts allow your customers to develop a deeper relationship with your company and learn what your business is about. This builds a lasting relationship and encourages a rapport, or a feeling of trust, for the business. If your customers trust you, they’ll feel more comfortable purchasing items or services from you and your business.
6. Offer Contests like Giveaways
Customers like to feel acknowledged and as they can interact with the heads of the business. In order to develop this relationship, offering your customer base contests and giveaways can help. Promotions like these show you care about your clients and are willing to give up a form of item or service to keep them interested. This will develop a sense of care and compassion and give your customers something to both look forward to and remember about your service. Any time your company will come up, they’ll always think back and remember to the time in which you offered a free giveaway contest.
This giveaway will boost a lot of customer and brand awareness, as your customers are likely to tell their friends about the giveaway. This is especially good if you run your promotion on referring a customer to their service by email list. This not only gives you more customers, but it keeps your current ones happy.
7. Get Acknowledged by Online News Groups
A final step to create a great digital marketing strategy for your growing business is by being acknowledged by online newsgroups. Talking to reporters from well-known news websites and papers can greatly improve how many people know about your business. The more that you are mentioned positively in the news by noble reporters, the better your customers will feel about your products. This also goes for new customers – they’re likely to notice your company and become increasingly intrigued in what you have to offer.
There are various websites that can help you locate reporters and writers looking for pieces and companies to write about. This is a great way to encourage people to learn more about your brand.
Final Recap
Promoting your business or company through means of digital marketing is the top way to encourage customers to connect with your brand. Technology is an aspect of life that most humans have access to nowadays, so branding yourself through these means can increase your chances of high customer retention rates. Following this seven-step guide, you can greatly improve the number of consumers that come to your company. Relying on digital marketing will let your business grow naturally and increase immensely over the period of your marketing campaign.