Digital Marketing 101
- By Graeme Buckley
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- 21 Sep, 2018
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Your starting steps into the world of digital marketing
Marketing can be a difficult thing to know how to do well, especially if you are a small business.
With a lot of your time focused on the day-to-day tasks of running your business and keeping your customers happy, marketing is something that can often be shunted to one side.
But if you want to consistently bring customers in, digital marketing is becoming increasingly important, especially given the prevalence of the Internet and smartphones these days.
The first thing you need to get sorted is your website. The first thing a potential customer will do is Google your business to find out more information about you. A professional looking website that is mobile-friendly gives off a great first impression.
Everybody is on social media these days, so it’s important to ensure that you have a presence on Facebook and Twitter at least. Engage with your possible customers on these social media platforms and show people that you are out there, ready and prepared for their business.
Good online reviews are the digital equivalent of ‘word-of-mouth’ so providing excellent customer service can help you online as well.
Google AdWords allows you to target people specifically for what they are searching for on the search engine. You can really drill down to the nitty gritty of your customers’ expectations and deliver exactly what they want through a good AdWords campaign.
Infoserve can help you with all of these first basic steps in improving your web presence. Our web designers can build you a great-looking website, while our PPC experts can help you get found on Google for the most appropriate terms to bring business in.
Digital marketing can seem like an unimportant aspect of your business when there are only a few of you in the company (or it may just be you). But an effective digital strategy can bring you growth that you wouldn’t otherwise expect, so it’s always worth spending some time thinking about what you want to achieve, and how you want to achieve it.
There are lots of ways to market your business – from Google Ads to taking out adverts in the local paper.
With all these options available, it is easy to get bogged down in what you should and shouldn’t be doing.
However, there is no doubt that you should be using Facebook. If you have any doubts, these are the reasons you need to have a presence on the massive social media platform.
A landing page is usually a standalone page that is distinct from other parts of your website.
The sole aim of a landing page is to convert visitors into customers, which is why you will very rarely see any links to other pages on a landing page.
Multiple landing pages
Multiple landing pages can be used to target specific aspects of your business, or to target certain geographical locations. They are often linked with a PPC campaign so that when a person searches for a term on Google or Bing, they land on your landing page.
What can you do to make a good landing page?
Focus on the offer, not the company.
Don’t oversell and intimidate your visitors
Keep it simple
Make clear calls to action
Why use them?
Landing pages can drive business and traffic to your company and website, but they can also build your brand and improve your SEO.
They shouldn’t be flashy or difficult to create. If anything, they need to be easy to understand and have a clear pathway for customers to get in touch with you, fill in a contact form, or order a product.
When it comes to online marketing, learning a few
tricks can deliver a good few treats – for your customers and you.
Halloween is a time for dressing up in scary costumes, carving pumpkins on the kitchen table and going door knocking, but for a business owner it signals that December and January – the most significant months for most commercial websites, are just round the corner.
Is your online strategy aligned, are you ready and geared up for a ‘Spooktacular’ and ‘Franken-static’ time, or is it going to be a case of ‘Double, double, toil and trouble’?
Here are a few tricks from us to deliver your customers and you some treats:
Don’t spread your toffee or money too thin!
When it comes to online marketing, there are lots of platforms and applications to entice you to spend your money. The trick here is not to spread yourself or your money too thin. Rather, see what works best for your customers, your business and you. Do some tests, see what works and, as important, what doesn’t and hone, hone, hone.
The great thing about online marketing is that it creates more of an equal playing field and a small business can have massive impact with a relatively small amount of spend and resource.
Create a ‘Boo-tiful’ journey for your customers
Take time to think about the journey your customers will take to the point of purchase; first they may look online for a type of product and then start to narrow searches down to specific products, associated finance deals perhaps, and suppliers in a specific location. The more times you can appear in that journey, the better the subliminal messaging, and the more likely you are to convert that customer. It’s a bit like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs or pumpkin seeds. You can do this both through clever content marketing and through pay per click and social media advertising.
Happy haunting
Be wherever your customers are; is this Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn? Find out as much as you can about your customers and their searching behaviours. This will help you reach them and create content that is applicable to their behaviours.
Use Google Analytics and other analytical tools to get to know exactly what your customers are looking at, where they are exiting your website, which pages are visited a lot, which are never looked at, and fine tune accordingly.
‘Boo’ believe in content
When it comes to getting your website and business found by existing and potential customers, content can be just the candy you need. Of course ideas, research and writing can take time, but it’s worth spending time on. If you don’t have the time yourself, find someone in your business you trust and who can write well, or perhaps use a freelancer, and get started. Look at the content your customers want; ask them, and then deliver it.
People; your customers included, want to be informed and entertained. If your content does this then you should be in for a treat in ROI and brand loyalty. Remember too that it’s not about you; it’s about what the customer wants. Deliver this and you will be rewarded.
We ‘witch’ you a happy Halloween!
Infoserve wishes you a very happy Halloween. You can ensure this by refining your online marketing strategy. We specialise in web design, pay per click, listings and social media. Our experts are always on hand, although we do occasionally have a ‘coffin’ break, to help you with any questions. Give us a call now on 0800 089 0879, or go to our website www.infoserve.com for more information.
‘Bugs and Hisses’ to you all!
It isn’t often that you get a second bite of the cherry when it comes to bringing in business from a customer, or in life for that matter!
But with a digital marketing strategy called retargeting, that is exactly what you can do!
Let’s face it – the world of digital marketing can seem like a daunting prospect!
It isn’t as straightforward as getting an ad out in the local paper or putting out some fliers in the more traditional sense.
A lot of people are online these days, which means you need to utilise the benefits that the likes of PPC, a quality website and social media can have for your business.
Failure to reach out to people digitally can have a hugely negative impact on your business, so here are a few things you need to avoid as you delve into the world of digital marketing:
Focusing on just one digital platform
People use multiple platforms to achieve their goals. They may use a company’s website to find out more about a product, go on their Facebook page to read reviews or have received an email from a company newsletter. You restrict yourself by focusing solely on one avenue and need a presence on social media, a good website, and PPC to get you ranked as highly as possible for your chosen field and more.
You know you can make money and you
know the service or product you’re offering can really make a difference.
But how do you get other people to appreciate what you already know – that what you’ve got is awesome!
You can’t sit around waiting for customers to come to you – you need to go out and get them.
It’s a good first start to work out what type of customer you’re looking for. Once you know this, you can really target them.
With Infoserve’s PPC, you can specifically target the keywords you think your customer are going to use when they are searching for your products or services. You can also focus on a specific location where your customers are near to your shop.
