Digital marketing has grown far beyond just websites, or social media. in fact, digital marketing budgets have grown to be around 24% of the total marketing budget for large corporations.
The goal of all marketing activities should be sales. Selling your product or service is the only way to get an in-flow of cash. The goal of your digital marketing road map should always be the sale. Sales can be done in your store or on your website. Ultimately the goal is not just to have the customer visiting you, but to have the customer handing over money in exchange for a product or service.
Digital marketing can be broken down into the following categories;
Website
You should always treat your website the same way you would treat a physical store. It is not a “set-and-forget” business tool and needs consistent attention to get it working for you.
3rd Party Advertising
There are a host of sites that can help you drive traffic to your website, leads to your inbox or direct sales. These are mostly classifieds or listings sites and,
depending on your product or service, information can be fed between your CRM system and the site.
Search Marketing
When a person is looking to solve a problem, they can turn to a search engine like Google or Bing. These search engines will have categorised your website, read all your keywords and determined if your site is relevant to answer the question being asked.
Social Media
Social media has become an entertainment format; much like TV, radio and print. Social media gives you a great opportunity to communicate why people need your service or product. It is also a great channel to educate customers on topics that may interest them which will cause them to want or need your product or service.
Display Ads
Display advertising is very much like traditional print advertising. These are adverts that sit alongside content with people are consuming like news article, blogs or learning information
Video Ads
Using videos for marketing has been around for a long time. Ads which interrupt content, much like it was done on TV, are still present on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo.
Email marketing is a great way to keep your customer updated on what is happening in your business. One of the greatest benefits of email marketing is that it drives action. If your CRM system can help you understand what a client wants, then you can tailor the email message to suit their interest.
SMS
SMS boasts an open rate of 99%. It is a quick way to reach your customer where they are with a short marketing message.
Ultimately you will need to make use of multiple marketing channels to get the most out of your marketing effort. At first, you don’t need to get all of them working, but as you grow it is important to diversify your marketing plan.
Click here to download the Digital Marketing Roadmap and learn more about how the different channels fit into the consumer decision making cycle.
