One major factor that can significantly improve your profits and client list is digital marketing. This landscape is constantly evolving, so you want to ensure you have the right strategies in place. If you’re planning to cut your digital marketing budget, then you would be part of a 2 percent minority according to this GetResponse survey.
In fact, a CMO Survey has found that marketers will increase social media marketing by 90 percent and by an astounding 118 percent in the next five years. Most of this money will be allocated to spending on social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, as well as mobile and email marketing. Why is digital marketing experiencing such rapid growth? Well, here are a few reasons:
- Digital marketing is less expensive than print and TV advertising.
- It can be executed quickly.
- You can make changes instantly.
- It offers a more even playing field for smaller companies.
Yet, you must have a good plan in place. Here is where you should focus your efforts for the rest of 2017.
Make it personal
In a consumer-driven marketplace, customers expect you to know them by name. And, you can believe your competitors will know your customer’s names if you don’t take the time to do so. Take a deep breath though, there are many marketing automation tools available where you don’t have to memorize hundreds or thousands of names.
Yet, it’s more than just adding your subscribers’ names to your email campaigns. In today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, you really need to build a connection with your target audience. This entails having an understanding of your customers’ preferences and habits. It’s the only way to get their attention while they are continuously barraged with data.
Keep it authentic
You might have heard of authentic marketing and considered it a buzzword–here today, gone tomorrow. Yet, authentic marketing has been trending for the past five years because it is what consumers want. They want to go behind the scenes with you.
They want the real you, not the commercialized version of you. As stated above, this is about connecting with your target market. Consumers are weary of traditional advertising, and they are much more savvy. They want unique and genuine content that tugs at their emotions and pulls upon their heart strings. They want to become your friends.
Marketing with influencers
You might already follow online influencers on YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter. These are individuals with a massive and niche following. They can be of any background from prominent makeup artists to video game experts and pet owners. One way to tap into a new set of prospects is through influencer marketing. This is where you partner with an influencer to promote your brand. Yet, you shouldn’t partner with just any influencer. Here are some guidelines:
- They should already have a following that matches your target audience.
- Their brand should resonate with your customer profile.
- They should be in your budget.
- To save costs, they can be up-and-coming influencers.
- You must set promotion guidelines to ensure they don’t influence your brand negatively.
- It must feel natural.
If your business sells cloud security, you wouldn’t want to partner with a makeup artist. On the other hand, you would want to partner with an online tech expert popular for giving valuable tech tips.
Sell socially
Social networks also give you the opportunity to increase sales revenue through social selling. This is converting interest into sales through social media. After you have connected with your audience and established your authenticity, the next thing you must do is sell. Just make sure you don’t come off as too pushy or commercial.
Spring clean your website
If you want people to stick around, then it is important to improve your overall website experience. Much of your digital marketing is aimed at directing traffic to your website. All of your efforts would be meaningless if your website was plagued with outdated information.
You want to look at all of your product information to ensure it is up to date. Outdated information can leave a bad impression, that can cost you revenue. As a result, it is critical to make regular updates so that you don’t have to do a complete overhaul once or twice a year. In addition, your website is the mother ship–it must look good and have easy navigation on all devices.
Chatbots
These were designed to make your life a bit easier. You can install chatbots to handle customer inquiries at all hours of the day. You can also configure your chatbot to provide informative answers to your most popular questions. Moreover, they can be used to help guide visitors throughout your site.
Asking your visitors to come back during normal business hours is no longer an option for any business that wants to remain successful in our connected world. Chatbots can be executed through a messaging app to share pre-recorded