Over the last 10 years, the marketing industry has changed more than it had in the previous 50 years. The wider prevalence of the email, social media, blogging and other Internet-related activities have been the biggest keys to these changes, and effective marketing continues to shift away from traditional methods and towards more innovative techniques. What all of these elements have in common is the fact that they fall under the umbrella of digital marketing, and small business owners who can master this will have a huge advantage over any competition.
Of course, an individual could study and practice digital marketing for years and still not fully master it. This is partially due to the constantly changing nature of technology, but it is mostly just because it is very hard. To those who are not familiar with it, digital marketing can seem like a complex world of unfamiliar acronyms, strange terminology and endless statistics. This can make it seem so overwhelming that most small business owners simply pass off all marketing responsibilities to third-party marketing terms, even simple duties which could be performed much more affordably in-house.
This guide is designed to explain a few of the keys to digital marketing, even for those who have no experience in marketing or understanding of it. While the bulk of your marketing efforts will probably still need expert attention, a little understanding could help you contribute your own industry expertise and get the most from them. If nothing else, it will give you a clearer understanding of how effective your current efforts are.
1. Define Your Goals
One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy is clearly defined goals. This is no different in the digital world, and even if you do not directly handle your marketing efforts, you should have a target audience in mind and some clear goals in order to know how effective your strategy is and when changes should be made.
2. A Great Website
This should be obvious, but the backbone of all your digital marketing efforts is your website. It should be functional, efficient and appealing, and it should be tailored towards your target audience.
3. Content Marketing
Any company that is concerned with proper marketing should have a great website, and every great website should contain a blog. Modern consumers, especially young people, take in information differently than in the past, and they respond differently to advertising as a result. A blog with quality content not only helps your site’s SEO and visibility, it also helps you build relationships with your customers and provide meaningful information in your industry.
4. Omni Channel
Not only do people consume information differently now, they also gain access to this information in many ways. Modern consumers shop, read, communicate and research on their phones, tablets, and computers, and your marketing efforts should be geared at reaching your target audience in every way. This also means having a collective effort of marketing techniques (i.e. email campaigns, SEO, PPC, social media) that work together to reach your goals.
5. Assess Regularly
In order to know how effective your efforts are, you need to be able to understand what you are shooting for. All those nice pie charts and for example Excel histogram that your marketing team shows you are pretty useless if you do not understand what they are presenting. You should familiarize yourself with your goals, your website, all your marketing channels and the people involved and assess your efforts on a regular basis. This will help you gauge your success, make necessary adjustments and get the most out of your digital marketing budget.
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