There is no doubt that the internet is a crucial component that businesses all over the world should be making serious use of. This is because by using online services and establishing a digital presence, you are getting your product in front of many different people from all over the world.
That being said, simply having a website is not enough when it comes to using the internet effectively. You need to ensure that you are making use of digital marketing and using the information obtained through different strategies to improve future campaigns.
Popular forms of Digital Marketing
There are many different means of digital marketing available, the most effective of which are going to vary depending on what your business does and how you want to convey that message to your prospective audience. Some of the more popular forms of digital marketing include but are not limited to:
Pay-per-click Advertising
This is a very useful means of marketing that is used to get as many people onto your website as possible. Essentially, you would pay someone such as Amazon or Google Ads every time an advert link to your website is clicked (hence the name).
You’re more than likely to have seen this kind of advertising in action as every time you search something on Google, the ads that appear first are all using pay-per-click.
Search Engine Optimization
Unlike pay-per-click, you won’t have to pay anything for SEO, but it does require a lot more time and attention. Essentially, this is where you optimize your website so that more and more people visit it.
This can be done by utilizing specific keywords that pertain to your business and the industry that you operate in. If you are doing this right then it means that when people search for a specific term that relates to your website, your businesses site will appear first.
There are a few ways to optimize your website, firstly by writing good copy that uses the keywords you are hoping to rank for. You can also start a blog and create pieces that center around your industry and again incorporate those keywords.
All of these can be effective, but they require monitoring and updating if you are to use them efficiently.
Social Media Marketing
The rise in social media marketing is well and truly underway and as such it is no surprise that businesses are using it to expand their reach. This can come in the form of paying for ads on social media, such as those that are found on Facebook and Instagram that many people come across.
Alternatively, marketing on social media can mean simply having a presence and communicating with your audience over social media. You will be able to answer any questions that clients have and also effectively promote new products that you are hoping to sell to people.
There are a lot of different social media apps so you will need to try and work out which one is going to be most beneficial to your organization as a whole.
How to keep track of how your Marketing is doing
Of course, it is one thing using some of the above methods in order to market your business, but it is another thing entirely using them effectively.
There are a lot of businesses who view marketing strategies as simply throwing a lot of different ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks, but this is not an effective way to go about it.
Instead, you should be making the most of analytics in order to fully understand what strategies are working for you and which ones need more work.
What are analytics and why are they important?
Marketing analytics are essentially the study of all of the data that is collected as a result of a business’s varying marketing tactics. They are used in order to assess which methods are the most effective and to also understand patterns in consumer behavior, regional preferences, a customer’s creative preference and much more.
In the current landscape of marketing, where the digital world is more important than ever, having a clear understanding of your marketing analytics is absolutely vital.
Customers are now very picky when it comes to looking at branded media and choosing what they are most interested in engaging with. As such, understanding analytics and using them in order to create targeted ads based on your audience’s interests has never been more important.
You also need to make sure that these ads are being displayed on the right channels, be it social media, Google or elsewhere.
What organizations look at when they study analytics
There are going to be many things that organizations study when they are looking at their businesses’ analytics. These will vary depending on what you are hoping to achieve with your marketing; however, some of the most popular items include:
Which online campaigns tend to bring the most traffic and conversions
In order to effectively market your business, it is important that you have a full understanding of which specific online campaigns actually generate the most business.
This will mean that when it comes to running future campaigns, you are going to be able to run them in a way that is sure to generate clicks onto your website.
You will need to track all of the different ads and places where you have promoted your business in order to have a better understanding of this and once it is done, you will be in a much better position when it comes to running future campaigns.
Determine the location of your visitors
One of the benefits with establishing a strong online presence with your business is that you are able to market to customers from all over the world. You can use analytics in order to track where your customers are located. With this information you will be able to do a couple of things:
- If a large proportion of your visitors are located somewhere you do not predominantly deliver to, then you are going to be able to change your metrics so that your targeted ads are only visible to people who will actually be able to engage with your business.
- On the other hand, if you are getting a lot of traffic from one specific area, you could expand your business so that you are working more prominently in said area. Organizing delivery has never been more straightforward thanks to the likes of Shiply. Shiply provides a load board where your delivery job will be posted and then a range of different drivers will be able to bid for the work. This means getting stock over to the regions where business seems most popular is very simple.
Learn what people are searching to get to your website
If you are using SEO marketing (as was previously discussed), then in order to create future posts, you are going to want to understand what people are actually using as a search term in order to come onto your site in the first place.
Choosing keywords can be tough but by tracking what is successful through analytics, you will make developing future content a lot more straightforward.
How to begin measuring your analytics
In order to begin measuring your analytics and using said measurements in a way that will benefit your business, there are a few things you’re going to have to do. These include:
Understand clearly what it is you are actually hoping to measure
Measuring analytics can be quite overwhelming because there is such a huge amount out there that you can consider. In order to begin measuring efficiently, you should first have a full understanding as to what you are hoping to keep track of.
Are these the amount of leads you have captured? Your conversion rates? The location of your customers? Know this before going into the measuring process.
Establish what a successful benchmark will look like
You are also going to need to know what you would actually consider to be a successful campaign. There is no use going into your measuring stage if you don’t know what results you are actually going to be happy with.
Your success is going to depend on what you are hoping to achieve. For instance, if you want to improve your overall brand awareness, then if you have seen an increase in engagement, this can be deemed a success.
Assess how your organization is currently doing
You will also need to have an understanding as to how your company is doing right now. Are there any weak spots within your business and if so, what are they?
Understanding what these are and knowing how you could potentially improve on them is absolutely vital when it comes to strengthening your business as a whole and strengthening how your business can market itself better.
Every organization has a weak spot so picking these out is not a negative thing, to the contrary, being able to see where your business needs to improve and acting upon that is the sign of a great leader.
