Business owners are busy people and finding the time to create and implement a marketing strategy can be a challenge at best. Luckily, you shouldn’t have to take up all your time, or break the bank to get consistent, high levels of digital engagement and with figures from Deloitte Access Economics suggesting that digital engagement can earn your business $350,000 more a year it is well worth the effort.
What is digital marketing?
If you’re not experienced in marketing or technology it can be unclear exactly what digital marketing involves. Some people take it to mean online advertising, others assume it’s talking about social media while for others digital marketing means getting to a high position on Google and driving more traffic to their site.
In reality digital marketing includes all of the above and more. There are five basic elements to digital marketing:
- SEO
Search engine optimisation is the strategy of increasing your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. The higher your website ranks, the higher up on the page it will appear when people search for the relevant keywords, and the higher up it is, the more people will see it and visit it. Research has shown that websites that are on page one of Google results get up to 90% more traffic than those who are further down the list.
- Social media
Engagement is the key to a solid digital marketing strategy and social media is one of the best ways to achieve this. Social media marketing gives you exposure to a potential audience of millions and is a great way to leverage word of mouth marketing and build relationships with your customers.
- Email marketing
Along with social media marketing, email marketing is an essential tool for customer engagement. Often considered the king of digital marketing, sending regular, content based emails to your customers gives you plenty of opportunities to reach them, build relationships and track their engagement so you can get valuable insight into what works and what doesn’t.
- SEM
Search engine marketing is the cousin of SEO. It combines SEO techniques with paid advertising platforms to target and reach people online and raise your visibility. Pay per click advertising is considered one of the most effective customer acquisition tactics out there so SEM is well worth doing.
- Website design
Your website has to compete with every other website in your industry, from big budget corporations to tiny microbusinesses so it’s important that it looks and performs on a world-class level. With over half all Internet searches being done by mobile phone, it’s also essential that your website is mobile optimised and looks great on any device or you could end up alienating half your potential customers.
If you are among the 84% of Australian businesses that aren’t making the most of digital marketing, you could be missing out on big revenue. An understanding of what makes digital marketing and finding service providers who understand the needs of small businesses can give your business a big boost.
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About the Author:
Jo Macdermott is the Chief Marketing Consultant at Next Marketing in Melbourne. She has 15 years of marketing experience, is a Certified Practising Marketer and is a sought after marketing media commentator. Jo specialises in working with small and medium businesses. Follow her on Twitter here.
