A common mistake beginners make with digital marketing is trying to jump onto every platform at once. Wise up to why this is a bad idea – and discover lots of other dos and don’ts to help get your digital marketing journey off to an auspicious start.
Let’s begin with some don’ts
Don’t overstretch yourself
When you’re excited to tell the world about your new business, it’s tempting to want to be everywhere. But this can quickly become overwhelming as each social media platform has its own set of rules, guidelines and formats. Trying to keep up with them all can be a full-time job.
Without sufficient time to manage all your marketing channels, you won’t pay them enough attention to build your profile and followers. It’s better to do ‘less’ well, than ‘more’ chaotically. So think about your goals and decide which platforms best suit your business.
Don’t under-stretch either
That said, it’s also important not to put all your resources in one social media basket. There’s no magic formula for digital marketing – you need to test frequently, take action quickly and see which channel works the most successfully.
So how do you choose the best digital marketing channels for your brand?
You need to identify and prioritise. Start by identifying your target audience and ask yourself which digital channels they’re hanging out on. You need to be where your audience is. Then ask: what do they want to hear from me on that channel? Relevant, helpful messages and content are key.
Having identified this, you can strategically prioritise these channels and your resources. Always measure your results to see if the channels are bringing you success. Ask yourself what action you can take to improve your message based on the response you’re getting.
What are the best practices for effective email marketing?
Email marketing is the second most effective marketing strategy after word-of-mouth. Anyone with something to sell needs email marketing. Create your address list and segment it according to your audience so you can send targeted emails to each group.
Some tips for creating great emails:
- To get the most engagement, create unique newsletters with eye-catching, personalised subject lines and relevant content.
- Always include a call-to-action (CTA), such as ‘Enter our prize draw’ or ‘Sign up for this event’ and make it clear and prominent.
- Design responsive newsletters (over half of emails are viewed on mobiles).
- Insert code like “<first name>” into your emails so that they’re personalised for each recipient.
- Use emails to announce important happenings. The right emails at the right time will get the most returns.
- Try creating a win-back campaign to get back in touch with your inactive users.
- Look at www.reallygoodemails.com for some inspiration.
Organic vs paid marketing – how to make the most of both
Organic (or ‘owned’) marketing
The more relevant content you create, the more you’ll be found via online searches. Improve your SEO (search engine optimisation) by populating the content on your website with words and phrases you think your audience will search. This will help increase your ranking – Google will ‘think’ you’re an opinion leader on the subject and your audience will be more likely to find you.
The same applies to social media – optimise the relevant hashtags so people will find you organically. And don’t forget about your existing audiences, as they’re more likely to buy from you. Sometimes they just need a little push to convert from browsing to buying.
Paid marketing
This gives you the opportunity to buy new audiences. It takes time, effort and money to manage your campaigns, so make sure you’re getting maximum value. Measure the effectiveness over short periods of time, and immediately modify the strategy if it isn’t producing the results that you want.
Balance your efforts across new and existing customers, don’t just put all your efforts towards paid advertising and assume only new traffic will bring you success. Also take extra time to improve your SEO and user experience.
How to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts
It’s important to set achievable and meaningful goals for your business and then define some actionable metrics.
- For your website: monitor visitor numbers, conversion rates, page views, referral traffic and exit pages. Also check out the user flows in Google Analytics to understand your customers’ journeys on your website.
- For your emails: as well as checking who’s opening your emails, check the CTR (click-through rate) to see how much everyone is engaging and what they’re engaging with.
- For your social media: in addition to follower numbers, check your engagement rate.
- For every channel: always measure your ROI for all your marketing activities.
How to stand out
In today’s saturated marketplace, you need to be creative to survive. You must stop people in their tracks so they don’t scroll past you – and give them something interesting to talk about. Make sure you’re creating content that’s either entertaining or useful. Listen to your audience, show care and empathy for their needs and add value by generating meaningful content (which is also consistent with your brand image).
For your toolkit
Here are some of the best digital marketing tools and marketing technology solutions to help increase your conversions:
- Mailchimp: for setting up, managing and monitoring your email marketing.
- Google Ads: for paid search advertising.
- Hubspot or Marketo: to set up and monitor all your marketing campaigns.
- Hootsuite: scheduling social media posts and real-time monitoring.
- Frizbit: desktop notification tool for advanced targeting of your visitors.
- Leadoo: chatbots and inpagebots to support your online customer services and help convert your visitors into leads.
- United Plankton: static image-to-video conversion service for your posts and ads, to increase their conversions.
This how-to guide was inspired by one of our Zoom Dives with Sila Nur Isik, co-founder and director of Mind the Ad.
Zoom Dives are deep-delving discussions between our founder, Carolyn Dailey, and handpicked business experts from the creative world. You can listen to Carolyn’s and Sila’s full discussion here.
Fancy catching our next Zoom Dive, live? See our Events calendar and sign up for free. Meanwhile, feel free to plunder our Knowledge bank if you’d like to learn more about marketing and promoting your business.