Developing A Well-Rounded Marketing Strategy
Digital marketing today is like a game of chess. You can’t just make one move and hope to win. Before you can think of winning a game, you have to consider all of the pieces on the board, how they move, and how they interact with one another. On top of this, you always have to think three moves ahead.
Content Marketing
Imagine digital marketing approaches as the pieces on the board: content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing and advertising, amongst others. All of these function in a set way but also significantly impact each other. Let’s take content marketing, for example. Content marketing works by delivering high-quality content to your audience to drive interest in your product. We put various forms of content on our websites, blogs, and other places. However, while existing as its own entity, it also interacts with the other pieces.
Search engine optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing
Content marketing has a huge impact on SEO. By creating content relevant to our industries, we get noticed by search engines, and our content gets put in front of our target audience. With higher quality and more relevant content, you are more likely to end up on the screens of the right people. With content in many different formats, such as text, images and video, you cover multiple bases when it comes to what the user is searching for. Your video tutorials may appear in a search with a learning intent. Your blogs may be answering questions, and your images may be delivered to someone who needs a more visual response from a search.
With the power of AI driving the algorithms behind search engines, everything has become more precise than ever before. So, there really is a reason to include that content you were thinking about developing but has just been left sitting on a backburner.
But remember, while optimizing your website’s content, make sure you optimize the website itself. Things such as page loading times and user experience significantly affect your marketing efforts. Many people will leave your site if they are waiting too long for a page to load, and if they can’t find what they are looking for due to confusing site structures, they will look elsewhere. You want to keep your visitors on your website for as long as required to find what they are looking for and purchase what they need or contact you.
Social media & Content Distribution
Here’s where our other marketing channels come into play. What are the best ways to let people know you have content? Well, we have to put it in front of as many different people as we possibly can. That is very easy to do in a digital world with people fastened to their computers or mobile devices. The first interaction we must pay attention to is content marketing and social media.
Social media is a great tool to take advantage of when distributing content. The best thing about social media is that it’s free! That’s right, no money is coming out of your monthly marketing budget for creating social media profiles, unless, of course, you are paying someone to do it!
Social media is again an entity in it’s own right. But harnessing its power to make your audience aware of a blog post or advertising content on your website becomes a great tool for distribution. And, of course, google really could use those backlinks, too!
Email Marketing & Content Marketing
But why stop at distributing your content through social media? It’s time to get directly in front of our buyers with email marketing. Most companies see the best return on investment with email marketing. So why not use it to let your subscribers know about a blog post you have recently put up on your website and help better establish your authority in your chosen field?
But remember, Email marketing provides the best ROI for companies in its own right, so it’s not just a means of advertising content you have already created. Ensure you are crafting well-planned email campaigns to nurture your prospective consumers, delight your loyal customers and establish your authority in your field regularly. This is an essential part of today’s digital marketing strategies.
Ads & Content Marketing
There are two main channels you can choose to deliver your ads to distribute your content. This would be Google ads and social media. Have you written an eBook lately? We have! Then why not promote it to a broader audience than your current market?
Social media Ads
You can use social media to get your eBook in front of various audiences on social media, from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok. All of these are great channels to use, with TikTok being the latest up-and-coming star.
If you don’t have video content to turn into an ad, why not make it? Something such as this will get you seen by a whole host of users that you would have never reached before. Gen Z especially loves this channel, so if you are expecting your consumers to be younger, this is definitely the channel for you! Although many people and businesses you wouldn’t necessarily expect are starting to adopt TikTok, why not try ads and even regular content on this channel?
However, why not use social media ads just to advertise your social media? With the likes of follow campaigns available in social media ad campaigns, you can achieve a more extensive fan base and, therefore, deliver your content to even more people on a regular basis. With social media being the best place to narrate your brand story and achieve better visibility, you can start working on giving people that warm feeling when they think of your brand!
Google Ad’s
There are many different ways to promote your content through Google Ads. It is always a good idea to try all of them to see what works best for you. Search ads will allow you to show up as a “Sponsored result” and deliver a short paragraph of text to enlighten the user about the content, in this case, the eBook, you are distributing.
You can also choose more visual ways of advertising it with Google Display ads, which show up as banners or ads in various sizes on all of Google’s available platforms, such as search results, YouTube, and partner websites. If you want to deliver your content to the biggest audience, look in this direction. You can even deliver videos through Google ads to further entice prospective consumers.
The Big Picture
As you can see from all of these interactions, you really do have to assess each individual piece in terms of abilities, and you also have to take into account how they all interact with each other. Gone are the days when companies could just use traditional broadcasting methods and dominate the market. In 2024, the best digital marketing strategy is to look at the whole picture. If we fail to do this, we risk getting our queen taken by that knight who stealthily surprises you mid-game.
Three moves ahead
The next thing we have to think about is the newest contenders in our book. Every year, the digital marketing world experiences a series of trends or technological updates that gain in popularity over a set period of time that we can’t ignore. As digital marketers, we must always be on top of the latest advances and trends.
Voice search, AI and it’s impact on SEO
More and more people are turning to voice search as a method for discovering content, and search engines are well aware of this technological advance. Combine this with the power of AI, and it’s “all change” in the realm of the digital marketer!
We touched briefly on this subject earlier. Yes, indeed, AI is an advancement too big to ignore. We are using AI to help us generate content, make images, and do many other very time-consuming things. However, while we use this technology, so are Google and various other search engines throughout the cybersphere.
AI is learning from us daily, and it shows in our searches. Whereas before, we could only retrieve basic results from Google, now it has learnt two essential things from us. These would be intent and context. Google’s Rank brain now has the power to understand what exactly you want from your search results. So, instead of purely generating search results based on keywords, it can now deliver content in all ways, shapes, and forms.
If someone asks what the parts of an engine are called, Google could deliver a how-to video on fixing a car or perhaps a link to a parts manufacturer where you can buy said parts. Google is starting to think outside the box.
Personalization
Here is another big hitter coming out of AI advancements. AI can collect and assess vast amounts of information much faster than we ever could as humans, allowing us to find out more and more about our consumers. This works both in our favour and against us at the same time.
The positive side is that we can now target our audience even better than we had previously. Instead of just knowing our consumer’s location, we can discover several other things, such as their age, gender, and interests. Advertising companies are using this to deliver us far more targeted campaigns that deliver better ROI than we have ever known. However, the downside is that everyone else has this new advancement available, too! Yes, that’s right. This means we have to adjust our content, websites, and marketing strategy to allow for a much more personal experience and stay ahead of the game.
There is no longer a need to create generic, one-size-fits-all content. We now have to delve into the deeper analytics and provide varying content to reach the people we really want to. This could mean concentrating on one particular market or making various versions of our content targeted at slightly different audiences.
Sustainability
Here’s to responsibility for your actions! People are increasingly interested in what you are doing for the planet. With climate change an ever-present worry in people’s minds, are you doing something that will bring about a greener world for us all? Make sure that people are aware of it. And if you are not, then start doing something now! This is a win-win situation for us all: your company helps the planet, and you enjoy the positive reaction from your consumers. Many people are so dedicated to sustainability that they only buy from brands that are actively taking that step towards change. Be that brand!
Shoppable posts
Yes, gone are the old days when the only place to buy products was straight from a retailer’s website. More and more social platforms are integrating commerce facilities into their websites and apps. Now, social media users can shop by scrolling through Facebook. This really brings a whole new addition to the digital marketing game. People spend a great deal of time on social media, so if they can buy the things they need while there, that is what they will do. So, having a limited range of products available to your consumers on social media is a step in the right direction.
The Bigger Picture – Key Takeaways
With each move we make, we are given three more moves to consider. Trends are constantly developing, and keeping up with the things that are taking the world by storm is very beneficial to your digital marketing strategy. So, in the grand scheme of things, we give you the following advice:
Always pay special attention to the main contenders in the digital marketing world: SEO, Website Design, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Social media, and ads. However, while you are doing these, always be aware of how one element interacts with another so you can optimize your marketing strategy. Additionally, always be a step ahead when it comes to industry, general internet trends, and advances in technology.
Always study analytics to see what parts of your strategy are working and what are not. Then, you can learn and adapt from what you see.
This world is constantly changing, and to be successful in that climate, we must change with.