Billions of people use the Internet to search for products and services each day. Digital marketing is a wide field that encompasses a range of activities aimed to improve your brand awareness, audience reach, and profit. Quality digital marketing can bring a huge improvement to your bottom line. Here are some digital marketing segments that you should be investing in.
Website
Your website is the official face of your brand so it needs to reflect your brand identity and values. It has to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to use as well. According to statistics, 38 percent of people will leave a website that they find unattractive and 39 percent of people will leave if the site or its images take too long to load. Additionally, your website should contain material that customers seek such as contact details and product information.
SEO
Having a website is not enough. You need to apply search engine optimization (SEO) to enable it to rank higher on search engine result pages. There are several aspects of SEO that are grouped into three major sections.
Technical SEO involves improving the technical characteristics of your website so that it is more friendly to search engines. Some actions taken might be reducing page load times, implementing correct canonical URLs, fixing crawl errors, adding SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security, and cleaning up unnecessary scripts.
On-page SEO involves modifying the pages on your site so search engines can better understand your context and content. This can include focusing on the relevant keywords, adding META descriptions, creating proper page structure, optimizing page titles and headings, adding internal and external links, and adding ALT tags to your images.
Off-page SEO is the most time-consuming of the three. Search engines evaluate a page’s inbound links to determine how relevant its content is. Therefore, off-page SEO works to generate backlinks from a variety of high-worth sites. Link building forms a large section of off-page SEO.
Link Building
Link building has been proven to achieve impressive results. Because search engines associate pages with the sites that link to them, earning a link to an established and reputable site can significantly improve your search rankings. Most people leave link building to a professional SEO consultant because it can be time-consuming and tough to do well.
There are many tactics to earn backlinks such as reclaiming brand mentions and submitting your site to directories. However, the most effective way to earn a valuable backlink from an authoritative site is to create unique and educational content. The process also includes building relationships with editors and pitching your content to various publications.
Content Marketing
Content creation is extremely important in digital marketing. On a basic level, more content equals more opportunities to be found. But that is not all. Quality content that is relevant to your target audience helps to increase your brand visibility. If your content is helpful or interesting, it builds brand trust and improves your reputation. Readers will also most likely share it with their peers, further increasing your reach.
Successful content creation hinges on keyword research and customer understanding. You must be clear on the topics that interest your target audience and the pain points that you want to address. Then, you can proceed to formulate content that speaks specifically to these areas. Your content can be published on several platforms such as your corporate blog or on another site as a guest post that earns a backlink.
Social Media Marketing
With so many internet users on social media these days, social media marketing must be part of your digital marketing strategy. Social media channels include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more. There are a variety of options for paid advertising on social media such as ads that integrate seamlessly into users’ feeds. Social media platforms have a huge repository of client data, allowing you to micro-target your audience.
Influencer marketing is another effective method of social media marketing. Studies have shown that modern consumers appreciate authenticity and are more likely to trust recommendations from peers than brands. Therefore, influencers have become valuable marketing tools. You can collaborate with influencers to create sponsored content to increase brand awareness and reach a niche audience.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a good way to complement an organic digital marketing strategy and accelerate lead generation. With PPC advertising, you only pay for the clicks that you receive, so you benefit from a controlled budget and measurable metrics. If you are launching a new product or feeling a slump in website traffic, PPC advertising can help you to obtain a rush in exposure.
With so many digital marketing methods at their disposal, businesses have no reason not to invest in growth. Digital marketing can boost brand awareness, expand audience reach, increase leads, and drive conversions. If you are unsure of how to start digital marketing for your business, consult a digital marketing agency or SEO consultant to receive a tailored strategy that suits your needs and goals.