Is your digital marketing strategy still relevant?
You’ve probably noticed a LOT of changes in technology and digital marketing over the past year – is your businesses digital marketing strategy still relevant?
Keeping your focus on engaging your audience and the customer journey will be key to keeping your digital marketing strategy effective moving into 2017.
A good digital marketing strategy can be the difference between being a market leader and going bankrupt, so time invested in this area is time well spent.
Your businesses’ digital marketing strategy should have many layers to it but let’s take a look at what’s going to be the most influential drivers in an effective digital strategy:
Your Website
Your website is the foundation or hub for your online marketing channels.
Too many businesses take this for granted, but your website is the main resource a consumer will reference when doing online research about the product that they are buying. If your business doesn’t have a website, then you are missing out on a huge piece of that cake, pretty much the whole cake actually.
If your website isn’t mobile friendly and responsive by now you’re digital marketing strategy is no longer relevant. Since your website is the hub for prioritizing cross-device marketing – it better be capable of delivering content effectively across multiple devices.
Smartphones have been the device that is most used to access the internet for a few years now and the increase in this looks to continue.
As stated in INC.com, The average consumer in the United States owns 7.2 devices connected to the internet. The average marketer only sees one. If businesses want to better understand their customers, they should invest in cross-device marketing.
You’d better believe that solid web hosting and website speed provided by companies such as planethippo.co.uk will the backbone for your website.
Social Media
Social media marketing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn are no longer the new kid on the block. For most businesses using social media has become common practice.
Why? Because, Social media is a highly effective way to engage your target audience.
Once you’ve worked out what your audience needs, what they are interested in etc. you can create content to share via social media accounts that is tailored to them. You can build up a following by creating useful content and then if you are really good at it, people will start to share and like your content with other users.
This essentially means that:
1 – you are increasing your following and potential customer base further
2 – other people are doing your marketing activities for you.
A smart social media marketing strategy will do a great job answering these questions:
- Has website traffic dipped?
- Is customer loyalty low?
- Do you need to do a better job of building a positive brand reputation?
- Do you just need to make people aware that your product exists?
Video
If there is one hot topic in the digital marketing space right now it is how to get the most out of video marketing opportunities.
According to Statista.com, Video is the single most important medium among every age group.
A recent article on Inc.com states that Video draws more than 40 percent more traffic from search, especially among millennials, 80 percent of whom use video to make purchasing decisions. One of our brands has seen a 72 percent increase in social media traffic through a combination of promoted videos on Facebook and YouTube.
When reviewing the stats it’s pretty clear that Video is a key component to not only your digital marketing strategy, but an effective social marketing strategy as well.
Again, one of the fantastic attractions of this channel is that there are a lot of free solutions to creating great video content. Explore the wonders of YouTube and Facebook, gone are the days when you need to hire a camera crew to shoot a video!
If you want to make sure that your digital marketing strategy is relevant in 2017, you’ll want these 3 elements working together.
