Small and medium-sized business owners need to make every dollar of their marketing budget work. However, it’s not always about spending more to get more traffic. Highly targeted traffic visiting your website with an intent to buy can be less expensive and less difficult to obtain when you utilize digital marketing. There are 4 types of digital marketing to focus on first. These methods are proven, effective, and easy to implement across most platforms and industries.
1. PPC Google Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) Google ads are an essential component of digital marketing, it is the only way to advertise directly on Google’s search engine. It is a paid method of moving up into the search results page the potential customer gets when searching for the product or service you offer. You are charged for this type of ad whenever someone clicks on one of your ads. Here are a few of the benefits of using this type of digital marketing tool:
- PPC is a cost-effective way of reaching your audience. You pay only when someone (hopefully who is interested in your product or service) clicks on the ad.
- The ad creates instant traffic to your website.
- Most people see good ROI from using this method.
- It can help to develop an SEO strategy.
- The leads you get from this are usually warm – ready to buy or take action.
PPC can be an effective component of digital marketing, but it does require an investment in advertising. How much you spend can play a role in how effective your results are in some high-targeted keywords.
2. SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is perhaps the most specialized type of digital marketing and without some investment in SEO, your website will not rank in the top 3 spots. That means customers may have a hard time finding it if they do a simple search for your products or services. SEO is critical today because most people never go to page 2 of the search results. That means if your business isn’t on the first page, you’re missing over 98% of the opportunities.
SEO provides a number of benefits for digital marketing, including:
- SEO helps people looking for what you have to offer to find your website.
- The higher the website ranks in the search engines, the more clicks it is likely to get (and that translates into more buying customers).
- SEO helps improve user experience, which keeps people coming back to your site over time.
- SEO close rates tend to be higher than other forms of digital marketing, especially cold calling or outbound marketing.
- It costs less than outbound marketing methods.
The only problem with SEO is that it is not something you do one time and never have to update or change. Rather, it is a type of marketing method requiring updates as often as the search engines change their algorithms. Search engines strive to provide their customers with the best experience. To do that, they need to update their strategies to constantly reflect better results. That means you may need to revisit your SEO strategies over time to ensure you remain in a good ranking position.
3. Social Media
Social media marketing is a fast-growing type of digital marketing. It involves the use of social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. More consumers than ever are using these platforms as a way to connect with brands. Not only does it allow you to get more traffic to your website, but this form of marketing builds brand reputation and recognition. People get to know your business. As a result, when they think of the service you offer, they remember your blog post on Facebook and seek out your services. This type of digital marketing offers several benefits:
- It builds the brand, not just one-time website visitors.
- It creates customer engagement – people are able to interact directly with the business to start forming a better relationship.
- This type of marketing is solid when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising. This is how people share and connect with small businesses today.
- It can be very cost-effective, depending on the strategy you select. It also provides both long- and short-term benefits, which means investments continue to help you.
Social media marketing can be more challenging to build up because it takes time. Consider it a very important tool in digital marketing, but one that you’ll need to work to build over several months and years. You’ll still need other digital marketing methods in the meantime.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing – sending emails to customers hoping to draw them back to your site or to contact you – is a valuable marketing tool. When a customer purchases from you or otherwise opt-in to your email campaign, they agree to receive promotional emails from you. This is a good way to communicate upcoming promotions, sales, service opportunities or just share a newsletter filled with helpful advice to build your brand.
This type of marketing offers a few key benefits:
- These are people who already showed some interest in your business. Give them a reason to come back for more.
- It is easy to create and measure to determine how effective each type of campaign is.
- It’s possible to create targeted messages for each of your customer groups or interests, giving people more information that they need to make a buying decision.
- It is inexpensive. Most often, it costs less than other types of strategies.
The key concern with email marketing is that you have to get permission to email people, and second, you have to get them to open those emails. There are various strategies to achieving this, which your digital marketing agency can help you to create.
Do Different Methods of Digital Marketing Matter to Your Business?
The various types of digital marketing can seem like a complex puzzle, and knowing how the pieces fit together isn’t always easy. Your industry, including who your likely customers are, plays a role in which strategies you use within each of these 4 types of digital marketing.
What’s most important when it comes to exploring each of these different digital marketing methods is to create a cohesive plan that is designed to target your customer that also considers your brand. In most cases, small to medium-sized businesses can implement each of these methods to create tools to reach most of their customers.
Get started with a few simple tips:
- Create an email campaign and signup that starts building your customer base.
- Create PPC campaigns that drive traffic to your website.
Ready to Capitalize on Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
When you recognize the value of the 4 types of digital marketing, it’s time to put them into action. Utilize the resources WDK has to offer. Our team works with you to create a comprehensive digital marketing plan to deliver efficient, affordable, but effective marketing to build your company’s success. Contact us today to learn more.
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