How To Use Digital Marketing For Your Business

Believe it or not, there isn’t a direct answer to this (sorry).

It’s impossible for me to tell you what you should be using for digital marketing for your business, because the amount of options and strategies that you can use are absolutely endless.

“So what’s the point of this blog post then, Richard?!”

I hear you say.

Well, I wanted to write this post to help you avoid a very common marketing mistake we see all too often.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make with their digital marketing, is they look at what other people are doing and follow suit. They look at the tools that others are using, such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads etc and they think to themselves:

“I should use that too! It works for Joe Bloggs down the road, it should work for me too”.

And off they go and try the new marketing tool, without really thinking too much about it.

Don’t get me wrong, that strategy is better than nothing. It’s much better to market yourself that way than not at all, but a much better place to start goes something like:

“What’s the best way to market to my target audience?”

Just because a certain tool works for Joe Bloggs it does not necessarily mean it will work for you, even if you’re in the same industry.

Here is the way we would suggest you approach using new marketing tools.

Ask yourself “who am I trying to attract?”

Draw up an image of your ideal customer / avatar? (even give them a name if you want to!):

• Who are they?
• What do they do?
• What is their gender?
• Age?
• Job title?
• Who do they work for?
• What pressures are on them?
• What do they do in their spare time?
• What challenges do they regularly face?

The more you can think about that person, the more you understand them, the better you’ll be with your marketing.

Understanding what they do; the pressures they come up against on a daily basis; will give you a much better understanding of how to market to them.

Once you have this image of your ideal customer, and once you have an understanding of their issues and/or desires, you can work on the message that you want to get across to them.

You know your product/service inside out, but you need to be able to showcase it in a way that will attract your ideal customer. You need to have quality copy and images on your website to portray the look and feel of a professional business.

Great copy and imagery sells!

Now, if you’ve managed to do this with advertising materials; you need to back it up with a great landing page for the product/service on your website. Because this is where your customer will most likely go next.

Let’s just rewind a little bit…

You’ve got that image of your ideal customer.

You’ve crafted your marketing media.

Then, and only then, will you be able to choose which are the best marketing tools for your business.

For some businesses the answer could be SEO, some may need Google Ads, or Facebook marketing. I have a long list of digital marketing strategies that I could go through with you today – some are ideal for you and your business, but some aren’t as they’re not where your ideal customer is ‘hanging out’ online, so to speak.

But, once you understand your ideal customers, you should start to understand which marketing tools would suit them best.

An important piece of advice that I feel I should add here, is not to limit yourself to one tool.

Having said that, don’t use too many at once! Our recommendation is to use two or three at the same time, as you might become swamped and overwhelmed. Why do we say this? A vital part of your digital marketing is analysing and tracking your strategies to see what’s working, and what’s not. By doing this, you can alter your ad text, your audience, your targeting etc to suit the data you’re analysing, making your marketing more effective. By only using a few different tools, you can keep on top of this side of your marketing.

And there you have it; the first steps to successful digital marketing!

Don’t follow what the other companies are doing, look at your market place first, then craft your message to them. Then and only then select the marketing tool or platform on which they will best respond to you.

I hope this helps, and I hope you have a better understanding of how to use digital marketing for your business. This is just the beginning of the road; as you begin your marketing, give each platform a fair chance before swapping it for the next one. Try some AB testing (where you test one advert against another), set up conversion tracking so you can see which ads convert into sales/downloads/filled in contact forms. Then analyse the data, work out which tools and ads work the best, not just in sales, but in return on ad spend and the highest returns on profit margins.

Feel free to get in touch with us at Brookstone Creative if you have any questions, if you’d like to talk about this in more detail, or if you’d like some help with getting started.