The first memory I have of learning about digital marketing is the enormous, blue and white old-fashioned tv monitor style iMacs that I used in college. At the time, I thought they were the bee’s knees; well, technology has come a long way since then…and so have my digital marketing skills.
How can digital marketing work for you and your business? I get asked this a lot and, in all honesty, where do I begin? Keeping up with the latest trends in digital marketing is a common approach. However, is it necessary to keep up to date with all the latest trends when you’re also trying to run a business, not to mention a busy life? The answer is no. I mean, your business is unique to you and therefore, what trends may have worked for another company may not necessarily work for yours.
Taking other people’s advice can be wise, and sometimes useful, but a common misconception is to think that your business will work in the same way. Therefore, my first piece of advice would be to know your business and your audience. If you know your audience well, then finding the route to that audience/market should come quickly, which will help mould your decisions on what approach to take with your digital marketing.
There are several paid ways in which you can utilise digital marketing, for example, pay per click (PPC) which are the adverts that show up at the top of Google searches. There are also various social media paid adverts or follow me adverts which are the adverts that pop up either after you have searched for something or even spoken about something…I know, scary. Despite these approaches producing effective and quick results, I prefer to explore the organic search engine optimisation (SEO) route first because it maximises the number of visitors to your website.
SEO is a fantastic way to express your brand, your business and your products online. It is cost effective and can be achieved through content on your website pages like a blog or news section. This can then be posted on social media to drive additional traffic to your website – another great way to engage with your audience.
SEO is all about knowing what is being searched for online. When you know the search terms that are relevant to your audience then these need to be applied to all the content on your website, and not just the written content, but also the images and videos. The little tips will all contribute to the end goal. SEO can be slow as some keywords can take up to 6 months to rank on your website, but the result will be more rewarding than a paid advert as your website will have improved its ranking whereas a paid advert, unless it’s running continuously, will soon ware off.
If you’re confident in front of a camera or think you would like to give it a bash, then videos online have proven to be far more successful than written posts for SEO. Apparently, we are becoming lazy and would rather watch then read, so videos on your website can be a massive success if executed well and in line with your brand objectives.
I always remember someone saying to me if you want something to be a success then you need to make time for it. Easier said than done, I know, but I do try and adopt this mindset in everything I do. I hope you have found my tips helpful and if there is anything you would like me to cover in another post, then please do get in touch with your requests, or sign up to my newsletter to see my updates.
