Digital marketing is essential for businesses today to reach customers online and grow. After two decades in this industry, I’ve learned a few key tips that I want to share to help your business’s online presence. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing digital marketing efforts, these 10 tips can set you on the right path to digital marketing success.
1. Focus on Your Website User Experience
Your website is often the first touchpoint between your business and potential new customers. That’s why having a user-friendly, mobile-responsive website is crucial. From easy navigation menus to well-organized content and clear calls-to-action, every aspect of your website should put the visitor first. Things like page load speeds and having an SSL certificate installed matter too. Optimizing the user experience leads to lower bounce rates and more conversions over the long term.
2. Create Valuable Content Your Audience Needs
Quality content that solves your audience’s problems or answers their questions is powerful for driving organic traffic from search engines. Do keyword research to determine topics to cover, then create blog posts, visual content like infographics, and videos that provide real value. Publishing new content regularly shows search engines like Google that your site stays current and reliable for your focus keywords. This can improve your search rankings and authority in your niche.
3. Use SEO Best Practices
You can get more value from your content with SEO best practices. This includes doing keyword research to know what topics and terms to focus on first. Be sure to include those targeted keywords naturally throughout each piece of content. Have clear, descriptive page titles and section headings. Format your content well with easy-to-scan headers, images, lists, and bullet points. Embed keywords in image file names, alt text, metadata, and URL slugs. These steps all help search engines understand your content and audience better.
4. Run Paid Ads
While organic content marketing and SEO take time to drive results, paid advertising lets you get your messages in front of more people right away to generate leads and sales sooner. Dedicate a portion of your digital marketing budget to run Google Ads and social ads, especially when launching a new product or service. Target your ads to reach your most likely potential customers based on their interests and search behavior. Test different ad images, headlines and text too. Paid ads complement your organic efforts nicely.
5. Get Your Google My Business Listing Strong
Your Google My Business listing has a prominent place in local search rankings in Google’s map pack. This makes it vital for businesses with a physical location that customers can visit. A complete Google My Business profile signals relevant information about your business to Google. Verify your business address and fill in all possible details, like photos and description. Customers use this info when searching locally on phones too. Improving your Google My Business presence can result in a higher local pack ranking so more nearby customers find and contact you.
6. Build Your Email List
Email marketing enjoys high conversion rates compared to other digital marketing channels. But you can only use email effectively if you grow your email subscriber list first. Offer an incentive like a coupon or exclusive content for visitors to join your list. Have clear callouts to subscribe on your website and in your ads. You can also remarket to visitors in ads across websites to remind them to join your email community later. Then send great content to subscribers while including prominent links to products they’ll appreciate.
7. Engage on Social Media
Being active and consistent on relevant social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter establishes important connections with current and prospective customers. Share your latest content, videos, company news updates, special offers, industry expertise and more. Respond to comments and messages. Engage with followers by liking and commenting on their posts too. Plus put some budget toward social media advertising to reach more of your target audience. A thoughtful social media presence supports multiple digital marketing goals.
8. Analyze Key Metrics
It’s essential to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine which of your digital activities is working and what needs adjustment. Google Analytics is free and provides so much website visitor data from basic traffic volume and engagement metrics to custom reports and attribution modeling. Most advertising platforms have robust reporting too. Evaluating important metrics lets you double down on top performing content and campaigns while cutting those missing the mark to optimize your online marketing return on investment.
9. Improve Conversions
Higher conversions online mean more leads generated or more sales completed from your digital presence. That directly impacts revenue growth and ROI. To lift conversions, continually refine your website and funnel user experience. Review your product or service pricing and feature options. Test calls-to-action, offers and promotions through different channels from email to social media to paid ads. Make data-driven decisions based on response across diverse customer segments. Every percentage gain in conversions contributes dramatically to reaching your ecommerce or lead generation goals.
10. Stay Up on Digital Marketing Trends
Finally, commit to continual learning so you can adapt your online marketing plans as digital technology and consumer behavior evolve. Sign up for a few industry newsletters. Listen to marketing podcasts while commuting. Check influential blogs from digital thought leaders occasionally. Follow updates from the major online platforms like Facebook’s or Google’s advertising teams. Then try measured tests of techniques that seem a fit. There’s always room for incremental optimization and innovation in your digital marketing programs.
In Conclusion
I hope these 10 essential tips give you specific digital marketing areas to focus your energy and investment to grow your business online. The strategies shared above represent proven best practices that still offer plenty of untapped potential.
Feel free to reach out if you have any other digital marketing questions! I enjoy helping businesses succeed with their website, content, SEO, advertising, analytics or conversion efforts through personalized guidance. Now is the time to level up your digital marketing skills so more of your ideal customers find and buy from your company, both today and into the future.
