With the consistent rise in online media usage, a company’s digital presence has become just as important as traditional brand perception. Potential clients are not only using word-of-mouth references, but also conducting extensive online research to determine a company’s competence and authenticity.

To ensure your company remains competitive in the digital age, it is imperative to craft marketing directives that specifically address your organization’s online audience. Digital marketing tactics are an essential component in building brand awareness on a global platform and driving returns on your marketing investments.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, commonly known as SEO, is one of the primary steps to ensure your company is visible to online audiences. With 93% of online experiences beginning with search engine research, proper SEO set-up and utilization is an essential component of any digital marketing repertoire.

The first step in achieving good SEO is augmentation of your company’s website to be mobile-friendly. Professionals and clients alike are increasingly using mobile devices to get work done beyond the confines of their desk. It is imperative to test your website’s responsiveness, look and feel on tablets, phones, and other hand-held devices. Considering over 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day, you do not want to lose a lead to a slow-loading landing page.  

After optimizing your website for mobile, establish Google Analytics set-up including verifying your website with Google Search Console. Google’s analytics tools have not only proven to be the most common platform for SEO set-up and reporting, but Google.com continues to be the most used search engine across the globe.

 

Source: airsassociation.org

According to the most recent study from Association of Internet Research Specialists, Google still reigns supreme as the most used search engine when compared to Yahoo!, Bing, AOL, and others. This provides the most viable opportunity to use their analytics services when initializing SEO strategies for prospects to conduct market research and determine the most viable service that meets their need.  

2. Social Media Engagement

With more than 3 billion people around the world now using social media on a monthly basis, it has the potential to take traditional firm advertising/networking to unforeseen levels. We previously discussed the importance of implementing both a Facebook and Twitter account for your company’s online engagement strategy and the benefits of each, but remaining active and relevant on these platforms can oftentimes be a challenge for smaller firms.

To alleviate the strain of creating weekly, daily, even hourly social media posts, curate content that is appealing to your target audience and automate the publishing to keep social accounts fresh. There are many tools that can be used to schedule social media posts such as Hootsuite, HubSpot, and Sprout Social. Every marketing automation tool has its own benefits and nuances so take the time to investigate and demo each when deciding the best fit for your firm.

3. Leverage Thought Leadership Opportunities

Producing white paper content and scheduling media interviews with executives of your company are the most tried and true opportunities to have your brand voice be heard. Aside from traditional methods, consider implementing a company blog that allows in-depth analysis and perspective on topics where you can be considered an expert.

Thought leadership material can also be established through partnering with larger, well-known brands to produce an event, webinar, or podcast where both audiences can benefit from the information. Seek out your current vendors and industry allies to leverage a captive audience and form connections that can lead to prospective clients seeking to know more about your firm.

4. Utilize Video Where Applicable

Current data suggests videos will make up more than 80% of all online traffic by 2020. Instead of waiting for the wave to hit, be proactive in creating video content that can be used year after year in gaining returns. 

To get started, first decide whether the goal of your video is to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive conversions. This is an important step in planning material that will actualize in conversions.

Once a goal is established, you can then accurately determine the type of video you want to build and the appropriate platform that fits both the initiative and the goal. There are many types of video content that can be created in-house or with a contracted team of video production specialists:

• Recorded Webinars
• Executive Interviews
• Company Overviews
• Client Testimonials
• Software Tutorials

Do not be intimidated by retail giants who have the means of producing the latest and greatest in viral video content. Companies using video enjoy 41% more organic traffic than those that don’t, so take the leap and publish informative material that brings an added benefit to your prospective viewers.

5. Prioritize Content Marketing

Effective content marketing goes beyond the static blog post, social media share, or e-newsletter. This should be a long-term strategy for your firm focused on building a relationship with your current and prospective clientele by providing high-quality, informative, and engaging content that is actually relevant to their needs.

There are many content marketing strategies that exist, but one that has proven most effective for increasing ROI is outlining your client’s most prominent challenges and directly addressing them in a variety of formats.

 

 

Source: neilpatel.com

Simply dishing out commodified sales pitches via e-blast doesn’t fit the bill. Creating evergreen content that retains value to your reader is the most beneficial use of your marketing efforts. Evergreen content is crafted to remain a relevant source of information that grows in popularity and clicks over time. It may seem as though your content topic has been covered a thousand times, but rest assured your company has an angle still to be explored.    

Keep the Momentum

Implementation of all five tactics will take ample time and resources to fulfill a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Taking one step at a time will make the process manageable for your firm and prove invaluable to your firm’s key decision makers. Budgeting for these tasks will enhance your proposal and allow for accurate measurement when the returns on your investment are actualized.