The word ‘digital’ has been a buzzword for the last decade or two, and whilst it is generally agreed that businesses need to embrace digital technology in some form, whether that’s using e-commerce and digital marketing, or utilizing new technology for product development or manufacturing. However, many businesses don’t know how to go about this, which is where developing a digital strategy becomes important.
With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society. Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.
For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successful thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales. In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, Digital Marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.
With internet entering our lives like never before, if a business wants to reach its target audience, they cannot deny the power of digital marketing. Various social media platforms are being used to reach out to customers to convey messages. With mobile phones becoming an integral part of our lives, mobile marketing has also become a major segment of digital marketing.
A digital strategy is a high-level plan for how digital technology can be used to achieve the goals of an organization or business, and the role of it is to establish which digital technologies or platforms can do this and how. There are compelling statistics as to why you should have one.
Research has shown that SMEs that use digital technology as a part of their business processes have a 22% higher revenue than those with little to no use of the internet and SMEs embracing digital technology will likely experience an estimated 10% increase in productivity. Additionally, 38% of SMEs see a rise in sales after becoming connected to the internet. Despite this, one in three businesses still don’t have a website and 11% of SMEs said they did not use the internet or have access to it at all.*
The way your potential customers are interacting online is changing; it’s been a progressive change over recent years, but Google is now catching up. You’ll hear people use the terms ‘social signals’, ‘Influence’ and ‘klout’ – these are buzzwords that agencies love to use – partly to confuse. These words can be summed up by a great term ‘conversation’. And it’s a conversation that will increase your sales.
To prosper online, a conversation should be at the heart of your digital marketing strategy. A good conversation is one that interests and therefore engages people. When people are interested and engaged online, they often share and start new conversations, using social media and blogs. This means you’ll be gaining links to your web properties through an organic, natural and enduring method. If you read industry papers, you’ll have read a lot about Google’s new measures to curb spam SEO tactics such as link buying, which I believe is great progress as those businesses that have genuine respect and engagement with their potential customers will benefit.
How do you start the conversation? You need to get your message out; by adhering to the process: Strategy – Define who you want to talk to and what you want to talk about. Take lifestyle triggers and seasonality into account. Blogger relations – You now know your audience; to reach them find existing blogs that match your target audience. Contact the blog authors and discuss the options for content submissions and spotlights or offer one of your company representatives for expert opinion. Content distribution – Where better to start than your own website; make sure you have a blog or news area that is user-friendly. Liaise with online journals that cover your industry, along with the blog authors to make sure they know when you publish content relevant to their audiences Social media management – A great way to keep in touch with your users, online journals and blog authors is to start direct conversations on social media sites, like Twitter. If you’re not starting, or engaging in, conversations yourself, do you really expect others to do so about you? Once you’re having conversations keep the momentum going otherwise your message, and therefore search results will go stale. In the world where everything is going from being analog to digital, digital marketing has gained fast momentum. Digital media makes the communication faster and more effective by reaching out to customers in the fastest way possible. Hence, it is imperative for the companies to bring digital to their business by carrying out digital audits, implementing new technologies and leveraging the target markets using various social media channels.
Improve your Business With Clearly Defined Digital Marketing Strategy.
How do you start the conversation? You need to get your message out; by adhering to the process:
Strategy –
Define who you want to talk to and what you want to talk about. Take lifestyle triggers and seasonality into account.
Blogger relations –
You now know your audience; to reach them find existing blogs that match your target audience. Contact the blog authors and discuss the options for content submissions and spotlights or offer one of your company representatives for expert opinion.
Content distribution –
Where better to start than your own website; make sure you have a blog or news area that is user-friendly. Liaise with online journals that cover your industry, along with the blog authors to make sure they know when you publish content relevant to their audiences
Social media management-
A great way to keep in touch with your users, online journals and blog authors is to start direct conversations on social media sites, like Twitter. If you’re not starting, or engaging in, conversations yourself, do you really expect others to do so about you? Once you’re having conversations keep the momentum going otherwise your message, and therefore search results will go stale.
In the world where everything is going from being analog to digital, digital marketing has gained fast momentum. Digital media makes the communication faster and more effective by reaching out to customers in the fastest way possible. Hence, it is imperative for the companies to bring digital to their business by carrying out digital audits, implementing new technologies and leveraging the target markets using various social media channels.
