Today’s digital marketing requires a full understanding of the industry. New techniques and strategies form an important part of making your company stand out online. When companies pay attention to the basics of digital marketing, they will be able to create pathways to greater success.
Dwayne Harmon, an experienced digital marketer and Founder of Metanoia Consulting based in Florida, shares the top 7 ways that companies can bring their digital marketing up-to-date and offers strategies to help companies cope in this changing environment.
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is both an art and a science. It has come a long way since the early 2000s when all that companies needed were lists of keywords to present themselves in their best light online. SEO is a constantly changing field, and it is wise to engage an expert company or consultant to make sure you are not falling into the gap.
One of the most important changes that companies need to make to their website in order to preserve their online reputation is to move from an HTTP protocol to HTTPS. Without HTTPS, Google will mark your site as insecure, causing customers to click away and find a better company to do business with. A good web hosting company can easily change your website from HTTP to HTTPS in order to preserve your search results.
2. Marketing with Search Engines
Another aspect of managing what search engines can do for your business is search engine marketing, also known as SEM. This method involves purchasing ads and prioritizing your search results when customers look for your company online.
Google Ads and search/display ads are vital parts of this service. Facebook Ads are another great way to increase your company’s visibility, whether you are a small local business like a retail store or a restaurant or a large business providing services to others.
3. Local Searches
While online marketing has enabled global companies to reach the everyday consumer, most marketing is done at the local level, according to Dwayne Harmon. Digital marketers need to make sure that their services are being promoted locally. Preferred placement on Google and other search engines is a must. It is also important to be featured on local maps of the area, including Apple Maps and Google Maps. Many customers will search with such queries as “restaurants near me” in order to find a business.
Local advertising may also include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It also pays to keep one foot in the non-digital arenas of newspaper advertisements and direct mail if these are appropriate for your business. Many customers still appreciate receiving paper coupons and menus in the mail.
4. Leverage Online Reviews
One aspect of today’s digital marketing strategy is keeping a close eye on all online reviews related to your business. Google Reviews, Facebook reviews, and Yelp are all vital parts of this strategy. Making sure that all of the reviews given to your business are fair and unbiased is a huge part of digital marketing success. If your customers have legitimate problems with your company, work with them to solve these problems. Being responsive to online reviews means that your company’s reputation will grow.
Another part of smart digital marketing is knowing how to weed out negative and unfair reviews. Many companies like TripAdvisor and Yelp have avenues for businesses to remove bad reviews that are not based on reality.
5. Content Marketing
In order to present your company in its best light, your website and social media presences need to contain original, quality content. Customers are savvy and can spot fake content. They can also tell when this content has been uploaded without any concern for truth.
It is smart to have a dedicated content marketing staff. If you can’t manage this within your own company, you may want to hire a digital marketing agency to do it for you. The best search engine results in the world won’t help you if there is no quality content for your visitors to use.
6. Mobile Compatibility
It is crucial that all websites have complete mobile compatibility. A growing portion of customers do most if not all of their online business on a smartphone or tablet. If a website does not have good mobile results, many customers will dismiss the business entirely and move on to another company with a good mobile website. This can present a huge problem, especially for older, more traditional companies that are just getting started with their web presence.
Make sure that your website design staff creates a robust mobile experience for your customers. Loading times are also extremely important. Most customers will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load on a mobile platform. In a telling statistic, 57 percent of all online consumers will decline to recommend a particular website if its mobile presence is not well looked-after.
7. Remarketing
Remarketing is a simple concept. It involves catching your recent website visitors and presenting ads for your site when they visit other pages. This is done through the use of cookies. This can help you get around the problem of not being noticed by a customer. It also helps you remind customers of why they visited your website in the first place.
Creating new ads means that you can target customers according to their pain points. Remarketing is also crucial in building your brand’s reputation, so be sure you do it correctly. A subtle approach is often better than saturating your repeat customers with ads.
Digital Marketing Tools
When you use these 7 tips from Dwayne Harmon, you will be able to create a robust digital marketing presence. It is important to keep your company’s public reputation in mind at all times when creating a digital marketing strategy. SEO, search engine marketing, local searches, online reviews, mobile compatibility, and remarketing are all excellent ways to make sure that your company stands out among its competitors.