Thanks to the popularity of the Internet and mobile devices, in particular, it could be argued that digital marketing is an essential form of marketing these days. The upside to this is the fact that it gives small businesses a way to compete with their larger counterparts when it comes to reaching out to their demographic.

The downside is the fact that digital marketing isn’t something that you can whip up overnight. However, by understanding what digital marketing is and how to use it correctly, a small business can put together a campaign that gets results and helps them to grow their business.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing can take many different forms, including SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), content marketing, social media marketing, and much more. However, the goal is pretty much always the same: draw people into your sales funnel, provide value, and generate revenue.

Several key aspects are practically universal to any digital marketing campaign. To understand digital marketing, it will help to first understand these concepts and how they work together.

Demographics

To run a successful digital marketing campaign, you must target the right demographic. Start by first doing some market research to find out all you can about your “avatar,” which is your ideal customer. Factors such as age, household income, education level, and gender are all important as well as the kind of products they like to consume and the kind of things they want to do. Try to avoid making assumptions when it comes to demographics. Incorrect assumptions can lead to a lot of wasted money on ineffective marketing.

Features Vs. Benefits

Understanding the benefits of the product or service you offer is essential. While this may sound like a no-brainer, businesses often get caught up promoting product features and fail to communicate to their demographic the actual benefits of those features. Benefits give customers a reason to buy.  Benefits explain how your product or service will improve your customers’ lives! Adopting this mindset will help you understand why customers are buying what you’re selling.

Call To Action

Running the best marketing campaign in history would be useless if your leads don’t know what to do after your pitch. Every pitch should end with a strong call to action that tells the people you’ve engaged with, what they need to do next to buy your product, or hire you for your services. A call to action may be to pick up the phone and give you a call, click a buy button, or complete a contact form. Whatever it is, tell your audience to do it using straightforward and easy to understand instructions.

Analytics

Running a digital marketing campaign is like most things in life: success rarely happens on your first try. Marketing is a process of gradual improvements, but to make those improvements, you need to be measuring your results. Analytics will help you do this. By measuring things like click rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, and more, you can get a clear picture of where your sales funnel is failing and how to fix it. As your sales funnel improves, so will your revenue flow.

Types Of Digital Marketing

There are many different forms of digital marketing, and there is no one size fits all solution. Knowing what type of digital marketing to use largely depends on your demographic and how you want to reach them.

Let’s go over some of the most effective forms of digital marketing …

SEO

Search engine optimization is a process in which you try and get your website, and its pages ranked high in search engine results like Google. There are many factors to consider, such as the keywords on your website, making sure your site is mobile-friendly, and having a clean navigation structure. The reason SEO is so powerful is that it will connect you with people who are in a buyer’s mindset and actively searching for what your business has to offer.

Ad Networks

Ads are arguably the most potent form of digital marketing; however, it can also be the riskiest. Running an ad campaign on Facebook, Google, or another PPC (pay per click) network will require a large enough budget to make it through the testing phase until you find an ad that converts and makes a profit. Expect to lose money upfront, but once you find a few winning ads, you will essentially be making money on autopilot.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a method of marketing in which you draw people in using genuinely helpful content, then lead them further down your sales funnel from there. An example would be running a blog in which you review dog care products then trying to sell readers the product you just reviewed at the end of the post. Small businesses can take advantage of content marketing as well by posting useful information related to their business and offerings, then prompting the reader to give them a call or purchase one of their products.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is all about branding, not selling. Small businesses typically use social media to bring large numbers of people into their sphere of influence and present themselves as an authority in their niche. Sales often follow in the long run as people develop a sense of loyalty to your brand and spread the word to their friends and family.

How To Get Started With Digital Marketing

If you know your way around the Internet, there are plenty of FREE online tutorials when it comes to setting up digital marketing campaigns. Youtube would be a great place to start.

If you’re looking for an easy to use digital marketing workshop series that comes with mentors and an extensive hub of resources, then check out Flourish Online Marketing.

On the other hand, if you’ve got enough on your plate as a business owner and just want it done, then Bees Knees Digital Marketing and Design can help.  We focus on connecting your business with your customers to generate leads and grow your business.

To chat through how we can help you create an effective digital marketing campaign that will help take your business to the next level, call us today on +61 3 9432 6732 or email us at thebuzz@www.beeskneesmarketing.com.au