Customers can now readily access your website any time of day through smart phones, tablets and with new technological devices such as Google Glass on the horizon, this is only going to increase.
As a result, more and more companies are now putting digital marketing at the heart of their business growth plans.
According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spend in the UK is expected to reach almost £1bn this year, a huge increase from last year and the total digital advertising spend is expected to reach £6.1bn, highlighting the increased significance and importance of online marketing.
So if you want to improve your company’s digital marketing there are six key factors to consider:
Your company website is an essential platform to increase your sales and impress your prospects with your products, services, testimonials and news announcements – all of which help to increase your brand awareness. Here are three tips for your website:
Your website is a powerful element of your marketing strategy and should form the backbone of all your online and offline marketing and advertising plans - including brochures, events, online advertising, magazine advertising and promotional items.
Learn more about how to get more enquiries from your website here, or download our free website conversion checklist
Your logo design, colour scheme and straplines must engage and interest your customers to encourage them to choose your brand over your competitors. If your brand does not create the right impression, you can update your company logo through rebranding or by presenting your brand in a new way through an advertising campaign.
A recent example is Coca-Cola who have recently personalised their bottles with people’s names to make their drinks more personalised. The campaign also really engages with customers’ musical interests through their mobile app for this campaign.
Another interesting rebranding strategy is O2 – their new ‘Be More Dog’ advertising campaign encourages customers to be more optimistic and show that O2 is a brand always looking into the future. See the video below to view the exciting video of O2’s new branding strategy;
Branding is something which is often overlooked in small businesses – but when you are clear about what your business stands for and how you want to be perceived, your consumers will get the message. If it is unclear, then they will be unclear why they should work with you.
YouTube’s blog recently stated that they now have 1 billion unique customers every month and that 6 billion hours of videos are watched every month - which was 50% more in March 2013 than it was in May 2012.
Video marketing is also an essential part of your website and in the days of smart phones, digital cameras and free video editing software it has never been easier. Videos can be embedded on your website and can also be uploaded to, and shared in YouTube. Videos have the ability to show clearly which products and services your company can offer – most people will prefer to watch a 1 minute video than read a page full of text.
For some ideas, you can see some of 2012’s most successful viral videos here.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a key way to maximise your website exposure on search engines like Google. When your website has great SEO, you will appear high up in the ‘organic’ search results in Google. At a basic level, SEO is about ensuring you have a content-rich website with well optimised pages, and lots of inbound links and social shares. The internet is a competitive place, and without great SEO it is very difficult to get enough traffic to achieve high levels of enquiries and/or sales.
Google’s Pay-Per-Click advertising known as Google Adwords will give an almost instant increase in your website traffic. As a method of advertising, it is fast, flexible and highly measurable.
Your ads will either appear as one of the 3 links in the shaded box at the top of the page, or in the links on the right hand side of the search result. You choose the keywords and phrases that you want your website to appear for, and then you ‘bid’ for these words. Broadly speaking, the people bidding the most per click will have their website shown highest and most often, and you only pay once anyone has clicked onto your website.
To find out more about SEO, Google Adwords and generally how to get to page one of Google, click here.
The impact of social media is becoming even more prominent and powerful every single day:
As I write, Chris Froome’s fantastic British Victory in the Tour de France on 21st July has been spreading quickly and diversely across the world via social media channels.
The arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s new Royal baby boy on 22nd July has also has a dramatic impact on social media, with many royal fans congratulating the Royal Family on the new baby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalBabyKateandWilliam
We have a range of articles about social media designed to help you get more from these important marketing channels.
There is a lot to take in, and many business owners can feel overwhelmed – which is why we offer a free digital marketing audit. We’ll review each of these channels for you, and then talk you through what you are doing well… and not so well. We’ll then be able to give you some strategies you can use to get better results – after all, your digital marketing should be at the heart of how you grow your business.