The basics of digital marketing for your business

With the rapid evolution of modern technologies, small, medium and large businesses are doing everything they can to keep up. We all need to be alert and prepared to adapt for the present and future. Business’ models are becoming more and more online, integrating with social media, search engines and much more. But to be really effective, your company must have digital marketing strategies to apply and increase the lucrative potential of the online sea. And the best of it all: digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing, with better result tracking (and real time results a lot of times), the possibility to go viral and better ROI (Return Over Investment).

The online space is an ever-changing ecosystem. This is why companies should have a strategy to gain and retain more traffic, but also convert it to leads or sales. Digital marketing has the tools and techniques that provide more competitiveness and the opportunity to grow. But how and where to start?

1 - Know your goals.

Elaborate the order of needs your company must reach first. Do you need to gain more traffic? Push more sales? Increase brand awareness? Engage more with the audience? Is your audience really who you think they are? There are a lot of ways your business can improve, but depending on the situation, some items have priorities over the others. Establish a main objective, know the weaknesses and strengths of your company and be ready to commit to some changes.

2 - Digital marketing in practice.

Now that you’ve established your priorities, it is time to get to them. However, it takes time to make changes and see the differences. As an example, you could want more leads, and how exactly would you gain these? It depends. Maybe your website isn’t best suited for the user - it isn’t responsive or mobile first. Maybe it has a cumbersome registration process, being unclear what to do. Perhaps there’s a need for a email marketing strategy. Does your business need more paid media? There are a lot of possibilities to resolve these problems. This is why you need a digital agency that can evaluate and provide effective solutions.

But there are some basics you can follow:

• Be responsive, even if you have to overhaul the entire website. Mobile browsing is a ever growing trend and all the search engines and social media sites always put mobile ahead of everything else.
• Clear and to the point content. The user has to browse fluidly with no confusion. In addition to this, a great web design/UX will also be vital.
• Have a CMS - Content Management System. There many advantages for using a CMS. With a CMS, you can make better SEO URLs, customize site management, easily modify content, streamline workflow, optimize pages for search results and more. WordPress and Drupal are examples of CMS.
• Be always ready to make adjustments on the site. Have a support team that is available.

3 - Measure digital marketing results.

Now that you’ve committed to some priorities and executed the plans, it is time to start measuring results. Set your KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) to a realistic figure and start analysing. There are different tools and methods your company can do this, for example, Google Analytics could be used to compare conversions, lead tracking, etc. If you invested in Adwords, you must check which campaign performed better. If you have focused on SEO, you must get a tool that tracks SEO performance, and so on.

4 - Analyse and adapt.

Even with all the changes made from your company’s digital marketing strategy, the results will not be immediate. The search engines take time to process the improvements made. The user base will take some time to grow and start making the difference your company wants. However, in the meantime, the analysis must go on. Compare your past results with the present ones, try to identify your competitors’ strategy and be ready to adapt. Always ask yourself: “Is there anything else my company needs to analyse that we didn’t try before?”

Speaking of trying: why not start your digital marketing strategy today? We at TinyBoat offer a 30-day trial to be the development support and consulting your company needs. Our mission is to bring the best of your company into this digital world, with the best tools on the market. Be ahead of the competition. Contact us and start your free trial now!