We have a lot of clients getting in touch with us asking for help with promoting a product or service via social media. Quite often this is asked without any knowledge of any other marketing options that may be more relevant.
It’s no wonder that clients and prospects contact us asking about doing something on social media when this is what they see every day. You’re emailed by Facebook to let you know of one of you ‘Friends’ birthdays? You read news websites with articles using social media channels as their source. And, it’s been drilled into us that the life of a social media influencer is something to aspire to.
Of course, social media absolutely has it’s place within a marketing strategy. It allows you to engage with people and businesses. It helps build trust in your brand. It also provides all important quality links back to your website.
But, we wanted to help set the record straight about some of the top digital marketing options available to you which you can benefit from in conjunction with social media or standalone.
Lead generation
Ultimately, marketing is about getting quality clients from qualified leads. With 3.5 billion Google searches made each day (Live Stats), there’s no doubt that having an online presence is vital for a business. But where do you start?
Inbound marketing strategy
Your marketing strategy needs to support your business in being a magnet to good qualified leads. So, before jumping into any social media campaign we would recommend reviewing your current inbound marketing strategy as well as the activity that you are already doing such as email distribution to your database or attending events and networking. Then you can develop a strategy that will truly nurture leads.
To really help hone your campaign so it is targeted we recommend creating ‘personas’ specific to your target audience.
Think about how you want your content to sound and create a tone of voice document so that all staff and any digital marketing agency can be aligned with messaging.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system may also be an option for consideration for ensuring ongoing, timely engagement with leads and clients.
Optimised website
Before thinking of all the other digital marketing tactics, you need to think of the hub for all your digital marketing activity – your website! It should be the centre of your online world.
Think of it like a shop. You have everything in it. It’s signposted, has sales offers in the window. Has walkways that guide you through the store with a strategic wayfinding path. But you need people to find you first!
That’s where you need to make sure your website is optimised. Often referred to as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), there are a few quick wins you can implement like making sure the meta descriptions and alt tags are completed. But the most important thing is about fresh and informative content relevant to your audience. This is why people have a blog or news page. A weekly blog including relevant keywords that you wish to be found for will help you in the organic search rankings.
Read our blog: 9 tips for optimising your website – for more SEO options.
Pay per click
If you came to us wanting to promote your latest product or services to encourage sales, social media alone will not get results.
To help your website be found and therefore your products and services, you can create well targeted campaigns with a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign to give you a boost in search. The most popular is through Google AdWords. Although you can also conduct ads through social media such as Facebook. You can target specific geographical areas and demographics that fit your target audience.
Learn more with our 8 tips for PPC campaigns.
Remarketing
Remarketing is another way of getting you found online. Ads can show when clients are searching for your business on Google which really reinforces your brand message.
The more users see an ad, the more trust is built overtime through brand awareness. While the CTR (click through rate) generally declines over time, the people who do click are more likely to convert.
Read our blog: Understanding how remarketing can grow your business.
Email marketing
With 73 percent of millennials preferring communications from businesses to come via email (HubSpot), it makes sense to consider this as a potential marketing option alongside other digital tactics.
Once your template is set up, it’s easy to add content by repurposing what you’ve already created for your blog. It helps to reinforce your messaging, get the news out there and guides people to your website.
More insight with 11 tips on setting up and running email campaigns.
Become a lead magnet
So, as you can see it’s not all about social media marketing. This is just a little taster of some of the other digital marketing tactics out there all designed to help you generate quality leads for your business.
Get in touch with us to discuss what the best digital marketing options are for your business and we can tailor an inbound marketing campaign for you.
When you embark on creating your website it’s a great time to review your current collateral and what should be on the website and what shouldn’t. It can also highlight gaps that you need to fill. If you look at your competitors – how are they talking about their services? What’s missing from your website?
