Digital marketing isn’t going anywhere. Our digital marketing-focused guide has tips, tricks, and more. Read excerpt chapters in our latest Trends blog!
Digital marketing isn’t going anywhere. We’re almost at the end of October and you’ve likely already begun to put time into your marketing strategy for next year. Our digital marketing-focused guide has tips, tricks, and more. Read excerpt chapters below!
What other marketing insights do we have? Get our perspective here!
Marketing Automation
With dedicated software, you can now automate basic marketing operations. Some of the most commonly automated functions include social media post scheduling, campaign tracking and reporting, and email newsletters.
Audience Management
When creating cross-channel campaigns, “Audience Management” is the process of sourcing, managing, analyzing, defining, and activating customer data. The outcome is that the right message reaches the right audience at the right moment on the right channel, thus optimizing both–operational efficiencies and campaign outcomes. There are five reasons to put an audience marketing strategy into place:
1. Seamless CX
2. Better marketing and campaign ROI
3. Blending marketing technology and ad technology leads to more customer-centric audience management
4. Moving from channel-centric to customer-centric marketing can more readily lead to desired marketing outcomes
5. It makes optimal use of marketing technology investments
Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of social media networks to manage and grow an organization’s message and online presence. As a digital marketing strategy, social media optimization can be used to increase awareness of new products and services, connect with customers, and ameliorate potential damaging news. Various social media platforms can be used for digital marketing, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Types of Digital Content
When looking to create content that will attract your audience, consider their needs at different stages of the buyer’s journey. After you’ve created buyer personas to pinpoint what your audience’s goals and challenges are in relation to your business, you’ll then create content that helps them meet these goals and overcome their challenges.
Then, with content mapping, you’ll need to think about when your audience members are most likely to be ready to consume this content in relation to what stage they’re at in their buyer’s journey.
Content mapping allows you to deduce:
- The characteristics of the person who will be consuming your content (built into the buyer persona)
- How close that person is to making a purchase (i.e., their lifecycle stage).
There are a lot of different forms of content to try. Here are some options for each stage of the buyer’s journey:
Awareness Stage
- Blog posts. When paired with a strong SEO and keyword strategy, blogs are great for increasing your organic traffic.
- Infographics. Thanks to their visual appeal, infographics increase your chances of being found via social media when others share your content.
- Short videos. These are also very shareable and can help your brand get found by new audiences by hosting them on platforms like YouTube.
Consideration Stage
- Ebooks. Since someone is more likely to exchange their contact information to receive an eBook, these content types are great for lead generation as they’re generally more comprehensive than a blog post or infographic.
- Research reports. This is also a high value content piece that can be used for lead generation.
- Webinars. As these offer more comprehensive content than a blog post or short video, webinars are an effective consideration stage content format.
Decision Stage
- Case studies. For those who are ready to make a purchasing decision, having detailed case studies on your website can be an effective form of content, as it helps you positively influence their decision.
- Testimonials. If case studies aren’t a good fit for your business, having short testimonials around your website provides a good alternative.
What trends will be king in 2021? Get our insights here!
Why User Experience is Key
The ideal online customer journey is a user-friendly website that combines seamless navigation; a straightforward purchasing journey; dynamic and easy-to-read content; excellent customer support, and mobile device compatibility. Essentially, there are five levels to a successful content marketing model. They are as follows:
1. SEO: If your site isn’t optimized for search engines, your target customers will never find you in to begin with.
2. User experience: According to a recent study by Adobe, given 15 minutes to consume content, two-thirds of people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain.
3. Content strategy: Once your site is SEO-optimized and your UX is well-planned, you can use metrics such as visitor numbers and bounce rate to craft your content to meet the needs of your target audience, and start achieving the results you desire.
4. Content creation: With a strategy in place, it’s time to create content that answers that plan. Refresh existing content, create new blog articles, and make sure each piece is formatted for digital consumption.
5. Content distribution: Share your content with the right people by using your various social channels and any other connections you may have.
REMEMBER: content is king, but it’s not all about content. User-friendly websites, portals, and apps are just as important for building customer relationship and retaining loyalty.
Download “Navigate Digital Marketing in the New Decade”
There you have it! Want more insights like the ones found in this blog post? Check out our guide, “Navigate Digital Marketing in the New Decade.” Click the link and download!
