Why Focus on Digital Marketing?

If you're wondering why digital marketing is on the rise, it's because digital tools have been so successful in engaging people online and making them want to learn more about certain products or services.

People spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020, up 44% year over year, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates. That's the highest growth of e-commerce in America in at least 20 years.

The percentage of internet users, worldwide continues to grow every year. With growth comes new innovations and tools that help businesses connect with one another and individuals.

The Elements of a Digital Presence

With digital marketing you don't have to be a large corporation to gain peoples attention. Anyone can start a digital presence with digital marketing. All it takes is the commitment to social media and digital branding along with a website and off you go, good luck!

The digital elements people focus on are websites, social media, content, search and paid advertising.

Website

The first step of any digital marketing strategy is to have a strong company website geared at improving the visibility and public perception of your brand. Consequently, every page needs to be optimized and refined so that visitors will stay on the site. Basic things like a good design, easy to read information, and a good customer experience are important. With branding qualities like these, you can shape your brand’s image to be seen as authentic and trustworthy.

Social media

A social media presence is essential to any digital marketing strategy. Social channels help business humanize their brand and connect with more individuals. It is important to have content that stays relevant and appropriate for each social channel you use.

Your digital marketing strategy should include a way for people to easily share your brand with their friends. This can be accomplished by providing share links throughout the digital presence on the website, blog or other assets that are useful for the digital experience. Almost every Tweet and Facebook post you send will give your followers a sense of your brand.

Social media provides an excellent platform for delivering personalized customer service and enhancing brand recall.

Search and paid advertising

When potential customers visit your website, they often will have searched for you or made a query related to your company's products and services. How well you rank on search engine result pages (SERPs) can impact your company’s popularity. The people who have the best results for general or local searches get the most clicks. This means they get the most business and trust. To rank well in search engines, you need website optimization. To increase your chances of being seen by a target audience on the internet, it helps to pay for advertisements. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads, display ads and social media campaigns can all boost your brand awareness and any digital presence you have.

Content

These days, content marketing is a powerful tool for many business. Blog posts, eBooks, white papers, case studies, sales one-pagers and product spec sheets are all key content marketing assets that can be used to help build an online presence. Often these high-quality items will help increase your chances of ranking well for certain keywords and engagement.

3 Keys of an Effective Digital Presence

A digital presence requires constant refinement. If customers form their perception of your business based on interactions with the above elements, they need to have a positive experience. Here are 3 key components to a good digital presence:

1. Consistency: A consistent and unified presence is key to brand awareness and recall. Your website, social media profile, blogs, and other pieces of content need to have the same color scheme, taglines, imagery style, etc.
2. The Real Still Matters: In order to have a solid digital presence, it's important to interact with customers physically. There are a number of digital marketing avenues that utilize some sort of physical presence to work in tandem with your online creations. One such avenue is interactive retail, which affords you the opportunity to provide shoppers with compelling, localized content and info about their products before they enter your store. Social media and other customer interaction also feeds into people's user-generated reviews which can either support or undermine your web presence. To build a resilient brand, be aware of the impact that new trends in digital marketing is having on your product and prepare for future developments.
3. Mobile Responsiveness: Digital marketing has made it easier for people to easily discover brands, products and services. Website pages that are not optimized for smartphones or tablets can frustrate customers. Mobile presents both challenges and opportunities for potential business owners. Apps offer a variety of benefits from helping with local searches to interacting socially with clients on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

How to Develop a Successful Digital Presence

Make Sure Your Business Is Up-To-Date.

Much effort will be put into optimizing your website, but don’t neglect the other aspects of digital presence.

For example online databases and business directories must have accurate information for your business hours, location and contact information. Don't risk the negative potential of losing customers due to outdated or incorrect information.

Spread Your Content

Content Marketing is important for any business looking to have a strong digital presence. Often new businesses hit a ceiling when the content they create is only used in one singular channel.

If you want to increase your online visibility, consider using influencers or businesses similar to your own to share content.

- Sponsor a blogger and have them talk about your products/services.

- Share your content across relevant social groups.

In other words, Immerse Yourself in the Community.

Integrate Visual Content

Content that is visually appealing grabs the attention of potential customers more than text-based content.

Pictures, videos, and infographics can be good to help people understand your company. They are also useful when creating content people will eventually share on social media. By incorporating your brand imagery, iconography and color scheme, with every post, people can immediately recognize or associate the brand with trust, authenticity and knowledge.

Active on Many Social Platforms

As digital marketing is continuously evolving, so must your digital presence. Keep doing what works and have profiles/accounts for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To reach your customers, you need to be present on the digital channels they are already using. For example, B2C companies may want a profile on Pinterest or Snapchat; whereas, for B2B companies, LinkedIn is a must-have.

Always Pay Attention

Your online presence should always be evolving with your customers needs. User preferences are changing all the time, so your brand needs to keep up to date with relevant information and processes. This means paying attention to user experience trends and developments that impact how your digital presence is delivered and refined. With time you can create an effective digital presence that allows you to Build your digital brand image and release effective digital marketing campaigns.