What is Digital Marketing?
The promotion of a brand or its products through the utilization of digital devices is referred to as digital marketing.
The range of channels encompasses both digital and traditional forms, such as television, podcasts, billboards, promotional advertisements, SMS, and various others.
Digital marketing includes various aspects such as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), content marketing, and email marketing, all of which constitute a significant portion of online marketing.
For some time now, traditional marketing has been supplanted by digital marketing.
Print media such as magazine ads, direct mail, and billboards are becoming less popular as online marketing methods like pay-per-click ads (PPC), marketing emails, and electronic billboards gain more traction.
The essence of marketing has always been to showcase brands and products to the public.
The multitude of electronic devices available in today’s world allow digital marketing to efficiently reach a large audience.
Offline Digital Marketing
Offline marketing strategies utilizing digital means are frequently neglected and deemed as outdated or unsuccessful.
Despite the advancements in marketing strategies, certain prevalent brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s continue to invest millions of dollars annually on billboard and prime-time television advertising, and this is justified.
When utilized correctly, offline digital marketing channels have the potential to be remarkably efficient.
Instances encompass:
- Online radio ads and radio show promotions (radio)
- LED billboards in high-traffic areas (enhanced offline advertising)
- Cable TV commercials and streaming services such as Netflix (TV)
- Phone marketing through cold-calling, texting, and in-app ads (Phone marketing)
Online marketing is a popular choice for startups and small businesses due to its cost-effective nature, as traditional tactics can be quite costly despite their potential effectiveness.
Online Digital Marketing
Digital marketing that occurs outside of the internet is not considered part of online marketing.
Although there are numerous classifications of digital marketing, we will solely focus on the crucial six.
Marketing done through search engines.
SEM involves utilizing paid techniques to enhance the online awareness of websites and brands, and SEO constitutes a component of this approach.
Reworded: Marketing through the creation and sharing of valuable content that informs and/or entertains a target audience is known as content marketing.
Inbound Marketing heavily relies on the use of online materials, such as blogs and videos, to indirectly advertise a brand or product.
PPC Advertising (Pay-per-click)
Refers to advertising on various platforms like Google and compensating for each click or impression, which could be in the form of a guide download, product purchase, or demo sign-up.
Marketing through email
Sending promotional emails to potential customers is a significant component of Outbound Marketing.
Reworded: Marketing through affiliation
Affiliate marketing entails brands compensating third parties with a commission for selling their products. Influencers, bloggers, and resellers are pivotal players in this marketing channel.
Marketing through social media
In the following section, we will delve deeper into digital marketing via social media platforms.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing utilizes social channels and forums as means to reach potential customers in the context of online digital marketing.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, and Pinterest are among the most widely used social media platforms.
Social media marketing can also thrive on platforms like Reddit and Quora, which are online forums.
Social media marketing, abbreviated as SMM, entails publishing captivating and often concise content to draw in fresh clientele.
Although SMM does involve selling, it also serves as a tool for brands to observe customer attitudes, assess brand recognition, and stay informed about market developments through online communities.
The techniques mentioned earlier are commonly referred to as social media management.
What is the Goal of Social Media Marketing?
The field of social media marketing is vast and intricate.
Although SMM is continually changing with evolving platforms and brands exploring new marketing techniques, there are still fundamental objectives that companies aim to accomplish.
- Advertising
Social media companies earn their revenue primarily by promoting products and services through paid advertisements, which is a major utility of social media.
- Content promotion
One common application of SMM is to promote website and blog content, which results in increased traffic and fosters a dedicated fan base. This is an effective method to establish brand influence and prominence.
- Tracking competition
Social media platforms are treasure troves of information where one can easily gain insights about marketing strategies used by competitors, their targeted markets, and conduct keyword research as well.
- Build brand image
By establishing and upholding a constant brand persona, such as amiable, supportive, reliable, or refined, social media platforms permit consumers to interact with the company in a more intimate manner.
- Tracking marketing sentiment
The power of SMM is undeniable. It allows for the monitoring of customer comments, shares, mentions, and the overall sentiment of social media posts in order to assess the brand’s perception among its audience.
- Data collection
Social media provides valuable information to brands about their primary customers’ thoughts and lifestyles, allowing them to customize their merchandise, services, and advertising strategies for improved customer satisfaction.
Essential Pillars of Social Media Marketing
Having solid principles to guide our social media marketing is crucial due to the versatility of SMM.
Our suggestion would be as follows:
Develop a robust plan.
A comprehensive plan for social media is crucial for achieving success.
Guidelines are necessary for every social platform utilized, outlining the business objectives to strive for as well as determining the optimal content and brand image to portray.
Maintain a regular publishing schedule.
In order to engage effectively on social media, it is important to maintain a consistent approach.
Frequent publishing schedules, ranging from daily to monthly, are essential and can be aided by the use of automated tools.
Tracking and observing involvement
Keeping tabs on a brand’s social media performance requires a range of advanced software applications.
These tools are essential for us to keep track of customer feedback, enabling us to effectively manage and foresee market sentiment and trends.
Analytics utilization
Analytic tools with extensive capabilities are offered by social media platforms.
We attach significant importance to the information given to us in order to gauge and quantify brand awareness, the effectiveness of social media campaigns, and other related factors.
Ads for commercial purposes
When executed correctly, investing in social media ads can yield significant success.
In order to see a satisfactory return on investment, it is essential to allocate resources to top-notch marketing strategies featuring tailored advertisements.
Tips for Social Media for Small Business
- Focus on Building Your Authority
If you aspire to compete with larger companies, you may have to feign confidence initially. Although you may lack the financial, material, and human resources of larger rivals, you still have to establish yourself as an influential figure.
Here, the crucial term is authority.
As a small meal prep and delivery business, you may possess equal or greater expertise compared to the prominent delivery companies. Acknowledge this fact and use it to your advantage in capturing some of the market.
Instructions on how to perform the task.
Step into the spotlight and make your presence known on social media instead of lingering unnoticed in your rivals’ posts.
- Record videos of yourself or members of your team sharing knowledge about your product or service.
- Produce high-quality, informative blogs that educate your visitors and also position your business as an expert in the industry.
- Allocate some of your budget toward paid ads. These will take you farther than organic posts ever could right now.
- Focus on a Select Few Platforms — and Crush It
It’s understandable why people create a profile on every social media platform as it increases the chances of reaching more people. The idea is that the more places you are, the wider your audience can be.
The answer is no, despite any possibility or uncertainty. Here is the reasoning behind it.
Managing multiple social media platforms doesn’t guarantee success on every one of them. This is a common experience for businesses and not necessarily a result of poor strategy. Therefore, it’s wise to reconsider investing time and money into managing multiple pages if only a few of them are effective in generating a return on investment.
Instructions on How to Perform It
- Pick three or four platforms to start with — no more!
- Log the number of hours you spend on each platform every month, for three months straight.
- Each month, document your “return on investment.” How exactly did each platform contribute to your business? Measure your return and use the data to revise your strategy.
- Invest in the Right Social Media Management Tools
You may argue that it would require more funds, however, consider this: What is the value of your time? Would it not be worth investing in an affordable tool for social media management that could potentially save you multiple hours of work each day? The answer is undoubtedly yes.
Investing money in these tools is worthwhile because you’re not wasting your money, rather directing it towards something that will significantly ease your workload. Refrain from taking shortcuts only to save money, as doing so will eventually cost you your time and energy.
Ways to accomplish it.
- Sign up with a social media management tool like eClincher.
- Set aside an hour (if that) and schedule all of your social media posts for the next week. This is called “batching” your work, and it will save you even more time. Hooray!
- Go get a coffee or something, because your work is done. #Win
- Get Specific With Your Targeting
As we have previously mentioned, targeting everyone will ultimately result in nobody being reached. Precise targeting is vital for businesses regardless of their scale, but it is particularly significant for small businesses on social media.
It is understandable that small business owners believe they can compensate for their company’s size by attempting to target a vast audience. However, the issue arises when this vast audience may not consist of individuals who are potential customers.
Why market to individuals who are not potential customers?
Instead of hoping to find a handful of interested individuals from a Facebook ad with a potential reach of a million people, it’s advisable to focus on a smaller and more specific group, even if it only consists of five digits. This approach is known as targeting a specific audience.
Similarly, when it comes to free organic posts, avoid trying to please everyone and instead concentrate on targeting your particular demographics.
Instructions on How to Accomplish It
- Create a customer avatar — a profile of your ideal customer. List as many of their traits as possible.
- Craft your social media posts as if you’re talking to that exact person.
- Use these traits when setting the targeting for your social media ads.
- Write Down Your Goals, and Get Clear on Them
It is crucial, yet often undervalued. According to Forbes, individuals who vividly describe or visualize their goals have a 1.2 to 1.4 times greater chance of achieving them. Therefore, recording your objectives is essential!
The same applies to your strategy for marketing on social media.
Without a clear understanding of your goal, it is impossible to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts.
The protocol for accomplishing the task.
- Pick three things you want to accomplish in one week, one month, and three months.
- Make them concrete and measurable. “Grow our brand online” isn’t a good goal because it’s not specific enough to measure. “Increase our social media engagement by 10%” is a goal you can track and measure.
- Write down the baby steps you’re going to take to hit your goals.
- Leverage the Power of Networking and Influencer Marketing
You need not go through this alone and it is recommended that you collaborate with a brand or individual of equal or greater size. Consider the wider audience you could potentially reach and the increased visibility you would gain.
We network for this reason.
By establishing relationships that are mutually beneficial with individuals and organizations, you can create more extensive possibilities for yourself.
Ways to Accomplish the Task
- Find three to five brands in your industry that are not direct competitors with social media followings as least as big as your own.
- Find three to five influencers with large followings (in the five digits and up) in your industry.
- Contact them either through email or one of their social media platforms.
- Push for Customer Reviews
As your brand name may not carry much recognition, you will need to employ alternative methods to persuade individuals to invest in your product or service.
This is where customer feedback is valuable.
Make sure to remember this: Your small business’s survival depends on reviews. This is not a mere overstatement. There is an increasing amount of evidence that supports this claim – more than can be covered in this blog. The key takeaway is that 90% of customers check online reviews prior to patronizing a business and, additionally, 88% consider online reviews to be as reliable as personal recommendations.
In the realm of business, reviews function similarly to word-of-mouth referrals. Therefore, obtaining as many reviews as you can should be included in your digital marketing plan, and you should aim to have them on platforms such as Yelp, Facebook, and Google My Business.
Methods to Accomplish It
- Post once a week on your social media pages asking people to leave you a review. Be sure to provide the link to where they should go.
- Ask your email subscribers once or twice a month to leave you a review online. Again, provide the link.
- If you have a brick and mortar, hang up signs and posters asking people for their reviews.
