Do you need a digital overhaul? Why yesterday’s marketing isn’t enough

Inspired Magazine

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Five (or more like ten) years ago, when someone needed a plumber or a take-out restaurant, they’d pick up the phone book and peruse through the alphabet to find what they needed. Today the only thing the yellow pages are useful for is to balance a leaning table. When people need information, they think digital.

Whether it’s a tablet, phone or laptop, the most up-to-date information, reviews and more can all be found online. As technology has progressed, less interest from end users has been put into direct mail, radio spots, TV commercials and the like. With new technology such as satellite radio and DVRs which allow us to cut through clutter, and less time than ever to sort through mail (not to mention the magnitudes of junk mail we get each week) to reach a potential customer, your advertising process must evolve to meet your potential consumers where they are most comfortable. These days that is in front of a mobile device or tablet.

Digital marketing is a growing art and many agencies are shifting from traditional marketing services to a skill set of digital-based services, alongside an emergence of several web-only agencies. New ways to reach audiences abound every day, from social media advertising to where your website ranks on Google and everything in between. In order to maximize marketing dollars, going digital is the most effective way to connect with your audience to achieve your marketing goals and increase your brand awareness.

How Do You Start?

The first step in any marketing plan is to determine your needs and actionable goals, based on your budget. Before going digital, you must determine where you want your customers to land. Most often, this answer will be your website. Before directing traffic that way, you must ask: does your website effectively communicate your brand? Is it functional and easy to navigate? Having a fully developed plan that pushes hundreds of leads to your poor-quality website, will waste money and time and will result in a low ROI.

Making sure your website is updated, functioning properly and well designed is key before sending people there to learn about you. Once your website is the best it can be, the next step is to identify the outlets where your audience is. It doesn’t make sense to advertise heavily on three major social networks, if your audience is only on one or two. This same principle carries over from older, traditional advertising. Often times people feel like they are spending money on the web, so they must be using dollars effectively, however if you aren’t reaching your right target, the opposite is true.

Identifying how your audience uses the web

Do your users rely mostly on mobile apps to get their info, or are they frequenting the internet on a desktop computer? The overall User Experience (UX) must be designed to cater to your target. These questions matter not only in your web design and interface, but also in how they are reached. For instance, if you are targeting millennials who boast a high mobile usage, it makes more sense to focus on a mobile app than it does to invest in a fully developed desktop site. However, if your business aims to reach across several target markets, leveraging a fully-built website in conjunction with a mobile app and social media presence may be ideal.

The type of social advertising you should engage in will also differ based on a mobile or screen user as will time spent on messaging. Messaging on mobile and tablets relies heavily on images, with minimal copy whereas a larger screen lends to more area for text. As you can see, thinking through this step and creating a well-rounded strategy is a high priority.

How Will New Users Find You?

Once you’ve mastered finding how your audience interacts with the web, the next stage of the digital marketing game is to place your brand in a place where people want to find and interact with your site. A comprehensive social media management strategy will allow you to create and share content that is usable and sought after by potential customers and strong calls to action will direct them to your site to learn more, complete a transaction or any other end-goal you’ve set.

To meet customers during the research phase of their sales funnel, a complete search engine optimization (SEO) strategy on keywords and phrases related to your brand must be executed. By optimizing your website to be found when your target market searches online leads to the most organic web traffic, and is often the most profitable. For keywords that receive a large monthly search volume, paid search results (SEM) may be used to achieve more short-term results, however an effective SEO strategy ensures that your brand will have longevity in creating a space for itself online.

Research shows that 60% of clicks go to the top three search results on a page; ensuring you’re at the top for your most relevant keywords is a proven way to increase web traffic and subsequent sales.

Advertising Effectively in the Digital Age

As we’ve known for years with traditional advertising, it’s not enough to throw money into something to just be there; the same is true in digital. Just like untargeted commercials or mass mail have been ineffective at bringing dollars in the door, having a cheap website or an inconsistent social media presence isn’t “enough.”

A company looking to really grow their business must have a targeted presence, one that is thought out and effective at appealing to current clients and potential users alike, and one that adequately represents your brand image. Identifying your place in the market and building on that space is the most effective way to increase brand recognition, broaden your appeal and continue growth.

An effective internet marketing mix can be created digitally when you place value in staying up to date with current technologies that your ideal customers are using. Seeking a digital agency who specializes in creating a custom space for your brand online is a great way to get the inside scoop on not just what’s popular now, but what will be popular in the future, allowing you to stay relevant in the ever-changing advertising world.

Shifting your advertising ideas from traditional, outdated methods into current and popular mediums allows you to spend effectively and often times can create more opportunity to stretch your dollar further. And in today’s world, maximizing your dollar isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have.

Author bio: Kindra Svendsen is a PR and Digital Marketing Strategist for Speak Creative, a full service digital agency with offices in Nashville and Memphis Tennessee, that specializes in web design, app development, content creation and social media strategy, search engine optimization and Digital Marketing in general. See some of their work at www.madebyspeak.com.

header image courtesy of Andrea Laureti

This post Do you need a digital overhaul? Why yesterday’s marketing isn’t enough was written by Catalin Zorzini and first appearedon Inspired Magazine.

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