Initiating a Journey into Successful Online Marketing for Your Own Webpage
What kind of online material creation strategy should I adopt? The content creation strategy mainly relies on the particular requirements of the audience throughout the various phases of the purchasing procedure. Begin by creating buyer personas (use the easily accessible samples or makemypersona.com) to understand the essential objectives and obstacles your target audience confronts concerning your own enterprise. At its heart, your digital content should strive to support them in attaining these aims and surmounting these challenges.
Further, you should analyze when your target audience would be most open to absorbing this information, in alignment with their position in the purchasing process. This is known as material mapping. The main goal of content mapping is to align content to:
1. The attributes of the individual engaging with the information (ideal customer profiles are integral here).
2. The proximity of that individual to completing a purchase (their lifecycle stage).
Regarding the format of your information, there’s a plethora of choices to try with. Here are some ideas we suggest for each phase of the customer journey:
- Blog posts. Incredibly efficient for augmenting your unpaid visitors when combined with a strong SEO and keyword approach.
- Infographics. These are amazingly shareable, which increases your chances of discovery via social media when others circulate your content. (Utilize these cost-free visual aid examples to start your efforts.)
- Short videos. These are also incredibly sharable and can expose your company to new viewers by hosting them on platforms like YouTube.
- Ebooks. These are excellent for lead creation as they tend to be more detailed than a blog post or infographic, implying that someone is more apt to exchange their contact data to access it.
- Research reports. This high-quality type of content is also excellent for lead generation. Research reports and new information for your field can function in the awareness stage as well since they are often picked up by the media or industry press.
- Webinars. Being a more complex, interactive variant of video content, webinars serve as an successful consideration stage content format as they provide more detailed content than a blog post or short video.
- Case studies. Detailed case studies on your webpage can be a powerful type of material for those on the brink of making a purchase decision, as it aids in favorably influencing their decision.
- Testimonials. If case studies aren’t well-suited for your enterprise, having concise testimonials scattered around your website is a worthy alternative. For B2C brands, consider testimonials in a broader sense. If you’re a clothing brand, these could manifest as photos showcasing how others have styled a shirt or dress, sourced from a branded hashtag where people can contribute.
Recognition Stage
Deliberation Stage
Choice Stage
Mapping the Course for Digital Marketing
- Define your goals.
- Identify your target audience.
- Establish a budget for each digital channel.
- Strike a harmonious balance between paid and free digital strategies.
- Create engaging material.
- Optimize your digital assets for mobile.
- Conduct keyword research.
- Iterate based on the analytics you measure.
Initiating digital marketing demands the crystal clear identification and definition of your goals, as these will dictate your approach. If your objective is to boost brand awareness, you may want to concentrate on reaching new viewers via social platforms.
Alternatively, you may want to surge sales for a distinct product — in this case, focusing on SEO and optimizing material to draw potential buyers to your website is paramount. If sales are your aim, you might wish to experiment with PPC campaigns to drive visitors through paid ads. Regardless of the specifics, shaping a digital marketing tactic becomes significantly easier once your company’s overarching goals are established.
We’ve touched on this earlier, but the benefit of digital marketing lies in the possibility to target specific audiences. However, this edge is meaningless without first pinpointing your target audience. Your target audience can vary depending on the medium or goals you have for a particular product or campaign.
For example, you may have noticed that your Instagram audience leans towards younger individuals who prefer amusing memes and quick videos, while your LinkedIn audience comprises older professionals seeking more tactical advice. You’ll need to tailor your content to cater to these distinct target audiences.
Your budget should reflect the numerous elements of digital marketing you utilize. If your focus is on inbound techniques like SEO, social platforms, and content creation for an already established webpage, the silver lining is that you don’t need a substantial budget.
However, for outbound techniques like online advertising and buying email lists, some costs will be incurred. The extent of these costs is dependent on the level of visibility you want to gain as a result of the advertising.
A well-rounded digital marketing tactic generally necessitates a mix of both paid and free elements for optimal effectiveness. For example, you can invest time in creating comprehensive buyer personas to better understand your audience’s needs and generating high-quality online information to convert them, which can yield strong results with minimal ad spend.
However, if paid advertising forms a part of your digital tactic, you might see quicker results. Ultimately, strive to grow your organic (or ‘free’) reach through information, SEO, and social media for sustainable success.
Once you have discerned your audience and determined a budget, the next step is to create content for the various channels at your disposal. This could take the form of social media posts, blog posts, PPC ads, sponsored content, email marketing newsletters, and more.
Mobile marketing forms a critical component of digital marketing. In fact, smartphone usage accounts for 69% of time spent consuming digital media in the U.S., while desktop-based digital media consumption constitutes less than half.
This means that optimizing your digital ads, web pages, social media images, and other digital assets for mobile devices is crucial. If your company has a mobile app that facilitates user engagement with your brand or allows them to shop your products, your app falls under the purview of digital marketing as well.
Effective keyword research is fundamental for optimizing your website and information for SEO and ensuring people can find your business via search engines. Keyword research for social media can also assist in marketing your products or services across various social channels.
To create a sustainable digital marketing tactic for the long term, it’s vital for your team to learn how to pivot based on analytics.
For instance, you might notice that your audience isn’t as interested in your Instagram information anymore but is highly engaged with what you’re posting on Twitter. Or, you might find an older webpage isn’t getting the website traffic it used to. This could be an possibility to either refresh your Instagram strategy or update/remove the underperforming webpage.
Digital marketing provides businesses with amazing chances for continuous growth — it’s up to you to seize them.
Taking the Plunge into Digital Marketing
If you’re already using digital marketing, you’re probably reaching certain omhbmg segments of your audience online. No doubt, you can identify areas of your strategy that could benefit from some refinement.