Digital Marketing… are you ahead of the curve?

Digital Marketing is evolving at an astounding rate and even the most tested and bright marketers struggle to stay ahead of the curve. It’s all well and good posting the odd tweet or having a blog within your site but are these methods really getting results?

If the answer is yes, then could you be doing better? Unfortunately, you probably could be. Not least as the landscape is constantly changing. If you don’t yet have a digital marketing strategy to speak of- then please read on. Businesses large and small ignore digital marketing at their peril, especially if you need to grow.

There are 5 vital aspects to be taken into considerations when looking at your digital marketing strategy. These will be familiar to most of you, but let’s take some time revisit and consider these must-dos.

Mobile

It’s no surprise that Shoppi is a big believer in mobile marketing, and for good reason. There are currently an estimated 2.3 billion smartphone users in the world, a figure that is looking to rise to closer to 3 billion by 2020. People are relying on smartphones for a myriad of essential tasks, and they make excellent, and increasingly invaluable, marketing tools. With such a significant portion of people using smartphones for shopping and socialising the modern business to consumer organization will do well to look at mobile marketing and social commerce.

There are 3 main issues with mobile marketing, problems that are particularly tricky for smaller organizations:

1. Technical know-how– It’s a catch 22 that the businesses that need mobile marketing, like those who’s revenue is driven by shifting products to consumers, are unlikely to have the technical skills to build their own apps (apps being the obvious way to access the mobile market).
2. Costs– Paying large companies like Google to carry out mobile marketing is very costly, as is hiring an outside app development firm.
3. Measurability– Even if you take the plunge and set aside a mobile marketing budget, there is no guarantee of ROI and the data that tells you why this might be may be limited.

Shoppi is an answer to these issues. With a Shoppi account, a business needn’t design their own app. Shoppi acts as your portal to the mobile market, handles SEO, has advertising capabilities, allows you to interact with customers and links you to ideal customer.

SEO

Search engine optimization is exactly what it sounds. Search engines like Google use a complex and ever changing algorithm to decide on what website listings show up on search results. The hallowed page one of Google search results is the only place where you will get a significant increase in traffic. The goal of SEO is to get you to page one using a strategy of implementing key words and link building so the search engine gives you precedence over your competitors. Are you on page one? If so, then great. If not, then you could benefit from an SEO audit.

The problem with SEO is that it requires constant maintenance and, realistically, you need dedicated SEO pro’s working on this which can eat into any revenue it creates. When it works, it can work wonders, but it doesn’t always work.

PPC

Pay per click has some significant advantages over organic SEO. Through Google AdWords you set specific budgets and, through keywords, are put at the top of Google when searches are made that are pertinent to your chosen keywords. The success of this is dependent on how well chosen your keywords are. One of the draw backs is that it can be tricky to measure how much of this traffic converts into revenue and that PPC is generally considered more aggressive than SEO by consumers. However, if you have a good digital marketing company behind you, targeted pay per click can give an excellent return on investment.

Web Design

Sometimes Web Design is an overlooked aspect of digital marketing. If you are spending time and resources driving traffic on to a poorly designed or buggy website, then you are wasting your money. Imagine the average internet user as being naturally appraising and fickle. They are easily discouraged by glitches and clumsy navigation. A contemporary, effective website is an essential investment.

Content

Successful SEO is reliant upon keyword rich content. However, the quality of the content itself is playing an increasingly important role. Too often blog posts and copy are little more than transparent beds for keywords and hold no intrinsic value. The discerning browser will be quickly turned off if your website copy is repetitive, derivative and grasping. Unlike platforms like eBay or Groupon, Shoppi allows you to post content like blog, video and pictures to engage your ideal audience.

It may be that we are preaching to the converted. The reality is that digital marketing is not something that you can just do and it’s done, it requires constant effort and maintenance. There are ways of making this less labour intensive, you can now try Shoppi for free to test whether you will get a ROI, but always remember that your digital marketing strategy should be composite. Maintaining an effective website and producing effective content will always be essential.

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