A lot can change in digital marketing from one year to another, so it’s key to address the new opportunities and cover off any holes in your company’s digital marketing strategy.
Christian Thomson, principal at the Vancouver-based Marwick Internet Marketing, gives us the top five ways to maximize your company’s digital marketing into 2016.
Remarketing for a longer budget lifespan
Remarketing is a marketing strategy whereby visitors to your website are identified and, after they have left your website, receive advertising about your services on other websites they visit.
A visitor to your website will see your branding and advertising on third-party websites for up to 90 days.
Make sure you have an effective remarketing campaign in your digital strategy. This should be one of the first steps a company takes if it is already investing in digital advertising.
Remarketing allows a brand to be highly specific in its advertising once a possible customer has left the brand’s website, keeping the brand top of mind and creating amazing brand awareness.
Remarketing is extremely cost-effective with the average cost per click well under 40 cents, thousands of impressions for free and a higher conversion rate. Your branding can be visible to a past web user for up to 90 days.
Remarketing via Google and its website portfolio is the most popular channel, followed by Facebook remarketing and YouTube remarketing.
Make your website robust
So many business owners are quick to invest money into digital marketing without first doing the housework on their website. Ensuring your website has an XML sitemap, 404 error page, a correct robot.txt file and correct page titles is simple to do, yet massively overlooked.
A good, robust website includes simple-to-use navigation, a strong call to action and good on-site search engine optimization (SEO), and also is fully mobile-responsive. Furthermore, the website should have conversion tracking set up through Google Analytics.
The result of not getting this in place is like a leaky bucket that needs constant topping up of marketing dollars. A simple tool for testing your website against your competition can be found here. Make sure you select “options” and add in your competition’s website. It’s free and requires no sign-up.
Get as much feedback as you can on your website from people outside your company. You have about seven seconds of attention from new visitors to tell them what you do, where you do it and the next step for them to take.
It’s easier to hit the browser’s back button and find another website than to continue the search on an unfamiliar website.
Do not forget that fewer than 10% of users scroll down, so keep the message above the fold.
Review your branded keyword cost per click
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, commonly known as Google AdWords or Bing Ads, is an extremely effective way to target your audience. Choosing only the keywords that drive leads provides one of the most targeted forms of advertising in 2015.
If you use an external partner or agency to manage your Google AdWords or Bing Ads, be sure to review the volume and price you are paying for branded keywords. If you Google “Your Company Name” and you have a good organic listing with an integrated Google Business/Map listing, there is little point in bidding on “Your Company Name” in Google AdWords or Bing Ads.
Much of the paid traffic from this search term will be current customers, who 99% of the time would have clicked on your free organic listing.
Social media magic
A common mistake for companies is to use social media for selling. Social media should be seen as an extension of word-of-mouth marketing and a platform by which a company can showcase its unique knowledge and content for the benefit of followers. Nobody likes to be sold to; potential customers will run to the hills if they think they are being sold to. However, if you provide information that is of great use, they will form a bond of trust with your brand. Trust builds customers and, importantly, retains them.
If you have limited time and budget for social media, pick fewer channels and be more active, rather than trying to run multiple channels with less effort.
A good strategy is to build a compelling blog on something your company wants to be known as an expert for. The blog should be optimized for a long-tailed keyword; with a good search volume (use Google Keyword Planner tool for data), this blog will rank high organically over time.
The next step is to take that useful content and post it on Facebook, selecting to “boost post” specifically to your target audience, geographically and demographically. Avoid any form of sales copy.
The social hits are great for branding and new customers, and the website visitors from social media will help the blog page index quicker on search engines like Google – a good example of cross-channel digital marketing.
Keep hustling
In modern digital marketing there is no room for complacency. With a single Google update, a new social media platform or a new viral trend, the scales can tip in favour of your competition overnight.
Be sure to track and monitor the top digital marketing KPIs: organic keyword ranking, cost per conversion within digital advertising, social reach on all platforms and competitive insights.
Conclusion
Ensure your digital marketing is an ecosystem of social media, PPC, SEO and remarketing. When these channels work together, the lead generation and brand awareness produce a fruitful return on investment.
Having the right digital marketing partner is crucial in today’s competitive online world. See why Marwick Internet Marketing is British Columbia’s choice when it comes to digital marketing. Visit Marwick Internet Marketing or call 1-888-564-9340.
