Digital marketing or internet advertising is a means to connect, generate leads, drive traffic and influence potential clients and/or customers online. Since more and more people are using internet, registering on social media and shopping online, online marketing has become essential for businesses. Some of the most common digital marketing strategies are:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of ranking your website in a search engine results page. If you are looking for, lets say, the best café on Fifth Avenue, you’d most likely stick on the first few results that would appear on Google. Very seldom do visitors actually scroll down to the last results or go to the next page to look for other options. As a website owner, you need to appear on the first few results by increasing traffic and generating leads to your website. There are a few ways you can optimize your website to generate organic or free traffic.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is all about optimizing the website’s backend through coding, structure, compression and by increasing the website’s load time.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is all about optimizing the website’s content, HTML tags (title, meta description, and header tags), compelling headlines, high quality blogs, videos and images by integrating relevant keywords. Another great on-page optimization is user engagement. Engage with your visitors by answering their questions or getting their feedback and upgrade your user experience so they keep on coming back for more!
Off-page SEO
Like the name suggests, off-page SEO is about optimizing off the page through inbound links or backlinks. Backlinks are created by networking with other bloggers and guest posting on their platforms. These guest posts contain links to your website to lead their readers and viewers to your website.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves the creation of high quality text integrated with relevant keywords and its promotion. There are a few types of content you can create and promote to generate traffic, leads and customers.
Blogging
Blogging is one of the most working organic ways to generate traffic to your business. Write engaging and interesting articles and publish them on your company blog to convert website visitors into leads.
Infographics
Infographics is another great way of generating leads by showing visitors a visual content instead of written ones.
Social Media Marketing
Like every other digital marketing strategy, social media marketing also helps in driving traffic and generating leads for the sales team. However, there is one more important aspect of promoting your brand on social media, i.e. to increase brand awareness. The more people talk about your brand on social media by sharing, liking and engaging on your platform by commenting and messaging, the more leads you will draw from your visitors. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Pinterest are the top social media platforms for organic and paid promotions.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is another digital marketing strategy where you pay a publisher to drive traffic to your business by showing your ad. Basically, you pay them for each click their visitors make on your ad. Google Ads is one of the most common examples and ways of PPC, allowing your link to stay on Google’s search engine results pages. Other examples PPC means are Facebook, where you can run paid ads, Twitter, and sponsored messages on LinkedIn.
Affiliate Marketing
Like the name suggests, affiliate marketing is how you get a commission for promoting someone else’s business on your channel. An example of this can be posting links on your blogs or social media accounts and YouTube Partner Program.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing allows businesses to communicate with their audiences about promotions, discounts, events or simply to lead them to their websites. Follow-up emails, subscriptions, newsletters, welcome emails, loyalty program emails and guidance emails are some of the email marketing campaigns commonly used to keep existing customers in the loop.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing strategies are all such digital marketing methodology that drives customers in through SEO, blogs, e-books, social media campaigns , video marketing etc., instead of marketing a direct product or brand in hopes of a customer.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content or marketing is paying another business to create and/or promote your brand through any digital marketing strategy. One great type of sponsored content is influencer marketing where an influencer endorses your brand for a small price.
There are many other types of digital marketing strategies than the most common ones we discussed above. These include Video Marketing, Viral Marketing, Location-based Marketing, downloadable content marketing which includes e-books and magazines, etc. For a business whether small or big, marketing is an important aspect and no form of it should be ignored. With time and dedication to proper marketing, businesses turn leads into successful conversions.
