Digital Marketing has shifted the focus to the consumer who is now the ultimate determinant of business success. With cut-throat competition out there, a business needs to be flexible, ready to embrace change and employ innovative ways to engage with customers and make new ones.
There are several digital marketing channels that can help a business establish its credentials, grow its presence and build brand awareness and loyalty.
So which are the Top Digital Marketing channels?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the most popular digital marketing channel to drive organic and relevant traffic to your website. Websites that get listed and ranked high due to good SEO practices are called ‘natural’, ‘organic’ or ‘earned’ results.
SEO techniques and best practices can help your website rank high on the search engine results page (SERP). Pages that are optimized well can get listed in the first few results of a SERP when users perform a related search. A higher rank and visibility translates into more visitors and traffic.
SEO is for unpaid search ranking, but the process of SEO is time-consuming and results are not immediate. With tremendous competition out there, SEO must be done really well to claim your place at the top.
Types of SEO
There are two types of SEO – On-page optimization and Off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves optimizing website elements and content to enable search engines to crawl, index and interpret your web pages. Without proper indexing, your website will not be found online. Off-page optimization involves link building which is getting other websites to link back to your site. Google rewards a website if there is traffic from a higher ranked website back to it.
Search User Optimization
Earlier, search engines focused on technical optimization of a website to determine ranking, while website content was not really paid attention to. You could have the most optimized website in the world with poor, irrelevant content and yet rank no.1. But recent algorithm updates changed all of that. Search engines now place a premium on user experience and on quality content that is fresh, valuable and relevant. Search engines aim to provide their users with precise and high-quality results. With technical optimization and good quality content with the right keywords, your website has a high chance of appearing in top search results. It is not only about being search engine friendly, it is also about being search user friendly.
Optimize a website for both bots and humans, and you will be a search engine’s darling.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media has changed the way people communicate, share and do business.
From just being tools to keep in touch with people who matter most, social media platforms now present tremendous opportunities for advertising, marketing and customer engagement.
Considering the number of people who actively use social media, it is imperative that your business maintains an active social presence. Social media is currently one of the most popular and widely used digital marketing channels because of its penetration and influence on people’s lives. It is estimated that nearly 3 billion people will be active social media users by the year 2021 which is a third of the world’s population.
Benefits of Social Media
The influence of social media is all-pervading. Social sharing helps businesses build brand awareness, extend reach and find new potential customers. Social media allows businesses to achieve a high degree of customer segmentation, direct engagement and personalization of marketing efforts. By using social listening tools, businesses can decipher what customers are actually doing online and tailor marketing campaigns and efforts accordingly.
Popular Social Media Platforms
Platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most popular channels for social media marketing because of their massive user base. According to statistics for 2018, Facebook has 2.23 billion monthly active users, LinkedIn has 467 million members and Twitter has 336 million monthly active users.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
Pay per click (PPC) is another popular digital marketing channel that can generate quick results in terms of driving targeted traffic to your website. PPC are ads placed at the top and right side of a search engine's organic search results page. If your SEO strategy isn't getting your website in top search results, then PPC can help get your website right in front of your target audience. You need only pay when your ad is clicked.
Feasibility of PPC
If PPC advertising kicks off, the number of visitors landing on your site through PPC and potentially becoming customers far outweighs the investment. For every $2 you spend on an ad click, if a customer makes a purchase, say of $200, your investment pays off. But the downside is that, if a customer clicks on your ad but leaves your site without any transaction, you lose the $2. Imagine 100 customers following suit. It is money and more money spent but no ROI.
Users are also skeptical about clicking on ads and generally prefer organic results that appear for their search term. PPC is worth experimenting with if you have the budget and ready for outcomes that can swing either way.
Content Marketing
Content is the backbone of digital marketing. Without content, you would have nothing to deliver to your customers. At the heart of every successful digital marketing campaign is great content. Content can be text, graphics or video. Search engines place a premium on high-quality, relevant, informative and helpful content because it constitutes an important part of user experience. Good content makes for a good user experience and can boost your website rankings.Good content has the potential to generate inbound traffic, which is traffic that finds you rather than you actively marketing and vying for customer attention.
Content is King
Content marketing focuses on delivering value and building trust, authority and credibility. Great content can boost brand awareness, brand visibility and brand loyalty in customers and prospects. It is not direct marketing of products and services. In fact, there is no selling involved in content marketing. It is indirect, non-intrusive selling, long-term and value-based with the intention of building trust, and hoping that your business would be a preferred choice for customers in future. Content marketing needs to be consistent and persistent. The most common platform for content marketing is blogs where fresh, relevant content can be posted on a regular basis. It is also done via email newsletters and social media posts.
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