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Building a digital strategy might sound scary to budding entrepreneurs. Most online resources are aimed at large companies. It doesn't have to be difficult, though. There's a good chance you're already doing some of these things. This guide will show you how to structure your digital presence for effective content marketing.
A digital strategy will help you reach your marketing goals through digital data. That could mean social media, your brand's website, online ads, and more. An effective content marketing strategy gets your brand in front of more eyes. It should encourage them to interact with you. Some companies use both traditional and online marketing, but more and more are only building digital strategies.
We're starting with the most basic question: What are your goals? What do you want to gain from digital marketing? These ideas will be the foundation of your digital strategy.
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Goals that meet these criteria are easier to understand and follow.
Once you have your goals in mind, it's time to think about your target audience. Who are you marketing to? Are you currently reaching them? If not, how can you? What type of content would they be interested in?
Your target audience should influence every part of your brand. Even your logo and colors will draw in some groups more than others. Your audience will also dictate which platforms you use.
A customer avatar is a made-up character representing your target audience. It's an exercise to figure out who you're marketing towards. It gives you something tangible to think of as you're building a digital strategy. Come up with this information about your avatar:
Now you have your goals and an idea of your target audience. The next step in building a digital strategy is research. You'll need to know what your customers want, what's popular online, and what your competitors do.
To find out what customers want, ask the customers themselves. Surveys and polls are simple ways to gather information. You might include past, current, or potential consumers. You can also use studies by other people. The Internet is filled with data on how people shop and consume content.
Paying attention to trends will keep you on top of the competition. Online trends are constantly changing. Businesses that fall behind on trends may struggle with engagement. It's important to only participate in them if they're relevant to you, though. Forcing a trending hashtag into a post where it doesn't fit can quickly turn consumers off.
To stay on top of your competition, you need to know what they're doing. It can also help you keep up with the trends. Follow their social media and pay attention to industry news.
What resources do you currently have available? What tools do you need to accomplish your goals? Are you missing anything crucial? Evaluating your resources is an important step. Make sure that your goals are achievable with what you currently have. You shouldn't have to spend money you don't have or bend over backward for a near-impossible goal. Keep your goals within your current means, or ones you can easily obtain.
For effective content marketing, you need to think carefully about your platforms. You have a lot of options, all with their own pros and cons. Think about your target audience and which channels will reach them.
Social media has been a big deal for digital marketing. Your first thought is probably advertising. Social media sites can be a very effective tool. Millions of people use them, often for hours at a time. They see hundreds of ads a day.
These sites aren't just for ads, though. A social media presence for your business is an excellent way to connect with your audience. It gives you several more channels to share content on. By posting updates or day-to-day things your customers feel like they're getting an exclusive peek behind the curtain.
Your customers can also reach out to you directly through social media. Phone calls and emails have always felt slow. Everyone dreads contacting customer service. Now, though, the consumers can contact the brand instantly. Many companies are offering customer support through their social media pages. You're more likely to get feedback on your content, too.
Search engines have been around since the dawn of the Internet. For many years now, they've offered a way to advertise to millions of people. Companies can purchase ad placements. These are usually at the top of the search result list. You typically pay per click, meaning you pay the publisher a small amount each time someone clicks your link.
These are the ads you see online, like banner and video ads. They have the potential to reach a lot of customers, but some find them annoying. Typically advertisers will bid against each other for ad slots. This can also include native advertising, which is when a company pays to be featured in something like an article or news post.
Networking has always been part of the business world. The Internet makes it infinitely easier, though. Brands often work with influencers to advertise. These are content creators with large fan bases. Partnering with the right influencer could get millions of eyes on your brand.
Affiliate marketing is similar but on a smaller scale. Influencers are given a customized link to your business's site. They share it with their followers, and every time someone makes a purchase with it, the influencer gets a small commission.
Email newsletters have been around almost as long as email. Customers often sign up to receive these from brands they like, sometimes in exchange for a coupon or promotion. E-newsletters are still a popular and effective marketing method. However, many new brands are leaning towards mobile push notifications instead. Some younger groups are using email less or don't want to add to their unread messages with yet another newsletter. They're more likely to opt in to push notifications from a brand's app or website. They're smaller snippets of information received instantaneously.
The Internet also gives you a unique opportunity for public relations with your target audience. You can directly interact with them to answer questions and provide customer support. You can also respond to reviews, both positive and negative. Another advantage is the immediacy. If you have something to announce, you can make it public as soon as you've typed it.
The word "content" has come to describe so many things. In general, it's what you post online — videos, blog posts, podcasts, images, social media updates, and so on. While the options are endless, it's important to post content that matches your brand identity and resonates with your audience.
Brand identity is an important part of effective content marketing. Ideally, consumers will know your brand at a glance. That's why it's important to keep everything consistent across your content. A person should be able to recognize your business across platforms. If there are inconsistencies, it could be confusing. At the very least, customers might find the sloppiness unappealing.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a popular way to boost your content in search results. The idea is to use keywords in your content that consumers are searching for. There are tools you can use to find popular keywords matching your content. Do your research to find keywords that are popular but not overly saturated. You want phrases that the average person might search, but if they're too common you might get buried in the results.
Your content still has to be high quality to take advantage of SEO. Early on, people would stuff as many keywords as possible into their web pages, regardless of how it looked. Search engines caught on to that though, and their algorithm now looks beyond keywords. Low-quality pages that seem to be keyword stuffing or using other shady tactics purposefully get buried now.
These are some general guidelines for quality content.
Hopefully, this guide has made building a digital strategy a bit easier. Remember, start with your SMART goals and conduct comprehensive market research and competitor analysis to establish the baseline of your robust digital marketing strategy. And, you can always check out more articles in Digital Marketing to stay ahead of the game!
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