Digital marketing isn’t easy. In fact, it really isn’t as cut and dried as so many people tell you it is. After all, every website and business operating online will have their own needs and long term plans. However, there are still a variety of tips and tricks that apply across the board. Digital marketing success in 2021 is less about ‘gaming the system’ and is more about fine-tuning what you have in place.
With that in mind, here’s a stack of quick digital marketing tips which you’ll find useful – regardless of your level of experience and regardless of the business or brand you are trying to market – for the years to come.
1. Keep Things Relevant
Relevancy is absolutely crucial to digital marketing success. Look at things this way – a marketing strategy that works well in 2011 is never going to produce the same results in 2021.
Time moves on, and so does technology. People do, too – demographics change. Keep updating your marketing strategies and you’ll go far.
2. Keep An Eye on How You’re Doing
Many digital marketers still believe that they can just launch a strategy and it will do all the work for them without the need for maintenance. This is never the case.
Always keep an eye on your campaign performance, drill down to the very deepest analytics if you have to. This way, you can be sure that you’re at the top of your game and reaching the people who need you.
3. Go for a Results-Based Strategy
Results based systems work brilliantly in practice. While it’s easy enough to plan a marketing strategy in advance with a template, you’re going to need to make sure you have a plan that’s based on actual results.
What do your marketing results tell you? How can you tweak your strategy based on your recent outcomes? Don’t be afraid to adjust. In fact, data-based decision-making is a must, too. You won’t get anywhere in this game on assumptions alone – it’s pretty hazardous.
4. Cultivate a Strategy Around Your Buyers
Many bigger companies set up lead funnels that just don’t work in practice. The idea of the ‘individual buyer’ or ‘avatar’ has never been stronger.
Set up journey planning and systems to actively reach out to and communicate with your buyers. That unique appeal is what’s going to make all the difference to your marketing for years to come.
5. Don’t Hold Out for Long Term Results
A big mistake you can make is to solely rely on long term results. Why wait for success? Try and grasp those moments which provide quick or even instant results.
Who knows what will happen if you build things up with instant wins rather than hold out for long term goals?
6. Tweak Your Branding
This ties in with our above point, but it’s still important. Not only should you tweak your marketing strategies, but you should also be ready to analyse how your brand is actually performing with your target audience.
Don’t be afraid to change things up. Start looking into the KPIs and other indicators that actually matter to you and your customers. Changing your entire branding from the ground-up might not be the most efficient process, but it’s actually pretty necessary in some dire cases.
7. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Technology, as a digital marketer, may be your greatest ally or asset. Specifically, you should consider automation. There’s nothing more frustrating that having to tweak and manage all of your content marketing ‘by hand’. Look for a program or platform that lets you automate the nitty gritty.
What’s more, think carefully about the tech your audience is using, too. Consider that mobile browsing and engagement has never been bigger. You’re going to need to mount a mobile marketing strategy as a priority. Mobile First, as Google says.
8. Reach Out
Successful digital marketing often revolves around the people you connect with, as well as how you connect with them. For example, you could harness the power of social media influencers who can effectively help you ‘sell’ or even ‘embody’ your brand.
Alternatively, make a point of setting up some form of community. Reach out to people via email, encourage interaction through competitions and open forums – people love to interact. Use this to your advantage.
9. Keep Your Website Ticking Over
It’s a misconception that the concept of ‘the website’ is old hat. Everything from your landing page to your contact forms and even calls to action are essential tools for digital marketing success. Yes, you can mount strategies through social media, but without a website, you are missing out on a large slice of the action.
Converting clickers into customers starts with a clean, accessible and well-designed website. If you don’t have this in place, you are going to find things an uphill struggle.
10. Don’t Ignore Email Marketing
Email marketing is, despite what some may tell you, far from dead and buried. Therefore, make sure to, at least, have an email marketing plan in place before you even start thinking about anything else.
Email marketing works because it’s a great way to actually reach out and engage with people who want to hear from you. It’s opt-in, not opt-out.
11. Chase Up and Be Regular
How you use your email marketing platform is really important. This means more than just sending out the odd newsletter or circular. Think carefully about the content you provide to your email contacts.
Try and focus on empty baskets in your ecommerce store. Consider launching tailored deals to retain interest. Also, make sure to email regularly. Much as the best SEO strategies revolve around showing the world you are active and are passionate about what you do, the same really does apply to email. Show people that you’re active, you’re out there, and that you’re ready to make a difference.
12. Be Careful with Social Media
It’s really tempting to just plaster your brand and products all over social media. After all, social marketing can be a lot of fun! However, spreading yourself too thin is a waste of time and money.
Consider the networks that really appeal to your audience. Someone likely to connect with you through LinkedIn or Twitter may not use Snapchat or Instagram, for example. Choose an ad network, too, that appeals to your core demographics.
13. Always Keep Your Finger on the Social Pulse
Never leave your social ads and campaigns to run on their own. You should be ready to regularly check how your ads and engagements are performing with your key demographics.
Consider using trackers and engagement apps to dive deep into who’s clicking, reading and watching. Never rest on your laurels – always reach for new avenues and ways for you to reach out to people.
14. Seriously – Don’t Rest on Your Laurels
Social media marketing strategies only really drive great results when you really push for them. It’s easy to think that social media marketing results flood in without you having to really stretch your marketing muscles.
To push for the best results, you are really going to need to put your back into social media ads and outreach. Go for a dynamic, powerful approach. Find ways to appeal to your clickers that others are neglecting to monopolise on. This will take time, but effort and innovation are key.
15. Be Careful with Social Media Ads
The data you get from social media marketing and ad campaigns can often be a little tricky to understand right away. In fact, if you are new to this side of things, you may find it easy to misread your results.
Therefore, take the time to learn how to read and track your results and campaign conversions. Don’t be so quick, again, to make assumptions.
16. Focus on the Visuals
Visual marketing for social media is so important. This might seem like a pretty basic point to make, but many marketers seem to place graphic design and visual appeal fairly low down on the priority ladder.
Therefore, consider tweaking and developing your landing pages, your ad graphics and more. Visual appeal is likely to be the first thing that really strikes your audience. Don’t just rely on the meat of the matter – people judge books by their covers all the time!
17. Build Up a Bit at a Time – and Branch Out
A great way to really make the most of social media ads, such as those you set up through Facebook, is to tweak and fine-tune your campaigns a little bit at a time.
What’s more, you should think carefully about going beyond Facebook’s own ad editor and manager, and to start looking at third party software. There’s tons you can do with Facebook ads, it turns out, that the first-party platform doesn’t always tap into.
18. Know Your Limits
Social media marketing is a brilliant tool – don’t get us wrong on this – but it might not be the best platform for everyone. It’s very easy to assume that you are going to drive amazing results time and time again. Look carefully at platforms such as Facebook Ads and see how other brands and companies are using it to their advantage.
It’s strange to think this, but you might actually find you start biting off more than you can chew. Social media marketing has a propensity to explode. What if you’re not ready to manage or support a large influx of customers? Take things one step at a time.
19. Connect with Customers
Social media is great for keeping contact with your customers. We’ll not beat around the bush on this one. Facebook, Twitter and more allow you to connect with your audience directly and to tap into what they want.
You can also use social media as a platform to address complaints and concerns in public. This might seem scary, but it’s incredibly beneficial to reputation management and building.
20. Set Up Blogging Strategies
Content marketing is absolutely vital if you want to show your audience that you are active, ready to engage, and that you genuinely care about them.
One of the best ways to engage with your visitors and potential buyers through content is, of course, to post on your blog. Blogs develop awareness, encourage engagement, and establish your brand as an authority in your field.
21. Keep Up to Speed on SEO
Anyone who tells you SEO is a dying art is lying to you. Google may move the goalposts around every once in a while, but SEO is always adapting around them.
Great SEO means making sure your content is actionable, relevant, and ready for mobile. If you ignore SEO, you ignore your potential for audience growth. It’s as simple as that.
22. Give Valuable Content to Your Visitors
As well as being very clear on your marketing purposes, work to develop an authority name for yourself by creating educational, useful content.
This ties in with SEO basics – always answer questions directly and give visitors information they might not know about. You can market at the same time!
23. Refine Your Pipelines
It’s easy to fall back on the same old sales pitches and the tried and tested methods. However, sales funnels really are the way to go in the modern age.
It’s worth streamlining your sales approach as much as possible by bringing inbound and outbound marketing together. Why separate the two? Carefully analyse where inbound strategies will work best over outbound connectivity – run that full audit on your marketing and sales pipelines as soon as you can.
24. Research Google’s Methods
A simple point, but worth repeating. If you’re not sure on how Google ranks its listings, do your homework.
Yes, the Big G is always likely to change things up as search behaviours change. However, you can do much worse than to read into what makes them tick, right here, right now.
25. Be Willing to Change Your Ways
Finally – the last and most crucial point we can make is this – always be willing to keep an open mind.
Digital marketing is a shape-shifting beast. It’s always evolving and always adapting to new tastes and interests. Therefore, don’t get bogged down in the same old strategies.
Try putting some of the strategies and ideas in the above list to the test and take a step or two outside of that comfort zone.