If you’re like many businesses, you’re doing digital marketing without a sense of direction.
In fact, a whopping 45% of businesses say that they do digital marketing without a comprehensive strategy.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, your business won’t benefit from your efforts. Here are three ways that your business can make the most of your digital marketing.
1. Create Shareable Content
There are no two ways about it: if you want to boost your business, you need shareable content.
It doesn’t matter how good your marketing strategy is or how great your team is. If your content isn’t shareable, it won’t do your business any good.
What makes shareable content?
Start by thinking about what content would elicit an emotional response. Many people share content because of an emotional reaction (think of cute puppy videos or social justice infographics).
Now, think about what your target audience would find genuinely useful. What would offer them genuine value? Maybe a how-to guide for a basic household task? Or a quick and easy way to do something that’s normally considered long and complicated?
Finally, don’t forget that aesthetics matter. Organize your content so that it has a clear eye path. Large blocks of text will drive users away faster than War and Peace or a skunk.
2. Publish a Weekly Blog That’s Worth Reading
One great way to generate value for your visitors is to publish a weekly blog that’s actually worth reading.
A blog is one of the easiest ways to consistently generate content. It’s also a great way to show potential customers that you’re offering something that’s worth their time.
To do that, you’ll need to learn how to write a blog. Hint: this isn’t your English paper.
Keep your paragraphs short and your sentences snappy. Most online readers skim, so make sure to use catchy headers to grab their attention.
And above all, make sure you’re using your blog to answer your clients’ most pressing questions. As long as you’re showing them something helpful, they’ll be more willing to buy into your promotional tactics.
3. Learn and Use SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the art and science of getting your page to rank on search engines when a web surfer types in a relevant query.
It doesn’t matter how good your blogs are. If there’s no SEO strategy, your customers will never see them.
Note: SEO is a long-game strategy. You’re building trust with your clients and search engines. You can take a shortcut and rank quickly with a shady link scheme, but search engines are getting smarter all the time. They’ll catch on quickly and they will punish you.
Also, search engines update all the time, so trying to game the algorithm is only good until the next rewrite. If you want to make your tactics Google-proof, figure out what your users are asking and answer those questions in the most complete fashion.
Master Your Digital Marketing
Digital marketing works best as an all-around strategy.
Sure, you can write great blogs, but no one will see them without SEO. And your SEO won’t work as well unless your content is shareable.
If you approach digital marketing as a comprehensive technique to strengthen your business, you’ll stay one step ahead of the crowd.