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7 Ways to Ignite Your Business with Digital Marketing

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7 Ways to Ignite Your Business with Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can sometimes feel overwhelming because there can be so many moving parts for your business. We are here to help! Below we have outlined 7 ways to use digital marketing to ignite your business.

1. Engage on Social Media Platforms as Your Business

Did you know that many forget about this important aspect of social media marketing? So many times, a business jumps on their Instagram page to make a post and then closes the platform until it is time for the next post.

Take a few minutes before you post your content to interact with individuals in your feed, find new prospects through searching hashtags and responding to any comments or DMs on your profile.

Not only will this help humanize your brand, Instagram loves it when you hang out on their platform vs. just hopping on to post and hopping off.

Sort your Instagram following to those you’ve least interacted with and make an effort to build a relationship through social media with those individuals!

2. Launch an Email List Building Strategy

Does building an email list seem overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be! Start small and continue to provide value to your audience, while creating actionable ways to build your email marketing list. Below are some ways to increase your subscribers:

  • Include options on your website to subscribe
  • Create social media posts to promote your emails, exclusive email content helps increase subscriptions
  • Launch a promotion or a giveaway for those who signup for your email
  • Attend tradeshow events to grow your audience
  • Launch Social Media Advertising Campaigns that build your email list

Building your email list should be a top priority for your business. It is essential to have subscribers who want your content and are interested in what you are saying. Things can change quickly on digital channels that you do not control.

3. Keep Fresh Content on Your Website

Built your website years ago and have just let it sit since then? Guess what, that is not helping your business much at all. Having a monthly website strategy can help you play into search engine algorithms while also keeping your audience up to date on new services, staff changes and more!

 

Not sure what content to add to your website? Consider launching a blog and strive to create one blog post a month!

4. Plan, Plan, Plan

We like to call this “putting pen to paper” and that is exactly what you should do. Take some time to brainstorm ways that you can leverage digital marketing channels that align with your business goals. Your plan should always start with goals, then outline exactly what steps you will take to meet those goals. 

If planning an entire year’s digital marketing efforts feels overwhelming, start with a quarterly plan, and begin executing.

5. Create a Marketing Funnel

Want to supercharge your business? Create a marketing funnel that continuously brings new prospects into your business. A funnel does the heavy lifting with automatic emails or SMS messages from those who opt-in to your offer.

Be sure to market your funnel across several different channels like Google Adwords, Social media ads and on your website!

6. Generate Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is something that you create and giveaway for free in exchange for contact information. This could be an e-book, checklist, webinar, etc. This type of lead magnet is great for building out your pipeline as well as increasing your email subscribers.

Keep your lead magnet hyper-targeted to your ideal audience for higher conversion rates of the right prospect.

7. Think Long-Term and Short-Term Marketing

Certain digital marketing channels (like Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising) are short term and your ROI typically happens quicker. Long-term digital marketing channels include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and organic social media content.

Most short term channels include monetary investment, but the payoff is quicker for your business. These will definitely generate short-term successes but are just as important as your long-term strategies that help your business continue to grow. The ROI for long-term marketing channels is a bit longer, but the wait and effort are worth it!

Invest time and resources into a multi-channel marketing approach to build a lasting business.

Digital marketing can ignite your business but only if a strategic approach is taken. If you are looking for ways to take your business to the next level, let our team help!

About Backstage Digital

Backstage Digital is a digital marketing agency serving small and medium sized businesses across the US. We specialize in SEO, PPC, Social media marketing, social media advertising and data analytics. We serve as the marketing arm for our clients and build strategies that meet business goals. Contact us to learn more.

  • 832-948-5930
  • info@backstagedigitalagency.com
  • 8000 Research Forest Drive
    Suite 115-341
    The Woodlands, TX 77382

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Which Digital Marketing Channels Should My Business Focus On?

Social Media Marketing Services

Facebook, YouTube, Google Search, Your Website,  SEO, Paid Search, Funnels – the amount of digital channels you have the option of marketing your business on can get overwhelming, fast.

Digital marketing consists of marketing that takes place on any type of technology device. But how on earth does it apply to your business?

What channels should we consider for digital marketing?

Before answering this question, it is essential to understand who your audience is, what problem they have and how to best communicate your solution to your audience. Depending on your target persona, depends on where you should focus your digital marketing efforts. Let’s take a deep dive into several different digital channels:

Search Engine Optimization – SEO

Optimizing your website on a consistent basis generates warm, high quality traffic which converts into leads or sales for your business. SEO is a long-term digital marketing channel, meaning your results won’t happen overnight – but when you do see them, they are typically the best out of several digital marketing channels.

Social Media Marketing

As your business focuses on identifying which digital marketing channels are important for your target persona, understanding which social media marketing platforms will generate the best results for your business is essential. For example, if you are a B2B business, it is highly unlikely that your target audience will be hanging out on Pinterest.

Social media marketing is a digital channel that allows your brand to tell a story, build a community and humanize your brand across your audience. Most social media platforms also have paid advertising that you can utilize to hyper target your audience in order to generate revenue for your business.

Email Marketing

Sixty-one percent of SMBs report that more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers, rather than new business. (Fivestars)

Building an email list is the first step to monetizing email marketing for your business. You might be thinking “what would I write about in the email campaigns?” Always provide value, educate, offer insight, show proof using testimonials and create promotions for your email campaigns.

Email marketing is also a cost effective way to jump into digital marketing. Without needing to make large investments on ads – email marketing consistently drives results while also being budget friendly for SMBs.

Search Engine Marketing

Looking for quick leads or business? Search Engine Marketing, or SEM is a great way to generate paid traffic. By bidding on keyword phrases that people type into search engines you can increase your website’s exposure using paid search. Don’t have time to wait several months to start ranking in Google search results, consider this channel to jump to the top of the rankings.

SEM also targets warm traffic, much like SEO because you are targeting keywords that are relevant to your business.

Is Digital Marketing the Same for Every Business?

Ab-so-lute-ly not! Every business is different. Goals are different. Audience is different. And digital marketing capacity and budget is different.

Therefore, take a step back and look at your business’s short term and long term goals. Then craft a digital marketing strategy that aligns with your business.

Digital marketing sounds great, but what are the benefits?

Tracking – What if you could tie a purchase to a specific marketing campaign, channel or ad dollar? Because you are marketing your business online, you can.

Cost – Typically running digital marketing campaigns you can make your total budget go much farther than traditional marketing methods like radio, billboards and print.

Faster Results – With some digital marketing channels, like SEM and paid ad campaigns, you can get faster results for your business and see a quicker ROI

Which Channels Should I Focus On?

When it comes to your business, it depends on several factors. Your audience, budget and long-term business goals impact which channels to focus on. The great thing about digital marketing is that you can start small and expand to other channels as your business continues to grow.

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The Importance of Keyword Research

keyword research

The hard truth about digital marketing is your audience doesn’t use the same keywords that you do to describe your products and services. Your business offers a solution to a problem and your website has to clearly communicate how your company can solve their problems. So where does keyword research come in?

Keyword research is important in attracting new prospects. Your clients start at Google to research, analyze and understand how to solve their problem. It could be anything from cleaning to dining to finding a local pediatrician. The things that people type into Google aren’t important – unless they are typing in keyword phrases that segment them into your target audience.

TIP: Use Google’s Free Keyword Tool to Conduct Keyword Research

Let’s say you are a local dermatologist. You might offer a range of services on your website to help your audience decide what they need from you. You might offer services to treat acne or eczema or even aesthetic services like Botox and dermal fillers.

But what do your prospects type in? They might not know what service they need, and rather search with intent, questions and reviews rather than a specific service. So think of phrases like the below:

“How to get rid of forehead wrinkles”

“Acne treatments for teenagers”

“Underarm sweating treatment”

Your website has to offer quality content that answers questions your audience is asking. And your prospects do not use the same words that you do to describe the services you offer.

Quality content isn’t one paragraph describing that topic, but rather, well-thought out content that answers questions for your visitors. When you think of Google as a business, it is easier to wrap your mind around how SEO ranking work.

Google’s job (from a search perspective) is to serve up the best results for a particular search query. They are extremely good at this job because they hold the market share in search engines (opposed to Bing or Duck Duck Go). Your job, as a business owner is to create the best content for your specific search keywords that move your pages up on search results.

TIP: Shoot for 300+ words on website pages that you are working to rank for a particular keyword phrase.

This is why keyword research is important, if you use the term “hyperhidrosis” across your site regarding your underarm sweating – your audience will likely never land on your site. Your competitor (who has likely done keyword research) will outrank you and get that traffic.

Keyword research is important to your SEO strategy, not because it’s just a step in the process. It drives warm leads straight to your site. When you do it right, you can attract people who are actually looking for your products and services, what more could you ask for?

If your website isn’t bringing in quality leads and serving as a hub for your entire business – it’s not doing its job.

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How to Spot Black Hat SEO

how to spot black hat seo

Here’s the deal. There is no easy, fast way to get your website to rank number one in Google search. If there was, everyone would be number one.

When a marketer or an agency promises a number one spot with a “secret method” – shake their hand and walk them out.

I’m still in awe of the amount of black-hat SEO tactics that are being promoted in today’s digital marketing arena. If you are looking to hire an SEO agency and don’t know exactly what to ask, or look for – these questions will help.

What goes into your SEO strategy for my website?

For this question, you want to hear the process of how they will deliver results. There are over 200 ranking factors that Google looks at. These include meta tags, back linking, social signals and content. Focusing on one of these isn’t going to be successful. Understand their process, what goes into the planning and more importantly, how they will execute.

How would you build links for my website?

Several business owners understand that link building, or backlinks, to your website is a good thing for SEO. While backlinks are an important factor, the type of links impact your rankings. If someone will “sell” 3,000 backlinks for $50 – it’s not a deal. Don’t buy into that.

The only way to obtain credible links is by offering quality content that provides value. Once you do this, you can promote those pieces of content in order to increase your backlinks.

How do you incorporate keywords throughout my site?

This is an important question. If they mention that the keywords will be hidden or tiny to give signals to search engines…RUN! This is the furthest thing that you need for your website. Keywords should be used in a normal manner, that is beneficial to the audience. Tagging pages on the backend, incorporating keywords and phrases in the copy are great ways to include your targeted keywords on a page.

I cannot stress enough that once SEO is done wrong, it’s extremely difficult (and expensive) to go forward. Google knows what they are doing and they can see all of the black hat tactics mentioned above. They will demote your website and could possibly remove your site from their index.

Don’t fall into empty promises. Remember that SEO is a marathon – strategic and small changes are what bring you over the finish line.