You hear people use the term Digital Marketing all the time, and in most cases it is used improperly. Digital Marketing isn’t just one thing, it is a synergistic approach to marketing across all of your digital assets.
Digital Branding
The image you want to portray for your business online is determined by Digital Branding. In other words, the look and feel of your online presence must be consistent or you will confuse your audience as to who your business is. This includes several things such as:
- Logo
- Color scheme
- Fonts
- Image style
- Video style
Let’s say you own an ice cream shop, you want to portray a fun, bright, colorful image for your business. You wouldn’t post images of smiling kids and hand scooped ice cream, then begin posting images of bull fighting. Your audience will get confused and tune out.
Website
Websites are the hub of your business. This is where customers learn who you are and what service you provide. Branding and messaging need to be on point and consistent across your site. This will add credibility to your business.
Considering building your own website or blog – Read “Is Wix or WordPress The Right Choice For Your Website?“
SEO
When customers are searching for the service your business provides, your business needs to be there. In other words, optimizing your website for search engines like Google and Bing is crucial to being found online.
You can have the best looking site in your niche, but if it’s not optimized and Google isn’t indexing it then potential customers are never going to find you.
- Figure out what keywords you want to be found for
- Think of what long-tail phrases your customers will use in their search
- Make sure you have content on your site reflects the above
Keyword examples would be “ice cream shop, business name, name of town, names of popular flavors, etc.“. A long-tail phrase is what someone types into search “best ice cream in fort lauderdale” or “rocky road ice cream miami“. I think you get the idea, think like a customer!
Social Media
People aren’t on social media to be sold. Therefore, trying to make every post about selling your product or service will instantly turn people off. The key word here is “Social“! Imagine you are at a party and every person you spoke with hit you with a sales pitch for their service… you would leave.
Social media is the place where you get to engage with your customers. This is where you can showcase the real personality and culture of your business. Post images of every day happenings around your business. In other words, show people that your business is made up of real people.
Imagine a law firm that posts images of lawyers working, not very engaging right. Now imagine photos of a lawyer who rock climbs or runs marathons on weekends. The second example is much more engaging. In addition, when a potential client goes into the office he/she feels like they already know and trust the lawyer.
Looking for the best gear to shoot social media video without breaking the bank – Read “What’s The Best Gear For Social Media Video?“
Of course there is always more
These are just some of the basics that you can begin to work on. There is so much more to digital marketing, such as:
- YouTube
- Blogs
- Pay-per-Click (PPC)
- Google Adwords
- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube advertising
- Email marketing
- Analytics
Each piece of digital marketing needs to work hand-in-hand. Otherwise, you are sending mixed signals. If all of this seems a bit too overwhelming, you don’t have the time or manpower, or you just need a strategic plan – Give us a call, we’ll be glad to help!