Sunday 19 May 2013

The 4 Key Components of Digital Marketing All Marketers Must Use

Digital marketing, or the process of promoting goods and services through electronic devices, has been around for quite some time with several firms using channels such as the television and radio to further enhance their marketing efforts. However, in the recent past, with the advent and popularity of the internet, the digital marketing landscape has shifted considerably. These days, while co-temporary channels remain in use, an increasing number of firms are turning to devices such as smart phones and tablets to reach out to new audiences. Marketing through these devices does not only represent a lower cost for firms, but a firm can also expand its marketing efforts to millions of people in a single campaign
due to the vast use of these devices. Moreover, firms that make use of these devices are seen as innovative. Thus, such businesses are held in higher esteem by consumers compared to those firms that that are orthodox in nature.
However, the constantly changing nature of digital marketing represents a problem in itself as a lot of firms struggle to keep up with the pace. Hence, although digital marketing provides firms with an invaluable channel to promote their offerings through, success is not all that simple to achieve. In order to truly realize its potential, marketers must include all the 4 key components of digital marketing mentioned below:

Own the Keywords
Sharing other people’s voice may have been the trend in the past but these days if firms wish to prosper and effectively make use of digital marketing, they have to ensure that they provide users with original stuff. Trending keywords not only determine a website’s ranking, but they also go a long way in determining the quality of content. However, it is not enough to use keywords. Rather, it is important that firms own these keywords and are the first ones to use them.

Although buying keywords can be expensive (especially if they are highly demanded), the benefits that arise from using them outweigh the costs by a huge margin. Therefore, it is suggested that marketers try and own the trending keywords and in order to do so, they should analyze the market as to what type of keywords will be in demand in the future. Keywords can easily be acquired through free tools such as Google Insight.

Be Relevant with Your Content
In today’s marketing world, relevancy is the name of the game and firms that provide their consumers with quality and relevant content are the ones that are most likely to generate the highest amount of traffic. Being relevant means providing users with content that is in line with what the firm is offering and gives readers something that adds value to their lives. Firms that fill up their websites or blogs with irrelevant and useless content only for the sake of quantity are likely to experience dwindling traffic as nowadays consumers are not only price- conscious, but are also value-conscious as well whereby consumers decide to spend their money on products that provide them with the highest amount of quality and value.
Before embarking on the digital marketing journey and creating a marketing strategy, marketers and business owners should ask themselves questions such as who their consumers are, what they want, and how they plan on fulfilling their needs. Furthermore, questions such as what channels the targeted consumers use or how they make the purchase decisions are also to be considered.

Context is Key
While content is obviously important, what is more important is the context it is provided in. A lot of successful entrepreneurs and marketers have shown us that in order to truly make the most out of digital marketing, it is imperative that firms are able to integrate technology with creativity. Using the most innovative channels and tools for advertising may attract traffic, but at the end of the day consumers demand value. Therefore, the matter in the advertisement is the decider. More often than not, the most successful tool bars and display advertisements deliver content within the context of a website.

Social media networks
These days, no matter how reluctant they are, digital marketers simply cannot afford to leave out social media networks as a part of their overall digital marketing strategy. The significance of social media networks can be ascertained from the fact that almost 98% of all 18 to 24 year olds use social media networks in one way or the other. Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with an opportunity to promote their offerings to millions of people from all walks of life. Secondly, these networks also enable firms to be creative and reach out to audiences in a way that other channels do not allow. By creating a page on Facebook or Twitter, firms have the option of interacting directly with its target market and receive valuable feedback.

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