The DL on Digital Marketing
To keep it as short as possible, digital marketing is the use of the internet to promote brands, products, and services to reach potential customers. This includes social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email campaigns, content marketing, and more. Some may mistake digital advertising with digital marketing, but advertising is more disruptive (paid instead of organic) and targeted to a more broad audience. The two can absolutely work together successfully, but today, we’re focusing on the organic side of things and common questions. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Is Digital Marketing Just About Social Media?
This is a question I get a lot. The simple answer: nope! While social media marketing is an aspect of digital marketing, it’s not the whole story. The initial idea behind social media marketing was to use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to drive traffic to a website and convert visitors into customers. That’s still a big part of it, but when done well, it happens with a softer touch and is not so in-your-face.
Think about the businesses you follow on Instagram, for example. If you’re like me, you don’t want to clutter your feed with sales pitches. Instead, you’re looking for engaging content, whether that’s informative, educational, whimsical, funny, etc. A customer is much more likely to be intrigued by your brand if it aligns with their interests and they feel connected to you. That’s exactly what an intentional social media marketing campaign can do.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of strategically using keywords and content to drive quality traffic to your website through organic search engine results. Search engines like Google “crawl” websites to gain information about what content lives on them. This builds an index that goes through an algorithm to try to find the best matches for any given search query. Loads of factors go into these algorithms, including keyword relevance, which is why keyword research is imperative.
Do I Need a Blog?
One of the most beneficial areas of your website and your digital marketing campaign can be a blog or news section. There are numerous benefits of a blog. One of them is that it provides another area to introduce fresh, informative content that search engines (and your followers) love. Blogs also help you showcase your expertise and establish yourself as an expert. Another nice thing about blogs is that they create more content for you to share on social media, giving you even more chances to connect with your community.
Should I Use YouTube?
YouTube is a fun platform to use for businesses, but if you think you’re going to create a viral video and rake in the cash, I’m going to have to respectfully ask you to float back down to earth for a moment so we can have a chat. Going viral is incredibly rare and almost never happens on purpose. In fact, when I think of businesses that went viral, it’s not been for positive reasons. I like your energy, though, so let’s walk through it. These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself if you’re wondering whether YouTube is worth it for your brand:
- Do you have a capable videographer on retainer and can they edit videos?
- Are you willing to put time and effort into creating new video content regularly (let’s say a couple of times a month)?
- Would these videos make more sense on YouTube than they would on Instagram or Facebook?
- Do you have room for any of this in your budget?
If you answered “no” to all of these questions, you have your answer. If you answered “yes” to all or even a couple of them, then YouTube may be something to explore. Ultimately, YouTube can be a great platform to pull the curtain back on your business and really give your customers a peek into who you are, what you do, how you do it, where you do it, and why you do it.
Is Email Marketing Effective?
For some businesses, email marketing can be a good way to regularly reach current customers and keep them thinking about you. If you’re like me, your inbox is usually inundated with promotional emails you never purposely signed up for, but don’t unsubscribe from because you’ve found some great deals. We typically get these emails from companies we’ve made purchases from and have missed the (automatically ticked) checkbox asking us to sign up for promotional emails or newsletters.
Newsletters vs. Promotional Emails
The difference between a newsletter and a promotional email is that a newsletter tends to cover multiple subjects, while a promotional email promotes an event, product, sale, etc. If you’re thinking of starting a newsletter, be prepared to commit to this either monthly or quarterly. They take more work than you may think because there are a lot of moving parts. You’ll want to decide on a template, the subjects you want to cover each time, and focus on strong subject lines. Protip: adding an emoji or two to the subject line can draw attention to it in an otherwise packed inbox.
Digital Marketing from Green Ivy Creative
It’s hard enough to run your own business each day. Trying to figure out how to create and drive a digital marketing campaign on top of it can be stressful, scary, and confusing. When you work with us, our goal is to become a trusted part of your team. By getting to know you and your customers, we build a strategy around realistic goals and run your campaign for you (with your input, of course). Learn more about the specialized marketing services we provide and contact us today to start the conversation.