How to Leverage Digital Marketing for Brand Loyalty

“Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business and not telling anyone!” - Anonymous

The relevance of e-marketing is only rising and if trends are to be believed online marketing will rule the roost in times to come. In fact, brands are leveraging online advertising to engage their audience. This is apparent by the significant increase in digital ad spending, which was $191.67 in 2016 is expected to reach a whopping $375.80 by 2021! (Source: eMarketer)

With millions of people using the internet, the best way for a business to advertise its products or services is web marketing. Web marketing includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC).

Are you wondering why digital marketing is vital for your business?

Brand building is imperative for the success of an enterprise because it empowers lead conversions. Digital marketing helps build the brand by increasing visibility and engaging across various marketing channels.

While planning a marketing campaign, an organization needs to focus on each and every aspect of digital marketing because of the impact of digital marketing in the current market scenario.

Market analysis of 2018 reveals:

PPC

64% of consumers click on Google ads when looking to make purchases. These figures are sufficient to convince those marketers who doubt the effectiveness of PPC. Although SEO is important, it takes time to show results. On the contrary, PPC produces instant results. For skeptics who are in unsure whether investing in PPC will provide sufficient ROI, the fact remains PPC has the potential to double the investment! The reason for this is that paid ads reach out to qualified leads which have better chances of conversion.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is a marketing strategy that entails generating website traffic with the help of paid ads. However, it should not be confused with PPC. While PPC is an advertising model that directs traffic to a website and the advertiser pays the publisher for each click on the ad. On the contrary, the objective of SEM is enabling the content of a company rank higher in search engines by promoting and advertising it. While in 2018 organizations allocated 41% of their budget to SEM this figure is expected to reach 45% by 2020!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is one of the most dynamic of the various digital marketing techniques because it must adapt to the frequently changing Google Algorithms in order to be effective and avoid penalties. The significance of SEO can be ascertained by the fact that 67k searches are performed on Google annually and 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. Besides nearly 39% of global E-commerce traffic is because of search! (Source: SEO tribunal). Digital marketers are investing heavily in SEO so that their pages rank high on SERPs.

Social Media

If you are looking to maximize the revenue from your ad budget, social media marketing is the best option. This is because stats reveal that people using the internet spend maximum time on various social media channels or watching online videos.

Data indicates:

94% of B2B Marketers use LinkedIn as a part of their content strategy.

87% of marketers advertise on Twitter.

84% utilize Facebook for online promotions.

74% advertise on YouTube

(Source: Content Institute)

Social marketing entails choosing the right channels and advertising the right content on them so that they help connect with the relevant audience.

Now that the facts corroborate the significance of digital marketing in today's world, it is important to have a well-planned digital marketing strategy for your campaign.

Here is an overview of the steps to be followed for a successful digital marketing campaign:

Step 1: Define Objectives

Before commencing the process of digital marketing, it is essential to define your objectives or what you expect to achieve from this campaign.

Step 2: Website Analysis

After this, you will need to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing website based on various metrics. Google Analytics is a good tool to get an insight into the website.

Step 3: Competitor Analysis

After this, detailed competitor analysis is carried out to assess strategies being adopted by them.

Step 4: Recommendations

Based on the analysis of the existing website and competitor analysis, the digital marketing expert prepares a list of recommendations for the changes to be implemented on the website.

Step 5: Implementation

The suggested recommendations are implemented on the website.

Step 6: Marketing Strategy

The next step is developing a marketing strategy that is aligned with the goals/expectations of the organization.

Step 7: On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization envisages all those activities done on the website to help it rank higher on search engine rankings.

Some on-page SEO elements are:

• Page Titles
• Internal Linking
• Meta Tags
• Meta Descriptions
• URL Structure
• Body Tags
• Keyword Density
• Image SEO

Step 8: Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to all those activities carried out Off the website to help it rank higher.

Some off-page techniques are:

• Advertising on social media
• Blogging
• Blog Marketing
• Forum Marketing
• Search Engine submission
• Social Bookmarking
• Link Baiting
• Image Sharing
• Video Marketing
• Business Reviews
• Local Listing
• Article submissions, and many more!

Step 9: Choose a Marketing Platform

After this, a suitable marketing platform based on the budget is selected.

Step 10: Analyze the metrics

With the help of Google Analytics, the performance of the website is assessed. This gives a fair idea of the results of your efforts and where improvements are required.

This is a basic outline of a digital marketing campaign. However, while planning your digital marketing strategy, it is also important to consider the trends in the market. This will empower in planning a more effective strategy.

Some of the trends to watch out for in 2019 are:

Interactive Social Media

The digital marketers will need to indulge in a two-way conversation with their audience. The marketers will need to listen to their audiences before strategizing. The effectiveness of your campaign will depend on how well you understand the needs of your customers.

Mobile First

Making websites responsive will no longer be a choice but it will become mandatory if you want to stay competitive.

Video Content

Research indicates that videos are shared 1200% more than any other type of content. Digital marketers will need to focus on optimized video content for engagement.

AI and AR

Digital marketers will need to update their marketing strategies with the new emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to provide their customers with a better experience.

Looking Ahead

Digital Marketing is marching ahead as the most effective marketing technique. If you are looking for competitive advantages so as to engage with more customers then it is imperative that you strengthen your digital marketing efforts.

In this competitive environment, digital marketing is no longer for amateurs, but requires the efforts of an expert so that it produces the desired results. V2Soft is a Michigan based software company that has an experienced and professional team for Digital marketing.