Basic Digital Marketing

Around the tools, technologies, and consumer behaviours that continue to change around digital marketing, one of the few things that have remained a constant over the years is the power of content marketing. It has been predicted the content marketing industry will grow to more than $400 billion by 2021. As we embark on a new year of exciting digital marketing trends, tips, and tricks, here’s a short list of the trendiest content marketing strategies we expect to hit big in 2019.

When you’re out and about, even on-the-go, you should have eyes on how your social media marketing strategies are doing. That’s what some of these apps and tools do. For when you need to schedule a social media post or create a new conversation in your online presence, you’ll be thankful for instant access via any of these smartphone tools.

For small business owners, generate higher productivity with business and marketing apps that will assist in scheduling and publishing content, managing multiple accounts, curating content to send out across different platforms, and to assist in creating media content. These are just a few of our favourites, based off recommendations from clients and industry trends.

A great small business marketing plan consistently and predictably transfers prospects into leads, converting this activity into sales results and promotion. More easily said than done, there’s challenges that come with that.

Competition, bad advice, budget restrictions, and relying too much on the latest trends can all derail an already amazing digital marketing plan for your website. Here are some simple steps in how to build a marketing campaign customized to your site’s aspirations.

Business owners jumping at the chance to partner with a digital marketing agency sometimes choose the wrong service provider. They invest the funds like they’re advised and they don’t receive the results they were promised. Then, they end up disillusioned with the digital marketing industry, having lost money, sales potential, and sometimes more.

Christmas is coming and on its way alongside the holiday are some of the biggest sales of the year.

Last year’s winter holiday season generated more than $138 billion in online revenues with more than $691 billion in in-store sales. This year is set to be even bigger and if you’re looking to top your numbers, here are nine marketing strategies that can be used to set yourself up for maximum success.

One of the most exciting marketing opportunities for small businesses in Canada is their own website and online marketing presence. Establishing a website for your brand, you have a massively efficient tool at promoting your business, generating exposure you wouldn’t otherwise have, and building a more loyal clientele. Websites and their accompanying digital marketing supports can be developed on almost any reasonable budget. Through hard work and intelligence, the results can be astounding.

Content marketing’s most successful companies put their audience’s needs ahead of their sales-friendly marketing message. There’s a lot of ways to take news like this but if you’re serious about long-term content marketing, you’re going to want to concentrate on maximizing your efforts focusing on communication and emotional connection over sales.

Content marketing increases brand awareness, gives your website something to promote, and builds deeper connections with consumers. In today’s world, consumers aren’t necessarily looking for the ‘cheapest deal’. They’re looking to make a connection with the brand they’re buying from.

If you’re a new business or website, that means developing brand identity. Content marketing is a cost-effective way to accomplish this, personalizing marketing to the target audience and speaking to them directly without a middleman.

Headlines are incredibly important to whether a blog or article gets clicked or not. There are very literal headlines one can write, those that are overtly click-friendly to the extent that they are criticized as click-bait, and then, there are those most effective at engaging the audience.

A bad headline is ignored and a great headline gets you a click – this is the difference. Now, how to write a catchy headline is an art. Consider what’s engaging to your target audience. In the same way you’re writing articles to engage your reader, if you don’t get a click, all of that hard work means nothing. A headline absolutely must get a click. To accomplish this, many writers will make a promise in the headline that is delivered in the article. There is urgency implanted in, a sense of exclusivity, and a guarantee of access to privileged information that cannot be found elsewhere. If you know your audience well, you may already be able to write a great headline! If you are at a loss for where to start though, the following are several article headline types that work well.

If you’re generate a high amount of leads for your website, that’s great news! For so many businesses, to generate leads can be a big struggle. If you’re already doing big numbers, that’s half the battle. That said, once you generate leads, what you do next is important. At any stage, you could lose potential customers or worse, turn them onto a competitor. Here’s how you don’t.

The first step when you generate a lead is to get them to opt-in for a more long-term relationship with your business. You may do this through getting them to like your social media page, opt-in for email marketing, or something similar. Even if they don’t buy in on a certain day, if you have that connection, you can find future opportunities to market to them down the line. So when you set up your landing page, include a CTA to an opt-in opportunity.

Small business marketing plans are about exploiting the strategies that work and eliminating the strategies that don’t. Whether this is your first small business marketing plan or not, as a digital marketing agency, we know how to help. These are the steps that will make for crafting the perfect marketing plan for your business.

 Email marketing lists make for a valuable database that can help with many things. If you’re looking to launch a new product or service, generate momentum for your brand, promote an update, or announce a promotion, email marketing has a place.

An incredible asset, not many businesses make the most of their email lists. In fact, some brands aren’t even focused on building their email list. The belief that email is somehow dated or unfashionable is mistaken. Emails are used every day by consumers far and wide, on their computers, smartphones, tablets, and more. Emails are a great way to reach clientele.

Small businesses who can’t give their sales pitch in ten seconds or less are at a significant disadvantage. That’s because speed of presentation delivery is important. The same philosophy is applied on website design. If you don’t explain quickly what your site is about to a visitor, your risk losing them to a competitor. In addition to the physical presentation of elements, navigation is also very important.

If a visitor does not find it easy to browse your site, they will leave. Plain and simple. Even if you have the most amazing product, it doesn’t matter if your navigation is crap. To complicate things, there are customers visiting your site from desktop and mobile platforms alike. Thankfully, there’s a way to un-complicate this. A ‘mobile responsive’ website is one that adapts its look according to the screen dynamics, meaning no matter what size the screen is, your navigation can still be simple and easy. Therefore, a mobile responsive design is absolutely necessary to any site’s navigation.

You can instantly maximize your business website’s visibility with high quality backlinks from reputable sources. From small businesses to the largest corporations, they all make use of backlinks as a strategy to gain more attention on their brands. Be it a new website or an existing one, if you’re having trouble getting eyes on your product, a better backlinks profile might be what’s missing.

Link building is simple. If another website appreciates what is featured on your website, they may choose to add a link to your content in theirs. That immediately puts your website in front of a relevant, new audience. Though discussion to increase site visibility usually focus on things like social media marketing, digital marketing, PPC campaigns, and SEO, link building is an undervalued strategy that can work just as well and sometimes, better.

Mobile platforms are the most effective in digital marketing. Smartphones, tablets, and digital device traffic has taken over from desktops. If you are looking to appeal to the widest possible audience, if you haven’t already, it’s time to switch to a mobile-first digital marketing strategy.

As a digital marketing company, a common mistake we see in building a small business website is the writing of a single ‘Services’ page. As prominent and clearly marked as a ‘Services’ page can appear, and as amazing as the content may be, if it’s just one page, you might be making a huge fumble. If you’re finding your SEO efforts are not resulting in a strong performance and/or if your website’s conversion rate is not acceptable, mistakes like these that might be why.

Drive traffic, build brand awareness, and establish a highly profitable website with a long-term SEO-driven content marketing strategy. Content marketing applies to any media you create and release, be it written, image-based, infographics, or video.

Curating relevant content marketing is an effective strategy at attaining higher domain authority, better search engine rankings, and the possibility of increased lead conversion. Though content marketing is challenging, its high rewards are worth chasing. As a digital marketing company, here are 6 common questions about SEO and content marketing we hear frequently from our clients.

No website should deliver no results. Just having something online is not good enough. A website should be providing support and results across lead generation, sales, and revenues. If you feel as if your website is not working, know that this is not an uncommon worry. A lot of small business owners wonder how they can improve the results of their website. Note, why a local website is not working at delivering real business results can be attributed to any of several things.

Search engine optimization (SEO) environments are highly competitive and always changing. Shifting algorithms and the new challenges that come with it mean it’s important to keep an ear to the ground, to always be evolving, and to continue bettering your marketing.

Mastering SEO strategies is something we, as a premiere Toronto digital marketing company, know very well. It’s not always easy keeping ahead of the curve and modifying strategies in accordance with what the algorithms are saying at any given time. Experimenting with new strategies and noting which techniques are driving results is important. When we’re hired, we know we’re being hired to deliver results. If those results don’t come, that’s on us. As hard as it is, the science of SEO involves identifying what’s not working, making corrections, implementing successful strategies, and continuing to drive the ship towards long-term success.

There are nine key pillars to a strong performing SEO marketing campaign that any brand should remember. SEO has wonderful ways of generating leads, improving search engine rankings, improving targeted traffic strategies, and ultimately, driving sales. If you’re interested in learning more about how to maximize search engines’ algorithms from an experienced digital marketing company, please allow us to share some of our insights.

Aligning your SEO needs to your company goals

Building a successful SEO strategy begins by setting the goals you want to achieve, your target audience, and your competitors. Getting a clear understanding of your brand in relation to these three points is a necessity.

Keyword research is crucial to success in digital marketing across search engines and social media. By narrowing down which keywords you wish to focus on in your content marketing, you can begin guiding the conversation about your business. How to do keyword research and to get the best set of keywords at any given time, it requires some heavy lifting. Determining what your audience wants, thinks, and feels is not always clear. The businesses that know their audience well though are sure to succeed in the digital marketing field.

From small businesses to the largest corporations, digital marketing investments continue to increase. According to recent reports, more than 99 percent of businesses in North America are planning to increase their digital marketing spending in 2019.

Why this is the case is for many reasons. Digital marketing touches upon all aspects of marketing in the online world, including email, social media, video, eCommerce, and more. Almost 41 percent of all businesses in North America with more than 100 employees invest more than $500,000 in digital marketing every year. Alongside these investments comes an opportunity to maximize one’s marketing dollar. Unlike offline marketing, in the digital space, there’s a lot of tools one can use to monitor whether a strategy is working or not. And, if/when it’s not, an experienced marketer knows what to do to change it or to get it working.

Evaluating the different digital marketing channels, brands are sometimes pointed toward email marketing or social media as a ‘golden egg’. Analyzing the returns generated across both channels, it can be tough to know which one is the better investment for your brand. Though social media pulls in strong numbers, email marketing maintains somewhat stronger short-term returns.

Why email marketing outperforms social media is simple. When you’re engaged in social media marketing, one is relying on algorithms to determine success. Be it through paid ads or organic strategies, one relies on the platform to deliver the results. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so many others take the same approach. Comparatively, email marketing is direct-to-consumer, initiating a conversation between your brand and the consumer with no middle man. All email marketing requires is for one to build their email list and then, learning how to capitalize on it at the right time to drive sales, generate revenues, and sign more people up.

For the best business results, online and offline marketing messaging should be consistent and integrative. Though online and offline are two very different worlds, to succeed locally and globally, small businesses need to create a seamless transition for prospective customers. No matter which collection of marketing you favor, both are integral to contemporary business success.

As a digital marketing company, we are evidently very much supporters of going after online markets rather than offline. After all, the digital space is where a lot of the audience growth is and it’s where consumers are at. If you want to build a brand successfully, online is absolutely where one needs to pay attention to.

So much of digital marketing is wrapped up in improving brand visibility online. To do this, sometimes social media is used. At other times, it might be SEO strategizing, email, eCommerce promotions, and/or other digital channels. For any business, managing one’s different online profiles can be the key to maximizing every opportunity to reach new customers. Consistent, accurate representation online is key to asserting authority and building a following.