If you use social media as part of your digital marketing strategies, you know how often, and quickly, it changes. Everyone is painfully aware of the latest Facebook changes and lower-than-ever organic reach. No matter what you’ve heard, the reality is that it’s not all gloom and doom.
Dropping organic reach is frustrating to marketers because of the expectation that our content should be seen by anyone who has liked or followed us. A fair expectation, but we forget why social media was created in the first place.
Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use social media to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them. It was not created to assist marketers in their quest to advertise their goods & services… that came later.
Now, I’m not going to talk about every platform’s mission statement here because they’re all similar to Facebook. It’s about growing communities and staying connected through digital channels, and from that marketers are given opportunities to also grow their business.
Today’s savvy business owner needs to understand that digital marketing is a highly competitive, multi channel environment and plans should serve the uniqueness of each individual business, narrowing in on the funnels that will work at the highest level. A B2B may use different mediums than a B2C, for example.
With all of that said, here’s 14 digital marketing strategies you should know:
1. Diversify
Digital Marketing strategies are an important investment for business and like any good investment, diversifying is crucial. We don’t recommend you get on every social media channel out there, but we do recommend you take a serious look at your target market and choose more than one medium to reach them. Then remember to be consistent and true to your brand. If you’re really new, it might be best to start with one channel and expand from there once you get used to what you’re doing.
2. Don’t use Social Media as a ‘Sales Stream’
If you still want to have some organic reach, you will build authentic content that engages your community. This is true for every social media platform… hence the word ‘social’. And, yes, you will also plan a consistent advertising budget to create traffic to your website, ultimately converting to sales. It works hand-in-hand.
3. Run contests on social media
Facebook’s January 2018 announcement specifically said “With this update, we will also prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.” Contests spark meaningful conversations and interactions.
4. Get busy on Instagram
Instagram is owned by Facebook and is about capturing and sharing the world’s moments. It was not created with the same vision as Facebook but it will continue to evolve as well. Instagram has grown to over 500 million daily active users and strong growth is predicted to continue. If used correctly, Instagram is a very powerful tool for a brand, and gets very good ‘organic’ reach.
5. Use Social Media Advertising
We hear so many grumbles about how people just can’t stand the thought of advertising on Facebook. Facebook advertising is some of the most targeted, most efficient methods of advertising in our world today. Some of our clients see incredible ROI, so we strongly recommend you test it out… and not just once for $50. LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter also offer good advertising opportunities if they’re the medium that work well for you.
6. Review what social platforms you’re using and what you might change.
Lexabi Communications is a B2B which means that our most successful social media channel is LinkedIn. Yes, we’ve actually received new clients from LinkedIn… several. Do you have your business on the right social channels? Do you know which channel will serve your business the best? Time to take inventory and review what you’ve been doing.
7. DO video
Video is the way of the future folks. YouTube is the second biggest search platform, second only to Google. Facebook live videos get 6 times more interactions than a regular video post or share. Videos add ‘stickiness’ to your website. Video is the way of the future… yes, I meant to say that twice.
8. Get serious about your email marketing
Recently, I was speaking with a client and they said “I hate newsletters… I delete several every day. Why would I want to do email marketing”, not the first time we’ve heard this. The short version is that it’s not about quantity… it’s about quality and serving your readers communication they’re happy to receive.
9. Consider Google Adwords
Google is the number one search platform online. Perhaps you should focus some energy on paid ads (Google Adwords)?
10. Ask people to leave you reviews (Google and/or Facebook)
Because of engagement-baiting, phishing, and other dishonest ways of getting people to click on a link, reviews are becoming invaluable to a businesses reputation. They can literally make the difference between someone doing business with you or going elsewhere. If you’re enjoying this article, CLICK HERE to leave Lexabi a Review!
11. Assess your website thoroughly
When is the last time you did a thorough analysis of your website? You’re website is your digital storefront and if it isn’t inviting, clean and professional, people simply aren’t going to visit, and/or may not take you seriously. Don’t take shortcuts with web development. Another important tip – secure your website. Last year, Google announced that it will give less priority to websites that are not secure (https).
12. Get your blog on track
Fresh relevant content is what google looks for. You can still rank high on google organically, so maybe it’s time to look at spending that extra time writing informative articles. It’s also a great traffic generator from your social media and email marketing.
13. Make sure everything you do is optimized for mobile
Mobile is also the way of the future. Mobile digital media time in the US is now significantly higher at 51% compared to desktop (42%). If your website isn’t optimized, your missing out (Google won’t give priority to websites based on that signal alone). Remember, that there is a limited amount of viewable space on mobile, so every pixel matters.
14. Design Matters
Today’s world is highly visual and every image you send out to the world is judged in milliseconds. Your brand deserves to be represented professionally and consistently.
Digital marketing strategies have been evolving since their inception. It’s just evolving quicker than we can keep up with these days. I think there’s something coming that hasn’t even been invented yet … won’t that be fun to discover?
*Digital Marketing Strategies – Sources: Facebook, Mari Smith, Social Media Examiner, SmartInsites