10 Effective Digital Marketing Tactics to Drive Growth in 2023
The times they are a-changin'.?
Although Bob Dylan was probably not referring to the advertising industry, the words ring true either way – marketing continues to evolve with each passing year.?
Whether you’re a new brand looking to make a name for yourself, or one that’s been established for 100+ years, getting your message in front of consumers will always be the key to driving business. But in 2023, people also want to feel heard by the companies they choose to do business with.??
So that’s where we start. To give yourself the best chance at growing your customer base, you must go where they are: the internet. With that in mind, here are 10 digital marketing tactics you’ll want to consider incorporating into your ad strategy.?
Tactic #1: Content Marketing
In 2022, 97% of brands found success with their content marketing strategy. That means they created interactive content like eBooks, infographics, videos, blogs, newsletters, and more that appealed to their consumers, and ultimately led to a sale or conversion. But why does it work??
The simple answer: it helps the end user. More specifically, content marketing provides valuable information to the user that answers the questions they are asking.??
By leveraging the power of Google, which was created to categorize and deliver content most relevant to a user’s query, content marketing puts brands in front of the people who may be interested in their product or service. That’s because, before the vast majority of people make a purchase, they conduct some form of internet research. Content marketing meets those people while they’re researching.?
Rather than generating direct sales, content marketing is about showing people that your brand is an expert – it focuses on establishing and nurturing the relationships a consumer might already have with a brand, and then capitalizes on it by being there when it’s time for them to make a decision.?
The results are straightforward – per dollar spent, content marketing brings in about 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing, but costs 62% less.??
Put it all together, and it’s a must-have for any business that wants to make money.???
Tactic #2: SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Standing next to content marketing on the Olympic podium for ROI is none other than SEO.???
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of enhancing a website’s qualities to increase the amount of organic user traffic going to that website. It’s one of the most important digital marketing tactics for brands around the world, responsible for driving more than half of all online traffic.?
The main purpose of a search engine is to provide users with the best answer on the fastest, most trustworthy website. SEO helps you do just that, earning you higher rankings on the search engine results page (or SERP) for organic results, which, in turn, brings more web users to your site. And of course, the more people browsing, the more opportunity to convert them into customers.?
However, SEO takes time and is often referred to as “the long play” by marketing experts. Optimizing your website for speed and content is one thing, but earning Google’s trust as a leader in an industry or conversation is something that can require months or even years for some.?
Tactic #3: SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a type of internet marketing that focuses on increasing a website’s visibility and user traffic through paid ads in search engine results. It accounts for about 15% of all web traffic.?
SEM (also known as PPC or pay-per-click) shares the search engine results page with organic results but has its own designated spot when a user performs a keyword search. In fact, it takes priority over organic search results, generally deciding the top three listings for a given search. So how does it work??
Once a company creates a Google Ads account, it’s able to create an array of ad copy for its products and services that will appear when specific, brand-targeted keywords are searched. When a user searches a term that falls under that targeted umbrella, the company’s ads are matched up against all others that are competing for the same terms in what’s known as an Ad Auction. Companies that have the highest quality score and bidding amount, among other criteria, win the auction.?
These auctions appear in several different formats, including:?
The difference between SEO and SEM is that, while SEO can take months or even years to see noteworthy results, SEM offers businesses an opportunity to “skip the line” and jump to the top of search results, bringing potential customers to their site within a day or two of launching their campaign.?
Put together, these two digital marketing tactics can drive a hefty portion of online traffic to any website. But there are other options available.?
Tactic #4: Programmatic Marketing
Programmatic marketing is an automated form of advertising that involves the real-time, algorithmic auctioning of digital ad space across millions of websites and platforms. Everything from connected TV (CTV) to streaming services to digital out-of-home (DOOH) can be purchased programmatically. Those ads you get in-between Spotify songs or your recent binge on Hulu? That’s programmatic advertising at work.?
The main difference between SEM and programmatic is that programmatic is a “proactive” type of marketing, while SEM is more reactive.??
Rather than requiring a brand to manually adjust their ad campaign, programmatic uses an algorithmic formula to determine which ads should be presented to someone based on their individual user data. This can include both 1st party data (such as a CRM list) or 3rd party data based on that user’s earlier actions and interests.??
By providing more personalized, targeted ads that users can engage with, brands can improve the cost efficiency of their campaigns and eliminate waste. And since these ads are data-driven, programmatic also allows for real-time optimization, driving improved (and more detailed) performance metrics both during and after their campaigns.??
More than 85% of US display ad spending in 2023 was programmatic, and that number continues to increase year-by-year. If you aren’t considering programmatic marketing in your ad strategy, you may want to circle back and think again.?
Tactic #5: Paid Social Media
Paid social refers to social media advertising, which is the creation and promotion of sponsored content that’s targeted towards a specific audience. As of 2021, it accounted for more than 20% of all ad spend by North American brands. There’s a good reason for that.?
Paid social can be found everywhere – even if you don’t recognize it when you see it. It comes in a few forms:?
Each has different ways of pulling an audience’s attention but vary in execution across each channel. And naturally, each app has a different audience worth targeting. While Snapchat and TikTok are more visually driven and appeal to a younger demographic, LinkedIn is primarily used by business owners and networking professionals who are more likely to read an in-depth or long-form post. Choosing the right channel for your brand depends on what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to.?
Over the last decade, paid social has provided significant dividends for brands looking to get their message in front of consumers. But similar to the SEO vs. SEM debate, there are advantages to building an organic audience funnel in social media as well.?
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Tactic #6: Organic Social Media
Organic social media is any content that you or your brand puts up on a social media platform without any paid support.???
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok; at their inception, each of these platforms were initially built for organic engagement.??
Paid tactics were later introduced to help support more specific brands and goals for businesses. However, some platforms still have a high organic reach – for example, LinkedIn has more than 40% of users still engaging with a page at least once a week.??
The question then becomes, how do you ensure you’re taking a strategic approach to your organic social????
Well for one, you want to provide authentic, engaging content. Being transparent and open to feedback from your audience is a first step towards building a real relationship with them. Making your audience feel heard leads to better content, often resulting in a better product for them when it’s all said and done.?
And that’s part two: make sure your content is providing value to your audiences – this is especially important.??
By giving your audience something that educates or entertains them, they’re much more likely to come back to your content again a second time, and a third, and so on. That’s why the key to organic social is to deliver content that they want to hear from you instead of content that you want to give them. Do a “favor” for them, and they’ll be more likely to do the same for you. Remember, we want to avoid overly promotional styles of messaging and content – authenticity is king in social media.?
Tactic #7: Influencers
An influencer is someone who’s built a following on social media or other platforms (such as blogs or Vimeo) as an expert or leader in a specific industry or niche.???
Anyone who knows anything about marketing knows one thing: People don’t like to be advertised to. That’s why things like product placement and testimonials are so popular, and it’s the same reason why influencer marketing has become so successful.???
Influencers are a great marketing tool because they allow you to authentically tap into the organic social media following that someone else has already cultivated. That means that the people seeing a post from their favorite influencer now have two things:???
While some will argue that influencer marketing has been around for decades (or even millennia, depending on who you ask), it really didn’t develop into its current form until about 10 years ago, when reality TV stars began to create a following of their own on social media platforms. Now, people from all walks of life have an opportunity to do the same, all because of good old-fashioned go-where-the-people-are marketing.??
And yes, it definitely works – as of 2022, businesses have seen a $5.20 ROI for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.???
Tactic #8: Video Content
Look around and you’ll notice a trend: video is the king of content. On mobile alone, websites like YouTube have more 18- to 49-year-old viewership than any broadcast or cable network. And that viewership only continues to grow, with more than 60% of Americans choosing to watch video over live TV.??
Video content is a widely used form of media that involves creating online material like vlogs, GIFs, webinars, testimonials, and much more. It’s one of the most popular forms of digital marketing there is, going hand-in-hand with some of the tactics already mentioned above.?
The biggest advantage of video content is that it can benefit nearly every tactic mentioned above.??
Aside from its obvious connection to social media, it also plays a significant role in content marketing, programmatic, and even SEO. In fact, as long as a video has a subtitle transcript (which most video-centric apps offer by default to its creators), Google considers video to be incredibly valuable content for its users, surpassing long-form content, bullet points, and more.?
Brands around the world have made a name for themselves in a very short period of time by using video widely and wisely. And in an era when attention span continues to shrink, it’s more important than ever to follow the interests of your consumers.?
Tactic #9: Email Marketing
Email marketing is a direct-to-consumer form of advertising that allows companies to promote their brand, products, or services and engage with customers on a personal level. It’s been used by brands everywhere for more than 30 years, making it one of the oldest forms of digital marketing there is. And as email has evolved, email marketing has changed over time with it.??
Using email gives brands an opportunity to create a relationship with a new customer or build upon an existing one. Whether you’re using it as a vessel to tell your story, or as a little *ping* to remind them that you still exist, it’s assumed to be a welcomed encounter – they provided you with their email address at some point, and this is your neighborly knock at the door to see how they’re doing.???
However, not unlike a neighbor, too many knocks at the door in a short period of time will cause the opposite of your intended effect and may drive them away. It’s important to respect the time of your recipients – otherwise they may unsubscribe from the service, or just choose to ignore them altogether as spam.??
Rather than telling them what you want them to hear, consider offering solutions to their problems, or ask them questions that drive them to your website for the solution. That’s where you’ll win their real attention, and ultimately, their business.?
Tactic #10: Website
A website is the online hub for your brand – a living, breathing, tangible piece of your company that is often the finish line for users who have clicked on or otherwise interacted with the digital marketing you’ve done. For that reason, it’s probably the most important piece of your business, and you should treat it as such.?
However, not all brands do. Although there are over 1.13 billion websites across the internet, only 18% of them are actively updated, maintained, and visited.?
This creates a unique opportunity for the brands that are paying attention to their websites – particularly the ones playing in the digital space.??
Having a website is about having credibility as a business. SEO does not exist without a website. SEM, email campaigns, programmatic – they all have to be leading the user somewhere, and without that somewhere, your marketing strategy is rudderless.??
More specifically, if your website is impossible to navigate, it’s almost just as useless as not having one. If you haven’t already, consider optimizing and revitalizing whatever website you may have now to be as user-friendly as possible. Ask yourself, “If I were the customer and I wanted X, how quickly can I find that content?”??
Does it take two clicks? Five? Ten? Make that number as small as possible for all of your most important info and do your best to create a user journey that’s as simple as it is scenic. This is where brand announcements can live, but more importantly, where your leads (from all the tactics we listed above) become conversions.??
Not sure where to start with your marketing plans? You came to the right place.?Drop us a line?and tell us about your biggest marketing challenge.?We'd love to help.
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