Digital Marketing Strategy for Online Businesses.

Digital marketing is worth the penny; backed by stats

Digital marketing is continuously evolving, and in 2020, companies have to up their game to stay relevant and make money.

Does email advertising, radio, and tv ads sound familiar to you? All these channels constitute digital marketing.

To correctly understand digital marketing, we have to ask the following questions.

What is digital marketing?

The types of digital marketing.

Why digital marketing is essential for your business.

Let's look deeper into this vital digital marketing questions.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to the use of technological devices to reach and sell to clients. Digital marketing employs different tools and methods to achieve its goals including,

• Computers.
• Mobile devices, i.e., mobile phones, tablets.
• Social media.
• Search engines.
• Email
• Tv, Radio, and other devices

Myths about digital marketing

Several myths surround digital marketing.

Is digital marketing only online? NO

Digital marketing refers to marketing using digital channels, including phones, computers, radios, TVs, etc. Note, it's the actual digital devices that convey the adverts, and the internet is just a channel between businesses and consumers.

Of course, with the internet explosion witnessed since the 2000s, online advertising has snowballed.?Digital marketing is worth $384 billion as of 2020 ,

??2.???Is Digital Marketing new? NO

Contrary to common belief, digital marketing is over 100 years old. It sounds ridiculous, but it's true. Digital marketing was born with the discovery of the Radio over a century ago. Since then, digital marketing has grown over the years.

Types of Digital Marketing

There are two broad forms of digital marketing,

• online marketing, including content marketing, email, social media marketing, PayPerClick
• offline marketing including Radio, TV, cold calling, digital billboards

Online Digital Marketing

Ever seen an advert on Facebook, on the internet, or have you received a sales email? Chances are the answer is yes for all the queries above. That, in essence, is online marketing.

Online marketing is selling consumer's products and services using online channels. Online marketing depends on the internet.

Types of online digital marketing services include,

1. SEO marketing
2. Content marketing
3. Email marketing
4. Social Media marketing
5. Affiliate marketing
6. Native Advertising
7. Pay Per Click

Let's delve deeper into the online advertising strategies above.

1. SEO Marketing?

SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a series of best practices aimed at optimizing your site and Increasing free/organic traffic. SEO is an effective marketing strategy, with?64% of marketers ?investing in it.

SEO falls into three broad strategies.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the changes carried out on your site to increase organic traffic and improve the site ranking on SERPs.

Google aims to give the most relevant results to a search query. To achieve high SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) ranking, a site's content must be high quality, authoritative and relevant; keyword research, title tags, and Meta descriptions are all part of on-page SEO.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to the procedures done offsite, which impact site rankings on SERPs. Link building is one of the most reliable off-page SEO tactics. Link building can be achieved through guest posting and paid posts. Off-page SEO also includes social media, influencer posts, mentions, etc.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is behind the scene software activities. Image compressions, structured data, mobile, and CSS optimization are some of the approaches utilized on technical SEO.

Page load time directly affects the conversion rate , which is the main reason for technical optimization. Faster loading pages have lower bounce rates leading to consistently high page rankings.

2. Content Marketing

Do you read engaging online content that makes you reach for your purse strings or newsletters you subscribe to immediately?

Sound familiar?

Welcome to content marketing.?Over 70% of businesses ?believe and actively invest in this strategy.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a strategy for producing high-quality, relevant, informative material or resources specific to your target audience, leading to favorable customer action.

Key in content marketing is content that is,

• Specific to your target audience.
• Informative.
• High quality.
• Leads to favorable customer action.

Content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy with huge returns. Consistent, high-quality material will have a higher SERP ranking and CTRs.

Content marketing allows your business to improve buyer persona, Increase conversions, boost brand awareness and consumer interactions.

Examples of content marketing strategies include blogs, vlogs, videos, audios, podcasts, and infographics.

Content is king now more than ever before. Google's recent algorithm upgrades mean that search engines better understand search intent. Gone are the days where keyword stuffing got you on page one of SERPs. To rank highly, invest in top-notch content creation.

With over?63000 searches per second ?on Google, your content must be correctly optimized to appear anywhere.

Cluster topics are a good starting ground for content marketing. Cluster topics typically start with a central pillar topic, for example, digital marketing.

Under digital marketing using keyword research, you can get a variety of subtopics that can be exhaustively analyzed, keeping your content fresh and relevant.

Video, the new kid on the bloke, has taken the marketing world by storm. If you arent incorporating video, then you are missing a big slice of the pie.?Video accounts for 80%? of all internet traffic globally. A whopping?500 million ?hours of video content is consumed on youtube daily.'

3. Email marketing?

If you are anything like me, then you always have some unopened emails. No surprise there, only?20.94% of people open their emails.

Email marketing is the act of sending emails for commercial purposes, usually to a group of people, to achieve some form of consumer action (purchase, subscription)

Ever since the first mass emails were sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk, email marketing has continued its meteoric rise to be one of the most viable digital marketing strategies.

With?3.9 billion ?global email users and an?ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, ?email marketing is a clear market leader in digital marketing strategies.

What makes email marketing tick and reign over its peers?

• Email marketing is as personal as it gets. Businesses can customize their mail to target specific pain points of their recipients.?Personalized emails have a 50%? higher open rate than other emails. Segmentation allows enterprises to send highly relevant emails to their clients.
• Email marketing grows your business. According to data, 81%? of Small and Medium Businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel. A further?80% of SMBs? depend on email marketing for customer retention.
• Creating brand awareness is one of the main advantages of email marketing. Emails are distinctly personal. Unique emails with personalized formats stand out.
• Build strong customer relations. A cheery hello mail or a somber "take care of your health'' email from a business to a client is significant. The emotional connection counts for stronger ties between the two parties. Emails give companies a human touch.
• Get access to the ever-increasing mobile customer. The number doesn't lie; businesses have gone mobile, 43% of emails are opened on phones. By 2021 mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for?54% ?of all total e-commerce sales.

There are different types of emails, each with specific and definite purposes. Examples of emails include,

1. The welcome email. Its usually sent less than 24 hours after a subscriber opts into your mailing list.
2. The offer email usually contains discounts, coupons, or some exclusive deals.
3. The survey email is integral in helping businesses customize products to align with their customers.
4. The request email comes in the form of testimonials and reviews. Request emails are great for building a brand image.
5. The newsletter email is the standard run-of-the-mill email employed by most marketers. Newsletters typically contain company news updates.
6. The new product email is vital in keeping your subscribers hooked to your brand. The new product email fosters brand loyalty.

Email is a force to reckon with, and when adequately optimized, it is more effective than a combination of Facebook and Instagram.

4. Social Media Marketing

If you are on the internet, you must know about Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. At least?80% of the over 4.3 billion internet users ?own one of these social media accounts.

Social media marketing ?grossed $76.2 billion in 2018 and may hit $125.5 billion by 2023. Social media is so big that the?3.8 billion ?people on it would fill Africa three times over.

What is social media marketing?

Neil Patel ?best describes social media marketing,

Social media marketing is the process of creating content that you have tailored to the context of each individual social media platform to drive user engagement and sharing.

Here are some interesting facts about social media that you can use to accelerate your business earning potential.

As seen below, social media is a gold mine with limitless potential for your business.

Your business is better off with an excellent social media marketing strategy because,

1. Social media marketing?increases sales by 78% . This fact is sure to put a smile on any businessman's face. The main aim of a business is to make profits, and social media is a great way to do that.
2. Social media Increases your business visibility tremendously.?93% of marketers ?believe social media improves their brand awareness because of the considerable number of subscribers
3. Increased internet traffic to your site. Social media, when properly optimized, can boost your?web traffic by 87% . Proper keyword and site optimization will lead more users to your site.
4. Social media marketing maintains brand loyalty, with?40% of users? following their favorite brands and a further?70% ?develop brand affinity from social media.
5. Improved rankings on the Search Engine Results Page. Your business site can rank highly on SERPs with proper keywords and other social media tricks.?58% of marketers? who have used social media for one year report improvements on their SERPs.
6. Providing support and improve customer satisfaction is a rule of thumb for business success. Social media has broken down the cooperate wall between users and companies.?

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is synonymous with passive income and?Amazon ?for most people, which is right in a sense.

Affiliate marketing means to recommend or promote goods or services for a different party in exchange for a commission on every closed deal.

Affiliate marketing strategy is a fast-growing facet of online business?worth $12 billion in 2017? and?81% of brands using in 2016.

For a business, affiliate marketing is essential because

• Affiliate marketing is dependant on sales, which is a plus for any business; the affiliate marketer is more motivated to push the brand and make sales.
• Affiliate marketing will expand your business and audience exponentially. Affiliate agencies usually have a strong market base and will help you break into new markets.
• Affiliate marketing boosts your brand's reputation, especially if you have partnered with reputable bloggers and websites. The consumers trust their affiliates, meaning the trust trickles into your business.
• Affiliate marketing is cheap. Why? Because you don't have to do the heavy lifting. Commissions depend on sales made; therefore, money spent has a direct ROI.
• Affiliate marketing increases the number of leads and, ultimately, conversions. Imagine if your companies products are featured on the Huffington Post or Engadget blogs. Of course, it will reach millions of consumers, plus the vote of confidence from these two public figures will skyrocket your sales.

Affiliate marketing is a solid marketing strategy that, if correctly done, has massive extended returns.

6. Native marketing

A recommended snippet at the bottom of your favorite editorial. An image with a "you may also like this" tag. Do you experience this while online?

If you have, then you have felt the sublime touch of native ads. Native meaning intrinsic, belonging, embedded, and not easily distinguishable from the parent piece.

Google defines native marketing as

Native?advertising?is the?use of paid ads that match the look, feel, and function of the media format in which they appear.?Native?ads are often found in social media feeds or as recommended content on a web page. Unlike display ads or banner ads,?native?ads don't look like ads.

As seen above, native ads are unobtrusive and blend into the host page.?42% of marketers ?use native advertising globally.

Native Ads come in a variety of forms, such as.

• Ads that appear in your news feed in social media
• Promoted listings that appear at the top of your SERPs
• Recommended content in articles.
• Video recommendations on youtube and other video platforms

Native ads advantages include the following,

• Native ads satisfy everyone, i.e., consumers, publishers, and creators of the ad. It's a win-win situation for all parties.
• Native advertising gives a better user experience. These ads are subtle and less disruptive compared to banner ads and other forms of advertising.
• Pages with native ads have an 8.8 higher CTR? than a regular brand page without native ads. Higher CTRs lead to higher conversions.
• Native ads are trusted by 2 out of 3 people . Native ads, because of their specificity, appeal more to millennials, Generation Xs, and Ys.
• Native ads have?18% more purchase intent ?than banner ads

Native ads have the following disadvantages.

• Measuring the effectiveness of native ads is quite tricky.
• Native ads need a lot of time, labor, and creativity because of the many steps involved. Primarily two different marketing entities must reach a consensus on how both ads coexist and prop one another.
• Consumers believe native ads could be deceitful and manipulative.?54% of consumers? believe native ads are misleading.

Native advertising popularity is growing and may account for?74% of total US ad revenue ?by 2021.

7. Pay Per Click

Go to any browser and type in a query. You will probably see this.

Pay Per Click is an advertising model that marketers use to direct traffic to their sites. PPCs typically appear in SERPs above organic results. PPC models depend on clicks. Every time a user clicks on a PPC ad, the marketer pays the search engine.

Pay Per Click marketing is widely used and is effective.

1. PPC campaigns have a high?ROI . For every $1 spent on PPC, an advertiser gets $2.
2. PPC is measurable. This aspect of an ad campaign is vital. Since PPC depends on clicks, everything can be easily correlated.
3. PPC campaigns are simple to operate. Once a business has set up a well-planned PPC ad, that's it. No need to worry about SEO, algorithm changes, etc
4. PPC campaigns reach the right audience. The choice of keywords, location, the website offered by PPC platforms allows audience segmentation. PPC then gets to exactly the target audience of the marketer.
5. PPC's endear your business to local customers.?Research ?shows that 75% of local consumers are likely to visit a store if they find local results.
6. PPC marketing is cost-effective because it depends on customer action. The more the click, the higher the cost of the PPC campaign and vice versa.
7. Improved reporting and measuring capacity across PPC platforms such as Google and Bing ads. These platforms come with great tools and reporting systems, making your life simpler.

PPC campaigns are very user-specific and have excellent returns, especially when adequately optimized. A mix of PPC and SEO is a winning combination.

Why is a digital marketing strategy in 2020 necessary for your business

Marketing is critical in today's business. In 2019 over?$560 billion ?was used in marketing globally, and 45% of that budget went to digital marketing.

Digital marketing is highly effective and can bring a string of customers to your business if properly optimized.

The benefits of digital marketing are numerous and varied, including the following.

1.Target your Ideal customers

Digital marketing is precise. A business can target its ideal customers using a series of filters. Digital campaigns have the edge over other marketing techniques in this regard.

Social media advertising can be tweaked to fit into very user-specific niches.

?2. Impressive Returns On Investment (ROI)

PPC has a 50% ROI.

If that fact is Impressive, what of Email marketing, which has a?4400% ?ROI

Across the board, digital marketing strategies have significant returns on investment. Digital marketing is relatively cheap to set up and maintain compared to traditional ads like billboards etc.

3. Mass audience

Digital advertising is primarily over the internet, tv, and radio; media, which reaches millions of people.

These platforms allow your business to reach a significant segment of the population leading to more business for your company.

4. Level the playing field

Amazon's marketing budget for 2019 was?$18.88 billion . That's a massive budget for SMBs; fortunately, digital marketing levels the playing field.

Your small business can still target the segmented market and convert leads. Google ranks SEO and PPC on relevancy. Whichever company optimizes better will rank higher irrespective of marketing budgets.

5. Your customers are online?

Everything and everyone is online.?4.57 billion or 59% of humans ?are online, and?2.95 billion? of those are on social media.

The internet is a goldmine for businesses. To get a share of the?$3.53 trillion e-commerce? market, companies must aggressively market themselves online.

6. Digital marketing is measurable

The cornerstone of any campaign is the ability to monitor and capture trends. Trends and progress inform the marketer on how to improve his strategy.

Unlike other forms of advertising, the digital format has many KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which a business can leverage to improve its marketing strategy.

KPI's such as impressions, clicks, shares, and likes give an insight into the impact of your campaigns on consumers.

Wrap up

The world is rapidly evolving, and business along with it. To survive the rapid pace of change, companies have to invest in the latest tools and strategies. Digital marketing strategies, although not widely used before, are now indispensable.

Digital marketing has excellent ROI, can be measured and upgraded. Online marketing strategies offer businesses endless growth opportunities. Companies can reach millions of potential consumers and convert them.

Digital marketing is relatively cheaper compared to other, more traditional approaches. The icing of the cake is the digital marketing ability to target particular users who have the highest chance of purchasing.