Essential Marketing Guide – Top 10 (Updated)

–Marketing is always changing, it keeps us (and me) very busy here at Educat. In 2018 we have seen a lot of changes from GDPR to Mobile Indexing, so we have gone ahead and updated this article to reflect that —

Written: Oct 2018 Lewis Rennison Educat.digital

Marketing can be tough, you may have already read about the incredible success stories of PPC campaigns? Or social media campaigns that built brands overnight? However, harvesting those powers are something completely different all together. If you are looking to develop a new website, review your current digital activity or start marketing through social media, we’ve got our top 10 essential marketing guide to help you below – taking your digital strategy to the next level...

1. Create a marketing strategy

Creating a business, marketing your company and reaching your audience without a marketing strategy in place is a little bit like setting off on a journey without any directions. If you do not have a clear and focused plan in place, how can you expect the campaign to make an impact or to measure meaningful results or ROI? Plan a clear marketing strategy that will underpin your companies growth and the success of your campaigns.

2. Social media marketing 

This is more than just ‘create a facebook page’, the days of having a new page and instantly being able to connect with your audience are gone. Furthermore social media advertising has changed dramatically in the last 5 years, don’t just “do social media” because everyone does, think about your goals and where your audience connect – we focus heavily on LinkedIn for example, and not facebook, but we also use Twitter to engage with others in our target sector. Think about your product too, if you sell something simple like a t-shirt facebook would be great for you and you can leverage facebook ads to micro target to your audience and consumers based on a whole bunch of info. If you offer a business service you may want to look at more B2B avenues like paid LinkedIn advertising & LinkedIn groups etc. A great tip is to get yourself into your audiences facebook or LinkedIn groups and do some research there – you may even be allowed to do some free advertising within the group.

3. Use clear call to actions

What do you want your customers and prospects to do next? If you’re sending out a social media update or email marketing communication, have you thought about where you want to direct them? For example, do you want them to call, email or visit your website? Make it as easy as possible for your call to action to actually be ‘actioned’, people are busy and don’t have time to fill out huge forms or get directed round in circles before they can get what they want. 

4. Be mobile friendly

Studies now show that more than half of the British public prefer to do a task digitally if they have the choice, using on average 3.4 internet-connected devices (Bdaily, 2017) – therefore it’s important to ensure your digital marketing is responsive and compatible across a variety of devices. This will increase your brand credibility, ensuring visuals and content are consistent. Google is now ranking “Mobile First” websites making it even more important for 2018 and beyond, we have ranked three websites “Mobile First” and the traffic results have increased since – it’s great for your SEO and a complete no brainier UX wise. 

5. Create killer brand visuals 

Having killer visuals goes beyond just having a great logo – creating engaging content is key in today’s high-paced world. With the attention span of today’s population being seven seconds, visual marketing is a highly effective way of storytelling, helping to attract and captivate your customers and prospects through digital media. Utilise beautiful images, videos and ensure your web presence is easy to consume. 

6. Be consistent

Your digital marketing activity should be integrated into your overall marketing plan and used as a tool to achieve key objectives and goals. A good digital marketing strategy should portray your brand, key messages and target your core audiences, whilst simultaneously ensuring synergy with other marketing & sales activities.

7. Utilise SEO and PPC Marketing 

The position your company is ranked in terms of search very is important. A good way to test this is through thinking about the search terms prospective customers might use – where do you/your website rank in these searches? How can you improve this? Use tools like SEMrush and Google’s own keyword tool to see what keywords you should target and where you stand in the ranking or simply begin searching through Google and find out if you are even on page one for these desired terms? Create a Google Adwords account and begin advertising (PPC) or using the research you have just done begin a content marketing plan, blogging and writing about things your customers might be searching for – answer the questions they might be asking. 

8. Don’t be afraid of email marketing

Email marketing is a great tool for instantly putting your brand in front of customers who know what you are and what you do. It’s an important part of brand awareness and recognition. Email marketing is a vital part of targeted campaigns – meaning you aren’t spamming all your customers with information they aren’t interested in. With GDPR now here, make sure you don’t just purchase a list – build it by offering great content that your customer want to get from you. 

9. Take advantage of link building

Feature clients on your website and ask them to feature you on theirs – also consider becoming a member of different network organisations, attend events and exhibitions, exposure can only help fuel recognition and growth. Organic links are picked up by Google, which can help build your Google credibility and presence in relevant search terms.

10. Analyse and report

Finally measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing. Most social media and email marketing channels provide analytical tools that report on the reach and engagement of your campaigns. Google Analytics is also a great, FREE tool and an easy way to monitor visitors, sales & conversions to your website.

Original article: https://educat.digital/digital-marketing/essential-marketing-guide-top-10/

Want to find out more about how this can positively impact your marketing? Why not book a free consultant with me today, drop me a message on here or email: [email protected]