In the last decade, digital marketing has dramatically changed the way businesses develop their marketing plans. The increase of new technologies and connected devices has led to innovative digital marketing strategies to promote services and products.
The days of traditional marketing aren't over - they have their place as part of a cohesive marketing plan - but digital channels are likely to be better, more cost-effective drivers of growth for most early stage startups and small businesses.
If you want to generate more leads, increasing your digital marketing techniques is the way to do it. These techniques are the most important forms of communication with your target audience, and key tools to improve your economic growth.
Once you move your business into the digital age of marketing, you ensure your company's competitive advantage and future return on investment (ROI). All these digital strategies can help you reach and convert your prospects into leads while keeping to your digital marketing budget.
What Are the Most Potent Digital Marketing Tactics?
Are you confused about the current way digital marketing works? If so, you're not alone. There are so many misconceptions in the business world about which digital marketing strategies are the most effective.
Digital marketing is a combination of a variety of strategies. Each strategy uses different tools, social media platforms, and techniques to engage your target audience.
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing offers innovative methods of measuring ROI, taking advantage of analytics, providing social insights, and visualising heat maps.
How to Master Digital Marketing and Generate Leads on a Budget
Mastering digital marketing lets you go beyond traditional marketing methods and connect with your target audience. In today's digital-savvy world, the best way to understand your customers' needs is to incorporate data, analytics, and search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies in your marketing plan.
You can take advantage of affordable tools to get your digital marketing off the ground and generate more leads.
Begin your digital marketing efforts by analysing your target audience. When you understand your customers' pain points, and what they expect from your business, you begin building trusting relationships and brand authority. Trust is the best way to increase repeat customers and recommendations for more leads.
If you want to engage and build trust with your customers, answer the following questions for a better understanding of how you can help them solve their problems.
What are your customers' needs?
Do you know your customers' behaviors?
Do you understand what and why your customers are buying?
Have you begun customer segmentation?
What is your content strategy for helping move along the customer journey?
What are your brand storytelling strategies?
Once you understand your customers' needs, you can optimize your website and content to engage them.
Create a Compelling Website for Your Business
Your business website introduces your audience to your company's values and goals. Whether it focuses on communicating with your customers, or it's a way for them to purchase your products, it should be welcoming and attract visitors to your content.
Your business website should include:
Contact information
Links to social media platforms
Images that promote your company's culture and values
Products and service pages - with strong call to actions, lead forms and/or eCommerce options
Make sure your website is easy to navigate and use. It can mean the difference between generating leads or losing them to a competitor.
Make Use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Your website, landing pages, and blog posts must be found by search engines, such as Bing and Google, to attract prospects.
By implementing search engine optimisation (SEO) tools, you know that your website's content is in sync with your target audience's Internet queries.
Google's algorithm is always in flux, but producing engaging, relevant content is your best bet for landing on the search engine results page (SERP). The depth of your content, keywords, headlines, and inbound links are important factors for landing on the first page of search engines.
When you publish relevant, helpful content, you boost traffic to your website. Google calls this type of content EAT, which means Editorial, Authority, Trust. Relevant content builds your authority and brand awareness. Engaging content also nurtures leads and increases your search engine ranking.
Also, take advantage of the free Google SEO tools that help keep you within your budget while generating leads. The following tools help you determine your website's performance, and how much traffic your content generates:
Other SEO tools are also available for subscription fees, but many offer free trials.
Our recommendation would be SEMRush, which offers a trial but also a great free option. You'll be able to track a much more limited range of keywords and pages, but it's a great start until you're ready to invest in a paid plan.
Expand Your Reach with Social Media Platforms
In the cluttered digital marketplace, you have to work hard at creating content for social media platforms. Don't let your content get stale.
Posting on social media is the most effective way to expand your reach for free. If you regularly post useful, informative content, you'll distinguish your brand from all the others. Well-researched, thoughtful content builds trusting relationships with your prospects and customers.
Social media platforms are the places your target audience hangs out. These platforms offer you great ways to communicate with your prospects, carry on conversations, and build brand authority.
Always respond to any questions right away because, with the wealth of information out there and the competition, your prospects won't wait around for an answer. Protect your brand by responding immediately and offering solutions, alternatives, and suggestions to your customers.
Create an Email Campaign for Sharing Content
If your goal is to generate leads and stay within your budget, developing an email marketing campaign is worth the effort. Email remains one of the most popular tools that digital marketers use to grow leads.
So, how do you get subscribers that are interested in your products or services? One way is to make sure your website and landing pages have a subscribe button. But, don't stop there. Offer your website traffic incentives for signing up for your email newsletters and offers.
Also, make sure to add opt-in buttons on all your social media platforms. This way, you know that all the subscribers to your emails are actually interested in what you have to offer.
Once you have your email subscriber list, automate your emails. This saves you time and ensures that your content arrives in your subscribers' inboxes regularly. Automating emails keeps your brand in front of your target audience. The personalized content you send builds customer loyalty and increases your leads.
Conduct Market Research to Help Direct Your Digital Marketing
After you've established your email campaign, you can also use it to conduct market research. By collecting data from your audience, it provides you with important information, such as:
An understanding of buyers' personas
The demand for your products or services
Your brand's reputation
Information about your customers' pain points
To gather this information, use your email and social media platforms to conduct surveys, create focus groups and ask specific questions to your audience.
Also, spend some time on your social media, reading comments from your followers. You'll get a great deal of insight into how your followers feel about your brand.
Start Your Cost-Effective Digital Marketing Strategies and Grow Your Leads
The goal of your digital marketing strategy is to create connections and generate leads. By creating a visitor-friendly website full of helpful content and implementing SEO tools, your digital marketing strategies will drive traffic and qualified leads to your business.
Sources:
Forbes: What We Talk About When We Talk Brand Authority
Northeastern University: Guide to Market Research and Understanding Consumer Behavior