Taking it back to basics – the start of a successful digital marketing campaign

Let’s get back to basics. If you have been creating, implementing and executing digital marketing campaigns that haven’t seen any success, it’s time to go right back to the start. Reviewing unsuccessful digital campaigns can help breathe new life back into your company and shake up online marketing as you know it.

Maybe you’re missing crucial steps or not taking the time to thoroughly think out your campaigns, whatever it is, you need to find out what is going wrong and why. Most of the time, online companies get so wrapped up in trying to be the biggest and best online presence that they don’t take the time to step back and really see what works for them.

So, where do we start?

Set Your Foundation

The first step is to start with your website. Most businesses these days will already have a website but if you don’t, you really need one. A website becomes the foundation of your online digital marketing presence. It gives your customers a thorough understanding of what you are about, what you sell, what you do and who you do it for.

Keep in mind that you can’t just build any old website. It needs to be a fully functioning, visually appealing site that users find easy to use and navigate. On top of that, it needs to be fully optimised in order to generate a continuous stream of leads and conversions. Optimising your website allows your customers to easily find you within search engine search results. Keep in mind that 58% of Australians use online information to learn about products and services before they buy.

SEO strategies are the key to getting your content seen within the search engine space. This is done through targeting keywords specific to your business in order to be found. Search engines such as Google pick up on these keywords and show users the best results that match their search query.

If you already have a website but don’t think it is performing as good as it could be there are a few things that you can check and update to help improve the function and aesthetics of your site, such as:

• Site function – Does everything work as it should? Are there any broken links or pages that make the site hard to navigate?
• Site appearance – Does your site look old and outdated? This can be a major turn off for customers looking to buy products or trust information provided.
• Site speed – Is your website slow to load?
• User Experience – Does your website talk to your target audience and get them engaged?
• Mobile Functionality – Does your website look and function well on mobile?

Create Your Content
If your website is functioning perfectly and looks amazing then your next step is to move on to your site’s content. You may have heard the saying that “content is king”, this saying couldn’t be more true. Content is the fuel that drives your online marketing strategy. Creating high quality content that provides value to your target audience will not only attract visitors but it will attract the exact type of visitors you want. This, in turn, creates leads which turn into conversions.

As mentioned above you need solid SEO strategies to help your website rankings. Providing your customers with quality content will kill two birds with one stone, helping considerably with your SEO efforts. Creating content is also a great way to earn valuable links from external websites, this too will help to strengthen your SEO efforts.

Creating a blog for your website is a great way to keep producing content that interests your customers and helps to gain you, new customers. Keeping your blog updated at least once a week will cement you as an authority in your industry and keep new content coming in. The point of a blog is to connect with your customers and use language that they can understand. This means no industry jargon that would alienate your audience.

Make sure you don’t turn your blog into a promotional tool. The whole idea is to think outside of the box and write about topics that will interest readers. This could include problems faced by clients, common industry issues, industry news or situations your services could provide solutions to.
Ways to spruce up your website and blog content include:

• Check spelling – This goes for anything that you write. Always check your spelling and grammar, if in doubt run your text through a program like Grammarly or have a fresh pair of eyes read over it.
• Read through your current content – This applies to your whole website, read through all existing content and see if you can refresh any sections to make it sound more appealing or better targeted to your audience.
• Target your content – Make sure your content is targeted to your audience. You also want to ensure that your message is clear and makes sense to the user.
• Create new Service Pages – Read through all existing service and product pages and see if there are any pages that are missing that can be created and added to your website.
• Implement a Blog – If you don’t already have a blog you need to get started. Do some research and see what questions your customers want answered. If you’re really stuck for ideas check out what your competitors are writing about.

Let’s Get Social

Social media is a powerful platform that allows you to directly communicate with your customers. There are many different social networks out there but the main three to focus on are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. More than 1 billion users are active on Facebook each month, this is a huge audience you want to take advantage of.

These channels are a great way to distribute content, product information and increase brand awareness online. By building a strong online community you not only increase advocates of your brand but you increase word of mouth marketing which we all know is a powerful marketing tool.

Invite your friends and family to follow your social pages and get them sharing amongst their friends. Build up your profiles by constantly sharing information, this could be anything from new products you are launching to news about your business. Think about things that your customers would want to know about but be careful not to aggressively sell products. This means updating your followers with posts about products or services you offer, change it up and keep your page fresh. Your products will sell themselves as you grow a loyal following.

There a plenty of tools out there that can help you manage your social accounts such as Hootsuite. Tools such as things will help save you time and mean you can schedule automatic posts so you can focus your attention on other tasks.

If you already have your social accounts pumping with continuous content it can be helpful to step back and see if your social accounts are working as well as they could be. A few things to check include:

• Company info – Make sure your profiles are completely filled out with as much information as possible.
• Check content – Is the content you’re sharing really that interesting to your followers? Really take the time to think about this, if you’re not sure then ask. Your followers will love the chance to get involved in the decision process as it lets them know you’re paying attention.
• Use images and videos – Images and videos are everywhere these days. Text heavy posts will not get the same type of attention that a video or image will. Just make sure that any visual content you use is appropriate for your business.
• Interact – If your followers ask a question then respond. If they leave a positive or negative review then respond. Interacting and responding to your customers shows that you care and are interested in what they have to say. Forming this kind of relationship will strengthen the bond between business and customer.
• Post regularly – If you are posting good content but aren’t seeing any traction it could be to do with how often you are posting. Most social channels will push accounts that don’t post often to the bottom of the pile, meaning that viewers won’t see your posts. Post often to ensure that your content is seen every time you post.

Taking the time to go back to basics will really help to ensure you have a solid foundation to run your campaigns. Without all the building blocks in place, your campaign will never perform as well as it could. Don’t lose customers and online traffic because of simple things that can be easily fixed.

If you would like to learn more about getting back to basics and starting a successful online campaign the team at Multimediax are always available to chat. Give us a call or email us today!