What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the process of using digital platforms, such as the internet, social media, and mobile applications, to promote products and services. It encompasses many strategies, such as search engine optimization, email marketing, social media marketing, and more. Digital marketing is an effective way to reach a large audience and build relationships with potential customers. It can also help businesses to increase their brand awareness, generate leads, and ultimately drive sales.
Digital marketing is a powerful tool that companies can use to reach their target audiences and increase their brand awareness. It differs from traditional marketing in its ability to reach a wider audience through multiple channels. Digital marketing also allows companies to measure their success in real-time, using analytics tools. This, in turn, allows them to make adjustments to their campaigns to ensure they are reaching their desired goals. Digital marketing also allows for greater customization for customers. Increasing the value it offers to customers and businesses alike.
Consumers continue to transition to digital purchasing and researching products. Businesses must shift their strategies to include digital marketing efforts in order to remain competitive. This includes making sure their website is up-to-date and relevant. Adding digital marketing channels such as social media, email campaigns, and SEO to your marketing mix. With the right combination of digital and traditional marketing, your company can effectively reach its customers and increase its visibility.
Why use digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a cost-effective way to reach large and targeted audiences with minimal effort. It allows you to target specific demographics and tailor your message to them quickly and effectively. With digital marketing, you can measure results and track your progress easier. Allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your business. Increasing your ability to make sound business decisions.
There are many free options such as Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a great free resource that can help you make data-driven decisions for your business. It provides detailed insights into website traffic, user behavior, and other important metrics. This data can help you better understand your customers and optimize your website. You can also take advantage of other analytics tools also. Software such as Hotjar, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel offers further insights into how your customers interact with your website.
Digital marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses big and small. It allows you to create a unified presence across multiple channels. All of which link back to the central hub of your website. Allowing you to collect data and track sales while providing an efficient and convenient experience for your customers. Additionally, digital marketing can help businesses reach a larger audience, increase brand visibility, and drive more sales. Utilizing digital marketing is an important step towards competing and growing your business in today’s digital world.
Digital Marketing Channels
What is Paid Search Advertising
Paid search advertising is a form of digital marketing that allows businesses to advertise their products and services via search engine platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This type of advertising involves creating relevant ads that target customers with specific search queries. When users search for these terms, the ad appears alongside the organic search results. Paid search ads are an effective way for businesses to reach the right customers and increase their visibility.
Google Ads and Bing Ads are excellent paid search platforms that offer a variety of features and benefits. These two are the leading search engines that offer paid media options. Depending on your goals and objectives, each platform has unique strengths and weaknesses that may be beneficial to your campaign.
Google Ads is the largest platform, offering a wider range of targeting options and features. It is a great option for generating leads and sales due to its AdWords tool and dominance in the search engine market. Google also accounts for over 80% of all online searches. Making it almost a default marketing channel for most businesses (us included!).
Bing Ads is also a great option. Bing boasts a lower cost-per-click rate and a variety of tools to help maximize your return on investment. On the other hand, Bing accounts for about 8% according to Statista. However, Bing can have a significantly lower cost per click, sometimes with up to three times cheaper cost per click.
Ultimately, the best platform for you will depend on your goals, budget, and the type of campaign you are running. It’s a good idea to compare both platforms, to see which works better for you. If you are unsure which channel is best for your company, reach out to us. We will gladly provide some advice!
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing an online website to increase its visibility in search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. A variety of techniques build an optimized website. Optimizing content, using relevant keywords, creating quality backlinks, and improving the website’s overall structure are some of the strategies used. Ultimately, SEO ensures that a website appears higher in search engine rankings and in front of your potential customers. Regular monitoring of your website’s performance and making adjustments helps keep up with the ever-changing SEO landscape and stay ahead of the competition. It also allows you to hone your customer experience. Leading to increased sales and revenue.
All you need to start is a professional website. If you don’t have one already, this is the first step to take when beginning any SEO campaign. A professional website will also help you capture and engage with your customers. If you are in need of a website please reach out to us at Exp 1st.
Overall, SEO can be an excellent way to help your small business grow. Especially when compounded with other marketing channels such as SEM or social media marketing.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves using social media platforms to reach your target audience. It involves creating content that appeals to your audience and engaging with them by responding to comments, questions, and messages. Using social media advertising to promote the brand and its products or services. Social media marketing is a strong tool that can increase brand awareness, build relationships with customers, and drive conversions.
Paid social media is an incredibly useful tool for businesses of all sizes and industries. LinkedIn is a powerful tool for B2B businesses, as it allows your business to reach clients in a professional setting. For B2C businesses, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok can be excellent for engaging with customers and driving brand awareness. Each platform has its own limitations, so you must understand your target audience. Then have a strategy crafted for each audience on each channel.
Organic social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for building a brand presence. By engaging with customers and providing outstanding customer service. You create a strong relationship with them and develop a loyal customer base. Additionally, organic social media can build a consistent presence that builds trust and credibility with your customers. It’s also a great way to keep customers up-to-date with your company’s news and announcements, helping to create an even stronger connection.
Digital Marketing by the Math
Every business requires profit but marketing profits are even more vital for a small business where cash flow and time are limited resources. To maximize profits from marketing, it is important to focus on the most effective strategies for your products and services. You must statistically validate your marketing campaigns to ensure the campaigns are making a positive return on investment. Setting your business up for success.
Developing a Marketing Budget
Establishing a budget is an essential part of running a successful business. With careful planning and research, small businesses can develop an effective marketing strategy that works within their budget. Many businesses spend between 4-10% of their revenue on marketing while startup companies may spend upward of 40-50% of their revenue. A lot of your budget requirements will be industry-based and the growth rate in which you want to achieve.
To make sure you’re making the best use of your budget, you should research different marketing methods, compare prices, and determine which ones will provide the most value for your money. Additionally, it can be helpful to track your spending so you can adjust your budget accordingly. With the right strategy and budget, you can make sure your small business is getting the most out of its marketing efforts.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts is a great way to assess the success of a campaign. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the most commonly used method to measure the success of a campaign, and the general benchmark for ROAS is between two and four for any given campaign. However, this can vary greatly depending on the industry and the objectives of the campaign. To ensure that you are getting the most out of your marketing campaigns, it is important to keep track of your ROAS and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Example of Marketing ROI: Let’s say you’re a cupcake company that has two stores: one in York, PA, and another in Lancaster, PA. You decide to run an advertisement for 30 days for each of these stores. During the advertisement time period, your York store sells an additional $15,000 worth of goods and the Lancaster location sold an additional $5,000 worth of cupcakes —in other words: Your advertisement netted $20,000 worth of sales over the 30-day period it was running.
This means if the digital marketing campaign cost $5,000 you would see an ROI of $20,000/$5,000 or 4:1. Meaning for every $1 you spent on advertising you brought in $4 in revenue. Depending on your customer lifetime value (CLTV) this could lead to large gains for your business over time and not just during that singular campaign.
Marketing Attribution
Attribution is a key factor in any successful digital marketing strategy, as it provides insight into which channels are producing the highest return on investment (ROI). For effective attribution, it’s important to understand how each individual channel works and how they interact with one another.
To do this, you should track your marketing efforts and analyze the data to understand which channels are driving the most traffic and revenue. Additionally, you could use attribution models to understand how each channel contributes to the overall success of your campaigns. With the right attribution model, you can see the full picture and make informed decisions about which channels to focus your efforts on.
Analytic software like Google Analytics can be a great tool to help you hone in on which channels are delivering the highest return on investment for your business. It can provide valuable insights into where you might need to adjust your strategies and focus your resources in order to maximize your ROI. Additionally, it can help you measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, understand customer behavior and preferences, and track conversions over time to inform your future decisions.
Wrap Up
Are you looking to grow your business and reach more customers in Central Pennsylvania? Digital marketing is a great way to do that! With the right strategy, you can create a plan that fits your budget and goals. We specialize in digital marketing and SEO services that grow businesses Give us a call today and let us help you take your business to the next level!
