If you run your own business, no matter the product, service or size, it’s vital to reach as many new and potential customers as possible. This can often be the most trying part of growing your business. But if you equip yourself with some essential tools, reaching out will be less daunting.
These tools will form part of your overall digital marketing strategy that will equip you in 2020 and beyond.
Digital marketing has not only changed the way businesses market themselves; it has become an essential tool in your business success kit and, this is the really good part, an asset that fetches you a better ROI than traditional marketing.
But with so much digital noise out there, pinpointing what you actually need to be doing can also be overwhelming. Possibly the trickiest part of digital marketing is keeping up with the trends to keep growing your customer growth and answering to their changing needs.
Therefore, we’ve put together an essential list of tools for your 2020 digital marketing strategy that will help clear things up a bit.
Website design
Yes, you really need a website. And it also needs to be designed well. There aren’t many businesses that can survive without a web presence. It’s cost-effective, reaches a wide audience, is convenient for your customers, and gives your business credibility. Make sure the site is set up to convert any traffic. There’s no use getting people interested in your site and then giving them nowhere to go from there.
Social media management and advertising
This can be a particularly tricky tool. At the very least, your business needs a Facebook page. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube will also enhance your social presence.
Search engine optimization
Ensure your website is optimized for search engines. You stand a better chance of having it organically rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. As a result, you are able to reach your audience at little to no cost.
Pay-Per-Click advertising
PPC is an advertising tool you can use that drives traffic to your site. Each time your ad is clicked on, you pay the site that hosts your ad. This is paid traffic, as opposed to organic traffic generated by using SEO techniques. The most popular hosts are search engines. Advertising services like Google Ads and Bing Ads operate with real-time bidding (RTB) where advertising inventory is sold using real-time data.
Email marketing
You might be wondering if email is still effective. We assure you, it’s alive and well. In fact, 73 percent of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email. Make sure you have your email campaign planned and segmented to increase your open rate and reach.
Content marketing
Content is king in digital marketing. Assets like photos and infographics, sound (Podcasts), blogs, polls, quizzes, and especially video (including live video) will help your brand engage better and grab attention.
Analytics reporting
Ultimately, when using these tools you want to know if they’re actually working. Make sure you are getting frequent analytics reports that can be drawn up through services like Google Ads and analytics tools on your social media platforms. This will help to continually improve your digital marketing efforts by pinpointing any weak points in your strategy.
