More than 70% of consumers consult social media before they make a purchase. And 85% say they trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family.
If you’re not taking advantage of some of these opportunities, you’re missing out. Online marketing is changing every day, and savvy business owners are using the below tips to gain a competitive edge.
Read on to learn how you can supercharge your strategy in 2019.
Supercharging Your Online Strategy
There’s no doubt that running your own business is rewarding. But when was the last time you took a good, hard look at your online marketing strategy? If you can’t remember, or you’ve been using the same strategy for years, it may be time to change it up.
Here are five ways to get more bang out of your buck and make your online marketing strategy work harder:
1. Focus on the Right Social Channels
When you’re trying to get the most out of your inbound marketing strategy, it can be tempting to create an account on every social media platform available. Unfortunately, this can lead to being a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none.’
There are only so many hours in the day, which is why it’s important to focus your attention on the social media channels that your leads and prospects are actually using.
If your target customers are middle-aged corporate executives, and you’re focusing all your attention on Snapchat, you may need to have a rethink. The same goes if you’re targeting people in their late teens and yet you’re spending large amounts of time and money on content for LinkedIn.
Pick one or two social channels depending on who your target audience is. Most importantly, consider their demographics and narrow down where they’re actually spending all their time online.
Now may be the time to update your social media advertising strategy as well. If you haven’t yet tried ads, spend some time finding ways to get your business in front of the right audience. Focus on interesting, attractive content and stay away from boring, business-focused ad copy.
2. Create Great Content
Content is still one of the most important aspects of online marketing. However, you can no longer write a short, 300-500 word blog post and call it a day.
Your leads and customers have more content and information at their fingertips than ever before. Unfortunately, so much of this content is boring and repetitive that it simply becomes ‘white noise.’
Content marketing is still incredibly relevant, but you need to make sure you’re producing informative, engaging, and relevant content. Focus on the problems you can solve for your customers. If you become a trustworthy source of helpful information, prospects and leads will immediately think of you when they need your products or services.
Now’s the time to branch out from blog posts. Consider producing other types of content like Infographics and Videos so your leads can consume your content in a variety of ways.
3. Prioritize User Experience
Often, business owners and marketers can be so focused on strategies like social media and content marketing that they forget about how users are experiencing their website.
Great service starts with your website. If you have a slow, clunky, or outdated website, you’ll likely find that even if visitors arrive from your blog or social media, they’re unlikely to stay for long.
If you haven’t yet optimized your website for mobile, you need to do this yesterday. Google is now penalizing non-mobile sites, which means your competitors will rank higher than you simply because they have a responsive website.
Page speed is another big issue. If your website is taking more than a couple of seconds to load, you’ll be losing potential customers who will simply click back to the search results.
Finally, check your navigation. Are your menus where a user would expect them to be? Is it easy for visitors to find the information they need within a couple of clicks?
4. Commit to SEO
SEO marketing goes hand-in-hand with both content marketing and your social media strategy.
So what does committing to SEO look like in 2019? Voice search. This is the term on everybody’s lips right now, and it’s easy to see why. If you’re hoping to get a piece of this pie, you’ll need to make sure you effectively optimize your content for voice search.
What does this mean?
Use questions and answers. Most voice searches are from people who are asking questions. When this happens, Google picks a page that ranks highly and contains both the question being asked and the answer to that question.
One good way to make this work for you is to create an FAQ page.
5. Make the Most of Data
We now have access to more information than at any other time in history. Businesses have a huge range of metrics just waiting to be used. Unfortunately, many business owners and marketers have no idea what to do with this data.
Data-driven marketing allows you to learn more about your customers and prospects so you can improve future campaigns. It also ensures that your ads are as effective as possible.
Take a good look at your Google Analytics account. Start learning how your bounce rate impacts your conversions, and make small tweaks to your copy, images, and call-to-actions to see what works. Always use A/B testing and remember to only change one thing at a time so you can immediately know if it works.
Ready to Supercharge Your Online Marketing?
If you’re hoping to grow your business in 2019, online marketing is one of the most effective ways to make this happen. However, this involves staying up-to-date with user trends, technology, and Google Ad’s Agency changes.
People are still consuming content at ever-increasing rates, however, you need to be able to provide them with the information they can’t find elsewhere. If you put your prospects and customers first and consider them at every step, you can’t go wrong this year.
Do you have a local business? Get in touch to learn about your advertising opportunities with us.
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