In my role as a marketing consultant, I’ve worked with many different clients in many different industries, each of whom had its own unique needs and approaches to digital marketing. From these various experiences, I’ve learned some general tips that have helped me no matter the client or industry I’m working with and are valuable lessons that your competitors can teach you about digital marketing. Here are the 10 most important ones
1) Improve your bounce rate
In today’s digital marketing environment, with more consumers using their mobile devices to search and find information online, your bounce rate is likely higher than you would like. If a person comes to your website and then leaves without browsing around or returning again, that’s considered a bounce—or one visit with no conversion or engagement. Although some bounces are expected (especially when users simply type in your URL), too many bounces can negatively impact Google search rankings and can signal to customers that your site isn’t relevant or trustworthy. So, what are some of your competitors doing about it? See how their websites look and perform to glean insights on how you can improve your own site for visitors and search engines alike.
2) Understand your audience
Digital marketing has grown increasingly competitive in recent years, and with so many different companies vying for customers’ attention, it can be difficult to stand out. It might feel like you need to constantly reinvent your strategy or create new content to stay on top of things, but there’s a simple way that you can come up with unique digital strategies and strategies that will resonate with your target audience. All you have to do is listen to what other digital marketers are doing, then adapt what works best for your own business. Paying attention to what competitors are doing not only gives you an edge over other businesses in your field; it helps ensure that any marketing plans or strategies you implement will result in maximum exposure and conversions.
3) Increase your conversion rate
The single most important thing to focus on for your website is your conversion rate. Anything you can do to increase your conversion rate will directly impact how successful you are online. One of my favourite digital marketing tips is to study your competitors and learn from them. As an example, let’s say you sell sports apparel online and notice that a competitor has increased their social media engagement by 50%. That competitor probably does one of two things: They either spend less money on advertising or they improve their targeting. Both strategies are smart, but if you were able to do both, it would make a significant difference in converting more traffic into sales.
4) Maximize your social reach with unique photos
Every brand is looking for ways to spread its name and market its products and services. Social media gives companies an easy, inexpensive way to connect with customers. The key is knowing what kind of photo marketing to use and where. While images can certainly be posted directly on social media sites, it’s best to make sure they are optimized for each platform. If you aren’t sure how best to do that, ask your friends who are good at Digital Marketing or hire a consultant (or even better, hire me) to help create your image plan!
5) Create a content calendar
Any good digital marketer knows that marketing is as much about timing as it is about content. It’s important to understand when your customers are most likely to engage with your brand or company, and how different pieces of content can help you achieve certain objectives at different times. If you’re just getting started in digital marketing or looking for a way to improve your existing calendar, create a sample content calendar (you can use iCal) that outlines when you’ll publish each piece of content. Then measure how well it performs against your goals. Learn from what works and continue refining your plan based on what doesn’t.
6) Work on SEO every day
While search engine optimization is more art than science, there are a few best practices you can use to optimize your content for search engines. Optimizing your website will take time and effort—and maybe a little magic—but here are some steps you can take to ensure that your digital marketing efforts get their best chance at working. First, try writing better titles and headlines on your pages. The headline is what readers see first, so if it isn’t compelling or unique, they’ll likely skip over it for something else. A simple way to do this is by adding some of your target keywords into them, but it’s best to write naturally and simply.
7) Interact on social media channels you don’t use
If you’re a social media butterfly (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest), it can be easy to get complacent about your social strategy. However, using only one or two social networks is likely hurting your brand’s reach and limiting its effectiveness. To truly master digital marketing from a strategic standpoint, you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes—and that means interacting on sites where your customers are hanging out. For example, if you’re an e-commerce site owner, research popular review sites and post thoughtful comments about products or services related to yours; Google+ user? Consider creating content-rich communities around topics relevant to your industry.
8) Always have new content
For a digital marketer, always have new content. This is important because of one simple reason: search engines. To boost your search engine rankings in Google, you should make sure that your site is updated often and that it contains unique content. If you find yourself spending too much time updating old content instead of making fresh content, consider looking into hiring a writer to keep up with your website’s updates. In addition to boosting your rankings and allowing you to focus on other areas of marketing, having fresh new content will also help with conversions! Every month there are millions of people searching for information online and they likely aren’t going to click on something if it looks stale or outdated.
9) Use tools to maximize your time online
One of our firm’s top digital marketing tips is to use tools that can help you maximize your time online. The question is which one do you choose? In reality, almost all of them are useful in some way, even if it is only for seeing what other people are talking about or doing online. Each tool has its own purpose, so choose one and stick with it. You may end up using several over times but any time you can spend improving your digital marketing skills is well worth it!
10) Ask for help from professionals
There are a lot of great marketing books out there, but don’t be afraid to ask for help from a professional. Once you’ve read everything you can about digitally marketing, it’s probably time to pay for some expert advice. Your competitors may have tips that will help you get an edge on them; why not take advantage of that? Set up a meeting with someone in your industry and see what they have to say. You might learn something new—and gain some insights that will help your business succeed. At least, you’ll be more prepared than if you sit back and do nothing. Whatever information you learn could make all the difference when it comes to succeeding in your industry and helping your company become more profitable over time.
