You’ve decided that you need to start marketing your business online, but where do you begin? Asking the right questions and understanding the answers is the first step toward creating an effective digital marketing campaign and reaching your target audience.
Here are seven questions commonly asked about digital marketing, along with detailed answers so you can get up to speed quickly on everything from social media strategy to reputation management.
1) How do I build a business website?
There are many ways to answer that question, but a good place to start is by asking yourself two more questions: Where do you want your business website to live? And how much time and money do you have available?
Once you’ve figured out those specifics, it becomes easier to plan and prioritize what needs your attention. If you want your site (and business) online immediately and don’t have a lot of money in your budget, then a free site like Squarespace might be for you.
For an affordable price, Squarespace offers plenty of space for building a professional-looking website.
2) What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. When a user searches on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, they are searching with keywords that they may enter into a search bar in order to find information. SEO is how websites rank higher in search engines (i.e., Google) based on these keywords.
This ensures that their website appears on page one of their respective search engine results page (SERP). In essence, SEO is what allows users to be able to find websites when they perform certain keyword searches related to those sites’ services and/or products.
A good digital marketing firm will be able to optimize your site so that you can be found by more customers who are searching for you online.
3) Why Should I Hire a Professional For My Company’s Website?
If you’re running a business, chances are you could use a little help with marketing and promoting your product or service. Many people turn to digital marketing solutions in order to reach their audience and gain new customers.
But before you do, it can be helpful to understand why professional assistance is better than doing it yourself. 1) Expertise: Hiring an expert allows you to outsource some of your workloads while gaining access to their knowledge and experience in that area of expertise. 2) Quality of Work: Professionals have been through training that makes them competent enough for people all over the world (or just around town) to trust them with their work.
The opposite is true when trying to learn everything on your own; if anything goes wrong, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. 3) The Dangers of Flipping Sides:
We aren’t here to tell you what decision is best for you, but there’s something about working hard at something we know how to do that lends itself well towards creating a conflict of interest when tasked with giving advice about that same industry later on down the road;
more often than not, those conflicts lead us further from objectivity rather than closer towards it.
4) How digital marketing can benefit my company?
Is digital marketing right for me? There are a lot of different factors to consider when you’re trying to figure out if digital marketing is right for your company. For example, you need to decide if you have enough resources and budget to dedicate to building an online presence.
You also need to be sure that your products or services are an ideal fit for social media platforms. If these things seem like they’ll work well with your business, then go ahead and give digital marketing a try.
5) What are the most popular social media sites?
To be honest, every social media platform is popular in some way or another. What you’ll want to do is take a look at which platforms your target market prefers and which ones will help you reach your audience most effectively.
According to a report from GlobalWebIndex in 2016, Facebook tops all other social media sites for usage by 69% of internet users worldwide. Next up are YouTube (57%), Instagram (37%), Twitter (32%) and LinkedIn (27%).
While these numbers do vary by region and country, they can give you an idea of where your audience is likely spending their time online.
Once you know what channels resonate best with them, create an account on each platform and start strategizing how best to leverage it as part of your digital marketing campaign.
6) What is content marketing and why is it so important in digital marketing?
Content marketing is all about having a long-term relationship with your readers, prospects, and customers. It’s about providing them with relevant, valuable content that supports their needs or solves their problems.
By developing an evergreen content strategy based on your audience’s changing needs and interests, you can engage readers and prospects across multiple channels throughout their lifecycle.
Without it, you risk being irrelevant at best—and invisible at worst. Put simply: Content marketing is a must for every digital marketer working today.
7) What do you mean by ROI when it comes to digital marketing?
You hear about ROI all of the time when you’re reading about digital marketing, but what does it actually mean? Return on investment (ROI) is a simple measure that refers to how much money was made in comparison to how much money was spent.
For example, if an investor spends $50 million on an ad campaign and makes $100 million in revenue, their ROI would be 200%.
You see these numbers all over social media from social media managers touting their advertising efforts.