Category Archives: SEO

Digital Marketing Analytics for Small to Medium Sized Business

 

 

Before digital marketing analytics tools, many people made business decisions without the right kind of metrics in hand. The extensive implementation of digital marketing analytics has proved to be a perfect solution for business decision-making and lead generation. Digital marketing analytics have spread their wings across all online marketing channels and help in the holistic development of a business. The precise website audience insights one gains from the analytics tools is mind-blowing!

Let digital marketing tools do their magic for your business!.

Why Your Business Needs Digital Marketing Analytics?

Some people still question the relevance and need of Digital Marketing Analytics for their business. The answer to this would be – How will you know whether you are improving or working towards your objectives if you are not even tracking any type of data?

The business world is rapidly changing with owners of both small and medium-sized businesses having the need to evaluate campaign effectiveness. Website visitors also demand a personalized web experience that meets their needs. For every organization, customization will be possible when you study your website data, track and analyze the metrics and KPI’s. Whether you are running a marketing campaign or expecting higher traffic to your webpage, the analytical data will help your online presence game.

Digital Marketing and Web Analytics will help retrieve a great deal of rich information that can tell you precisely how and where you can improve your website optimization strategy.

Ultimately, it will determine the true ROI of your digital marketing program and help you understand how well you are achieving the goals.

Most Popular Data Analytics Tools to Consider

In today’s era, marketers can utilize various digital marketing analytics tools to understand customer behavior, examine how the buyer interacts with online channels, and identify new revenue prospects. Let us discuss the most popular data analytics tools that every business marketer should know.

SEMRush

SEMrush is ideal for anyone who desires to track what their competition is doing online. A great competitive analysis tool, it will help you to adjust your digital strategy by allowing you to monitor competitor performance.

The analytics reports will let you see a great pool of information like brand keyword analysis, analyzing competitor ad copy, and finding their ad strategies. One can analyze and decide which keywords are most competitive and which other advertisers are bidding on them.

There is also a backlink analysis tool that allows you to check who is linking to your website.

At Big Customer Network, we use the website audit tool on a regular basis for all of our clients to ensure their websites are fully SEO optimized.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is a simple analytics platform to keep track of your SEO performance and guide you on how to increase traffic from search engines. It provides both your and the competitors ranking on search results and the trending keywords. Its endless features like research on link-building, page optimization, reporting, and site crawling make it a great digital marketing analytics tool.  Moz Pro takes away the pain out of link tracking by giving ample information through link profile spam analysis and competitive metrics.

The hype around Moz Pro can rightly be trusted since it saves you a lot of time by putting all of your SEO analytics in one place.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics one of the most popular analytics tools which every digital marketer should use.  It is a free website analytics platform that allows you to track your website traffic, understand your visitor demographics, how much time they spend on your website, which web page is keeping them engaged and much more.

As a digital marketer, this can be of great help to analyze which of your marketing channels generate the most conversions, sales, leads, and downloads. With all the rich data provided to you, you can easily optimize your channels to target the most profitable market.  The data can be overwhelming so please contact us so we can help you maximize Google Analytics.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is ruling the email marketing industry. This email marketing platform has a very user-friendly interface which makes it one of the most loved marketing tools. For start-ups or digital marketeers who are just entering into email marketing, Mailchimp is a preferred solution.

For business owners who do not have very large email lists, the free package can be the perfect way to start your journey.

Mailchimp allows you to create automated email campaigns, monitor subscriber behavior through its built-in analytics and reporting functionally. One can easily judge the effectiveness of their email campaigns by studying the customer traffic and conversions.

How Big Customer Network Comes to The Rescue

Acknowledging the need for a one-stop digital marketing solution, Big Customer Network offers a complete suite of digital marketing strategies. Whether it is a small or a medium-sized business, Big Customer Network provides business owners the complete visibility for the performance of our digital marketing programs for clients.

Big Customer Network has proven itself as a trusted internet marketing and technology partner for small to medium-sized businesses across all industries. The success stories of our clients resonate with our commitment to creating a data-driven plan. Our extensive and best-in-class strategies deployed with top digital analytical tools help companies to grow and meet their goals. Our dedicated team of professionals is equipped to assist and provide leadership for all types of digital marketing programs.  We collaborate with clients to achieve their business objectives. We use the right mix of digital marketing and web analytics to help you grow your business.

If you are not using digital marketing tools to improve your campaign effectiveness, then you are missing out on powerful data that will help you extract actionable insights. The right metrics will enable you to make the right data-driven decisions and connect better with your audience.

Big Customer Network continues to create digital marketing success stories and plays a key role in providing digital marketing and IT services. So, keep tracking and analyzing to experience consistent growth. We can help you navigate the maze website tools and analytics so contact us today to learn more.

 

5 Reasons Every SEO Agency Wants Your Company To Have An SEO Plan

SEO is one of the overused words on the Internet. If you own a website and have been trying to grow your audience or reach, you have probably heard it more than once. Everyone is suddenly claiming to be an SEO expert. But, what is SEO really about? Does it work as the promoters claim? Well, here are six reasons from a reputable SEO Agency why you should have an SEO plan for your company.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is a set of strategies aimed at increasing the search engine rank of a website. Studies have shown that web users usually do not go beyond the first page when looking for information. Therefore, ranking on the first page of a search engine will increase your chances of getting noticed by potential customers.

To achieve this, an SEO agency will come up with a plan which may fall into one of the three categories; organic search strategy, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. The SEO plan may encompass one or more of the following techniques:

  • Creating a backlink portfolio
  • Writing SEO optimized content
  • Improving readability and use of relevant keywords
  • Improving site speed
  • Optimize voice search
  • Improve mobile experience
  • Imrpove YouTube SEO
  • Optimize meta tags

The first thing that you need to know is that every business is unique. When it comes to SEO, there isn’t one solution that works for all situations. Therefore, some strategies work better for certain kinds of business. So, the first thing that a reputable SEO agency would do is conduct an SEO audit. Based on their findings and leveraging their experience, they will come up with a Search Engine Optimization plan.

6 Reasons to have an SEO plan

The right SEO strategy will improve the searchability of a website—but that is not all. Regardless of the size of your business or the niche, here are reasons why an SEO agency will want you to have an SEO plan.

1. Boost organic website traffic

The first place that people will usually go when looking for information is a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.). Therefore, organic search is one of the leading sources of traffic for most business websites. With over 5.5 billion daily searches, Google is the leader in search engine use. So, appearing on the first page of Google search is a top priority. A combination of high-quality, unique content and keyword optimization is what it takes to get to page one of Google.

2. Improve the user experience

The first impression matters—a lot! Customers are more likely to return to a brand if they had an excellent first experience. This is why most companies invest heavily in customer service. The same applies to website user experience. Customers who find what they are looking for will likely stay longer on a page and ultimately convert. Likewise, those that feel disappointed will exit the page quickly. Google uses this audience behavior to rank websites. A good SEO strategy incorporates improving user experience.

3. SEO is a lifetime investment

Hiring an SEO agency to develop an SEO plan will yield positive results for many years and prove a worthwhile investment in your digital marketing program.  SEO improvement doesn’t happen immediately and should be viewed as a marathon and not a sprint.

4. SEO strategy evolution

Google alters its search engine over 500 times per year. A  robust SEO strategy allows for flexibility and will ensure algorithm changes help your SEO efforts.  Any time Google makes changes to their algorithm, an SEO agency will study the changes and implement them in the SEO plan.

5. Success tracking is easy

Looking at a website’s data analytics, it is easy to tell whether the SEO efforts yield results.  However, since you will likely be using more than one approach at a time, it may be hard to tell which method is producing the best results. In fact, a good SEO strategy has a focus in mind. It may be to boost sales, increase website ranking, or increase daily website traffic. This makes tracking the success easier..the data will tell an SEO agency what has worked and where to go in the future.

6. Popular SEO mistakes to avoid

In the past, SEO was straightforward and easy to understand. However, with the addition of millions of pages every day, the rules are evolving rapidly. Nevertheless, the goal—having an online presence—remains the same. There is a long list of SEO traps that you should avoid while trying to reach your goal. But, we will highlight five of the most common ones here. They include;

  1. Prioritizing generic keywords rather than specific ones
  2. Failing to track your progress using an analytic tool (Google analytics, Databox, etc.)
  3. Keyword stuffing
  4. Producing low quality or outdated contents
  5. Ignoring title tags, meta description, and alternate image tags

Conclusion

Optimizing a website is not a walk in the park. It takes time, planning, and consistency to get results. However, if you make it a priority, you can improve your search engine ranking.  From an increase in sales to a website traffic boom, the results are endless. In addition to visibility, it boosts your reputation, making your website the first destination for potential customers. SEO doesn’t need to be expensive and painful if you hire the right SEO agency.  Contact us today and let us develop and implement the right SEO plan within your budget.

9 Digital Marketing Strategies for Startups

 

There’s nothing quite like a startup – palpable energy, exhilarating uncertainty, and all of the hope in the world. Anyone who has worked in a startup environment can attest to the fact that it is a beautiful, chaotic world to live in. Having a “big idea” is fantastic. Unfortunately, however, there is a considerable distance between idea and execution.

Some of the best ideas have fallen flat due to a lack of execution. Those failures come in a lot of different packages, often budget-related, but almost always due (in at least some part) to a lack of marketing. Digital marketing services is paramount to success for a company in any industry. Digital marketing for a startup company, on the other hand, is a distinctive beast.

Building a digital marketing strategy for a startup means taking into account a wide range of knowns and unknowns. And since the large majority of startups fail within the first 5 years, getting your marketing strategy right the first time around is critical. This will take a strategic combination of creativity and resources that will showcase your new company in the best light possible to the widest net of potential customers.

Entrepreneurs often fail to think through digital marketing in the early days of their company. While worrying about building a team, securing funds, and cultivating your idea is undoubtedly important, marketing should be mentioned among those key factors. Today, we will spend some time breaking down some unique and useful methods for startups to properly market their new ideas.

Startups Should Focus on These Digital Marketing Strategies

From determining a winning marketing message to choosing the right channels to distribute that message, there are a lot of decisions that must be made early on in the marketing game. Startups are typically strapped for cash and that means these decisions must be made as accurately as possible the first time around. Most startups do not have the luxury of trial and error, so the goal must be to focus on what is most likely to resonate with your target audience.

So, what is the best course of action for startups looking to strategically market their new brand? How can entrepreneurs take advantage of reasonably priced digital marketing channels without spreading themselves too thin? The answer is both complex and simple. Starting with big picture goals and then mapping out how small objectives can help to achieve them.

The following are some of the most important digital marketing strategies for startups:

  1. Identify who you are as a brand – create a persona
  2. Identify who your target audience is – create a buyer persona
  3. Build a beautiful, yet forthright website that is properly optimized with content built for both the reader and search engines
  4. Commit to building out regular content for your website that adds value to your industry
  5. Launch an email marketing strategy that connects, engages, and entices your audience to take action
  6. Invest in social media marketing – both in regular posting and commenting and running paid ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
  7. Consider influencer marketing to achieve a massive reach quickly and efficiently
  8. Launch a referral program and let your customers do the work for you
  9. Track everything – with the right analytic tools in place you can make smart marketing decisions

Digital marketing and startup companies are a match made in heaven. With inexpensive options and a wide net of prospective customers to reach, startups are able to take advantage of digital opportunities that will showcase their brand strategically.

Big Customer Network builds impressive digital marketing for companies both large and small. With years of experience in working with startups, we look forward to the opportunity to apply our expertise to grow your brand!

10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

 

Best practices surrounding digital marketing and search engine optimization are abundant. While the industry changes rapidly as a whole, SEO professionals have grown accustomed to explaining a simple, cardinal, and timeless rule of SEO: focus on the end-user, not Google, and your site will perform well. Of course, this is a massive oversimplification, but the concept rings true.

Google’s algorithm is an extremely complex system that ranks websites that are best able to answer the inquiries of the searcher. When SEO “best practices” first hit the scene, white hat and black hat digital marketing professionals hit the ground running. While Google no longer ranks those websites that employ black hat strategies, the lines have blurred a bit when it comes to deploying a plan that actually works. Even some white hat techniques that used to work may now result in a site being penalized. As such, it is extremely important to keep a finger on the pulse of SEO strategy for today and tomorrow.

The competition runs rampant in most industries and that means SEO professionals are tasked with being efficient, smart, and fast in order to optimize with both short-term and long-term strategy in mind. Google’s algorithm can feel like a moving target, updating in an overwhelming frequent fashion. This often causes the SEO industry rumor mill to work in overdrive and can muddy the waters of myth and truth.

From message boards to blog posts, digging through the internet for accurate, timely SEO tactics can be a major headache. As a result, SEO professionals have fallen victim to deploying SEO strategy that ends up being a major mistake. Today, we aim to uncover some of the most common SEO mistakes made in order to avoid them in your own marketing plan.

The Most Common SEO Mistakes

SEO used to be one of the most straightforward aspects of digital marketing, but as the internet adds millions of pages each day, the intricacies of SEO have evolved tremendously. From keywords to content strategy, from title tags to link building, and from off-page SEO strategy to data analytics, the list of “basic” SEO principles seems endless.

No matter how big or small a company may be, having an online presence means having an SEO strategy. Marketers and business owners who hope to keep traffic flowing to their websites must do their best to avoid the following SEO mistakes:

  1. Failing to optimize for local search
  2. Focusing on generic keywords instead of specific phrases
  3. Not using Google Analytics to its full capacity
  4. Producing irrelevant, lean, or outdated content
  5. Putting more emphasis on traffic than conversion
  6. Neglecting an internal linking strategy, which includes optimized anchor text
  7. Disregarding the importance of unique meta descriptions and title tags
  8. Paying too much attention on the number of links, instead of the quality of links
  9. Creating content that adds no value
  10. Adding a ton of pages instead of optimizing and updating current pages

Some of the above mistakes may seem simple, but you would be surprised to find how many SEO “experts” commit them every single day. Either by oversight or a lack of a centralized strategy, SEO mistakes can have a long-lasting impact on a website’s ability to rank.

The reality is that SEO can truly be infuriating. Google’s algorithm aims to reward quality sites and punish poor quality sites, and this means that it is constantly being tweaked and corrected. The good news is that a solid SEO foundation should protect your website from any drastic drops in rankings, no matter how drastic the algorithm update. However, it is easy to become complacent and fail to revisit some of the SEO tactics employed years ago.

Take the time to evaluate how your SEO strategy is working and whether or not it meets today’s standards. At Big Customer Network, we are SEO experts with years of experience in getting our clients to rank. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services.

Digital Marketing During COVID-19 and Beyond

Online Marketing

 

COVID-19 has impacted nearly every aspect of the lives of individuals and businesses across the globe. From contract workers to small businesses to large corporations, a multitude of adjustments have been and will continue to be made. The reality that we now find ourselves is strange and new. Whether we like it or not, we need to rethink everything when it comes to the way in which we conduct business including digital marketing.

The changes have been drastic and far-reaching, but they all have a common thread: nearly everything must be digital. Conference rooms have been replaced with Zoom meetings, classrooms have moved online, groceries are being delivered via an app, and the list goes on and on. So, where does digital marketing come into play? How can companies adapt and stay afloat during these unprecedented times?

The answers aren’t always crystal clear and they seem to be evolving with each passing day. However, there are a few things that we know will be true today and tomorrow. Digital marketing was important yesterday and it’s even more important tomorrow. With this in mind, we are breaking down just how important it is to establish, maintain, and grow your online presence in the world of COVID-19 and beyond.

Let’s dive right in.

Start Internally

It would be unfair to jump right into digital marketing tactics without addressing the elephant in the room: a lot of businesses are suffering right now and are simply clueless when it comes to basic functions. Before we discuss how you are communicating with your customers, it’s important to figure out how you are communicating with your team. The best place to start is to establish protocols and best practices.

With everyone working remotely, it can be extremely hard to keep track of roles and responsibilities. Take advantage of platforms like Hatchbuck, Basecamp, or Zoom to begin to streamline your operations. Don’t be afraid to try a platform and then change your mind. Everyone is learning as they go and it is important to find a good fit for your particular industry and company.

Beyond nailing down a communication and workload strategy, it is important to find a way to keep employees motivated and engaged. Encourage workout breaks and happy hours, recognize great work and contributions and be as transparent as possible in conveying the status of your company’s overall health.

Take Advantage of Digital Marketing’s Power

Coronavirus may have shined a light on all things digital, but the truth is that digital marketing has enjoyed its time in the spotlight for many years. With mounting pressure to “flatten the curve”, people are stuck inside and forced to conduct their day-to-day routines inside. And that means relying on the internet for, well, everything.

There are a few critical digital marketing elements to focus your efforts on right now:

Email Marketing

Unless you are living under a rock, you have probably received countless emails informing you of how any company you have ever interacted with is handling COVID-19. In some cases, this was necessary and important. However, the real value in email marketing lies in the months ahead. First, focus on customers. Reward their loyalty with a great deal and remind them that you are open for business. Next, promote your best-selling product/service to your entire list. Highlight the selling points succinctly and send a follow-up to anyone who clicked on a link in the email.

Review and Optimize Your Website

Now is a great time to make sure that your website is up-to-date. Make sure your products/services pages are current and that all links are working correctly. Test contacts forms, add links to your social platforms, and regularly add blog/article content. Finally, put some real time into your search engine optimization (SEO). While there have been dips in sales and traffic across websites in every industry, these numbers are expected to rise and you want to be prepared.

Get Social

People have a lot more time on their hands these days, and that means that they are spending way more time on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Take advantage of this by posting relevant, valuable content and then engaging with prospects and customers. In addition, invest in ads. Facebook ads are currently seeing a very low cost-per-click (CPC), so build a well-thought target audience and launch some ads.

Go for the Google Ads

There has been a recent surge in cost per conversion across nearly every industry running Google ads. Organic traffic has been down, so now is the perfect time to capitalize on paid ads. It’s easy to view now as a time to curb ad spending, but it is just the opposite. With less competition, now is the perfect time to run a set of highly-targeted Google ads.

The Timelessness of Digital Marketing

COVID-19 has unearthed a new necessity when it comes to digital marketing, but its value is truly ageless. In fact, the coronavirus outbreak is likely to highlight the fact that people don’t really need to go into stores, whether we like it or not. Now is the time to dedicate your time and your budget to digital marketing.

Looking to stay afloat in this uncharted territory? Big Customer Network is here to help. Contact us today to learn more.

Are You Avoiding These Digital Marketing Mistakes?

A quick Google search will reveal countless digital marketing tips, guidelines, and “must-have” insider information. The internet is flooded with marketing formulas that are guaranteed to transform your company’s online presence. But what about what doesn’t work? With so much information about what to do, who is focusing on what not to do? How can you take failed digital marketing experiments and turn them into valuable guidelines for the future?

Digital marketing and data go hand-in-hand. Today, we find ourselves in a data-driven world, dictating decisions in nearly every industry, and on a global scale. This means that there is an abundance of facts and figures to shape decisions and guide new initiatives. In marketing, data lays the foundation for action.

While all digital marketing mistakes are avoidable, some of the more commonly seen blunders are certainly preventable. Having a dynamic approach to every digital marketing initiative is crucial to online success.

Have you given any thought to the mistakes that your organization has made? If not, it’s time to start digging in.

Digital Marketing Mistakes To Dodge

The enormity of digital marketing options can be paralyzing. Some companies are so overwhelmed with where to begin, they fail to get started at all. The fear of making a mistake is certainly daunting, but the beauty lies in the lessons taken from those mistakes, all made possible by the nature of digital information.

Making changes to a marketing strategy is far more complex than it may appear. So to say that one can address digital marketing mistakes with “the click of a button” is an oversimplification. However, since proper research and due diligence can set up any organization to succeed digitally, starting by pinpointing preventable mistakes is key.

The following are some of the most frequently seen digital marketing mistakes:

  1. Refusing to be dynamic. Trends change faster today than ever before, and this means not only being on the cutting-edge of those changes but having the flexibility to act accordingly.
  2. Failing to clearing state and write down marketing objectives. This is one of the most commonly seen errors today. People are so eager to get started, they fail to take a step back and determine where they want to go.
  3. Missing the mark on targeting the right audience. Digital marketing options today mean that you can create campaigns to speak to a very specific set of individuals. Ignoring the power of reaching a targeted audience, with the right message, can be disastrous for any campaign.
  4. Approaching social media marketing with a “post and pray” attitude. It’s easy to feel like simply posting on social is enough to engage an audience and remain top-of-mind. But without a strategy, your posts will fall on deaf ears.
  5. Ignoring the opportunity to test. A/B testing is extremely powerful in gauging the right approach to the audience, the medium, and so on. It’s easy to jump to a conclusion about a campaign without properly assessing its performance, but no assessment is complete without some form of testing.
  6. Spending minimal time with analytics. Falling into the trap of sending a monthly report is all too common. Are you spending time with the numbers to truly understand what they mean? Analytics provide a goldmine for marketers looking to make the most out of their digital campaigns.

We could go on and on about the mistakes digital marketers make, but the above six mark the most impactful issues to date. You will inevitably make mistakes in your efforts to dominate your competition online, but approaching these mistakes as opportunities to learn and evolve will set you up to avoid failure in the future.

At Big Customer Network, we approach mistakes with open arms in our quest to perfect our clients’ digital marketing strategies. Are you ready to take your company to the next level? Contact us today to get started.

Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy Ready for 2020?

Digital Marketing Strategy

 

The year, and the decade, is quickly coming to an end. For some entrepreneurs, 2020 is already looking bright. Digital marketing opportunities Digital marketing opportunities are abundant and prime for the taking. So, the most optimistic business owners are those who are channeling their focus on what is to come this year and onward. What marketing innovations will the new decade bring? Where are the most forward-thinking brands investing their ad dollars? Who will fare the best from the inevitable changes in digital marketing strategy trends?

The rapid pace of marketing today makes it tough to predict the future. As platforms and tools advance, marketing efforts must do their best to not only keep up, but to stay at the forefront of these progressions. From voice and visual search to AI and machine learning, savvy digital marketers are gearing up for 2020 in a big way.

Thinking through marketing initiatives for 2020 and beyond can seem daunting. With so many options at our fingertips, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and unengaged. While different tactics make sense for different organizations, there are some overarching trends that we anticipate will shape digital marketing in the year and years to come.

Digital Marketing Success in 2020

First and foremost, it is important to recognize that any successful digital marketing strategy in 2020 and onward must be adaptable. This means creating a plan that is dynamic – a living, breathing blueprint that freely welcomes changes and innovations.

Next, it is absolutely critical to invest substantially in digital marketing efforts. The reality is that your competition is putting their money there and will continue to do so. This year, those who neglect to earmark their dollars for this purpose will be left to watch from the sidelines as new business opportunities go elsewhere.

With that said, the possibilities for digital marketing success in 2020 are endless. Before sitting down to craft your own, think about incorporating the following digital marketing strategy tactics:

  1. Search: voice search has become more and more important over the last several years. While this is certainly something that you must still optimize for, visual search is quickly emerging as a new frontrunner. Make sure that your site is optimized for cameras and images to take a stronghold in search behavior.
  2. Machine Learning: AI is here to stay. Those companies who use it to their advantage will see their sales numbers increase dramatically. As of now, machine learning is most often applied to ad targeting based on user behavior like buyer preference and demographics.
  3. Personalization: customers will continue to have higher and higher expectations for the ads that they are shown. This means crafting marketing materials that speak directly to their wants and needs, all while leaning on technology to do the heavy lifting.
  4. Community: savvy brands have been and will continue efforts to build a brand community. This means activity in things like online forums, on social media groups, and in answering questions. In doing so, brands are transformed into relatable entities that people can form relationships with and like-minded people are united in their shared affinity for that brand.
  5. ADA Compliance: the Americans With Disabilities Association (ADA) has set standards that websites must take note of and follow. Ensuring that your site is accessible for all persons is imperative to not only offer an exceptional user experience, but also to avoid potential lawsuits and fines.

These five digital marketing strategies only scratch the surface of what should be done in 2020 and onward. Generally speaking, companies must focus their digital efforts on creating killer content and sharing strategically on social media. The combination of these two tactics will serve to promote your brand, build your community, and facilitate new business.

At Big Customer Network, we know digital marketing strategy. We live it, we breathe it, and we spend our days perfecting it. In 2020, those who invest in digital marketing will find themselves leading their industry, outperforming their competition, and growing their profits.

Are you interested in a digital marketing strategy specifically geared towards your company goals? Contact our digital marketing team today to learn more!

The Ultimate Digital Marketing Strategy Checklist

Digital Marketing Strategy Requirements

From startups to massive corporations, digital marketing has slowly but surely trickled its way into nearly every single successful business today. What was once considered a new, exciting element in the marketing mix has now become a central and integral component, critical to strategies both large and small. In fact, even today’s traditional marketing tactics are harnessed by their digital counterparts.

In 2020 and beyond, business owners must take their digital marketing efforts seriously. The reality is that time spent online continues to increase at rapid rates year over year. Those who have been slow to accept the shift into the digital world will find out the hard way that their customers (and their competitors) are living online.

Digital marketing strategy means getting all of your internet ducks in a row – from search engine optimization (SEO) to pay-per-click (PPC), from content marketing to social media marketing to email marketing, and so on. Why? Well, for starters, about 90 percent of all searchers have yet to make their minds up about a brand prior to starting their search. Your digital footprint is invaluable to attracting new customers, keeping old ones, and maintaining a stronghold in your respective industry.

Today, we highlight some of the most essential elements of a digital marketing strategy that will put your organization in a position to succeed online and, in turn, offline.

Digital Marketing Strategy for Big Wins

Hesitations around committing to a digital marketing strategy are typically founded in uncertainty. “Do my customers really search online?” “My company is B2B, we don’t need to put money into internet marketing.” “My marketing budget is small and I don’t see the value.” These are some of the most common issues brought to our attention by business owners. What these entrepreneurs fail to recognize is the massive shift that has occurred over the last decade.

Decision-makers are living online and doing research online and making choices online, no matter who your target audience may be. As such, building a digital marketing strategy that speaks directly to those people will set your company up to succeed. Much like any strategy, beginning with the end in mind is key.

Any digital marketing framework must rely upon specific objectives for the overall strategy. Are you looking to build brand awareness? Do you need to establish online sales? Are you introducing a new product to the market? Understanding where you want the company to end up as a result of your digital marketing efforts will create the blueprint for getting there.

As with anything, starting with the right components is imperative for the company to thrive. The following is a checklist for the most critical aspects to include in your digital marketing strategy:

  1. Brand: who are you as a company? Do all of your company assets (website, messaging, etc.) represent that brand image?
  2. Business Objectives: what specifically are you trying to achieve?
  3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): what metrics will you use to track successes and failures?
  4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): what keywords are you targeting? What is your plan to improve search rankings?
  5. Content Marketing: do you regularly produce content that asserts your authority in your industry? What value are you offering website visitors?
  6. Social Media: how are you communicating with customers and prospective customers? Does your social footprint attract leads with intention?
  7. Paid Search: is your brand blanketing search engine results? Are your ads on the first page of Google?
  8. Email Marketing: are you making consistent efforts to touch base with your audience?

Marketing was once a guessing game. Buy a billboard and hope for the best. Send out flyers and pray that someone notices. Today, marketing is trackable and ever-evolving. This means that the guesswork has finally been removed from the equation, leaving only an opportunity to build awareness, drive traffic, and generate new business.

Digital Marketing with Big Customer Network

At Big Customer Network, we create custom digital marketing strategies for our clients. We analyze the industry, the company, and its competitors to craft a solution that makes a true impact. Our digital marketing team works tirelessly to build internet muscle that generates digital success, for clients both large and small.

Are you ready to take the next step with your digital marketing strategy? Contact us today to learn more!

Content Marketing’s Value for Your Business

Digital marketing strategies have seen a variety of shifts in the last decade or so, but one constant has remained unchanged: content. In fact, two-thirds of all marketers create at least one piece of content every single day. Why? It’s simple; content marketing is essential for businesses to:

  1. Maintain a strong digital presence
  2. Successfully communicate with prospects
  3. Position themselves to stay competitive in the marketplace

Search engine optimization (SEO) is said to have been born in the early 1990s. And since that time, effectively marketing a company online has meant a lot of different things. Throughout SEO’s evolution, the content has (and will continue) to play a vital role in establishing even the smallest of companies as thought-leaders and, in turn, legitimate organizations.

So, if the content is such an integral part of the marketing mix, why do businesses continually fail to dedicate their resources to its fruition? The answer is that they fail to recognize its value and, in doing so, drastically impede their ability to succeed on the web.

Today, companies who are competing and winning online in their respective industries all share a respect for content marketing’s role in their digital marketing campaigns.

The Secret Sauce of Content Marketing

Content marketing in 2020 and beyond means building a strategy that is harnessed by internal objectives and industry trends. This means creating a content plan that highlights how your business is an expert in your field, why prospective clients would benefit from working with you, and how your competition can learn from the content you produce. These elements combine to generate an online force that builds your brand and drives sales.

Content marketing can be defined as a strategic marketing plan created to drive specific results. Those results vary depending upon the specific organization behind the plan, but all outcomes are centered on an ability to execute. From research to writing, from planning to optimizing, and from measuring to analyzing, every component of a content marketing plan must be performed with strategy.

The benefits linked to content marketing are widespread. When properly implemented, content can transform a website, rehabilitate a brand image, and open the door to an entirely new audience. The following are some of the most notable advantages linked to content marketing:

  • Generate new (and more) leads
  • Improve search rankings and SEO as a whole
  • Develop a brand reputation
  • Increase profitability
  • Position your company as an expert thought-leader
  • Increase conversion rates in a cost-effective manner
  • Set your company apart from the competition
  • Serve as a method to educate customers
  • Target specific audiences
  • Increase online authority and credibility
  • Strategically move prospects along the buyer’s journey
  • Establishes a personal connection with prospects and customers
  • Allows for greater online engagement
  • Lays the foundation for a strong social media presence

While the list could go on and on, these are the most prominent benefits of developing and implementing a content marketing strategy. These benefits are powerful in the ever-changing competitive market. As such, it is a critical aspect of the marketing mix for companies competing online.

Content Marketing with Big Customer Network

At Big Customer Network, we have years of experience in building and executing successful content marketing strategies for our clients. From building strategic landing pages to nurturing full-scope digital marketing strategies, our proven system breeds success from the inside out.

Big Customer Network is the internet muscle you need to conquer your competition. Contact us today to learn more!