Digital marketing strategies allow businesses to plan online marketing campaigns. That includes outlining the particular methods the business will use as well as the time and budgetary allocation dedicated to each method.
With the ever expanding digital space, having a clear cut roadmap is critical to your campaign. For that reason, most series B startups prefer to have a dedicated digital marketing agency to handle the entire campaign.
Not only does that save your business time, but it also leaves you and your staff free to focus on other key areas, such as product development and research.
Nonetheless, a cash strapped startup may opt to handle the marketing campaign directly. However, that requires some basic understanding of different digital marketing strategies, how they work, and how you can use them for your enterprise.
Here are the top five digital marketing methods that most startups can utilize to boost their sales.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO refers to the use of particular tactics to improve the ranking of your website by search engines.
In layman’s terms, whenever a person searches for certain products or services online, there are websites that pop up on the first results page. SEO is concerned with ensuring that your website appears in the first Search Engine Results Page (SERP), if not at the top.
Why is this important?
According to Google, their search engine processes more than a whopping 3.5 billion search queries in a day. Googles engine caters to more than 86.6% of the search engine market. Out of these searches, more than two-thirds of the click-throughs go to the top five results on the SERP.
In short, business websites that make it to the first page receive a phenomenal amount of web traffic which they can then funnel and convert into sales.
To ensure that your website is Search Engine Optimized, the proper use of keywords, and the deployment of relevant content is vital. That helps the engine’s algorithm find and rank your site as relevant to the query.
2. Cold Calling
Lots of sales people today shun cold calling due to its perceived difficult nature. It is one of the oldest marketing tactics in the business world and has been used by door to door salespeople and telemarketers for decades.
While it may appear daunting, there is a reason the method continues to be used to date.
When done right, cold calling may result in increased brand awareness and recognition for your startup as well as higher conversions.
Cold calling involves the unsolicited marketing calls to a prospect and pitching your product or service to them.
Due to its unsolicited nature it often comes across as intrusive at best and counterproductive at worst.
However what some sales representatives fail to realize is that it requires a tactful approach. Successful cold calling is more about engaging the prospect and understanding their needs first before pitching the product.
Also, even though the sale representative’s goal is to ultimately close a sale, cold calling is also an opportunity for the representative to collect valuable feedback from the prospect.
Successful cold calls allow businesses understand their prospects’ needs better and come up with more apt solutions and products. It also informs the sales reps which areas they should be keen on addressing when making their product pitch.
3. Content Marketing
Today, brand visibility and credibility is greatly enhanced by its perceived knowledgeability and expertise within its field of operation.
Today’s clients are more responsive to brands that help them find solutions to everyday problems. As such, one of the most effective virtual tools through which brands exhibit their expertise is by providing valuable information to their prospects online through dissemination of content.
Content marketing involves the publication of engaging and useful content that is structured to answer common queries raised by your clients.
For instance, a business focused on selling consumer packaged products can benefit from a sales enablement tool for consumer goods. This tool connects your planning, marketing, and execution on a single platform. Additionally, it tailors content to the individual characteristics of each customer, delivering the right content through the best outlet and channel at the right time.
Content marketing and SEO are closely intertwined and serve the purpose of ensuring a continuous steady flow of web traffic to your site.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a close cousin to cold calling, as both involve the unsolicited contacting of prospects with the intention of eventually making a sale.
With email marketing, the startup reaches out to potential prospects through the use of targeted email lists.
These are lists generated by an expert Email Services Provider (ESP) who provides valuable contacts of warm leads in a given field.
Therefore, instead of indiscriminately sending out emails to some random recipients, your business is provided with a curated email list of contacts who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
You may undertake to handle dispatch of the emails yourself (upon receipt of the email lists from your ESP) or you may entrust the ESP with the entire email marketing campaign. It all depends on your budget and the type of arrangement you prefer.
Overall, Email marketing remains one of the most cost effective marketing techniques in the digital space.
5. Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is the use of various virtual social platforms to promote your brand and products.
Some of the leading social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
Social media campaigns may be approached in different ways. However, it would be a great idea to contact the best social media marketing company in Melbourne, as they have years of experience handling projects and will give you the best results.
While people in their thirties and forties are likely to have Facebook accounts, you might not find as many of them on TikTok for example.
After picking the platforms, your brand may opt for sponsored ads on those platforms with the aim of growing its brand following and visibility.
