4 Steps to Using Digital Marketing to Improve Your Marketing Strategy

Are you looking to create marketing strategies that work? Do you want to increase growth without increasing your marketing budget? Today’s post will tell you how.

Here are 4 steps to follow so you can use digital marketing to improve your overall marketing strategy.

1) Get Your Team On Board

The best digital marketing content strategies start with getting buy-in from the people in your company that have influence over making your plans a reality. What are some of the best ways to include your team and bring them on board with your vision?

• Ask internal customer teams to share their expertise about your current audience and their concerns.
• Have discussions about the key challenges your strategies will solve for your internal team.
• Show each team how the changes you propose will help their business metrics.
• Be clear on what resources are needed to make your vision a reality.

Your goal is to create a powerful team that understands how your digital marketing strategies can help them while also meeting the needs of your client. If you are successful, your team will be ready and willing to help you pitch your ideas, products, or services.

2) Create a Content Strategy

Have you already created buyer personas to identify your ideal customer? Digital marketing requires content and information that is appropriate for your audience. You must know what your target customers’ concerns, ideals, hopes, and preferences are. Here’s one of ours:

• Talk to people who work directly with your target audience, particularly the men and women who work with your clients to get their insight on your ideal clients.
• Ask  employees who work directly with your current customers to fill in a questionnaire to gather more information about your clients.
• Ask your target audience their opinions about the products or services that you are planning to implement.
• Conduct an online survey.

Once you’ve identified your client needs you can also review statistics or data from public resources to back up your own research. Some places to find data include:

• U.S. Census Bureau, which describes demographic statistics and business-related statistics based on the overall economy as well as specific business sectors.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, which provides detailed information about different careers, job descriptions
• Local data on state and city websites.

Use the data you gather to identify the foundation for your content. Now you are ready to take the content and develop a plan to consistently publish information that your customers will find useful, educational and appropriate.

3) Develop a Publishing Plan

In a recent HubSpot report, we found a staggering 56% of survey respondents said they were doing content marketing without a plan. @HubSpot

Establish a Schedule

Publishing content is not limited to just posting information on one resource. You want to develop a plan and a method of generating content for your entire online and offline presence. Predictability is good; set a schedule and publish content at the same time each week so your customers can know when to expect to hear from you.

Publish in Multiple Places

Re-purpose your content for multiple sources. For example, develop a short social media comment that is based on the information you provide. Offer an attention-getting snippet of data and link back to the primary source of information. Use tools like Bitly or Google’s URL shortening tool to create short links that can be added to social media posts and comments.

Be careful when you adjust content so that you maintain a high level of quality. To ensure your content is ready for publishing in multiple sources:

• Check the spelling and grammar
• Keep data original
• Use different words to summarize your main points

4) Promote Your Ideas Regularly

Start the Process of Promoting Your Products, Services and Ideas Early

Develop a promotion and marketing plan long before you start discussing your product and creating content. You want to know your target audience and ensure that every advertisement, blog post, and comment on social media is appropriate for the goals of your customers.

Discuss the Product Before it is Available to Purchase

Advertise the product with short videos that you put on your website or a blog post that discusses your upcoming products or services. Talk about the benefits of your services. Provide teasers by writing short content, small hints, and recommendations about the use of a product or service without discussing all of the details in a single resource.

Market Directly To Your Target Audience

Ask team members who are skilled at marketing and promotion to start putting information out to your target audience early. Send out flyers, postcards, or email messages to your current customers. Update the information regularly as your product or service becomes available.

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Digital marketing helps your company grow and thrive by incorporating new marketing strategies. It helps you connect with new customers and keep up with the changing market. Whether your goal is attracting new inbound traffic or maintaining a great impression with new and returning customers, incorporating digital marketing gives you the tools to improve your future campaigns.

How can digital marketing help your business be more successful?

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/4-steps-using-digital-marketing-improve-marketing-strategy-0887903

12 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business

With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society. Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one, or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.

For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successfully thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales. In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, Digital Marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.

The following 12 reasons will show you why the use of digital marketing is not only investment-wise decision but also an effective marketing channel that can help you grow your business.

The Infographic:

1. Because Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field

Gone are the days when business owners still welcome the notion that Digital Marketing is only for the likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient resources required to mount an online marketing campaign. Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted traffic.

With digital marketing, small companies now have the resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these locations.

2. Because Digital Marketing Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing

Small businesses have very little resources and even capitalization. This is why Digital Marketing provides them with a better and much more cost-effective marketing channel that delivers results. Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report highlighted that up to 40% of respondents claimed getting considerable savings by using digital marketing methods of promotion for their products and services.

That is why according to the Gartner survey, 28% of business owners surveyed will shift marketing budget allocations from traditional media channels and invest them into digital online marketing tools and techniques. HubSpot confirms this as shown in the chart below that confirms how digital marketers get better Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) compared to other marketing channels.

3. Because Digital Marketing Delivers Conversion

Businesses marketing products and services online measure success by the percentage rate of incoming traffic gets converted into leads, subscribers or sales, depending on the intended purposes of your website. Without conversion, all your traffic would mean nothing and all your marketing efforts will simply go to waste. That is why business owners are streamlining their digital marketing campaigns towards conversion optimization, making it a top priority above everything else.

There are several tools and techniques that you can use for your digital marketing campaign such as Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and email marketing. As seen from the chart below from HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, these three that generate quick and effective communication and interaction with targeted audiences will deliver better-than-average results in terms of higher conversion rates.

4. Because Digital Marketing Helps Generate Better Revenues

Higher conversion rates generated by effective digital marketing techniques will deliver loads of profitable benefits for you and your business in terms of better and higher revenues. Google confirms this in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth expectancy for companies using digital marketing strategies to those who do not.

With better revenue growth expectancy, small and medium enterprises using digital marketing techniques will have 3.3 times better chances of expanding their workforce and business – opening their doors to better, larger and farther reaching markets both locally and abroad. Google’s Asia-Pacific Head of SME Kevin O’Kane describes the Internet as rocket fuel for growth for small and medium enterprises.

5. Because Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences

One of the reasons why digital marketing is taking over traditional marketing channels is the ability of Internet marketing tools to interact with targeted audiences in real time. Engagement in any form is what your customers expect to receive when interacting with your brand or business. How your business handles such engagements and interactions will spell the difference between business success and failure – just like what eMarketer’s report Key Digital Trends for 2014 is saying as shown below.

Interacting and providing your customers with proper engagement points can give you an insight of what your targeted audiences want. This vital information will steer you towards making the right set of next moves, provide your customers with an even better experience, develop good relationships with them – gaining their loyalty and trust that you will need when your business begins to grow.

6. Because Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer

Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. These mobile devices have become a central part of American life that 91% of adults in the United States always have their devices within reaching distance.

Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from eMarketer.

7. Because Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation

The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site some more – on a regular and continuous basis.

This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected, further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and attain business growth.

8. Because Digital Marketing Provides better ROI for Your Marketing Investments

With better revenues and better branding, Digital Marketing can provide a better Return of Investments (ROI) than traditional media and marketing channels. With traditional media, the cost is too exorbitant for small and medium enterprises to leverage on, and the results received are somewhat vague and difficult to measure.

Digital Marketing on the other hand can easily be tracked and monitored, with results immediately realized and measured as soon as targeted audiences provide contact information, subscribe to a newsletter or training program, or make a purchase. The key to success in Digital marketing however, is to generate a steady flow of targeted traffic that converts into sales and leads. The more your business generates this kind of traffic, the faster you can realize your ROI.

9. Because Digital Marketing Earns People’s Trust

Digital Marketing rides on the current online trend that focus more on social media signals resulting from direct and more personalized interaction between a brand or business and their targeted audiences. In the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that involved 25 thousand consumers coming from at least 50 countries, 90 percent of respondents claimed they would trust information about a particular brand, product or service if the data comes from people they know.

Digital Marketing leverages on social media signals, social proof and testimonials from actual consumers who have previously purchased, joined, or availed of a product or service marketed by a particular brand or business. The more reliable these social signals are, the higher the trust rate it can generate from targeted audiences – most of which can be potential customers.

10. Because Digital Marketing Entices People to Take Favorable Action

While social signals and testimonials help earn trust from targeted audiences, Digital Marketing makes use of effective strategies that will entice people to take a favorable action your brand or business intends them to take. Conversion to leads or sales is still initiated and under full control by the website visitor. They are not compelled to do so but digital marketers can make use of clever and innovative ways to entice conversion using Calls-To-Action.

Calls-To-Action specifies what your web visitors should do next – either to sign up, like, download something, call or buy – specific steps that will entice them to perform a favorable action. Innovative forms, buttons and texts are optimized according to copy, color scheme, graphics and even positioning on the page to generate the best results in terms of generating favorable action.

11. Because Digital Marketing Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things

The “Internet of Things” is a global ecosystem of interconnected devices – tablets, smartphones, gadgets, appliances and more – that can interact with each other through the Internet. Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi thriller, but this is what the projected 24 billion gadgets by the year 2020 will actually head to. Digital Marketing will prepare your business towards this eventuality, an interconnected ecosystem that will permeate through every aspect of people’s lives. Survival for your business in the era of the “Internet of Things” means inclusion in this interconnected grid – giving you an access window to reach out to targeted audiences belonging to this online grid.

12. Because Digital Marketing Ensures Business Survival Online

It is a normal occurrence for brick-and-mortar business establishments to encounter visitors entering their store, skimming through and inspecting products, then leave without buying anything. Many kinds of people like these come and go, but a targeted few will actually make a purchase and if satisfied, will come back for more on a later date. If you get less of the later and more of the few, sooner or later your brick-and-mortar business will cease to exist.

Your business can be likened to this. Even if you have tons of website visitors but none of them ever convert, your  business will also cease to exist. Digital Marketing helps you make use of proven strategies and techniques that attract not necessarily more traffic – but highly targeted traffic that delivers results. Targeting the right kind of people that delivers the right kind of results is what Digital Marketing is all about – ensuring survival for your business.

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/12-reasons-why-digital-marketing-can-help-you-grow-your-business/

Do You Know What Omnichannel Marketing Really Means?

The marketing world is at war.

Tech giants like Oracle, Adobe, and Salesforce are battling it out to create THE premiere marketing cloud that provides complete measurement, attribution, and automation. Essentially, one marketing cloud to do it all in an omnichannel world.

Marketers are investing billions in technology in the pursuit of true omnichannel marketing, which we all know is important – I’m just not sure we all know what omnichannel means or what it looks like in practice.

Let’s take a step back and explore the real definition of omnichannel marketing, and how you can take advantage of it in 2016.

What is omnichannel marketing, really?

I’ll be the first to admit that omnichannel sounds like another marketing buzzword that we’d rather see stricken from our vocabulary. But the truth is, we need a term that can aptly describe the increasingly complex, multi-device, multi-channel customer journey.

Today’s consumers move between TV, display, search, email, and social media, whether it’s on their laptop, smartphone, or tablet. In fact, 90% of consumers move between multiple devices to accomplish their goals, and they expect a consistent and relevant experience throughout their purchase journey.

According to John Bowden, SVP of Customer Care at Time Warner Cable, “Omnichannel is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer, orchestrating the experience across all channels so that it is seamless, integrated, and consistent.” That’s likely the most fitting definition you’ll find, and what we should all be moving toward.

Mobile is the new omnichannel hub

Mobile is at the heart of the omnichannel journey. It’s what’s made it possible for consumers to move so easily between channels and engage in so many new ways. It isn’t simply another channel like display or email. Instead, we need to recognize mobile as the hub for many of the interactions a customer has with a brand – whether it’s through social media, search, display, email, or video.

Understanding how customers interact with brands on their mobile phones will be key for marketers building a seamless and personalized customer experience.

The challenge of omnichannel

Omnichannel marketing isn’t simple. One of the biggest challenges is getting all the tools you need – and the really hard part is getting them working together. In fact, 85% of marketers struggle to implement an omnichannel strategy because of a lack of access to the tools they need to make a personalized one-to-one experience possible.

Between marketing automation, retargeting platforms, predictive analytics, real-time personalization platforms, CRMs (and the list goes on), marketers are struggling to keep up. With so many tools and so much disparate data, it’s definitely a matter of ‘more software, more problems’.

The lack of a cohesive omnichannel strategy and the right tools and integrations lead to serious consequences, such as a(n):

• Incomplete view of the customer journey
• Fragmented/inconsistent customer experience
• Inability to measure cross-channel marketing performance
• Internal silos between marketing teams

For example, you send your customer an email with an offer for a new product, the customer visits your website and makes a call for more information with the intent to purchase. Your SEM team sees that the customer is interested in the product based on their activity on the website, and starts showing the customer display ads for the same product with a discounted price.

Each part of your team is working as it should, but they’re not working together and it’s creating a poor experience for your customer.

Offline is the missing piece

There’s an infinite number of tools available to marketers to track, measure, and automate every step of the digital customer journey, but if you’re not accounting for offline interactions, your omnichannel strategy is incomplete.

eMarketer’s top marketing prediction for 2016 was that the rise of mobile would once again elevate inbound calls to the top of the list of priorities for smart digital marketers. According to BIA/Kelsey, mobile is set to drive over 100 billion calls to businesses in the next couple of years.

The point is this: if you’re not taking calls seriously as an integral part of your omnichannel strategy, you’re missing a key component of the customer journey, and that’s not very omnichannel of you.

In 2016, developing a true omnichannel strategy will be the top priority for every marketing team. As the customer journey continues to evolve, the tools and strategies marketers use to track, measure, and automate the entire customer journey will have to become more sophisticated.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The vision of an omnichannel experience is becoming clearer, and marketers are getting closer to achieving that vision all the time. So while omnichannel sounds like a dirty buzzword that has no real meaning, it’s actually pretty important – and if you ask me, pretty exciting.

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: http://blog.invoca.com/do-you-know-what-omnichannel-marketing-really-means/