Why you should prioritise digital marketing

Traditional marketing has been the mainstay for decades but as technology has changed the world around us, digital marketing has become an essential part of promoting your business.

What’s the difference?

Often referred to as ‘Outbound Marketing’, traditional marketing is when a company pushes its message out to the public. This includes activities such as media advertising (TV, newspaper or radio), attending trade shows as well as billboards and bus ads etc.

Digital Marketing enables a tactic called inbound marketing, where advertising is only seen by people looking to buy. This includes advertising on Google search results or providing information on your website that helps people to choose the right product.

Why is digital marketing important?

Developments in the tech space have changed how people learn about products and services:

1. Digitisation
   The internet has changed how people shop. The abundance of information has led to 75% of all product purchases starting with an online search. Plus, on average, it takes 20 days from that first search to make a purchase, highlighting the amount of research that is done.

2. Behaviour Changes
   People are inundated with messages all day and are very adept at blocking them out. Putting headphones on is a prime example.

3. Cost
   It costs people nothing to search Google for information, plus they can do it at any time and from anywhere.

How does digital marketing work?

Inbound digital marketing is about providing helpful advice to people when they need it.

Rather than spending time and money trying to speak to thousands of people, it focuses on the hundreds that actually want to speak with you.

If you stood outside on a busy street and tried to convince every person who walked past to buy Nike shoes, most people wouldn’t stop, they would be frustrated by your interruption, and your sales would be near zero.

Conversely, if you stood inside a shoe store and only spoke to people who walked in, your conversations would be very different. The person already wants shoes, so your sales pitch changes from ‘why new shoes’ to ‘which new shoes’ and that’s when you’re able to suggest your brand, Nike.

Now consider taking this approach online. This enables you to provide answers to all the questions that people ask, at any time of day and can talk to an infinite number of people all at once.

Getting started with digital marketing

There are two main types of inbound digital marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Content Marketing. Both are closely related to SEO and will work best if you have optimised your website, first.

SEM

This is simply the paid version of SEO. When someone searches google for ‘running shoes’ and your business doesn’t appear organically, you can pay to advertise your products at the top of the results page.

Steps

1. Find the most popular search terms related to your products. A useful tool is Ubersuggest.

   • These terms are most likely the same as your SEO targeted keywords; Running Shoes, Womens Trainers, Buy Shoes Online etc.

   • From this list, choose terms that are within your price range. Ads are Cost Per Click (CPC) so you get charged the listed amount each click and the more competition for a term, the higher the CPC. The average ad conversion rate is 3.75% so you’ll want to choose a search term where the cost of 27 clicks is less than the amount of profit you make on that item.

2. Create a Google Ad to appear on the search results page

   • Have a look at the current ads there to see what your competitors are saying.

   • Choose a group of related terms from above, write an ad to be shown for them and link it to the related page on your website.

   • Set a maximum weekly budget and be sure track your ads! If they aren’t driving sales, there’s no point paying for them.

If you’d prefer to have this setup for you, we’d be happy to help! Head over to SEM Services.

Content Marketing

Like SEO and SEM, Content Marketing also involves targeting search terms. Except, this time, instead of aligning your product and service descriptions to what people are searching for, create new content that answers the questions being asked to attract people to your website. This can be quite time intensive so consider whether it is the right option for you.

Steps

1. Find out what questions people are asking, related to your products, on Ubersuggest.

   • These will be different to your SEO keywords as they’re generally longer and more specific: Best socks to wear while running, The difference between runners and trainers, How often should I run each week etc.

   • Check what information your competitors provide and see where there are gaps that you can fill.

2. Creating content to provide answers. Some examples could be.

   • A blog post about the difference that socks make and which ones to buy.

   • An infographic showing the difference between shoe types.

   • A downloadable training schedule that people can follow to help them train.

If you’d like help with this, head over to our Content Marketing services to find out more.

Summary

With so many people searching Google for information about products and services, there is a whole swathe of potential customers to tap into online.

Inbound digital marketing puts your products in front of those who are looking to buy and enables you to make sales simply by being helpful.