As the digital marketing landscape continues to change, businesses must refocus their efforts to engage better with audiences. Here are ten ways you can update your digital marketing strategy for 2018 and beyond.
- Improve the relevancy of your content. To keep up with Google's continuously evolving algorithms, you will need to make your content more relevant in search. You can do this by developing a niche and getting rid of outdated, redundant or trivial content. You should also update existing content wherever possible.
- Leverage influencer marketing. As part of a complete digital marketing campaign, consider focusing on influencer marketing. This means identifying the individuals that have the greatest influence over potential buyers and orienting your marketing activities around them.
- Personalize your content. To make your content connect with consumers, you need to focus on personalization. This means tailoring content to the customers' needs and where they are in the buying process. Ask yourself if the content will help a prospect solve a unique problem or better understand your solution. If not, find ways to make it more personal.
- Gather data. You can't personalize your content if you don't know your customers. Make sure you gather, maintain and organize client data, including names, email addresses, buying patterns, income, location and anything else you can think of. Even if it doesn't seem relevant now, unique client data can come in handy in your marketing strategies down the road.
- Utilize video. Video will continue to play a critical role in the future of digital marketing. In the expert opinion of Forrester Research's Dr. James McQuivey, 60 seconds of video is already worth nearly 2 million words of content. According to Forbes, nine out of ten people who consume videos share them with other people. Make sure you are taking advantage of this powerful tool by creating engaging, shareable video content.
- Optimize for mobile. According to a recent report from comScore, 69 percent of digital media is consumed through mobile. Since Google’s mobile-first algorithm is expected to launch in early 2018, you will want to have a dynamic, responsive site where content is equivalent across desktop and mobile.
- Engage in trial and error. There are all kinds of studies ranking the effectiveness of advertising channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. That said, results can vary wildly based on the individual business or brand. Instead of developing your campaign based on an article you read, consider experimenting on different social media platforms to see which delivers best for your unique brand.
- Reallocate your social investment. According to a study by TEKsystems, businesses are expected to expand their social media budgets in the coming year. Unless you have more money to add to your digital marketing budget, consider dropping or reducing your investment on social platforms that aren't driving brand awareness or lead generation. Then, redirect these funds to the ones that are having the greatest impact.
- Focus on quality over quantity. The internet is saturated with content, and you need to cultivate some serious cream to float to the top. Instead of churning out thin, redundant content, make sure you are creating unique, informative material that serves a particular purpose.
- Cast a smaller net. It may seem counterintuitive, but you should consider narrowing the focus of your digital marketing campaigns. When you cast a wide net, your message tends to thin out, becoming less relevant and, in turn, less impactful. Focus on a clear niche with personalized content that will strike a chord with a key segment of your target audience. It's better to hit home with ten prospects than fall on 20,000 deaf ears.
Written by: Jessica Valdez
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