Navigating the digital and online marketing landscape

Friday, 12 March 2010 09:56

The internet age has provided the biggest advances in the way we interact, communicate and inform, whether personally or for business, since the industrial revolution. On a global level, this media and, more generally technology, has afforded digital marketers and, more importantly, their clients more opportunities than ever before to deliver highly targeted, effective campaigns at lower than ever cost for a much higher potential return on marketing investment.

Digital Marketing Strategies That Work

Yet day in day out we see that, in the same way that traditional or offline marketing activity by many organisations has proved in the past, online and digital marketing spend that lacks strategy and integration goes to waste on behalf of its clients because it lacks key messages, calls to action, focus, targeting and consistency in execution.

Like offline marketing methods, online and digital marketing should truly create a virtual "web of links" from place to place that you appear on the internet and in email with the key aim of communicating initial messages, creating brand awareness and driving increased traffic to your website via all of these links as a result.

These make take the form of website related activity which may include :-

  • Directory submissions
  • Search engine submissions
  • Local and map submissions
  • Shopping search engines (free)
  • Search engine optimisation onsite
  • News and social media

Additionally, the search engine optimisation of any site should be strongly supported with a digital marketing and online advertising campaign to drive additional direct traffic to the site; this need not be expensive, provided that effective targeting and campaigning is in place.

Methods of digital and online marketing, and this is not exhaustive, to consider:-

  • Blogging
  • E-marketing
  • Online press releases
  • Posting to review and opinion sites
  • Social networking pages
  • Viral techniques
  • Banner advertising & exchange
  • Classifieds online
  • Google AdWords PPC and other options
  • Newsletter  & Non profit sponsorships
  • Google Base Products

It can be tough to know which methods for digital and online are going to prove most effective for your business; much of it, as always, will depend on a number of things: your product or service, your budget, your marketing goals, your sales targets and most importantly, your resources. ­ Remember, it needs to be consistent.

Improving Your Success Rates With Digital And Online Marketing

A word of caution, despite the hoo ha around digital and online marketing, marketing campaigns of any kind should rarely be delivered entirely online, to the exclusion of offline marketing methods. ­ Even 100% internet based businesses need to communicate effectively to their customers and this may be achieved in after sales (ie leaflets within packaging) or through traditional PR for example. Anybody undertaking online marketing should also exercise some patience for results; as with all marketing, each business will have its own unique combination of what works for them and their target audience. It may be advisable to employ an agency to work together on campaigning, implementation, measurement (one of the biggest advantages of digital marketing) and adjustment.

If you require an agency to assist you with digital marketing services, please contact Karen and her team at Elan.