Digital Marketing Strategies (Research Paper Sample)

Digital Marketing Strategies
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Digital Marketing Strategies
Introduction
It is projected that businesses will continue to invest more in digital marketing as the world moves to the future. Digital marketing is expected to surpass traditional marketing techniques such as radio, TV, and print media. Businesses prefer digital marketing because of the increased mobile phone usage by prospective customers and the enhanced internet connection in different countries worldwide. Digital marketing also allows businesses to have a more precise platform for pursuing and engaging customers on a tailored approach, which is impossible with the traditional marketing mediums such as TV, radio, and print media. According to Bafna (2019), many internet companies have increased their profitability resulting from their ad revenues.
However, some companies' growth has been slow due to ad blockers. Reports indicate that revenue from Google's desktop search revenue has decreased while revenue from mobile ads has significantly over the past years. Currently, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites and ranks them high on mobile searches to improve customer reach. Evidently, there is a shift in digital marketing strategies as more businesses now target mobile users than desktop users through the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique that enables visibility of businesses on the Google search engine. According to Bafna (2019), banner ads are increasingly annoying, which is why several internet users have downloaded and installed adblockers to avoid them. Ad blockers are browser extensions that block all ads while an individual surfs the internet. Faced with the challenge of increased use of ad blockers on desktops and the increase in mobile users, businesses must adopt mobile-friendly marketing strategies for the future. The strategies include SEO, content marketing, machine learning, social media marketing. Others discussed in this article are affiliate marketing, email marketing, instant messaging, radio and television, and voice search optimization.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a digital marketing strategy whose goal is to increase businesses’ reach to potential customers. Gustavsen (2020) asserts that SEO's main objective is to get businesses to rank higher than their competitors in Google search results and drive traffic to the business's website. SEO marketers research keywords and phrases that potential customers use to search for information on search engines and then use these words to design content that would make the business among the top results when these keywords and phrases are searched online. According to Search Engine land (2022), SEO is an important digital marketing strategy because people do trillions of searches every year, and most of the time, these searches are geared toward finding products or services. The crucial elements of SEO include keywords and content because they are what will drive traffic to a business website or make it rank higher on Google.
Keyword research is the most important step when carrying out SEO, and therefore, it is important to note that keywords must be well-researched, carefully chosen, and used effectively in the content if a positive outcome is to be achieved (Digital Marketing Institute, 2021). The content should include keywords that have high search rates and low competition. The keywords should be short-tail or long-tail, depending on the number of words. Short-tail keywords contain three or fewer words and are always words that customers think first of when they need a product or service. For instance, a customer in need of accommodation can search words such as "restaurant," "accommodation," or "5-star hotel," among others. Log-tail keywords have more than three words and are more targeted. For example, customers intending to buy shoes from an online store can search “White Nike shoes" or "best sports shoes." Marketers should be keen to balance the use of both short-tail and long-tail to drive traffic to business websites and Google Business profiles. Internet users are projected to increase, and online marketing is gaining traction. Therefore, SEO marketing is a technique that is here to stay and should be considered by all businesses as an alternative to online ads, which have proved to have a low Return on investment (ROI).
Content Marketing
Content marketing is another popular digital marketing strategy that many businesses are applying currently instead of ads. According to Content Marketing Institute (2022), content writing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to draw consumers' attention and retain them to drive gainful customer action ultimately. Reports indicate that many leading brands globally, such as Microsoft, Cisco, and John Deere, are currently using content marketing strategies in place of traditional marketing strategies (Content Marketing Institute, 2022). Great content marketing has increased sales, saved costs, and built customer loyalty to particular brands. Content marketing helps businesses enhance the volume of their organic search, and considering that about 95% of purchases begin with a Google search, businesses must have awesome content explaining their products and services (Marketo, 2019).
Additionally, content marketing allows businesses to create brand preferences. By engaging customers with up-to-date and quality content about a niche, customers' trust in a business as a reliable source of information is enhanced. Furthermore, content marketing provides businesses with the option of reaching more customers at relatively low costs. Studies suggest that customers resent ads that interrupt them, and therefore, businesses should consider using engaging content that promotes natural conversation between the business and their current customers or prospective ones (Content Marketing Institute, 2022). Content marketers must include content that is relevant to customers' interests and behavior. The components of content marketing include blog posts, e-books, videos, and case studies, among others.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a digital marketing strategy that targets popular social media platforms to tap into the ever-increasing population of social media users. Several social media platforms exist, but Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most popular ones. The advantage of social media marketing is that businesses can post campaigns for free, but paid or sponsored posts are recommended if much impact is to be realized. Another importance of SMM is that businesses can do targeted marketing and track the performances of each ad posted by reviewing various analytic tools provided by the social media platforms. It is therefore easy for businesses to identify the areas and demography to be improved to get more customers and improve sales. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are discussed here as they are at the top in social media marketing.
Many people tend to associate social media with Facebook because of the number of users using it currently around the globe. Facebook allows businesses to post their content in various ways, including regular feed posts, posts to groups, Facebook pages, Facebook stories, and Facebook live, messenger and events (Wix, 2021). This shows that there are many avenues for businesses to interact with and engage their current customers and the prospective ones. It is recommended that all businesses should consider publishing a page on Facebook where crucial information such as location, products and services provided and profiles of the businesses management structure is highlighted. This builds authenticity and customer trust and builds brand awareness. For example, some of the top brands on Facebook include Samsung with 160 million followers, Coca-Cola with 107 followers and McDonald's with 79 million followers (Ramakrishnan, 2019).
Twitter is another giant regarding social media marketing. It was launched in 2006 and had 326 billion monthly active users. According to Wix (2021), Twitter users send out about 500 million tweets in a single day. Twitter also has several avenues where businesses can engage their customers and prospective ones. These are tweets, direct messages, hashtags and retweets, likes and replies. Businesses are also encouraged to have a full Twitter account containing critical information to tap into the ever-increasing population. Instagram is another notable social media platform that is proving to be a major marketing tool for small and large businesses. Like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram has several mini-platforms that are essential for businesses to meet and engage their customers. Businesses can reach people on Twitter through posts, Instagram stories, messages, Instagram live, comments and replies. In summary, social media has an already established population and is cheap, and therefore, all businesses should consider investing in social media marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves an individual or an agency doing marketing on behalf of a company and then being paid a commission. This type of marketing encompasses sharing products and services in blogs, social media platforms, podcasts and websites. The affiliate gets paid a commission after every successful purchase by a client. The percentage of commission paid varies from company to company. However, the common commission percentages vary between 5% at the lowest and 50% at the high margin (Hayes, 2022). Payment is also dependent on the following an affiliate has and the number of potential customers they are likely to attract. There a...