What Should Be Your Digital Marketing Strategy in 2016

Digital marketing is no more an option. It has become the need of the hour. With an ever expanding base of internet users, companies are taking their marketing online in order to connect with their customers and keep steady with the competition. All this might come across as challenging for small businesses and startups. Whether doing it yourself or hiring a digital marketing company in Pune, the key is to develop a digital marketing strategy that helps your business grow. Here are the significant steps to formulate an advantageous digital marketing strategy for online success.

1. Goal and Objective

When looking for ways to grow your business, you might want to create brand recognition, beat competition or have a larger pool of customers. Whatever your objective is, having clarity on what do you want to achieve through digital marketing efforts will increase your chances of success. Small businesses usually jump in blindly without any clear goal and that can ruin their efforts. Digital marketing is about planning and approach. Having a clear set goal will help you maintain focus in the right direction.

2. Identify Your Customer

Understanding your customers helps you to sell more. The more you know your customers or target audience the better you will be able to identify opportunities to connect with them and make them interested in your products and services. You need to understand that traffic does not equal to conversions. So keep your digital marketing strategy focused on conversions, which can only happen if you know who your target audience is and what their needs are.

3. Identify Your Competitors

According to the marketing guru Philip Kotler, “Poor firms ignore their competitors; average firms copy their competitors; winning firms lead their competitors.” Only those businesses are successful that keep an eye on what their competitors are up to, and use such information to strategize better. So identify who your competitors are, what they are doing and what is their position in the market.

4. Assign Rules

Any strategy works based on proper work planning and task allocation. Assign the rules at the outset, how the team works and who does what. A professional digital marketing company in Pune can be helpful here. As they have expert teams for various digital marketing activities with individuals responsible for various task deliveries.

5. Search Engine Marketing

People are greatly spending time online, regularly using search engines to look for information, products and services. Be it on their computers or smartphones. Clearly, they can be targeted for your business through Search Engine Marketing. It is an incredible opportunity to target people directly based on what they search, putting your company and brand right in front of them. Targeting online users through search engine marketing tools like keyword research, on page and off page search engine optimization, link building, paid search advertising, and PPC can help you get traffic that leads to desired conversions.

6. Content Marketing

Content is the soul of digital marketing. And doing it right is the biggest challenge. There are multiple ways to share your business information with customers and it is wise to use a mix. Some of the popular ways of doing content are blogging, guest blogging, press releases, white papers, documents, presentation, podcasts, eBooks, videos, and infographics.

7. Social Media Marketing

Defining the goals you want to achieve through social media marketing is a must. Chose the social networks you should be on. Also, think about whether you should have multiple social media accounts for certain networks. Obviously, you should be on the same networks as your audience be it Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr or Snapchat. Plan ahead the content you will share through social media. Without fail, stay focused on the topics your audience cares about.

8. Email Marketing

An email marketing strategy should definitely be a part of your overall marketing strategy and business plan. Email marketing has some substantial benefits compared to most other marketing methods including flexibility, low barrier of entry, high reach, minimal risk and total control. Build an email list that grows with time, write great emails and time them strategically. A professional digital marketing company in India can help you leverage this amazing marketing tool to the optimum by creating productive schedules and helping you expand your email list quickly.

9. Mobile Marketing

India has witnessed a surprising surge of smartphone usage in recent years. As a result, mobile has gradually become a significant component of digital marketing. When integrating mobile marketing into your digital advertising strategy, carefully chose the platforms you will be using to promote your products and services i.e. SMS, MMS, mobile apps or mobile coupons.

10. Affiliate Marketing

Simply stated, affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other company’s products or services. By building an affiliate program you can get other companies to promote your products or services amongst their own already strong customer base. The best part is that you will only have to pay for the leads that convert into sales.

To conclude, consistently measuring the results of your digital marketing efforts is of utmost importance. Take time to analyze and check how things are going. See what works and what does not. Rectify the plans where necessary. And yes, do not hesitate from seeking professional help. A failed digital marketing strategy can cost you lot more than the money spent on advertising. The competition is tough and customers today do not wait for a brand to reappear to make another impression. So go ahead and hire a professional digital marketing company in India.