Not so long ago businesses were asking “Do we need a website.” And look at how far we have come. From 2012 – 2013, 47.2% of business had a web present, and that has grown astronomically since then.
Social media and digital marketing are exciting channels to be embraced as part of a wholistic marketing mix for all business. Whether you are B2B or B2C, social media and digital marketing has a place in your marketing plan.
A cohesive online strategy needs to reflect or indeed supersede the offline experience. A clever digital marketing plan really needs to that takes place across all digital channels:
- Blogging (creation of great content)
- Facebook (business pages are a “must-have” – will be discussed on a future post)
- Instagram (growing every day, don’t discount it – will be discussed on a future post)
- Twitter (Twitter is an interesting channel and I will discuss in a future post)
- Pinterest (I will go into the main reasons this is important in a future post)
- YouTube (the world’s second largest online search)
- Paid Online Marketing (targeted and directed this can be a much better use of previous marketing budgets due to its efficacy)
- Display Ads (the ones that seemingly follow you around the web experience – currently I am being “followed” by Charlotte Tilbury display ads for makeup – mmm…I wonder what my search history would look like).
- EDM (electronic direct mail) – e-newsletters to a willing and opted in databases
- PPC (pay per click) as well as paid social media. These are not “nice to have’s” these are small and large business “must-have’s “.
The main reasons you need to engage with your clients online is because:
- Your business rivals are probably doing it and that will give them the competitive edge, if you aren’t. If they aren’t working on their digital mix, it you with that edge.
- Your customers are wanting inspiration, advice, a voice and a chance to express their feelings and thoughts about your brand, good or bad and they want to be part of a community.
- You can market and communicate easily and cost effectively to your clients/customers and future customersmth rough all the digital channels, as well as EDMs (news letters).
As a social media professional I have seen the direct impact that digital marketing can have on a brand’s sucess. creating an online community of potential customers, regardless of the timing and duration of a buying cycle. This means your brand becomes part of the lives of many aspirational consumers. Take the example of Tesla Motors, Palo Alto. This is one of the most prestigious, expensive cars in the world, but they have 1 million followers on Facebook. They haven’t even made half that number of cars, so the majority of “likes” are from people who aspire to the idea of owing a Tesla, who are inspired by the luxurious lifestyle or who dream of one day owning a Testla.
Is having lots of engaged followers important?
Simply put, having a strong social media presence means you have greater pulling power with future brand influencers, such as celebrities, advocates of the brand and brand ambassadors, who will want to align themselves with this level of success. Aside from brand affiliations with influencers, a strong online presence gives a your business greater leverage with media buying and placement, so media buying is more cost effective and magazines and bloggers will want to feature your product in articles and advertorials due to the sucess of your digital footprint.
In future posts I will outline the reasons I suggest to engage with each individual channel and their idiosyncrasies and why you need to work with them together.
If if you’d like to chat with me on how I can help you build your digital and social strategy, simply email me or call on 0405 324 369. I’m here to help. I offer flexible packages so you can take advantage of what you need.
