It’s nearly impossible to think about running a business, even a small one, without a commanding online presence. But, how can you achieve that without paying a ton of money or spending every waking moment implementing a digital strategy? You can drive your online presence with the help of an agency that specializes in digital marketing. I know this sounds expensive, but you can actually save money in the long run, as you can see in the graphic below. Hiring an agency also means you can focus all your attention on developing and operating your business and leave your marketing to the experts.
Image courtesy of Alfredo Media
Why hiring a digital marketing agency make sense
Marketing agency services are in exceptionally high demand nowadays. An increasing number of companies recognize they require experts with the right digital skills to drive their online presence and help them succeed. Increasing demand comes largely because there is an abundance of different strategies, techniques, and technologies necessary to drive your online presence to its full effect. You need professionals with the right experience and skills to determine the best marketing tactics for your specific company. They also need to know how to deploy these strategies and tactics effectively to reach the goals set for your campaigns and help your company succeed.
Key elements to drive your online presence
Maybe the following list of elements necessary to drive your online presence can demonstrate more effectively why hiring an agency is the right move. To drive your online presence, you need:
- A website, and don’t be fooled into thinking you can craft one yourself of Squarespace or Wix. These websites don’t offer good SEO (search engine optimization) making you invisible to anyone unless they have your business name. These plug-and-play websites also aren’t as easy to develop as advertised and most owners find they still must hire a professional to set up a good-looking website, even with these tools. Most consumers won’t trust a company that doesn’t have a good website.
- Social media
- Content marketing – consistently producing high-value content on your website and social media is critical for marketing success in the digital world today.
- Email marketing or other tools, like remarketing, to reach visitors once they leave your website.
- Analytics and the skill to analyze your key metrics
- and more
If you still want to or have to develop these elements necessary to drive your online presence by yourself or utilize an employee for this purpose, I wrote a comprehensive guide to help you with everything you need. If you choose to hire an agency, here’s a price list from 2019.
Image courtesy of Credo
Integration across your marketing efforts
Moreover, you must integrate all your marketing strategies with one another to ensure the best possible results. Without a consistent branding effort, your campaigns appear disjointed and don’t convey your desired brand image. For instance, consider the mishmash of ads you commonly see for automobiles. The brand’s message is slick, professional, and conveys a specific image, while the local dealer’s message is unprofessional, poorly executed, and confuses the prospective buyer about the brand. The last thing you want to do is invest a substantial amount of money into marketing services only to find them ineffective or for the company to utilize black-hat techniques that are inevitably detected, resulting in serious damage to your business’s image.
Because of this, you must do a little bit of research and explore some of the most effective online marketing strategies and tactics, how to implement these tactics in a modern way (for instance, sliders that were once common on websites, now look old fashioned and you should avoid using them), how to communicate with your target market, and which digital options might work best to motivate your market. Armed with this information, you can now establish a clear message and implement that message across all your digital efforts, such as your website and social media.
You need social media
Social media marketing is a must for all businesses today. However, don’t consider establishing yourself on as many platforms as possible unless you run an enterprise company with vast resources because it takes time and effort to drive your online presence on each platform. The marketing agency you utilize can help determine your target consumer and build out a persona. Then, you must opt for social media platforms that boast a similar market. Check out the image below for information on the age demographic attracted to each of the major platforms, as of 2014. Obviously, we now have new platforms, such as TikTok, but this gives you a starting point.
Image courtesy of IWD
For example, Pinterest is a platform for posting images and its users are largely female. If this fits in with your company and its brand, then you can use Pinterest as one of your social media platforms. Facebook is probably the only social media site that’s advisable for all companies. Twitter is great for personal and entrepreneurial branding, while Instagram reaches a certain group of consumers who are younger and very fashion conscious. TikTok has one of the youngest demographics of any social platform.
Content marketing
Content marketing is another strategy that dominates the digital world at present. Content marketing involves devising innovative, engaging, informative, and enjoyable content your target market sees as valuable on a consistent basis. Not only is content marketing imperative for good SEO, but it also establishes you as an expert in your field. Content marketing, done right, engages your market and drives them toward making a purchase.
Content marketing is an indirect form of marketing that takes a lot of time and skill to bring off properly. You are building your brand identity but you are also empowering the consumer with knowledge in the hope that they will then use that knowledge to purchase from your company.
Gone are the days when online content simply meant stuffing in as many keywords as possible. Google is wise to these tactics and your site gets ranked lower if you use this form of black hat SEO. Instead, you need valuable content that attracts backlinks, gets shared on social platforms, and achieves your goal of driving visitors down the funnel toward purchase. Below, you can see how your content must match where visitors are along their journey.
Other ways to drive your online presence
Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most effective methods for increasing traffic and conversions. Online marketing is also becoming a lot more personal nowadays, so don’t send generic emails but use segmented lists to send appropriate email messages to various segments. From the e-store shopping experience to sending emails to your consumers, having a personalized touch can make a massive difference.
Analytics is another key element to drive your online presence, as it provides insights to optimize performance. Marketing professionals use data for everything from adjusting your content marketing, to getting the most from your email marketing campaigns, to recommending products to visitors based on previous purchases. The use of data is extremely effective and something that gets more sophisticated (and critical) every year.
Conclusion
The strategies mentioned merely scratch the surface of what is available to you, which is why you need a marketing agency that can deliver a bespoke strategy just for you. This is the only way to achieve maximum results.