Yes, I 100% agree. Here are the seven essential things one needs to know before engaging to digital marketing:
1. One should design a step-by-step strategy
Begin where your company is, in terms of marketing efforts and staff expertise. The culture and values of the company must be incorporated. And the focus should on customer engagement and not just selling the company. To have an effective website, one has to optimize research engine optimization and link to social network sites
2. One should clarify ones brand and value proposition
3. One should target the niche market. Make a strategy that differentiates one's company position in the market place.
4. One should optimize digital media platforms
Increase the reach and effectiveness of traditional media, PR, and online environment by connecting and integrating content with social and digital media. One has to develop the potential of each platform to increase site traffic, search engine rankings and sales revenue. These can be done by using same keywords across all platforms, enhance the user's digital connection and participation with online hub, build interactivity, conversations, relationships, and incorporate engaging calls to action.
5. One should develop an engaging 'sharing' content strategy
One should create a rich content that promotes sharing easily with friends and colleagues, encourage user to mix one's content with mashup, reward conversation and engagement, include keywords in content updates, produce consistent updates by utilizing staff resources through training and outsource updates through regular client input.
6. One should expand database into targeted social communities
Leverage current users by allowing them to sign-in with social network identities and make it easy to share user content to other site.
7. One should monitor, measure and benchmark performance
Analyze user interactions to determine other opportunities, track referral traffic, relate performance to customer goals, satisfaction and results, and use expanded return of investment for evaluation.
One should be aware of what digital marketing can do to the business
Business owners must know how the mechanism of web search affects the interest of buyers in finding his or her products, how the social media drives the discussion about ones product and business, how websites can promote well of the products and services, how blogs and review sites changes the way industry experts communicate and deliver news and information to one's market, and how smartphones and iPad changes the way people get information and interact with the company.
To any business to be successful, a good marketing strategy plays a very important role. With the advent of technology, one can opt digital marketing even for small business. All one need to do is know those essential facts mentioned above before engaging to it. Time has changed. Marketing has gone digital. One with business must get on board before it is too late.