How to manage your digital marketing

A digital marketing road map can help you set your business online and start marketing yourself properly.

Potential customers are searching for your business online. If your business isn’t online, and marketing itself properly, you’re letting a huge pool of future business slip through your fingers.

Do a quick Google search for the service that your business operates. If you’re a dentist in Sydney’s CBD, search for ‘Sydney CBD Dentist’. Does your business appear in the results? If so, you’re on the right track. If no, keep reading.

A digital marketing road map for SMEs

  1. Website content & design

Above all else, the most important thing on your website is user experience. You can do all the work in the world getting visitors to land on your page, but if you can’t keep them there it’s a waste of money.

Ask yourself what it is that your customers are looking for on your website. Then deliver that clearly, simply and in a visually-appealing way.

Ask yourself what you want them to do on your website. Do you want them to purchase a product? Or to submit a contact form?

Make sure those things are easy to do.

  1. Tracking your results

The only way to measure how well your website is working, aside from the business it’s creating, is tracking. The most popular tracking software on the market is Google Analytics – www.google.com/analytics – it’s easy to use and it’s free.

Installing tracking software will help you understand how many people come to your website, how they found your website and, if it’s set up correctly, will tell you exactly how many people have transacted with your website and/or taken the action you’ve set up for them.

Once you’ve installed tracking software on your website, you should review how people interact with pages on a regular basis. For example, if you notice a lot of people coming to your page and pressing their back buttons – commonly referred to as ‘bouncing’- it is a good indication that you’re not adequately answering the searchers’ queries.

Installing tracking software will help you understand how many people come to your website.

  1. Search engine optimisation

The task of getting your website to appear at the top of the search engine results is called search engine optimisation (SEO). One common misconception with SEO is that you simply need to include a bunch of keywords on your website and get a large quantity of links to your site. But it’s not quite as simple as this. When it comes to SEO, if it seems like a quick fix, it’s probably not.

The important question to ask is, if I were Google, would I think implementing this ‘tactic’ could be considered manipulative, or is doing this allowing me to give the Searcher the best possible experience?

How to create a successful SEO campaign

  • Establish yourself as an authority in your industry by creating useful and interesting content about your industry and the services you offer
  • Do some research into keywords using tools like Übersuggest – www.ubersuggest.org – or Keyword Tool – www.keywordtool.io – to determine wat people are searching for and what they are typing in when looking for the type of services your business offers.
  • Identify opportunities where you can publish your content on other websites or blogs – look for people who will allow you to share your content on their sites with a link or reference back to your website.

These three steps will assist you in writing good quality content, and if you implement them continuously and consistently your website will be the only content marketing you will ever need to do.

  1. Paid search advertising

Paid advertising campaigns work on a pay per click (PPC) model, meaning you will only ever pay when someone has clicked on your ad. PPC advertising is an excellent way to reach new customers who are already searching for, and need, the services or products you provide. PPC is most effective when used in conjunction with SEO and other advertising channels.

How to get the most out of a Google AdWords campaign

  • Sign up for a free account with AdWords – they usually run a special offering $50-$100 of free advertising spend after you spend the first $50.
  • Use the keywords you find by doing keyword research and create relevant ads around them.
  • Make sure that the page your ad links to is relevant to the ad – don’t link an ad to your website homepage if another page on you site is more relevant.
  • Use the facility AdWords provides as an instant advertising model to review the number of clicks you get in real-time.
  1. Re-marketing

Re-marketing is used when a customer visits your website but leaves before taking the desired action; whether that’s making a purchase, submitting a form, or any other action you want them to complete. Advertisements for your business will then appear in browser searches, on social networking sites such as Facebook, or on other websites the user visits.

Remember the time you searched for a flight to Hawaii, and four days later flight specials popped up everywhere you looked, until you eventually gave in and booked the flights? Re-marketing in this way stops potential customers from forgetting about you.

Services like Perfect Audience www.perfectaudience.com – or AdRoll – www.adroll.com – can assist businesses in setting up a re-marketing campaign with minimal spend, both offer a 14-day free trial and will allow you to test some of your ideas.

Planning is key

Digital marketing for your MSB takes time and careful planning. Think carefully about exactly what it is that your target customer wants, and how you can give it to them, and it will be time well-spent – your results are bound to improve.

When it comes to your online marketing, learning to work smarter, not harder, is the key.

Mike van der Heijden, Head of Digital Strategy, Konnect Digital

This article first appeared in issue 11 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine