Digital marketing is no longer the future of marketing, it’s the present. Salesforce Marketing Cloud recently published a report saying that 84% of global marketers are increasing their investments in the digital world. Why? Because it’s a cost-effective and a smart way to reach users when compared to other marketing initiatives.

When you have a small digital marketing budget, or are a short-handed marketing department, you have to stretch every dollar and take advantage of what you have. Small marketing budgets can be stretched to produce excellent results through digital marketing. In this matter, we have a few tips about digital marketing and how it can improve your business:

DIgital marketing strategies your business needs to adopt

  • Go Digital - Using Digital Marketing or content and inbound marketing tactics generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing, but costs 62% less money. Also, 61% percent of global users search for their products online.
  • Social Media Can Build Trust - Regarding Social Media, 80% of U.S. social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook, while shoppers referred by Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from any other social network. Tweets posted at around 4:00 PM EST tend to get more retweets than the ones posted any other time. Last but not least, 43% of all marketers have found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013 and 36% have found one via Twitter.
  • Email Marketing Best Practices - On the subject of email marketing, click through rates are higher when using the recipient’s first name in the subject line over no use of the first name, "Click Here" gets the highest % of clicks over "Go" and "Submit.” Email opens on smartphones and tablets have increased 80% over the last six months and 54% of consumers believe that it is easier to find information on mobile-optimized sites.

 

Digital marketing strategy and using social media

Even though digital marketing seems easy it really isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. There are a few things you must consider when you start using social media as part of your digital marketing strategy: You have to evaluate which posts are more attractive to your readership vs others.  This helps you focus on them and recreate the same guidelines in the future. To do this, you can use many tools at hand, such as “Inconosquare.com” for your Instagram account.  Other networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr have their own statistics.

A very important aspect of social media is the content you’re planning to distribute. It needs to be both visually attractive and interesting for your target. Take the time to evaluate your followers, get to know their interests, what they like and dislike and the best way to get to them.  With a good grasp of your audience, you are practically all set! You’ll be able to start developing creative content adjusted to what your customers would like to read, hooking them up to your page.

 

The importance of a responsive website

If you’re taking a step forward creating your own website, a smart move would be to make it responsive. Nowadays, thanks to smartphones and tablets, the world’s knowledge is in the palm of your hand, so you don’t want to get left behind. This will make accessing your site quicker and easier.  Two very important aspects when we talk about digital marketing.

Take advantage of Google and its benefits and put your company on the spot with “Google My Business.” This is an excellent tool that, along with the most known social media websites, will give you even more reach and direct contact with your customers. They can rate you, ask questions and even find you on Google Maps! All this information will appear on Google Search for free.

 

The importance of effective email marketing

Don’t leave out email marketing and its significance to your business in digital marketing. Remember, Email Marketing does not mean spamming your clients and we can’t stress this enough. If you do it the right way, it can be a very unique and personal way of getting your product straight to your client’s home by a simple email. How? By creating a very easygoing, light to read and enjoyable newsletter.  Ask your customers to sign up for it through your website and offer them an extremely juicy discount if they do so. They’ll get the content you want them to get straight to their mail even if they haven’t visited your site in a while.

 

Establishing your digital marketing budget

You can do many things, but keep in mind to be a pal to your online users.  Take time to make them feel appreciated! You can name the customer of the month, congratulate them on their birthdays with a direct message, and make interactive contests to get them to interact with you! All of these strategies combined together will pursue customers’ engagement and loyalty to your brand.  Even with a shoe-string marketing budget!

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