Digital marketing communications
Digital Marketing communications refers to the channel of communications or channel to market that can be used as part of your small business digital marketing communications strategy .
Sir Tim Berners –Lee, in the late 1980s, introduced the idea of the internet. And Hoo boy! has this led to changes in the world.
The gradual acceptance of digital marketing as a means to reach consumers
Oddly enough, the changes happen sequentially; Marketing has also felt these changes, about 12 years, traditional FMCG[1] and OTC[2] organisations were not running digital communications as part of their communications plans. Most companies did not have a budget allocated for anything digital marketing. The dot.com’s organisations carried out most of the digital marketing communications.
The benefits of digital marketing cannot be ignored today
Today, every one of these organisations runs digital communications in varying degrees, with relevant messages tailored to their Ideal customer avatar (ICA). It is safe to say that they have a digital marketing department or digital marketing agency. Most organisations run digital marketing campaigns and now have actual physical structures to support their digital marketing efforts.
The chances are that as a small business owner, you are already some of the digital marketing elements
Now for the small business owners such as ourselves. We tend to be the jack of all trades. We have to use both traditional and digital marketing to generate revenue and build brand awareness. Hippos to Horses Marketing covered the synergies and benefits of using digital and conventional marketing in a previous blog.
Is anyone watching TV anymore?
In the past, marketing campaigns used traditional media like television, print (newspapers, magazines) and direct mail. The digital equivalent of these traditional media is known as digital media channels. The fundamental digital media channels that we shall address in this blog are: –
- Display ads
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Landing Page
- Web analytics
Display Ads: –
Display adverts involve using graphical or rich media adverts units within a web page to achieve brand awareness goals. An increase in your brand awareness leads to familiarity, favourability and purchase intent. To promote your website and increase traffic to it on a budget, you should try to engage in social media marketing. By using social media, you will interact with your audience, clients, prospects, and customers on an even deeper level.
The end goal is revenue generation for your hustle. All good!
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC refers to when a company pays for text ads to be displayed on the search engine results as a sponsored link when the search users enter a specific keyphrase. It is so-called because the marketer pays each time the hypertext link in the advert is clicked on. Do not worry if there is an error and someone decides to click away. In theory, the system quickly detects this irregularity. Phew! Imagine if a baby on an iPad was tapping away on your business link!
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
SEO is a structured approach used to increase the position of your small business or your brands in the search engine natural or organic results listening for a selected keyword or phrases. You will find that some SEO companies and experts recommend investing in SEO content creative services instead of hiring a full-time SEO writer.
If you have a website where you are writing blogs, H2H Marketing recommends using Yoast’s plugin. Yoast will help you optimise your website. We recommend that if you are starting a new business, just use the free version. It will help you write content for your heading and blogs that will rank high in search engines and make your blogs easy to read. We use it on our website. It is why you are here now reading this blog— [Disclaimer we are not affiliated to Yoast in any way]. We are just sharing what we use.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a commission-based arrangement where referring sites receive a commission on sales or leads by Merchants. At H2H marketing, we always mention every time we recommend an affiliate related product: a good example, our recommendation of Dr Carol Dweck Book on Mindset [3]. Everyone in whatever phase in life they happen to be in should read Mindset because it illuminates the possibility of using our untapped potential to achieve our life goals. It is possible to attain most of the things we set out to do if we deliberately practice and put in the effort. If you click on the link and buy the book, you will help us earn a small commission at no extra cost to you as part of the Amazon affiliate program. If you are a new Hustler, consider joining this affiliate program.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a favourite topic here at Hippos to Horses Marketing. The potential of having a potent high engaged email list and scale your business to heights unimagined.H2H marketing has content on Email Marketing on our blog post and H2H marketing Instagram page. The first blog introduces small business owners to email marketing and the second blog goes further to show you how to start using email marketing in your business. Do you have your email marketing up and running? H2H recommends Mailchimp (free for the first 2000 subscribers) and Converkit (free for the first 1000 subscribers) if you are a new business. H2H is not affiliated with these two Email service providers; we are simply recommending the stuff we have used in our company. If you are looking to start your own business, click below to get your free kickstart guide to an Online Business!
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Starting an Online Business doesn't need to be complicated. There is no need to spend hours rummaging through the internet looking for tips and hacks on building one
Landing page
By clicking on the above link, you are well on your way to receiving your Free Kickstart guide. The first port of call will be the H2H Marketing landing page. A landing page is a destination page where you ‘Land’ when you click on an advert or any other form of a link (Free kickstart guide ). Landing pages are designed with a single focus or goal, known as a call to action (or CTA, for short).
It’s this focus that makes landing pages the best option for increasing the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns and lowering your cost of acquiring a lead or sale.
Web Analytics
If your business has a website, you should be collecting analytics on the activities. Google provides a free tool known as Google Analytics TM. Google Analytics will enable you, the site owner, to see which of your pages/ blogs are popular, how long visitors stay on your website. H2H Marketing used Monster Insight plugin to read our analytics (we are not an affiliate, it’s just what we use).
Maybe we should consider becoming affiliates; if we do, we shall rewrite our blog!
Using digital media channels to support your small business objectives
It’s all about the Money, Money, Money!
As a small business owner, your objective is to make a profit. The amount of profit is debatable and varies from hustle to hustle, but most business owners want money in the bank at the end of the day. So how do we make this money? Can the use of Digital media be a tool to generate income?
How do you make money using digital media?
Building awareness for your business
Digital media can help to build the brand awareness of your business and its products. Making your presence felt on other sites can increase your brand awareness. You could use display ad, PPC and SEO to increase your visibility on the internet. The idea is to get this traffic to go to your content hub (blog, podcast, social media, YouTube etc.) and see what you have to offer.
10 minutes to an online Business
Yes! Did you know that you can start a business right now … in 10 minutes? Follow the steps below:
- Open a social media account of choice.
- Sign up with an email service provider. Start building an email list by using a Landing Page.
- Boom! You are in business?
- Next, the hustle begins: – find ways to offer solutions to problems, deliver benefits to your ICA.In order to build your email list, you must give something of value (lead magnet) to your ICA so that they can, in turn, get you their valuable email address. You will treat this email with exceptional care, and if your ICA is in Europe, you must adhere to the GDPR[4]
Engage with your audience
Once you have connected with your ICA, it is time to engage with them on your website, social media and use these platforms to encourage them to interact with your hustle and with other ICAs. Take this opportunity to grow your budding email list and gain permission to communicate with your ICA on topics that will add value. Online entrepreneurial relationships are built and maintained by consistently engaging with your tribe.
Conversions
After building your Brand and Business awareness and engaging with your customers, a time comes when you have proved that your tribe can trust you to add value to their lives. It is time to sell your product to them in the words of Gary V. Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook [5]. The book’s premise, business owners should flood their tribe with high-quality content, engage with them on social media, build a relationship and finally, the’ right hook’ ask them to buy your product.
Relationship goals
Yes! You have worked so hard to consistently deliver quality engaging content and engage with your ICA on various platforms; now it’s time for you to cement this relationship. Continue adding value; learn more so that you can give more. You will achieve two goals if you keep providing benefits to your ICA: – retention on current ICA and acquiring new ICAs.
Your business will grow and Thrive!
[1] FMCG: -Fast Moving Consumer Goods
[3] Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon. I get a teeny tiny commission if you use this link to buy this book at no cost to you. You will only benefit by enlarging your knowledge by reading the great content.
[4] The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most wide-ranging pieces of legislation passed by the EU in recent memory. It was introduced to standardise data protection law across the single market and give people in a growing digital economy greater control over how their personal information is used.
[5] Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon. I get a teeny tiny commission if you use this link to buy this book at no cost to you. You will only benefit by enlarging your knowledge by reading the great content