Author: Emerge Marketing Strategies

Introduction to Digital Marketing

Posted on November 14, 2018 by - Marketing Strategy, Social Media

Digital Marketing for Your Business in 5 easy steps

Digital Marketing in today’s technological society is a must. Put simply, Digital Marketing is selling, promoting and marketing your product or service online. It uses tools such as SEO/SEM, search marketing, social media marketing and content marketing to attract, monetize, and engage customers. Done properly, a digital marketing strategy can turn prospects to leads, leads to customers and customers to promoters.

Step 1: Your Business

“Situation analysis” is the first step of your digital marketing strategy. This is your opportunity to evaluate yourself, your business and your industry. In effect, you are asking “Where am I now?”

The SWOT method is one of the most efficient ways to answer this question. Analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Ask yourself, “What is working? What are the buying patterns/behaviors of your existing customers? Are they coming back, buying more, generating buzz? What does your industry sector look like? What are the trends in your target market? Who are your competitors?” Questions like these are invaluable to understanding what your digital marketing strategy should look like.

Step 2: Your Customer

The next step is understanding your customer. In this step you create a 3D profile of your target audience. You will create different profiles for each client. For example, Emerge Marketing Strategies might have a separate customer profile for home-based business owners, small business owners, corporate clients, etc. In creating these personas, you would of course include their demographics: age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, income, education, political preferences, etc.

Additionally, you’ll want to consider their experience level; products they ordinarily buy; where they get their information- newspapers, news stations, books, magazines, etc. Do they have any niche interests?

You’ll want to know where they network: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. What are their goals and values? How can your product or service help them reach their goals? Why would they pass on your product or service?  The creation of a customer profile is essential to answering the question, “Where do I go from here?”

Step 3: Your Goals

Now that you know your business and your customer, you are ready to start your digital marketing campaign. Once again, this is a multi-step process. It is a good idea to keep in mind that all digital marketing strategies are a process, not a single event. The ultimate goal of your digital marketing strategy is optimizing your campaign for the best results. Emerge Marketing Strategies can help you decide whether your DMS needs small tweaks, large pivots, or something in between. This depends largely on the goals of your campaign, and like all goals- your digital marketing campaign goals need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed.

There are 3 main types of digital marketing campaigns: acquisition, monetization, and engagement. The specific goal of an acquisition campaign is to raise awareness of solutions you provide. A monetization campaign has the goal of generating revenue from existing customers- enticing them to buy more and to buy again. It is aimed at those who already know and like your business. Finally, there are engagement campaigns. They provide a value service to the customer and a call to action, such as subscribing to your website, or liking/commenting on your social media. This is the step to ask and evaluate, “Where do I want to be?”

Step 4: Your Channels

The next step in your journey is deciding which channel will most effectively help you reach your goal. There is the SEO/SEM channel. SEO and SEM are two different branches of digital marketing aimed at increasing your search engine ranking. SEO focuses primarily on key words and other ways of optimizing your web page to appear in search engine results, including inbound links and outbound links. SEM also seeks to increase search engine ranking but uses several routes to do so, including SEO and PPC (pay per click) advertising. In an SEM campaign, buyers are targeted within search engines as they search for solutions through specific key words.

Another channel is content marketing- which is digital marketing that offers a value to your customer: such as blogs, videos, podcasts, eBooks, newsletters and more. Social Media marketing can find customers and build customer loyalty through the various social media platforms- such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or others.

Targeted email marketing is another channel for marketing to specific customer profiles. It may use copywriting techniques to discover the best language to describe offers in your emails and ads. Paid traffic is another option for your digital marketing campaign. It involves determining which ad platforms you should buy traffic and how to target those advertisements. Your digital marketing campaign answers the question: “How do I get where I want to be?”

Step 5: Your Results

The final step in your DMS is to track, analyze, and measure your results. What were your Key Performance Indicators for your campaigns? What was your Return on Investment? Which campaigns were most effective? This is the chance to ask yourself, “Did I get where I wanted to be? Why or why not?”

Whether your business is growing in Sacramento, Roseville, Rocklin or beyond, Emerge Marketing Strategies can assist you every step of the way.

 

Using Brand Awareness to Generate Leads

Posted on June 14, 2018 by - Brand Awareness, Marketing Strategy

Brand Awareness is a strategy that can be misunderstood at times by businesses.

 

Putting effort into creating awareness around your brand may lead to more people knowing about your brand but will it generate sales?

 

Here we discuss three brand awareness tips that businesses can use to generate more leads.

 

 

Have you had success generating leads using brand awareness? Is your long term outlook paying dividends? Leave a comment or question below about your success or challenges with brand awareness.

Facebook Marketing For Your Business

Posted on May 21, 2018 by - Facebook, Social Media

 

Is your business marketing on Facebook?

 

Facebook is a social media platform that allows companies to advertise directly to consumers who use it.

 

Find out how businesses can use Facebook to expand their reach.

 

 

Do you advertise on Facebook? Has your business found success?

Comment below with questions and success stories!

Ranking #1 on Google using SEO

Posted on May 20, 2018 by - Google Ranking, Marketing Strategy, SEO

 

Your business needs to be found at the top of Google rankings.

 

Google is the top search engine in the world and understanding SEO concepts can help your business be found by your target market. 

 

We discuss the importance of Using SEO Strategies to Rank #1 on Google.

 

 

Questions about Google rankings? Is your business using the right SEO strategy?

 

Leave a comment or question below!

8 Proven Ways For Businesses to Have Explosive Online Growth

Posted on April 20, 2018 by - Marketing Strategy, SEO

Tips On Marketing A Business In Today’s Digital Landscape

 

You have built your business in the trenches and created a successful company.

 

There have been times you explored opening social media pages, writing blogs, and getting your website up to date (well, up to date until a year has passed).

 

You know there is value, but can’t seem how to break through online or dedicate the time to figure out how.

 

We have great news – There are many ways to grow a business online.

 

The time is now – studies show that 78% of buyers conduct product research online before purchasing.  It all depends on the market you are in and how many people you are trying to reach out to.

 

It is a great space to be in as over 7.6 trillion dollars was spent online in the B2B market globally – a number that has increased 1.8 trillion dollars over the last 5 years.

 

Decide who your audience is

 

One of the first steps to growing a new or established business online is understanding who your audience is.

 

Determining the right audience can be as simple as finding an industry or specific consumer base.

 

It can also be as detailed as knowing specific demographics (age, ethnicity, location, sex, income etc.)

 

 

 

Website traffic

 

Finding new ways to drive traffic to your website is important to growing your business.

 

Their needs to be multiple ways to bring in traffic.  This includes using social media to share content, using pay per click ads, sharing blog articles, and more.

 

By including your website on directories, social media profile pages and sharing content, companies are able to have multiple sources of online traffic back to their website.

 

Below is an example of how a directory can help – it creates an additional link to your website and can be found when performing searches in your industry.

 

 

Notice that there are also links to social media pages, which should contain content that drives users back to the Precision West Technologies webpage!

 

Work on creating engaging content and encourage sharing of that content after it has been posted, which gets us to our next point…..

 

Content Creation – Fast and A LOT of it

 

Creating content can be a tough task for businesses of all sizes.

 

Content is the key in today’s market to generating interest for your products or services.  Whether it is blog articles, social media graphics, or engaging video, your company needs to have plenty of content for an audience to view.

 

With so many platforms for people to use it is important to keep fresh, relevant content on many plaforms.

 

Below you will see how many different options customers can view your content on while they are online, based on research.

 

 

As you can see, there are many ways that people discover content that can lead back to your webpage and help grow your business online.

 

Be Mobile

 

When users visit a business webpage it must be is optimized for mobile, tablet and website viewing.

 

Over 5 billion users are on mobile devices and that number continues to increase annually.

 

Businesses that have slow mobile sites or pages that are not optimized for users on mobile will quickly find themselves at a disadvantage – this will stunt the ability to grow your business online.

 

Make sure that your website is fast, configured correctly, has great user experience functionality and has been optimized for mobile viewing.

 

 

Paid Marketing Traffic

 

Paying for advertising space is a great way to get your company in front of the right audience and market your business.

 

With 92.4 billion U.S. dollars being spent on paid search advertising, companies recognize that there is a huge opportunity to grow a business using this method.

 

Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube all provide ways for you to advertise your business with paid ad space.

 

With the amount of connected devices and ways to view advertisements

 

 

Social Media spending in the U.S. is expected to increase expected increase to $17.34 billion in 2019.

 

Social Media

 

One of the fastest ways to grow awareness and grow your business presence online is to get your company on social media!

 

Take a look at the numbers below – the numbers speak for themselves!

 

 

With billions of social media users online, it is a must for businesses looking to grow their presence.

 

All platforms have different uses so make sure they are right for your business.

 

Setup a profile and do not be hesitant with sharing the great content you create.

 

Post pictures of your latest project or video of your team doing a community event or even share this article (wink, wink) – there are endless possibilities for your business to share content on social media.

 

Story Telling

 

There is a reason you took the steps to establish and run a business – Show that to the world.

 

Let pictures tell a story about the time you helped a customer overcome a hurdle or take video of your team celebrating a milestone with each other.

 

Describe a time that was a memorable moment for your business.

 

 

This was the day that Emerge Marketing Strategies came to be and we shared it will everyone on Instagram!

 

Your audience will appreciate being part of your journey and along the way your following will continue to grow.

 

Be Findable

 

You have made the effort to create a valuable business for your audience and all the great content to support your message.

 

Your audience needs to see it!

 

Most people do not make it to the second page of Google when searching for their needs.

 

 

In fact, only 10% of online users make it to page 2.

 

Make sure your website is optimized for the right keywords through best SEO practices.

 

Conclusion

 

Businesses that do not have a great online presence are at a great disadvantage.

 

With the amount of online users growing by the billions and the increasing amount of social media users, businesses must use the resources available to promote their company online.

 

By creating great content, telling the story of their business and providing ways for customers to find your brand, businesses will find the growth of their company exploding as time passes.

 

Are you taking using all of these tips to grow your business online? Need help? Drop a comment below!

 

Written by Emerge Marketing Strategies. For questions about Social Media or any digital marketing needs, please visit emergemktg.com or email [email protected] for more information.

 

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The Ultimate Social Media Business Guide

Posted on March 21, 2018 by - Marketing Strategy, Social Media

A Guide to Ramping Up Your Business Pages on Social Media

“My business has been running fine for years without social media!”

“I don’t have enough time to post consistently.”

Common misunderstandings about Social Media prevent businesses from entering the Social Media world and tapping into a market of over 3 billion users!

With each person spending over 2 hours per day on social media, there is a huge platform for businesses to reach customers.

Time spent on Social Media - Markeiting

 

Why Your Business Must Be On Social Media

It all starts with creating a profile, but the social media experience is far more for businesses.

Social media is a platform for connecting with your audience and provides an outlet for a free form of advertising.

Social media is also an important tool to help with developing a brand identity, reaching new target audiences, and receiving feedback from your target audience.

With over 3.1 billion social media users worldwide and internet users making up 53% of the population, there is a massive audience for businesses to interact with.

social media usage around the world

There are many different mediums for businesses to use, which at first can be intimidating for those who are unfamiliar with each.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and other social media sites each serve different purposes.

A good way to figure out which is best for a business is to try them all out at separate times.

Dedicate a specified amount of time to understanding how to post, what content your audience wants to see, and which platform your audience responds to.

If there is another company in your industry that does well on social media, look at how they are engaging their following and understand how your business can find success.

Create A Profile

The very first step is to just do it!

If your business has no profile on social media, it’s time to create some profiles.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram

Your customers are looking up your company on Google and other search engines before they purchase or do business with you.

Show them why they should choose your business with a great profile picture, a complete profile and updated contact information.

As a business, a logo is a great picture to use for a profile. Make sure it is easy to see and not cropped at all as seen on this Twitter profile.

 

Emerge Marketing Twitter Profile

On most platforms there is also a section to fill out about your company details.

This section is usually limited to a specific amount of characters so be short and direct about your services and provide a way for customers to reach you.

Include contact information and links to a website, podcast, alternate social media profile, landing page: wherever you would like to direct traffic.

Here’s an example of an Instagram profile that has a link to a subscription as well as a hashtag to use for featured content.

Instagram profile social media marketing

Once you have created a profile, post some content!

Depending on the platform, use a great video, post or picture to let your customers know you are now active!

Identify your Buyer and target Audience

Each social media platform serves a difference purpose.

For example, LinkedIn’s main focus is on building a professional community and encouraging networking.

LinkedIn mission social media

It is important to identify what you want your company to share with your audience.

Your target audience may be on different social media platforms or one only one.

Research where the target audience is most active and see what other companies are doing well.

 Decide messaging for your profile

Consistent messaging on social media is important.

Some companies decide that taking a professional approach is the most engaging method for their clients.

Other companies take a more creative approach and use comedy or witty methods to get engaging results from their audience.

Wendy’s Twitter account has a ton of personality and even challenges their competitors like this post about Burger King, in their marketing efforts.

wendys twitter post

 Research your competition

Find out what other competitors in your space are doing.

Using Google search and tools sites like BuzzSumo to conduct research on the top searched companies will allow the ability to see what competition is doing on social media.

Buzzsumo social media

A few questions to consider about the social media marketing for their business :

  • Are they providing content that gets people to respond?
  • What markets are they targeting and is what they are doing effective?
  • How can you improve on their content efforts?

 

Find other companies

Look for other companies –  outside of your industry, in other locations, different size – and see how they are telling their story.

Inspiration for ideas can come from anywhere and reviewing other companies that share a similar vision is a good way to start.

Other companies may interact with customers in a way that you never thought of.

Have a few posts ready

Take advantage of scheduling resources included with some of the social media platforms.

 For example, Facebook has built in scheduling capabilities.

Facebook scheduling social media

This will save you from dead time if you have a consistent log of posts ready.

 

Sharing a variety of posts – information, photos, specials, customer stories, blog posts, event information – will allow you to have a supply of content that your audience will appreciate.

Use Analytics to Strategize

Wondering how to get more likes, views, shares, or comments?

Take a look at analytics for your business accounts.

The analytics will allow you to take a deeper dive into each post and see how to adjust.

facebook analytics

If you have one post that is killing it, it’s time to make more posts similar to that.

If one photo got a ton of people to comment, try to find more posts similar.

Find the sources of engagement and with social media advertisements, find what customers are clicking to replicate and improve the process with future posts.

Conclusion

Social Media may not seem important to you business but in today’s quickly changing online landscape, it is more important than ever to build a presence.

As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is now!

It is not too late to get started and your customers are waiting to hear, see, and watch your company’s journey.

Is your business ready to dive deeper into social media? Leave a comment below!

Written by Emerge Marketing Strategies. For questions about Social Media or any digital marketing needs, please visit emergemktg.com or email: [email protected] for more information.

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