How to effectively use digital marketing for your business

When it comes to digital marketing there are so many buzzwords and information thrown into the mix that just make it all overly confusing. With digital marketing and all other forms of marketing, you should just focus on what matters most — growing your business.

In this post, you will learn a simple breakdown of digital marketing and find out the two places where your customers are, and the two ways to get people to your business.

Where are my customers?

Your customers are in two places online — Social Media and Search.

The social media platforms where they are can be any of the big 7 (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat) as well as some smaller niche sites out there.

For search, there are fewer options, just Google, YouTube, and Bing. YouTube is listed as both a social media platform, as well as a search platform because it is actually the second largest search provider out there. And yes, Google also owns YouTube.

Now that you know where your customers are…

How do I get people to my business?

There are two ways to get people to your business — paid traffic and organic traffic. For paid

For paid traffic, there are a few mediums you can use — Google AdWords and Social Media Ads. Each of the big 7 social media websites has their own ad platforms. The pros of paid traffic are that it is a fast way to get traffic to your business, and it is easy to track return on investment (ROI). The con is that obviously, it costs money. So the more traffic you want to receive the more you would have to pay.

For attracting organic traffic you can use social media posting or content marketing on your website. The pro of organic traffic is that it is earned traffic, so over time it can snowball, garnering you more and more search traffic. The cons are that it is slower than paid, and it is harder to track ROI.

Now that we know where your customers are and the different ways to get them to your business…

How do I grow my business using digital marketing?

That really comes down to what your business’s goals are.

Here are a few common business goals and the methods you could use to accomplish them:

• Foot Traffic? Use local organic search
• Online purchases? Use paid social media and search ads
• Phone Calls? Use paid ads to drive phone calls (social media & Google AdWords)
• Brand Awareness? Use both paid & organic social media
• Consultations? Use both paid & organic social media

What are your business’s goals?

Either leave a comment below or contact us, and we can keep this conversation going!