The Different Types Of Digital Marketing Campaigns Explained

Marketing is an essential part of doing business and companies should use every tool at their disposal. The Small Business Administration recommends spending between 7% and 8% of revenue on marketing.

Fortunately, we live in a world where a lot of it can be done for free. Let’s talk about the different types of digital marketing campaigns, how they affect your strategy, and how to improve them!

Why You Should Use Different Types of Digital Marketing Campaigns

Before we dive into detail on the various digital marketing campaigns, let’s briefly discuss why using all of them is so important. There’s no sense in putting all of your eggs in one basket but that’s not the only benefit to diversity.

Integration

One of the most important reasons to diversify your digital marketing strategy is that all of your different campaign efforts affect one another.

For example, driving traffic through ads or email newsletters could help build followers on social media! Each part helps build the other.

Promotion

Online promotion is also the gift that keeps on giving. It facilitates other useful marketing tools like word-of-mouth marketing, which is the most effective form of marketing available.

For example, when a gym posts referral programs on their social media pages, this will prompt certain members to recommend their gym to a friend. Using these tools to your advantage will ultimately yield a ripple effect over time when done correctly.

Free Marketing Tools

The best part about online marketing is that many of your campaigns won’t cost a dime. There’s no parallel to this in the physical marketing world. Even printing out flyers costs money.

However, with the right tools and knowledge, you can launch a successful email, social media, or SEO strategy that drives sales without spending a cent! Let’s talk about those different options for marketing campaigns.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is arguably the most important digital marketing tool to start using early on. However, 70% of small businesses don’t have an SEO strategy, which is unfortunate (for them).

SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s content for search engines like Google. If done correctly, your website will be in the best position to rank at the top of a relevant search, which drives free and organic traffic. The difference between SEO and ads is that, although SEO takes time to yield results, you don’t have to keep pouring money into campaigns to continue seeing results.

Consequently, ranking at the top of a relevant Google search could be enough to keep your business afloat for years to come. On the other hand, showing up on the second page instead of the first could sink your business. Let’s talk about how it works.

Website Quality

The quality of your website deserves its own section in your marketing strategy. Think about it. Your website is the home base for your entire digital marketing strategy, posing as the center for all of your various campaigns.

Well, search engines place a lot of stock into the quality of your website. In fact, Google has 200 ranking factors that are directly related to your website’s quality.

Improving the user experience of your website will help with conversion rates, user retention, brand loyalty, and your SEO prospects, so don’t neglect it. Here are just a few examples of important ranking factors:

• Page load time
• Mobile-friendliness
• Image optimization
• Page structure
• Link structure
• Navigation system
• Redirects and errors

The list goes on. Think about where the average user spends their time online, like Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon. Like it or not, that is the standard you are being held to. Because of this, spending the extra time or resources on professional web development will only help your entire marketing strategy.

Content Quality

Assuming you have a blog, you need to develop a content marketing strategy. If you don’t have a blog, get one. If you have 5 pages on your website, that’s 5 (weak) chances to rank on a Google search. With a blog, you have endless opportunities to rank on highly relevant searches.

Google wants to see high-quality content. If you manage to slip past Google’s crawlers and rank higher with low-quality content, you will eventually be slapped with the “panda penalty” which will drop your rankings. Google’s crawlers look for specific keywords that you use throughout your content to determine the nature of the website, which terms it is ranking for, and how trustworthy the content is.

Your strategy should consist primarily of producing quality content for the user (not for Google) and eliminating “fluff” content. If there is a sentence that you are unsure as to whether or not it adds value, delete it.

Examples of fluff would be duplicate content, irrelevant content, or subjective content. Essentially, you shouldn’t make things up and you should always have something of value to say. If you’re not familiar with producing SEO content, there are many SEO services that offer professional content writing.

Backlinks

While backlinks are slightly out of your control, you will still have an effect on your long-term strategy. Backlinks are the links from other sites to your site, and they are the primary factor in of-page ranking. When another website links to your site, they are offering some of their authority to your site, which builds your credibility over time.

The only advice we have for building backlinks is to reach out to affiliates and to focus on creating quality content. This will serve as “linkbait”, which is an industry term used for content that other blogs wind up linking to.

Think about online mortgage or investment calculators. Thousands of business and finance blogs will link to those all the time.

Also, think about the largest news companies like The Washington Post. Every day, they post a story that will be linked to by hundreds of smaller outlets across the country. Once again, focus on quality content and the links will come.

Email Marketing

Don’t ever let anybody tell you that email marketing is dead. It is still one of the most effective marketing tools available today, but only if you know how to use it. There’s a fine line to tread with email marketing. You don’t want to be spammy, but you want to be consistent enough to drive traffic.

Email Marketing Tips

First, optimize your emails. Your email name should clearly and immediately identify your brand and the subject lines should be catchy and relevant. Catching their attention will help convert your recipients into readers.

Next, use plenty of visual imagery. Our brains process visual imagery up to 60,000 times faster than text, so offer eye-catching visuals for users to enjoy. This should include colorful templates, images, GIFs, and more!

Also, don’t worry too much about unsubscribes. If you’re losing a massive amount of your email recipients, then adjust your strategy.

However, some unsubscribes are good for your strategy, so make it easy for users to do so. If they aren’t able to easily unsubscribe, then they will likely mark your emails as spam, which could prompt email servers to default your campaigns as junk. Showing up in the junk folder will kill your strategy, so don’t throw roadblocks in the way of unsubscribing. You’ll never win them all, so don’t try to!

Social Media

Social media is one of the best marketing developments in history. Half the world is an active user of social media.

The only thing that’s tricky about social media marketing is finding the right platforms, as this is unique to your business. Just because Facebook has the most users doesn’t mean that you’ll find your target audience there.

Conducting some market research will help you determine the right platforms. From there, here are some tips for any social media strategy.

Optimize Your Account

Whichever platform(s) you decide to use, make sure that you register as a business account. From there, add a clear profile picture. Remember, most users will be on a mobile device, so ensure that your image is legible. A company logo is ideal for this.

Your company name should also be easily legible. If your company name describes your services, then just use the name. Otherwise, add a short description. If your business is called “XYZ”, then change it into “XYZ Pet Shop”.

Next, you should create a clear and concise bio. Something like “Local auto shop in Tewksbury, New Jersey” with a link to your website is perfect.

Post Regularly

Part of your social media strategy should include posting times. Try to post about once a day and at the most active times. Yes, there are best times to post, and using them to your advantage is a great way to expand your reach without much effort.

Creating the content in advance, setting a reminder, and posting it at the right times is a good strategy to stay consistent.

Use Hashtags (Wisely)

Hashtags are a great way to expand your reach for free, but they are too often overdone. Only use trending hashtags if they are relevant to your business, but keep an eye out for them when you are online!

Also, use hashtags with every post, but try to limit to 5 or fewer and keep them as relevant as possible.

PPC Ads

Lastly, we arrive at advertising. PPC ads have become so targeted in recent years that you can reach your intended audience with almost surgical precision after a little market research.

There are several types of PPC ads, such as search ads, video ads, display ads, and more. All of them are great options for marketing your business online. Search engine marketing (SEM) is different from SEO. It follows the PPC structure, meaning that you only pay for the number of clicks you receive, and you get to skip the line of organic content. The prices will vary widely depending on the keywords you are trying to rank for, but this is a great way to boost your short-term revenue while building up your other marketing campaigns.

Let’s face it, SEO, social media marketing, and other campaigns take time to grow. Are you supposed to hope for the best over several months without a guaranteed payout? No. Ads are very beneficial for short-term gains. Depending on the nature of your business, you should diversify your ads throughout different platforms and styles to maximize your reach.

Focus On Quality

Your ad needs to engage your audience. People are used to seeing over 5,000 ads a day, so making yours stand out is crucial. Ensure that you are using the right keywords, that your visuals are eye-catching, and that your text is clear and concise. Using these will go a long way toward getting clicks.

Having a professionally developed ad is the best way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your campaign and saving money in the long run.

Don’t Neglect Your Website

Specifically, your landing page needs to be optimized. Your conversion rates will rely heavily on the quality of your website. Particularly, your landing page and your navigation tools.

If people click on an ad and it doesn’t load, they will only wait for an average of 3 seconds before exiting. Also, if they can’t find what they are looking for, they won’t stay long. In both of those cases, you lose money.

Optimize your website for both SEO value and conversion rates. You lose money every time a user clicks on your ads, so make it worth your while.

Build Your Campaign!

Now that you know the different types of digital marketing campaigns and how to start using them, you’ll see results faster by starting sooner! For any help with your marketing needs, David Taylor Digital will help you reach your goals without interfering with your busy schedule. Stay up to date with our latest marketing news and free to contact us with any questions.