Being a Savvy Digital Marketer
So you want to spread your wings and make your mark on the digital stage, eh? Well, we can definitely get you started in the right direction. We already talked about native advertising in our Speaking Your Geek article, so be sure to check out that important marketing strategy. And read on for some other important tips:
1. Mobile Video Advertising:
Have you ever been in the middle of telling someone a really important story or detail only to realize they haven't heard a word you're saying because they've been all-consumed by a cat video on their phone or tablet? Or maybe their eyes glazed over as they stared over your shoulder at a TV screen while you were supposed to be having a heart-to-heart over an intimate dinner?
Yeah, we're kind of all deer in the headlights when it comes to screens and videos, and that can be used to your advantage! Mobile video consumption is on the rise in a big way. People often look down at their phones instead of watching TV commercials at home. On the bus or train, people usually are looking at their phones instead of watching billboards they're passing. Chances are, if they're already looking at their mobile devices, they aren't going to look away when an ad fills their tiny, glowing, mesmerizing screen.
To learn more about why mobile video advertising works, check out this Entrepreneur article. It's a few years old, but mobile video advertising is still a key tool for the savvy digital marketer.
2. Viewable Impressions:
It's easy to get tricked into paying for advertising slots on the web that never get seen by an end user. This is especially true of video advertisements. The time it takes for even a graphic to load online can sometimes curtail any possible views, but that is ten times truer for a video ad. So don't get tricked into paying for a dud. Instead, pay for viewable impressions that have guaranteed time slots.
Under a viewable impressions plan, you're only charged when your image or video has loaded at least 50% of its pixels and those pixels have been on the screen for at least one second (for images) or two seconds (for videos). To really seal the deal, buy guaranteed time slots, which will ensure you only get charged if your ad was viewable for the entire time slot (five seconds, 10 seconds, etc.). That way, you'll be much more likely to get your money's worth. And if the outlet you buy from provides click/view stats, use them!
3. Retargeting Advertisements:
So you see a shirt in an online store and you love it, but you maybe don't love it enough to buy it right now. You get distracted, start looking around the web at completely unrelated subjects, but every site you go to, you notice an ad in the margins showing you that shirt. That awesome shirt that just keeps looking better and better. Probably you'll really regret it if you don't get it now, right? Nah...it's just a shirt. Then again...I mean, just look at how great it looks on that model. Yeah, you better get it now, while the getting's good. Click. Bag. Buy. You've just been retargeted.
Retargeting is something that is exclusive to digital marketing. It's not likely you'd be able to have your products' ads show up in every store a person goes to after visiting yours in a mall or in the city. So if you have an online presence and you have something to sell, take advantage of this very digital resource. Don't let those customers get away! Learn more about retargeting with these resources:
4. BEHAVIORAL Data:
Imagine you had a shop in a mall and someone came to you and said, "Hey, I can let loose my team of recruiters in this mall and they'll bring you all the shoppers here that are most likely to buy your products, based on their interests, past shopping habits, social networks, and more." Would that service be worth a bit of up-front cash? You bet your socks, it would. That's what behavioral data is. It looks at what people have searched for online, what they've purchased, even sometimes what they post about, who they are (age, profession, relationship status), and more, and filters out everyone who wouldn't fit your specifications. That means you're left with only the most likely pool of people to market to, which saves you loads of time and money.
You can buy behavioral data from several venues like Experian or Dawex. To learn more about successfully using behavioral data, read this Forbes article.
5. Search Engine Optimization and Backlinks:
Much of the time, when someone is looking for a product or service, they simply type that item or term into Google or Bing (or whatever, but if we're being honest, probably Google, right?) and click on one of the first 5-10 items that pop up on the results page. So how do you make sure you're in those top 5-10 results? With search engine optimization (or SEO). We could reinvent the wheel by telling you all about it, but MOZ did such a great job of explaining it, we'll just send you over to them for the low-down.
We will, however, point to one SEO tool that is more important than most people realize: backlinks. You are not an island in an empty digital ocean, you are one of many, many islands in a very full digital ocean and you rely on the other islands to survive, just as they rely on you. Google made that extra true when it decided to base your SEO value on backlinks and ranking, almost exclusively. A backlink is when another website provides a link to yours, driving traffic your way. Ranking is a bit more complex. To learn more about backlinks, check out the LinkResearchTools website. And to learn about ranking, check out this TheeDesign article.
Doing internal linking can also be important, so check out this Kissmetrics article as well. And to learn about four websites that have done a great job earning links, check this Elite Strategies article.
Just remember that, while keywords and meta tags were the name of the game with SEO at one time, providing great content that users want to return to again and again is now a strong SEO driver as well. So don't obsess about the back-end of SEO. Google (and others) won't reward you for it enough to make it worth it.
Have more questions about digital marketing strategies? Contact us now to set up a free consultation!