Digital Marketing in 2018: Advanced Strategies and Tips for Best Results While investing in paid advertisement, choose the platform carefully and understand where your audience is more active
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We are heading towards 2018 and one industry that has caught the attention of many entrepreneurs this year is Digital Marketing. Take a good look around and see the impact of digital marketing. From e-commerce businesses to electoral campaigns, everyone who wants to address masses is using this platform. Whether you are a celebrity or a business brand, your promotional campaigns are incomplete without approaching people where they are most commonly found: on the World Wide Web.
In 2017, we have seen many changes in the search and we can say Google is putting its continuous efforts to make search behaviour better for users. Considering these changes, you need to plan or revise your digital marketing strategy in 2018 for getting more traffic and to generate sales for your business. There are various factors that you must need to consider while making your 2018 digital marketing strategy. Let's take a look at them:
Website Speed Optimization
A webpage's loading speed is the first and most important factor for a business to perform well on the web. How quickly your server is handling the HTTP request determines the fate of your business in the online world.
According to the Aberdeen Group, a mere one-second delay in page-load times lead to an 11% drop in page views, 7% loss in conversions, and 16% drop in customer satisfaction.
Go to Google page speed optimization tool to check your website
- How to Increase your website speed
- Use CDN to
- Minify JS, HTML, and CSS
- Avoid Unnecessary Redirects
- Compress HTML, CSS Files
Pro Tip: Create a separate website for mobile with "m" Subdomain. Google prefers mobile sites when searched from mobile devices.
Focus on Better Conversion Rate
Your website might be getting lots of traffic and ranking for the number of keywords at #1. But if it is not converting into sales, then it does not mean much for you. Small to large businesses understand the importance of better conversion rate. While Meta tags, URL structure, heading tags, etc. are still important factors for a better conversion rate, but these are not the only parameters you need to focus on.
You'll need to go beyond basic website optimization techniques to improve your website conversion rate. Here are some of the easy ways by which you can improve your website conversion rate:
- Removing password friction from checkout
- Easy to use structure and clean navigation
- Landing pages with CTA, Pointed Headlines and Social reviews
- Put a feedback forum on your website
- Product videos can increase purchases of the product by 144%.
Pro Tip: Check your Google Analytics account on regular basis to track the visitor's behaviour. It will surely help you in better conversion rate.
Produce In-Depth Content
In the last couple of years, if you have noticed the Google search behaviour, then you have seen the rise of various features such as feature snippets, rich answers, knowledge graph etc. What does it mean? Google wants to give better user experience to their users and also wants users to spend a good chunk of time in the search results. Featured snippets results are stealing lots of traffic from sites that are ranking at number #1, #2 and #3 positions in organic results. So you might be ranking for a particular keyword at #4 or #5 but still, you can get more traffic by featuring in Snippets results.
Here are the some of the easy ways to rank in featured snippets:
- Produce in-depth content by targeting user's queries
- Write Content by Targeting Long Tail Keywords
- Write Content with using a question format such as How, Why, etc.
- Write Content with proper formatting with use of H1, H2, Bullet Points and numbering
Pro Tip: Make your own niche and master it; don't just start writing on everything.
Focus On Brand Building
According to various research conducted on user behaviour, 99% of your website visitors never buy in their first visit. In the first visit, they become aware of your brand and services. In the 2nd or 3rd visit, they spend the time to know more about your brand through Google or other authentic sources. This is where you have an opportunity to convert your traffic into potential customers. Here's what you can, and should do:
- Build profiles for your brand on authentic sources like Crunch Base, Yelp and such.
- Ask your customers to leave reviews for your business on different platforms.
- Build strong social media presence on different channels.
- Connect your business with large brands through content marketing and advertisement.
Pro Tip: Monitor your Brand Mentions through Google Alerts and other tools. It will help you in participate in discussions happening around your brand and also help to combat with negative reviews.
Choose Paid Advertising Platform Carefully
In last 5 years, advertising on Google and other digital platforms have grown at a rapid pace. According to a report published in New York Times, Google AdWords and Facebook account 85 percent of every new dollar spent on digital advertising. Many people get confused between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords and eventually, they started comparing which one is better. But I would say there is no comparison as both platforms cater to the specific audience and specific intentions.
It's quite simple, if you want quick or instant sales for your business, then Google Ads are by far the best solution. Because as a user if you are looking for any services or solution to something you will search on Google rather than finding solutions on social platforms.
On the other hand, Facebook ads are display ads and best for creating brand awareness and also effective for remarketing purpose. So when you put Ads on Facebook, create the Ad copy around generating awareness rather than conversion oriented. From here, you can create lead magnet funnel to convert them into sales.
One more major difference is that Google AdWord ads are keywords intent whereas Facebook Ads are not. Also, as Google Ads are highly intent and for targeted searches, they will cost you more as compared to Facebook Ads.
Pro Tip: While investing in paid advertisement, choose the platform carefully and more importantly, understand where your audience is more active.
Conclusion
It's all about connecting the dots the right way to see the big picture. The tips mentioned above will definitely help you plan and design an effective and result driven digital marketing strategy in 2018.
