Digital marketing is an ever-growing part of business success. According to Statista, in February 2020, U.S. marketing executives were devoting a whopping 13.2% of their company’s revenue toward marketing budgets. The allotted budget spend was up from an average of 7% to 10% in previous years. The statistics website also reiterated that digital marketing continues to increase while traditional channels shrink.
Even if a company has already invested in digital marketing in the past and present, facts like these continue to emphasize the need to maintain those online efforts in the future. It’s an ongoing phenomenon that Jason Hennessey is well aware of. The CEO of and founder of digital marketing agency Hennessey Digital knows that online marketing isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of deal. It requires patient and steady attention over time.
Digital Marketing Tips From Marketing Master Jason Hennessey
Truly successful digital marketing requires consistent improvement in multiple areas. With that in mind, here are a few tips that Jason Hennessey has found helpful as he’s reverse-engineered the Google algorithm and perpetually improves the ongoing digital marketing efforts of both his own enterprise and countless other companies.
1. Put Conversions First
Convert, convert, convert. That is the golden rule of online advertising, or any marketing, really. It doesn’t matter how much attention or traffic you generate if you aren’t converting it into sales or some other pre-set objective.
This is why conversion rate optimization is critical to consider, particularly once your digital marketing is up and running. But, of course, at that point, you’ve already created things like landing pages, long- and short-form content, and contact forms.
Now, it’s time to tinker with the formula to see what helps and what hinders your ongoing digital marketing efforts. This can optimize each aspect of your marketing collateral and ensure that it’s helping to generate action on the part of consumers.
A big part of this process involves tracking and analyzing data, something we’ll cover more thoroughly in a minute. The main takeaway here is to keep your eyes fixed on conversions at all costs.
2. Prioritize Continuity
Continuity is another part of digital marketing that’s easy to lose sight of — overtime. When you create an initial marketing strategy, it’s easy to have everything in place. Brand messages, vision, logos, and color schemes are all laid out and clearly understood.
As you create your online content across various marketing channels, though, it’s easy for things to begin to drift. The demands and focus of each platform can chip away at the continuity of your brand’s digital content.
If you’re trying to improve your digital marketing efforts, consider reviewing your continuity. Look for any areas where your branding has slipped over time, and then take steps to ameliorate the issue.
3. Follow the Data
Data is an important part of modern marketing. It can be particularly useful when you’re trying to improve ongoing digital marketing activity.
SEO is a great example of the value that data offers. As your digital marketing gains momentum, your SEO will begin to pick up speed, too. When this happens, you can begin to tailor your SEO efforts to enhance your results.
You can do this by using SEO and analytics tools to research industry-specific keywords that you should try to rank for in search results pages (SERPS.) You can also use analytics to track traffic and engagements, use heatmaps, set up A/B testing, and of course, make sure you’re converting in the right areas. Regardless of the specifics, data and analytics are excellent tools that can hone your digital marketing over time.
4. Focus on a Big Picture Strategy
Digital marketing can often be splashy and exciting in the short term. Pay per click (PPC) campaigns offer a quick and effective way to generate traffic. Social media interactions are intriguing yet fleeting. Emails can get a response, but they don’t last long.
If you want your digital marketing to last over the long haul, you have to both invest in and maintain a big-picture strategy. By all means, continue to plan short-term campaigns and promotions. However, make sure that they are part of a larger digital marketing plan.
This should revolve around your audience. Ensure to stay up to date on your customers’ pain points, interests, and other needs. Keep a fleshed-out and updated buyer persona to inform your digital marketing efforts, as well. Also, make sure to invest in long-term marketing activities like brand awareness, content, and SEO.
5. Create a Complete Customer Journey
Finally, make sure that your digital marketing doesn’t stop at the point of sale. If you want to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts, they should be part of a unified and comprehensive customer journey.
This doesn’t mean you have to spread yourself thin as you try to cater to your customers through every possible communication channel. When writing about his personally coined term harmonized retail, strategy and innovation consultant Steve Dennis explains that “the customer is the channel.” Dennis elaborates that “a great customer experience has never been about being everywhere and being all things for all people. What matters is showing up for the right customers, where it really matters, in remarkable ways.”
In other words, your digital marketing shouldn’t be a stand-alone effort to siphon traffic to your website or generate sales. Instead, it should be part of a larger, all-inclusive customer journey that starts with the first point of contact and continues past the point of sale and on throughout your customer service endeavors.
Digital marketing can be an overwhelming activity. As a result, it can feel scattered, disjointed, and expensive. That’s why companies mustn’t just set digital marketing efforts in motion and then leave them on their own.
Instead, take the time to revisit and improve your digital marketing efforts. Optimize conversions, analyze data, consider continuity, and create a big-picture strategy that keeps the whole customer journey in mind. If you can do that, your digital marketing efforts will continue to deliver maximum results both now and far into the future.
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Brad Anderson
Editor In Chief at ReadWrite
Brad is the editor overseeing contributed content at ReadWrite.com. He previously worked as an editor at PayPal and Crunchbase. You can reach him at brad at readwrite.com.
