Feeling like your digital marketing needs a bit of a boost?
With all the information out there, it can be hard to figure out which digital marketing tips are really effective, and which can afford to be ignored.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of 50—yep, 50!—digital marketing tips that we know for a fact can help you propel your brand further, build your relationship with the connected consumer, and ultimately, convert more potential customers into long-term brand advocates.
1. Fill out your social profiles.
List all the details about your business, from contact information to your brand story to your branded hashtags, on your social platforms. You want visitors to know exactly who you are, what you do, how to reach you, what to expect when they do reach you.
2. Practice social listening.
Social listening, or tracking mentions of your brand name and other relevant keywords, conversations, and topics, is key to figuring out what your audience is interested in and the kind of content they want. By using a social listening tool like Sprout Social or Hootsuite, you’ll be able to develop content, social posts, and offerings that address your followers’ pain points.
3. Conduct an SEO audit (or hire an SEO firm to do one for you).
SEO audits are in-depth audits of your website that help you determine how to improve your website’s searchability and search rankings. They’re a great way to discover problems that are keeping you from ranking high on the page, as well as things that might be interfering with conversions.
Related post: 50 B2B SEO Strategies
4. Schedule time in your calendar to review your analytics.
Analytics are easy to overlook, especially if you’re not naturally a data person. Block time out in your calendar on a monthly basis to review your reports.
5. Create buyer personas.
Buyer personas are critical for developing content that appeals to the demographics you’re trying to reach. Give them images, names, ages, even background stories to make them more real, and therefore more effective.
6. Develop at least one influencer relationship.
Ideally, you’ll want to develop relationships with a few influencers, but start by reaching out to just one. Make sure he or she is a good fit for your brand, and remember that this is a relationship: you’ll need to support the influencer’s goals just like they support yours.
7. Create ungated content.
Ungated content, or content that anyone can access without an exchange of money, information, or anything else, will help you build your brand and boost your search rankings.
Related post: How to Write Crazy Successful B2B Marketing Content
8. Create gated content.
Gated content is also important for your site. Gated content is content that requires visitors to give an email address, for example, to access. Whitepapers, reports, and other high-value content is a good fit for this format.
9. Create long-form content.
The highest-performing content on Google averages around 1,890 words. In general, aim for at least 1,000 words per blog post or article.
10. Repurpose your content.
Content you’ve already created offers a well of opportunity to draw on for social media posts, audio snippets, and more. Turn a blog post into an infographic, for example, or a webinar into a series of blog posts.
11. Conduct keyword research.
Google’s Keyword Planner lets you find out what your audience is searching for and how they’re searching for it.
12. Engage with your fans on social.
Be responsive to comments, shout-outs, and especially complaints on your social media channels.
13. Invest in social ads.
Organic reach is extremely challenging to achieve nowadays, so investing in some social advertising—even if it’s $5 at a time—is vital.
14. Ask employees to share your posts with their social networks.
Employees can be an excellent source of referrals, social proof, and social sharing. Get them involved by making it easy for them to share your company’s posts.
15. Write down your content strategy.
Write your content strategy down so that you can gain a big picture of what you’re working toward. That’s not to mention that a written strategy can be executed by anyone—which is especially helpful if you’re out sick.
16. Claim your business listing online.
If you’ve got a physical storefront or office, make sure you claim it online with the Google and Bing’s business listing. Include your phone number, email, and request reviews from former customers.
17. Curate content.
In addition to creating original content, comb through your social media feeds and share content that will give your audience value. That could be from another organization in the space, an influencer, or a news site—just make sure it’s relevant to you and your audience.
18. Make it easy for your site visitors to sign up for your email list.
Include an email signup box in prominent locations throughout your website.
19. Encourage user-generated content (UGC) through contests and giveaways.
User-generated content—images, reviews, tagged social media posts—are a great way to boost your brand’s authenticity and image among your followers. Asking followers to enter a contest by sharing a picture of themselves with your product, or tagging you in a post, is an effective way to encourage UGC.
20. Create Instagram ads that let visitors shop in-app.
Instagram ads can now let visitors shop your site without leaving the app. Take advantage of these to streamline your buyers’ purchase journey.
21. Develop an editorial calendar.
Write out an editorial calendar for your content (both original and curated) to ensure you’re balancing content in terms of themes, audience personas, formats, etc.
22. Create regular Instagram Stories.
Instagram Stories are short videos that only live in your profile for 24 hours. Include these in your social media outreach as another way to engage followers.
23. Try out Facebook Live.
While Facebook Live doesn’t get huge results for everyone, it’s definitely worth trying out—as long as you promote it heavily beforehand and during your broadcast.
24. Guest blog.
Seek out opportunities to contribute guest blog posts on other sites that your audience is visiting.
25. Spend as much time on your headline (or subject line) as you do writing your blog post/article/email.
Believe it or not, you should be spending as much time on your headline (or subject line) as you do on the actual content you’re creating. Headlines and subject lines have an outsized impact—make sure you’re putting in the time to craft ones that will convert.
26. Invest in paid media.
Paid media (sponsored posts, social ads) is an indispensable part of your digital marketing efforts. Organic reach alone just won’t cut it anymore.
27. Seek out earned media opportunities.
Just like paid media, earned media is a critical element of increasing brand awareness. Earned media includes things like being a source for a news article or partnering with a community organization on an event that gets written about on the organization’s blog.
28. Create offline experiences that complement your online marketing efforts.
Bridge the online and offline worlds by creating opportunities for fans to engage with your brand IRL as well as online.
29. Create trending and “newsjacked” content.
Comment on current events and trending topics—as long as you have something relevant, valuable, and authentic to contribute.
30. Create evergreen content.
Evergreen content is content that will be useful and relevant on a long-term basis. It’s an important part of any content strategy, as your content will live online indefinitely.
31. Determine which KPIs you’re tracking—and then track them.
Instead of looking at every possible KPI, pick the several that are most relevant to your specific brand goals and then track them over time (during your scheduled analytics review time, of course!)
32. Develop a Facebook chatbot.
Chatbots are becoming more and more prevalent among brands that want to develop strong, ongoing relationships with their customers. Consider hiring a firm that can build a unique one for your audience.
33. Create auto-response emails.
An extremely efficient way to dramatically increase your email marketing’s effectiveness is to create auto-response emails. These go out automatically to fans when they do things like sign up for your email list, abandon a shopping cart, or spend a lot of time in one particular section of your website.
34. Write page descriptions for your website.
Page descriptions are the snippets of text that show up on Google’s search pages. Make sure each page on your site has one to increase the likelihood of a click.
35. Include calls-to-action in your blog posts and social posts.
Every blog post and most of your social posts should contain a call-to-action, though not always one urging people to purchase or sign up for your email list. Softer ones (“read more here,” “browse our latest offerings”) can be just as effective.
36. Ensure your website is mobile-first.
Google reported in 2016 that more than 50% of search queries now come from mobile devices. Make sure you’re not inadvertently turning people away from your site by making sure it’s designed for mobile-first.
37. Add alt-text to your images.
Alt-text, or descriptive text that pops up if a photo won’t load, will not only improve your site’s searchability—it will also make your site more accessible to people who use screen readers and other types of accessibility technology.
38. Make it easy for fans to leave reviews of your product or service on your website and on your social profiles.
Add a sentence on your site asking people to leave you a Google review and make sure you activate Facebook’s review/star tool on your business profile.
39. Conduct A/B testing.
Don’t be afraid to test out your social ads and email subject lines. Create two slightly different versions, and see which results in the most engagement.
40. Add captions and subtitles to your videos.
85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Add captions or subtitles to yours to keep viewers watching for longer.
41. Include images in all your social posts.
Using images in Facebook posts results in 2.3x more engagement than posts without images. It’s a quick way to drastically improve engagement.
42. Seek out micro-influencers to reach niche audiences.
Micro-influencers, or influencers who have a relatively small reach in a highly specialized niche, can be incredibly helpful for certain campaigns—for example, if you’re launching a new specialized product, or trying to break into a brand new demographic.
43. Take advantage of interlinking on your website.
Make sure to include links to your web pages, blog posts, and other content throughout your site.
44. Seek out guest writer and columnist opportunities.
In addition to becoming a guest blogger, seeking out opportunities to write for sites like Thrive Global, Huffington Post, and others will allow you to reach entire new audiences. Just be aware that many tier-1 sites, like Inc. and Forbes, have requirements about how often you post in order to remain one of their columnists.
45. Always segment your email lists.
Segmenting your email lists into groups like prospects, customers, and even further into groups like “purchased in the last month” and “purchased in the last year” will allow you to create highly personalized campaigns, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
46. Use remarketing.
Remarketing is a form of advertising in which you can serve ads to people based on their previous online actions—visiting your site, checking out a certain product, etc. It’s effective because you’re targeting people who’ve already shown some kind of interest in your brand.
47. Place social icons prominently on your website.
Make sure your social icons are easy to find and click on your website, preferable in the header or footer on every page.
48. Stop relying completely on data.
Data is important, of course, and should absolutely be consulted—but don’t fall into the trap of making all of your content or marketing decisions based solely on what the data tells you. Data doesn’t win hearts or minds, after all—stories do.
49. Make your B2B content more like B2C content.
For too long, B2B content has been…well, boring. B2B buyers are connected consumers too—serve them content that’s emotional and entertaining, as well as valuable.
50. Cultivate your employees as brand advocates.
In today’s connected digital ecosystem, your employees are key for elevating your brand and showing your audience what your company looks like behind the scenes. Make sure you’re encouraging them to share your content and create opportunities for them to share their own take on your company values and atmosphere, too.
