Creating a powerful brand requires a digital marketing strategy. If you want people to become familiar with your business, your story, and how you can help them, you need to have a solid marketing plan that reaches them. However, sometimes finding the perfect plan is challenging. You may have no idea where to begin, who to target or utilize social media outlets. These challenges can easily be fixed with a digital marketing consultant. What is a digital marketing consultant you might ask?

This is an excellent question that requires an insightful answer. This article will highlight what a digital marketing consultant can do for you and why you need one for your business. 

What Is a Digital Marketing Consultant? 

A digital marketing consultant offers a lot of knowledge in many areas of digital marketing. 

They should not only know about different marketing strategies, but they should also know how to implement them effectively. A digital marketing consultant should also be familiar with Google analytics and other marketing measurements. 

These measurements are critical in evaluating your current online presence, deciding what is working in your current campaign. 

After some evaluation, the digital marketing consultant will determine the best course of action. They will provide suggestions on how you can improve your website traffic, conversions, or whatever your ultimate goal is. 

However, it is only after a thorough review that a digital marketing consultant should make this recommendation. 

Before you meet with a consultant, you should consider evaluating your current goals. You want to decide what your ultimate aim objective is. Then, when you do meet with a consultant, you can explain what your objective is and why it’s not working. 

How Does Your Business Benefit? 

Hiring a digital marketing consultant can benefit your business tremendously and in a lot of ways. Taking a look at these benefits can give you insight into what they can do for your business. 

Here’s a breakdown of some of the benefits you’ll receive from hiring a digital marketing consultant. 

More Refined Brand

A marketing consultant will also help you define your brand. They will make sure your brand tells a story clearly and concisely. More importantly, a marketing consultant will make sure that your target market understands your brand. 

When someone sees your brand, they should feel an emotional connection to it. They feel like it helps them overcome a problem. 

A digital marketing consultant will tell you how to enhance your brand in different ways with different marketing strategies. They will make sure that your brand tells a unique story that’s much different from your competitors. 

Higher Conversions & More Engagement

A digital marketing consultant will also help generate higher conversion and more engagement. 

They can evaluate where there’s a bottleneck in your sales funnel. They can see why visitors aren’t converting to your website, seeing how they can change the engagement. 

A digital marketing consultant can also advise on which parts you need to change the most when it comes to your online presence. They can tell you if your website needs adjusting or if the lead magnet or ads you have need tweaking. 

This can result in more conversions and more engagement with your brand. 

Better Content

Another area that a digital marketing consultant benefits your business is how they help you evaluate your blog content. 

If you have blog content, they may tell you what you need to do to produce better SEO-driven content in order to rank higher on Google. 

While they may not do the work for you, they will still offer suggestions on how to do keyword research and offer suggestions on what topics to write about. This can help your business rank higher on search engines. 

Better Targeting

A digital marketing consultant can also help with targeting your audience. If you’re unsure of who your target market is, a digital marketing consultant can provide insight into how you can find your ideal customer. 

They can help you identify a buyer persona so your ads are more effective. They may look at your analytics, specifically conversions and clicks, and determine what kind of marketing is most interested in your business. 

This can provide your business with focus because you know who you are targeting in order to achieve better results. 

More Videos

Another way that a digital marketing consultant can help your business is with more videos. They can help you make your online presence more engaging with videos. 

This can also help you determine what kind of videos you need in your business if its testimonials are tutorials. They can provide insight into what kinds of videos do the best in your area of business. 

If you already have videos in your business, they can tell you how to optimize them for engagement on social media, YouTube, or your website. This can also help reach more consumers in your business. 

Now You Know Everything About a Digital Marketing Consultant

A digital marketing consultant can help your business in a variety of ways. They can help you figure out how to achieve better results in every area of your business. They can help you benefit faster without you struggling to figure it out yourself. 

It’s important to realize that hiring a digital marketing consultant is beneficial to every area of your business. However, it’s very important that you think about the goals you want to accomplish in your business before you contact a digital marketing consultant. 

Now, next time you wonder, what is a digital marketing consultant? You’ll have a better idea of how they can help your business. 

If you want digital marketing consulting for your business, you can contact us here. 

Creating a digital marketing strategy is tough at the best of times. Right now, it can feel near impossible. 

COVID-19 has turned conventional marketing wisdom on its head and even the most experienced marketers are having to go back to the drawing board. In the new world order, no one knows what rules to play by. 

But throwing the rulebook out of the window doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, COVID creates a unique opportunity to engage with consumers and foster long term brand loyalty.

I’m going to show you how to create a marketing strategy that fills your funnel and remains sensitive to the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. All you need to do is follow the 6 steps below!

1. Research Your Target Consumers

If you think your pre-COVID buyer persona still applies, you’re in for a shock. In the US alone, 42% of the workforce now work from home full time, whilst 33% are not working at all. Your buyers’ likes, interests and fears will have been impacted by the pandemic and their spending power may have changed too! 

Review your target buyer(s) and create a new profile based on their pandemic-driven behavior. You might even discover segments with a newfound need for your products and you’ll be able to tailor your marketing strategy to them later in the process. 

I’d also recommend altering reporting if you compare year on year performance. Comparing sales results from October 2019 to October 2020 is like comparing a cucumber to chocolate cake: impossible. Instead, opt for month-on-month comparisons whilst the situation is so volatile.

2. Re-Evaluate Key Channels

The more time we spend confined to our homes, the more time we spend online. Search, online shopping and streaming have all increased during the pandemic but its social media enjoying the biggest popularity boost. 46% of women and 41% of men said they’ve spent more time on social platforms during the pandemic, so if you’re not already active, it’s time to reconsider how you can use social to your advantage. 

I know it can be tricky choosing which platforms will have the biggest impact. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, check out this post, where I discuss how to determine the best platforms for your business.

If you’re already on social media, it’s still worth re-evaluating the channels you’re using. People are stressed and they want to see light-hearted, visual content, meaning platforms like Instagram and TikTok are on the up. 

3. Check Ads and Core Business Information

Easy to do but easy to forget! With so many companies working remotely and many having to close up shop for good, customers will be looking online for key business information. It’s never been more vital for your marketing strategy to include regular reviews of your opening hours, contact options, shipping policies and location. 

In the same vein, it’s a great time to check in on PPC campaigns you’re running and optimize them for pandemic friendly searching. Phrases like “remote”, “online order”, and “work from” have increased significantly, whilst overall spending on PPC has declined over the past 6 months. 

What does this mean? Your competitors are scaling back their digital ads so it’s easier (and cheaper) to get the visibility you want. Make sure you review paid campaigns regularly as search trends are constantly changing. 

4. Review Your Content Mix!

From Dalgona coffee to TikTok, the pandemic is creating micro-trends that offer an insight into the consumer psyche. I’ll let you into a secret, they’re not after lengthy, scholastic articles right now. Consumers want content that is light-hearted, comforting and ultimately entertaining. 

Anyone else found themselves lost down a YouTube rabbit hole recently? Recent research by Kantar found that in the post-pandemic age, people want to suspend reality when viewing digital ads, which suggests that escapism is key to today’s consumers. Rather than weighing your target audience down with text, introduce content ‘snacks’ such as GIFs, videos and infographics to your content mix. 

You could even engage with your audience directly and ask them what kind of content they want to see under the present circumstances. Showing that you’re aware that your audience’s needs have changed and being seen as empathic, can help to increase long term brand loyalty. 

5. Futureproof Your Digital Marketing Strategy

It can be difficult to move away from ‘firefighting’ under the present circumstances but it’s important to think about your long-term digital marketing strategies as well as adapting to the new normal. 

For instance, are you prepared for a post-pandemic rebound? Recovery may seem like a distant possibility but once restrictions and the threat of illness start to decline, consumer spending is expected to pick up. You need to be ready for the initial rush. 

What does your “Welcome Back” campaign look like? What promotions will you offer? How are you going to encourage consumers to spend with you vs. the competition?

Having plans in place early on will enable you to react swiftly to significant shifts in the market, especially if you’ve already secured stakeholder approval.

6. Spread Kindness Not Panic

In times like this, everyone’s got to do their bit. And brands have a role to play in that too! When you’re working through the above steps, be mindful of the messages that you are sending out to consumers.

We’re all thinking about the Coronavirus, so don’t be afraid to mention it and acknowledge how your audience is feeling. However, if your audience ends up feeling like you’re using the opportunity as a cash cow, you could lose them for good! 

Above all, your marketing strategy should focus on helping people. If you can directly help consumers navigate these confusing times, then that’s great! Otherwise, focus on what you can do, which may be as simple as offering a product that will brighten a difficult day.

Digital Marketing Strategy During Coronavirus

And there you have it! COVID-19 is throwing up new challenges for marketers, but it shouldn’t hold you back from having a foolproof digital marketing strategy.

Follow the 6 steps above to get started or get in touch to arrange a custom consultation!

What’s the number 1 secret to effective marketing?

Quality targeting? Knowing your audience? Creating engaging ads?

Not quite! They’re all key ingredients, but there’s one core component that’s even more fundamental to success:

Attention. If you can get people to give you it, then you win every time.

That’s why internet marketing has become the go-to choice for modern marketers. With consumers now spending up to 11 hours of their day engaging with one screen or another, attention is well and truly online these days. If you capitalize on that fact, then there are countless benefits of digital marketing to enjoy over traditional channels.

Do you want to find out more about them? Well, you’re in the right place! Keep reading to discover 7 unmissable advantages of digital marketing.

1. It Offers Incredible Reach

Digital marketing has revolutionized reach. Seriously, with over 4.8 billion people connected to the internet nowadays, it’s never been easier to market to a huge number of people at a time.

And that’s the goal of any campaign, right? You want to get your products/services in front of as many target consumers as possible for the lowest possible fee. Succeed, and you’ll enjoy a sky-high ROI for your efforts.

2. It Presents Unprecedented Targeting

Massive reach isn’t everything though! You could deliver an ad to millions of people, but if none of them want or need the product/service, then you’ll never convert at a reasonable rate. Marketing to the right audience is key.

Thankfully, digital marketing has you covered here too.

The widespread use of the internet and social media has enabled the various advertising platforms to amass a wealth of data on their consumers. As a marketer, you get to leverage that data and target hyper-specific groups of people in your campaigns.

You can deliver ads to people based on their exact whereabouts, profession, demographic information, interests, hobbies, political opinions, and more. The result? Your ads become highly relevant and conversion rates spike.

3. It Enables Audience Segmentation

Aside from enabling accurate targeting of a new audience, digital platforms allow you to hone in on specific ‘segments’ of your current one.

Imagine having an email list with thousands of people of varying demographics. Thanks to audience segmentation, you can send offers and promotions to specific groups of people within it.

That’s a big deal when it comes to personalizing correspondence and sending relevant updates to people. Your CTR and CR will increase as a result.     

4. It Provides Easy Analytics

Tracking performance and analyzing data are core components of running effective campaigns.

After all, the data tells you what’s working and what isn’t! You can then make evidence-based changes to your ads and optimize them accordingly. By comparison, a lack of data means you’re working blind all the time, shooting in the dark and hoping for the best.

Thankfully, digital marketing makes it easier than ever before to run tests, measure performance, and accrue that invaluable information. Whether you’re focused on content, social media, or Google AdWords, the platform in question will deliver accurate insights in record time. You can then make changes in accordance with the results.

5. It’s Under-Priced

Digital marketing has a lot going for it. However, one of its most compelling selling points is how cost-effective it can be.

Don’t get us wrong. You can easily splurge huge sums of money running internet ads! Even so, digital channels cost an absolute pittance compared to the extortionate price tags of billboards and TV ads, for instance.

Facebook provides a perfect example.

Using their ad platform, you can create a high-quality, well-targeted ad in moments, put a paltry $20 behind it and reach thousands of people. That’s unheard of with traditional marketing! You enjoy less financial risk, the ability to test and fail fast, and a far greater margin in the process.

6. It Can Be Done for Free

What’s the only thing better than ‘cheap’?

Free!

If you’re a bootstrapped business, you’ll be pleased to hear that digital marketing doesn’t have to cost a dime. That’s right, regular online campaigns are already under-priced. But you can also market via the internet without spending a thing.

For example, you can write blog content that ranks in Google SERPs and drives traffic to your website. You could post YouTube videos that get views and build brand awareness. And you can post straight to social media, accrue a loyal following, and get endless exposure in your industry.

In other words, you can build your brand, generate high-quality leads, and drive conversions with no marketing budget to call upon.

7. It Levels the Playing Field

Traditional marketing is heavily weighted in favor of big businesses. Why? Because they’re the only ones that can afford the high-prices of TV and radio ads.

Start-ups of old were at a disadvantage from the outset. With fewer resources at their disposal, they faced an uphill battle to get peoples’ attention and earn their piece of the pie. Big businesses got bigger while they struggled to get going.

That all changes with digital marketing though. These days, all it takes is one viral video recorded on a cell phone to skyrocket a new business to success! The budget-friendly nature of internet marketing levels the playing field and makes it a fair fight.

Newer, smaller businesses may even have an advantage. Unencumbered by red tape and outdated ideas, they can experiment, move fast, and take action in ways that major corporations can’t.

Enjoy the Benefits of Digital Marketing

Attention is at the heart of all successful marketing, which is why the internet represents such an almighty opportunity in this realm!

With more people spending time online than ever before, it’s never been easier to get your product/service in front of the right people. Hopefully, this post has highlighted the main benefits of digital marketing and convinced you to give it a try.

Would you like some professional support to help you reap these digital marketing benefits? Contact us today to see how we can be of service.