There is a mis-held belief that has long since been proven wrong yet persists among those who are late to be educated on the matter. The belief is simply ‘build it and they will come’.
Well, yes. To an extent. But here’s another way to look at things: build it and some people will come, but all the other people will be spending their money with your competition who is shouting louder than you are.
If you’re the kind of person/entrepreneur who has never let the truth get in your way, by all means continue to plod along in the hope of becoming a market leader in the goods or services you provide.
But if you like to win by researching your competition and outcompeting them (we’ll call this the fastest route to success), you need digital marketing. You’ll need other things along the way too, like office space and employee handbooks, and you may wish to check out payroll companies in Los Angeles, for example.
But for now, we’re going to look at why you need digital marketing if you ever hope to stand shoulder to shoulder with the players in your industry.
Your website is losing you traffic
If your website is only semi-functional, with pages that don’t load and broken links and thin content that looks like you spent a whole eight minutes on it (because you probably did), you are letting yourself and your company down in a big way.
Check out the competition. See how their websites function, first time every time? See how their designs are modern and clean? See how you can navigate to anywhere on their sites within three clicks, with each page loading in under three seconds?
This is no accident. They have paid for a team of digital marketers to go over their website’s structure with a fine-tooth comb, ironing out any issues that may drive customers away.
Online presence – you either have it, or you aren’t making sales
Online presence comes down to a few very different areas of digital marketing. Namely, SEO, PPC, and outreach. Without getting too technical, the SEO team will shape your content to outcompete your competitors, and strive to gain a higher ranking in search engines.
The PPC and paid social media team will establish your brand presence in search engines and across social media through targeted ad placements. Lastly, the outreach team will help to build your off-site presence by gaining links to your site from relevant competitors and commentators. See how it all works?
Do you know your website inside out?
Sure, you look at a webpage and it seems fine. But, what is going on in the back end? Is your code giving the right information to the search bots? Is any important data missing? Do you have unnecessary content slowing your website down? To the untrained eye, it is hard to know.
There are online tools that can help you but with algorithms constantly updating and websites needing regular maintenance, it can be time-consuming.
On top of that, are your solutions the best way? It’s hard to know unless you have guidance from someone experienced in the world of digital. Sometimes it is more effective to leave it to the experts… save yourself a load of time and effort to focus on keeping the business running.
There is a lot to consider…
Digital marketing covers a lot of ground – you’ve got SEO, email campaigns, PPC, social media, etc and then, within each of these categories are even more subcategories.
Take social media for example, to start with, you’ve got to decide what platforms you wish to use (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and so on). Then, you’ve got to consider your content (pictures, text, infographics, videos or whatever you choose).
After that, you have to think about timings, scheduling and if you want to pay for ads. There is a lot going on and that’s not even starting on stories, comments and all the rest.
For a novice, this can be a lot to take in and handle. It could be an idea to utilise a full-service digital marketing agency as you try to find your feet. You can see the work they do, take note and then see if you can have a go yourself and take the reins if you feel comfortable and confident doing so.
It depends on your individual business but it is an idea that could help to get your business higher ROI in the long run.
If you want to have a go at implementing digital marketing yourself, courses are available. Or you could speak to a digital marketing team and hit the ground running, the choice is yours.
