Businesses can no longer flee from incorporating digital marketing into their marketing plan. Well, it is understandable that as a business, you may still be hesitant to dive into the digital marketing arena. Jargons and acronyms used in the field may also be overwhelming; SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay per click), KPI (key performance indicator), SEM (search engine marketing, CTR (click-through rate), and CPC (cost per click), to name but a few.

Digital marketing involves the internet and other online digital technologies to promote products or services. This is an area in which most businesses lack internal expertise. It is also important to note that digital marketing is about fostering online relationships with your customers through digital marketing tools.

Many people who come to me seeking to learn digital marketing, associate it solely with social media. Yes, social media is indeed part of it, but ultimately, digital marketing comprises all types of online marketing. It comprises email marketing, video marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, display advertising, and mobile marketing, among many others. With digital marketing, you are in a position to continually analyze your strategy, content, and campaign. This allows you to recognize what is working or needs improvement, or that which is not working, and thereby you can knowledgeably direct resources or quickly make changes to get you back on track.

Here are some of the benefits of digital marketing;
– It is a channel of communication between you and your customer.
– You can reach potential customers during the early stages of the buyer’s journey.
– You can interact with your target audience in real-time.
– You are constantly online.
– It is cost-effective.
– Provides instant and measurable results.
– Delivers excellent return on investment (ROI).
– It is highly targetable.
– It can reach people globally.
– It offers personalization capabilities

Here are some factors that you should consider when determining the most effective digital marketing channel for your brand.
– What is your brand?
– What are your business goals?
– What are your marketing goals?
– Where is your target audience?
– What is your budget?
The most effective digital channels for your business will depend on the above-mentioned considerations. All digital marketing channels, however, play a role in offering a solution for a business and they often complement one another. Now let us look at the five most effective digital marketing channels you can use for your business, that are trending and have been known to generate commendable results.

1. Email marketing
Email campaigns are an excellent tactic to increase your customers and sales. Email marketing delivers highly relevant and informative content to a subscriber’s inbox in a non-invasive way. It empowers you to get in touch and stay in touch with your customers, by letting them know about upcoming events, new product offerings, special discounts, or if you have a new blog post that is going to be informative to your clients.
It is good practice to have an updated mailing list, personalize the emails and incorporate a clear call-to-action to improve on the click-through rate.
Another sure way to engage a customer or prospect and increase traffic to your website is through an email newsletter. The newsletter should offer valuable information to your target audience about the latest news, updates, and tips and can either be weekly or monthly; to convert or increase your customer base.

2. Video Marketing
Video marketing has become dominant in digital marketing trends. It is important that you incorporate video into your digital marketing strategy because statistics show that consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video and that videos make them more confident in online purchase decisions, and businesses also say that video has improved their conversion rate.
Video marketing has not only been proven to build brand awareness but is also known to be effective in boosting your traffic and conversions. You can create video blogs known as vlogs based on the content of your blog. When you embed these vlogs in your blog posts, you will for sure attract readership and conversion as well as enabling you to get more mileage out of your content.
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, thus when you upload your videos on YouTube, high chances are that you will achieve a broader reach and increase your chances of showing up when searched.
You can also promote your video on your social media platforms to increase its reach and social sharing. Make the social videos short, to the point, great content, and entertaining. This will make the videos get more engagement and shares.
Have your video on your website to increase conversion. A video on your website will not only speak about your personality as a business but also leverage influence and persuasion to a greater capacity than just the written word.

3. Content Marketing
Another effective digital marketing channel for generating leads and ROI is Content Marketing. Content includes blog posts, infographics, video content, news, checklists, case studies, webinars, and white papers; which are also excellent lead magnets. When choosing content, consider your target audience and the stage they are in terms of the buying cycle, as well as, how they find information. The best way to increase organic traffic and lead generation is that you must craft and deliver high-quality content consistently. Great content needs to be promoted! You can do this through personalized email marketing as well as sharing your posts on social media. I hope that you are beginning to see how the different channels are working hand in hand and complimenting each other, for best results.

4. Social media marketing
Yes, your prospects may be using social media, but as a brand, you need to understand why they are on social media. Businesses use social media for various reasons including the need to boost conversion and increase sales, increase brand awareness, foster relationships with customers, build conversations with clients, keep in touch with them, learn more about them and listen more. This will enable them to improve and serve their customers better and be able to keep an eye on the competition, as well as improve Search Engines rankings. Create original social media content such as blogs and videos to grow your business. You can leverage on social media platforms to increase video and photo sharing. Another way of engaging with your customers best is by asking questions and replying to comments and promptly. You can also go the extra mile and boost social media engagement by employing tagging, analyzing what posts are working or have worked well, incorporating holidays and trends, as well as leveraging social media advertising platforms.

5. SEO
SEO is an acronym that stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of optimizing your website to get organic or unpaid traffic from the search engine results page. When optimizing your website, you make certain acceptable changes such as engaging good practices to your website design, and use of content that is more striking to a search engine. You do this in the hope that search engines will display your website as a top result on the search engine results page. Search engines normally want to give the best service for their users, to answer the searchers’ query in the best manner possible. This means presenting results on search engine pages that are high quality and relevant to what the searcher is looking for.
A successful digital marketing strategy will generate traffic and conversion. SEO-generated traffic is likely to be higher because the person searching is actively looking out for information and wishes to satisfy his or her want or need.

SEO also helps your business rank in search results from the use of keywords. This pushes for organic traffic to your business. Genuine visitors who have an interest in what you offer will result in a higher conversion rate, click-through rate, and a suitable lead. SEO will help your website rank higher, in search engine results, thus driving more traffic to your site and potentially more business. It also allows your business to show up when your audience is searching for you.

The digital marketing world is vast. Other effective digital marketing channels to consider include PPC or paid search, display advertising, and mobile marketing. The buyer’s journey has changed immensely, with many people getting information on digital platforms. Traditional media, such as TV, print, and radio, has slowly been on the decline and the primary focus has been digital media for marketers.
Digital marketing can help your business reach its target audience effectively and consistently. A digital campaign can be modified and tailored to your business’s goals to achieve maximum success. It also can help you assess changes to upkeep on campaign success.

When working with a digital marketing expert that understands your brand, a business can reach their goals through a variety of different digital marketing solutions more effectively.

You can learn more about how to determine the most effective digital marketing channels for your business. We will help you get there. Contact us today, to start the conversation. dmtraining@digitaledgekenya.com