After reading this article, you\u2019ll know some of the most critical digital marketing tactics to implement in your own campaigns and improve your digital marketing results.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n
Digital Marketing Best Practices<\/h2>\n
These are the 10 most effective digital marketing techniques to implement today and get better results from your marketing efforts.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Always set clear campaign goals<\/a><\/li>\n
- Use conversion tracking to track performance<\/a><\/li>\n
- Take advantage of automation and machine learning<\/a><\/li>\n
- Allocate your budget to the best performing channels<\/a><\/li>\n
- Perform audience segmentation and targeting<\/a><\/li>\n
- Use retargeting to increase ROI<\/a><\/li>\n
- Invest in SEO and Content Marketing<\/a><\/li>\n
- Get help from experts<\/a><\/li>\n
- Learn from your competitors<\/a><\/li>\n
- Revise your digital marketing strategy regularly<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
1. Always set clear campaign goals<\/h3>\n
Before you run your first digital marketing campaign<\/strong><\/a>, there\u2019s one step you should take first:<\/p>\n
Define your critical campaign goals and metrics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Imagine a pirate sailing out on a journey for treasure. I think we can both agree that it wouldn\u2019t be very clever to do without a map.<\/p>\n
And in the same way, running campaigns without a clearly defined goal isn\u2019t a great way to net returns either. Luckily, it\u2019s not too hard to define effective goals.<\/p>\n
First<\/strong>, decide what result you want to get from the campaign.<\/p>\n
Do you want more direct sales? If so, what kind of sales, online or offline?<\/em><\/p>\n
Or are you more focused on increasing the flow of leads?<\/em><\/p>\n
Or perhaps you\u2019re looking to increase engagement with your audience.<\/em><\/p>\n
The list of possible goals goes on. The important <\/em>part is that we define that goal, and then establish a few key metrics, or KPIs<\/em>, <\/strong>to measure that goal.<\/p>\n
An effective goal is measurable <\/em><\/strong>and specific<\/strong>. <\/em>\u201cMake a lot of revenue,\u201d for instance, wouldn\u2019t be a great goal because it\u2019s both vague and not measurable.<\/p>\n
Instead, you\u2019d be better off with the goal: \u201cReduce the Cost-Per-Acquisition(CPA) from the current $53 down to $40.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, we\u2019ve got a clear starting point and a clear goal to move towards. Once we have a goal, we can set a few metrics to help us measure the progress (or lack thereof)<\/em>. These key metrics are called KPIs.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say our goal was to generate 30% more online leads \u2014 in that case, our KPI wouldn\u2019t be CPA or revenue, it\u2019d be something along the lines of contact form submissions, calls, and response rates.<\/p>\n
And similarly to how to define your overarching goal, ensure that the KPIs are easily measurable, highly specific, and relevant to the end result you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n
2. Use conversion tracking to track performance<\/h3>\n
If your marketing goal is the endpoint of the journey, your performance tracking is the map that tells you how far along you are.<\/p>\n
Make a strong point to track your performance metrics as accurately and specifically as possible. The more data you have, the better you can optimize your campaigns.<\/p>\n
The exact metrics you\u2019ll have to measure depend on the marketing tactics you put into play.<\/p>\n
But what is important is to have the right tracking mechanisms in place before running any kind of online campaign.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/p>\n
Before starting any Google Ads make sure that you have enabled conversion tracking<\/strong><\/a>. This way you\u2019ll be able to track what users do after they click on your ads.<\/p>\n
Same with Facebook Ads. Before running any campaigns, add the Facebook Pixel code to your website<\/strong><\/a> and configure the important events you want to track.<\/p>\n
For SEO and content marketing, it\u2019s a little less straightforward \u2014 you\u2019ll need to do much of the tracking on your website and use data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and third-party tools to have an accurate picture of how your SEO and content marketing campaigns are performing.<\/p>\n
\nSome Resources to Help You<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Google Search Console<\/strong><\/a> – a guide for beginners to Google Search Console.<\/li>\n
- Google Analytics and SEO<\/strong><\/a> – how to use Google Analytics to track the performance of your SEO campaigns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
3. Take advantage of automation and machine learning<\/h3>\n
Let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s far too much menial work involved in marketing, and it can feel like a massive time sink. I\u2019m sure we\u2019d all rather be spending our valuable hours on the directly profitable tasks.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s data entry, writing emails, or managing the ins and outs of an ad campaign, all of this work takes a ton of time. And the thing is, all of this work doesn\u2019t need<\/em> to take this much time out of your day \u2014 at least not as much of your time.<\/p>\n
Instead of manually doing all of the work, one of the best ways you can increase your bottom line is by automating various parts of your marketing operations.<\/p>\n
One classic example is email marketing.<\/p>\n
Instead of taking the time and resources to manually email each one of your email subscribers, why not automate your email funnel?<\/p>\n
With programs like MailChimp or Constant Contact, you can set up completely hands-off marketing funnels through email \u2014 saving you hundreds<\/em> of hours. You can also automate tasks like email responses and more.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in automating your email funnel, we\u2019ve got a whole email automation guide<\/em><\/strong><\/a> about it.<\/em><\/div>\nBut email isn\u2019t the only<\/em> thing you can automate, Facebook and Google introduce new features all the time to help you automate your ad campaigns and audience-building efforts.<\/p>\n
Lookalike audiences, for instance, help you to create entirely new groups of potential customers on Facebook, while dynamic campaigns can help you bid for ad space without having to babysit each campaign.<\/p>\n
The list of ways you can automate a marketing campaign goes on, but here are just a few of them:<\/p>\n
Google Smart Campaigns<\/strong><\/a> – With Google Smart Campaigns, you can have Google do much of the legwork for you by finding potential customers and showing them your ads across Google Maps, Google Search, Youtube, and more \u2014 all while staying within your set budget.<\/p>\n
Automated Bidding – <\/strong>Across various ad platforms, you can set your campaigns to bid for ad spots in important places all on autopilot, saving you the time and money of doing it manually.<\/p>\n
Considering the literal thousands of places any ad could be placed, large ad campaigns would be nearly impossible without automated bidding.<\/p>\n
Facebook Automated Campaigns – <\/strong>Similar to Google\u2019s smart campaigns, Facebook smart campaigns allow you to let Facebook\u2019s algorithm seek out potential buyers for you using lookalike audiences. <\/em>This means you can build ad campaigns with massive reach while maintaining a reasonable bottom line.<\/p>\n
4. Allocate your budget to the best performing channels<\/h3>\n
One of my favorite marketing models is one named \u201cThe Waterfall\u201d by Google\u2019s marketing team.<\/p>\n
![\"Budget](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/google-ads-budget-optimization.png\")
Budget Optimization<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Instead of focusing on multiple channels at once, you should find the best performing channel and focus your resources on that. You only want to switch your focus once each channel has reached its full potential.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the classic example of waterfall marketing in action:<\/p>\n
A SaaS company is splitting its budget up between multiple PPC channels: Google, Facebook, and Twitter.<\/p>\n
Those channels all have room for growth and have a CPA of $24, $35, and $46 respectively.<\/p>\n
In this situation, the SaaS company can do one of two things\u2014<\/p>\n
Focus on growing all three channels at the same time.<\/em><\/p>\n
Or<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Drop Facebook and Twitter to focus their resources on the most profitable channel, Google.<\/em><\/p>\n
With the waterfall method, they can get the most out of every dollar spent and grow their Google campaign to its full potential significantly faster. Once Google\u2019s reached its limit, then<\/em> they can work on the other channels.<\/p>\n
In essence, it comes down to this:<\/p>\n
Focus on your best performing channel.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Maximize your returns until you hit the channel\u2019s full potential.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Continue to the next channel.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
While the waterfall may seem too simple to be true, it\u2019s the best way to achieve the highest possible revenue generated from each dollar spent; we\u2019ve even put it into use for our own clients.<\/p>\n
5. Perform audience segmentation and targeting<\/h3>\n
The odds are that\u00a0 \u2014 unless you\u2019re marketing to an army of clones<\/em> \u2014\u00a0 your audience doesn\u2019t consist of just one demographic<\/p>\n
And as any good marketer knows, different crowds call for different marketing messages.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s use a SaaS company as an example.<\/p>\n
If you run a SaaS company, your ideal clients are probably small or medium businesses.<\/p>\n
But is that enough demographic info to create a whole marketing campaign around?<\/em><\/p>\n
Probably not.<\/p>\n
To craft high-converting messages, you need to get down to the finest details of your audience and then segment that audience accordingly.<\/p>\n
The way you market towards an SMB in the food industry will be vastly different <\/em>from a client that runs a retail operation, for instance.<\/p>\n
And to break your audience down into specific segments, you\u2019ll need to create a set of customer avatars<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
![\"audience](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/audience-personas.png\")
Learn as much as you can about your audience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For those unfamiliar with the term, customer avatars are \u201cimaginary people\u201d that marketing teams create to represent large groups of people within a target market<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
If your target market consists of criminal defense attorneys, your main avatar may look like this:<\/p>\n
![\"Sample](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/customer-avatar.png\")
Sample Customer Avatar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Now, some of you might wonder why all of this is relevant.<\/p>\n
Why do we need to know David has 2 sons? Or why he wants more vacation time?<\/p>\n
And the answer is simple: The more we know about David, the better we can craft marketing messages for him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Of course, David doesn\u2019t actually<\/em> exist, he\u2019s just a rough approximation for the average customer for an attorney business.<\/p>\n
Not every one of your customers will fall perfectly into one of your avatar personas, but that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t help.<\/div>\nIf most of your customers have poorly managed firms with lots of wasted time, that\u2019s more \u201cmarketing ammo\u201d you can use to drive that pain point home.<\/p>\n
And with all that said, we still need to know how to get<\/em> that information. Luckily, it\u2019s not all that hard. First, you can use your existing customer base to get a good idea of what your audience looks like. But those are far from the only methods.<\/p>\n
You can also collect the info by surveying your customers, for instance, or tracking prospect activity at each stage of your marketing funnels<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Just remember, the more marketing data you have on your target audience, the better.<\/p>\n
6. Use retargeting to increase ROI<\/h3>\n
Prospects that click on retargeting advertisements are up to 70 percent more likely to convert than those who aren\u2019t retargeted.<\/p>\n
And considering the vast majority of customers won\u2019t purchase on the first visit to your site, that\u2019s massive.<\/em><\/p>\n
Retargeting<\/strong><\/a> is a unique strategy because it allows you to get more out of each of your other<\/em> marketing channels \u2014 It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say that retargeting is a must for brands that want to maximize their profit.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t already have a dedicated section of your budget for retargeting campaigns, today is the day to start planning for one.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nRelated Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- How to make money with digital marketing<\/strong><\/a> – How to use remarketing and other techniques to make money from your digital marketing campaigns<\/li>\n
- How to make money with Facebook ads<\/strong><\/a> – How to run effective Facebook campaigns (includes remarketing guide)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
7.\u00a0 Invest in SEO and Content Marketing<\/h3>\n
49 percent of marketers report that organic traffic generates the highest ROI out of their marketing channels. And even if it isn\u2019t their highest ROI, SEO still remains a valuable channel for many more of them.<\/p>\n
One of the main drawbacks with SEO, though, is that it needs time to build momentum.<\/p>\n
With SEO marketing, you likely won\u2019t see results for a few months from the start, which is to stay that you should get started as quickly as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n
If paid traffic is a short-term solution to generate revenue, organic traffic<\/strong><\/a> is the compounding investment that\u2019ll continue to rake in profit.<\/p>\n
And just like any compounding investment, the earlier you start, the better.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nResources to Learn More About SEO and Content Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Best SEO Certifications<\/strong><\/a> – a list of the best courses to follow to become an expert in SEO.<\/li>\n
- Best Content Marketing Courses<\/strong><\/a> – follow any of the courses on the list for content marketing best practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
8. Get help from experts<\/h3>\n
In a previous article<\/strong><\/a>, I discussed the drawbacks of being a jack-of-all-trades as opposed to an expert in a few trades, and that same principle applies here too.<\/p>\n
When it comes to marketing, one of the best things you can do to work efficiently is focus on your strengths.<\/strong> And if your marketing campaign calls for skills outside of your own toolkit, don\u2019t be afraid to bring in experts to help out.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re an SEO expert<\/strong><\/a>, you don\u2019t have to spread yourself thin to implement a PPC campaign.<\/p>\n
Instead, you can outsource your PPC marketing to a PPC specialist<\/strong><\/a> and allow both parties to focus on what they do best.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say you can\u2019t increase your own skillset, just take time to carefully decide whether it\u2019s more profitable to teach yourself a new skill or hire an expert to help instead.<\/p>\n
Here is a list of the most popular services<\/strong><\/a> offered by marketing agencies.<\/p>\n
9. Learn from your competitors<\/h3>\n
Your competitors aren\u2019t just opponents in the marketing battlefield, they\u2019re also some of your greatest sources of information.<\/em><\/p>\n
Think about it; your main competitors are similarly-sized companies, with similar products and similar audiences \u2014 it\u2019s practically the perfect case study for you to learn from.<\/p>\n
Make a regular practice out of analyzing your competition\u2019s marketing strategies. Find the pieces of their approach that work well and the parts that work not-so-well, then use that information to improve your own tactics.<\/p>\n
To do this, you can use one of the many dedicated tools available on the market. For SEO analysis, you can use Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz.<\/p>\n
For Facebook advertising, you can browse the FB Ads library, and for Google, you can use their Insights Report to get the job done.<\/p>\n
10.\u00a0 Revise your digital marketing strategy regularly<\/h3>\n
If there\u2019s one important thing to remember about marketing, it\u2019s that no one gets it perfect the first time.<\/p>\n
Marketing is all about testing, collecting data, and using that data to improve your approach before repeating the process. All that\u2019s to say that you need to revisit the drawing board regularly and reflect on what can be improved.<\/p>\n
This also means that staying up to date with the latest marketing trends is vital too.<\/p>\n
Want help developing a highly profitable marketing strategy? Check out our digital marketing strategy guide<\/strong><\/a> for more best practices.<\/div>\n - Best Content Marketing Courses<\/strong><\/a> – follow any of the courses on the list for content marketing best practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
- How to make money with Facebook ads<\/strong><\/a> – How to run effective Facebook campaigns (includes remarketing guide)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
- Google Analytics and SEO<\/strong><\/a> – how to use Google Analytics to track the performance of your SEO campaigns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
- Use conversion tracking to track performance<\/a><\/li>\n