It’s the new year, and you know what that means? It’s time for a fresh marketing strategy!
Brushing up your marketing ensures that your messaging and organization provide more meaningful engagement with your audiences. It can also help grow your organization by reaching more people with less effort. A marketing strategy in the digital space can be tracked with real-time analytics, giving you a better sense of what interests your audience.
A good digital marketing strategy consists of three factors:
- effective branding
- modern website
- engaging content
Read on to see how these factors work together to create a winning marketing strategy.
Branding and Identity
An organization’s brand is more than a logo and catchy tagline—though those two things do a lot of heavy lifting. It takes seven seconds to make a good first impression, so your logo should convey your organization’s values in its design.
It is just as important to be consistent with your messaging across multiple channels. Your logo, as well as a brief description of your organization and contact information, should be available wherever your organization can be accessed by the public: your website, email, social media, etc.
How do you know if it’s time to refresh your branding? Ask whether your organization’s current branding is accomplishing the following:
- Does your logo and message align with your organization’s current values?
- Do all public channels present the same brand and message?
For a more thorough explanation of what your updated branding should do for you, read this article. Once your branding is squared away, it is time to take a close look at your website.
Website
Another important part of any marketing campaign is your digital presence, especially your organization’s website and how well it engages with your audience. Your website should answer all your audience’s questions and provide a direct means for them to contact you. This helps with converting your audience into clients or customers.
Your website should also be easy to navigate, with the most important information accessible from the header and footer. A website is also the main way to communicate your organizations news and updates, so making updates should be simple to do for your staff.
Here is a quick checklist of what makes a website effective:
- Email sign-up, for direct communication
- Social Media, for brand credibility
- Testimonials, if relevant to your organization
- Blog/News section, for engagement
- Responsive design, for easy mobile accessibility
- SEO optimized content, for improved search engine ranking
- Easy navigation, so your audience can find what they need
- Optimized loading time, to make visitors and search engines happy
A 12-step checklist on what makes a website effective can be found here. With your website up to date, it is time to think about the final factor in an effective marketing strategy.
Content Marketing
Content marketing provides valuable and relevant information to your target audience. By answering your audience’s most pressing questions, you establish trust and loyalty to both current and potential clients and customers. Organizations can also position themselves as thought leaders within their industries through regular updates on a blog or news section, which can then be cross posted to an email newsletter and social media to ensure the information reaches as many people as possible.
Content marketing also benefits search engine optimization. Regular updates tell search engines, particularly Google, that the information on your website is current and relevant. Optimizing popular pages and writing meta descriptions is also helpful in ranking in search engines results pages.
A social media presence builds credibility and community for your organization. Sharing organization updates, not just big news, can make your organization seem personable and approachable. Social media also has the potential to reach audiences you might not have otherwise reached. Linking back to your website also helps your website’s SEO, which counts how many places on the web link back to your content.
How do you know if it’s time to refresh your content?
- When did you last update content on your website?
- Does your content clearly express what your organization does?
- How often do you post on social media?
For a better understanding of content marketing and what it can do for your organization, read this article. Combining engaging content with an informative website and consistent messaging contributes to an effective marketing strategy.
We understand that creating and executing an effective marketing strategy can seem daunting, but our team of marketing experts is here to help with any support or guidance you might need. Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us at (608) 240-9611.