Stay on Top of your Digital Marketing Game

Digital Marketing is a frequently used buzzword for all businesses and startups today. It utilizes several online platforms to introduce products and services to reach customers. SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, advertising on apps, and email marketing can be used to reach potential clients. In this modern age, any marketing system that uses electronic devices as a medium to reach customers is a type of digital marketing.

The biggest advantage of digital marketing is that it consumes less time and improves ranking on search engines if your content marketing is reliable on an SEO-based system. The marketing journey becomes more accessible by using tactics and strategies on the website.

There are two types of Digital Marketing –

Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing – This system is interrelated to digital marketing and creates a big difference in user experience on the website. Content is the heart and chief ingredient in inbound marketing, and it is the face of your business that tells every single thing about you to your targeted audience. Inbound marketing lets the customer directly communicate with you, while in an outbound system, you have to interact with customers if they are interested or not. People worldwide seek solutions online, so inbound marketing is focused on figuring out customers’ queries. It is why inbound marketing is called a customer-centric marketing tool. Using tactics, you can impress the audience and convince them to use your service in a few minutes.

Getting feedback from committed customers is the next important thing to be in the mind of a marketer. Loyal feedback helps organizations to improvise and improve their services to a great extent.

Pulling visitors towards your brand is the primary challenge of this process; it will only occur when relevant, acceptable, high-quality content is available on the website. Anyone looking for any solution on the internet creates a demand for a particular product that the company should analyze from time to time.

Inbound marketing types –

Advertisement on social media
SEO
Content designing
Automation in solving queries
PPC

Advertisement on social media – Social media marketing is one of the best extensions of digital marketing. All organic searches can be found on social media platforms, which leads to increased website traffic. With the help of these platforms, you can track the customers based on their demographic and personal information through which you can resonate with the respective user.

SEO – Daily, billions of pieces of content get published on the web. So, it’s very important to stay on top of the search results. However, it is not an easy task to rank first. One needs to optimize his/her content to rank as high as possible. Better ranking goes hand in hand with better optimization.

Content designing – Content designing is the primary strategy in marketing for many brands. Good content leads to forming of optimized websites. Content is the best way to increase visits of users to websites. Relevant content including guidebooks, eBooks, attractive titles, and blogs attract visitors. Firstly, you have to attract visitors then, engage them in your content and then make a request to see your products or service information.
Automation in solving queries – Content based on quiz format is more profitable to one’s marketing website. Because many users are in search of their queries related to services, for that question, your content should be a solution by which you can delight site visitors, and in early time these visitors will show interest in your products.

PPC – PPC is abbreviated as the pay-per-click model. Nearly all search engines have this system, including advertisements for marketing businesses used by marketers. Each business owner or marketer has to pay per click charges done by the user on that advertisement. For example, if any user searches any keyword related to any subject, google ads show your advertising is keyword is in concern with your business.

Outbound Marketing – Outbound marketing is an older type in the marketing world today. It is a traditional method to reach out to customers. Outbound marketing connects to all kinds of customers, though some customers are not interested in their services. This marketing is entirely marketer-centric because the company has to reach its customers every time. Outbound marketing uses tools like Tv advertisements and print advertisements, which sound noisy to your audience.

So, preferably if you are looking for marketing ideas, you must pay attention to inbound tools first and conclude by observing market conditions according to your service type. Then, go ahead to use marketing ideas efficiently!

What’s is the Difference Between Sales and Marketing

People have become confused about the roles that sales and marketing play in a business. Some think sales is in charge of cash flow, and some believe that marketing is in charge. Some even lump sales and marketing together, thinking they’re the same thing, and have the two departments as part of the same team. So who’s right?

It’s a difficult question because both help produce sales, and they both interact with the customer. But there’s no doubt that salespeople are the ones who close the deal.

Marketing is a high-level job that reaches a larger audience than sales, which tends to deal with a one-on-one relationship with the customer. But they are a team, and they must work closely together to make sure the transition from potential buyer to buyer is seamless -and complete.

Marketing – Sales at a High Level

Marketing is like advertising in that it helps the sales team sell the product or service. Marketers tend to focus on features so they can attract the widest audience. They work at a very high level, creating personas, or imaginary customers, based on demographics such as age, ZIP code, and income level. Sometimes they may conduct interviews with real people, but they tend to turn those interviews into two or three personas that represent what they heard in the interviews – and ultimately, they represent the entire market for the product.

Then it’s execution time. They then use marketing strategies to capture customers attention and get them interested in the product. Marketing is not just about brochures anymore. It now encompasses many different forms of media, including websites, email campaigns, social media, and online advertising. It casts a wide net, but there’s little personalization to it.

Sales – Real People, Real Situations

Sales, on the other hand, is more complicated. It’s more detailed, and salespeople deal with real customers, sometimes face-to-face. Because of this, they have to know the actual person and their likes, dislikes, desires, and fears. They ask questions. They listen. The more information they know, the better they understand the customer and the easier it will be to help them find a product or service that meets the customer’s needs.

Salespeople are usually the highest paid people in a company. They should know marketing as well as sales, but they must know how to connect with people and show how the product or service meets their needs. They also ensure product delivery and manage the cash flow side of the business. Many times in a small company, the CEO is a salesperson because they know more about the company than anyone.

It’s Not All About Differences

Despite their differences, the two disciplines do overlap at times. While marketing tends to focus on the product, its strategies can appeal to a customer’s emotions and thinking. Salespeople do the same thing when trying to close the deal. All customers want is to solve the problems in their lives and make progress. Marketing and sales are locked in step with this idea.

Sometimes it’s the job of marketing to create interest, or brand awareness. For example, a marketing campaign might center on a new car and the features it has. It may appeal to a customer’s sense of social status, and they might look up the car on Google or even travel to a dealership to test drive a car. It’s then up to the salesperson to make the sale, talking to them about their needs and desires, and fitting them with the car that fits those needs.

People Convince Themselves to Buy

When I entered the world of sales and marketing at a countertop company, it was challenging, The focus was always on the product’s features and benefits, and the customer was a set of demographics: age, ZIP code, and income.

But no one was asking real customers why they were buying. Their age and income have nothing to do with what’s really going on in their lives. That’s how customer interviews became so important to sales: to find out the smaller picture about what was affecting consumer behavior.

I soon found out that we as salespeople and marketers don’t convince people to buy anything. They convince themselves. After I discovered that, sales became much easier. It was my job to help them come to a decision and help them with the problem they were trying to solve.

That’s really what a company does. Marketers just talk to customers at a high level, and salespeople talk to them at the ground level. It’s up to the customer what decision they make.

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Most Important LinkedIn Resources for B2B Marketing

LinkedIn trumps other social networks when it comes to generating qualified B2B leads. This is a known fact among savvy B2B marketers, and it’s backed by numbers.

Based on compiled data reports, 92% of B2B marketers prefer positioning their organizations on LinkedIn over other social networks, and the platform is 277% more effective at lead generation than Twitter and Facebook.

Aside from those numbers, LinkedIn is also equipped with various functions and features which opened a lot of doors for marketers and advertisers who are focused on driving traffic and branding.

But before we delve into how you can make the most out of these resources, let’s take a quick look at some interesting facts and statistics which paved the way for LinkedIn being the B2B marketing powerhouse it is today.

Pew Research Center’s reports revealed that LinkedIn users mostly consist of educated individuals and highly paid professionals. Even 49% of adults in the US who use the platform are college graduates, and 45% of them have an estimated yearly income of over $75,000, which is higher than the average annual earnings of Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram users.

A LinkedIn study showed that 49% of B2B buyers look at vendors’ LinkedIn profiles when doing research about them, while 44% have actually found potential vendors by looking at shared connections.

The site itself revealed that it is the most used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn has a high concentration of B2B’s target audience, as over 20% of users consist of educated and influential decision-makers and senior-level executives.

Based on a study by the Content Marketing Institute, 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to implement content marketing campaigns. The study further revealed that 78% of them say that the platform is an effective content marketing tool.

Recent statistics show that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, while Twitter takes second place with 13% and Facebook the third spot with 7%.

It’s already established that LinkedIn is a valuable tool to grow your network and reach out to like-minded professionals. Now, let’s make sure that these three marketing opportunities on the biggest professional network are not overlooked.

Using LinkedIn as an Inbound Marketing Tool

By now, you probably know how to enhance your online presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google. Leveraging LinkedIn advertising platform, which features an excellent selection of audience targeting and segmentation tools, is also a great way to build a community around your business.

If done right, running LinkedIn ads can help generate a steady flow of quality B2B leads and ultimately increase sales conversion. How to start?

Identify Target Audience

This should be a no-brainer. Any marketing campaign is doomed to failure if it didn’t start with determining the target market first and ensuring that you’re deploying the ads to the right audience.

As a B2B marketer, it’s not possible to tap into the minds of over 610 million active professionals on LinkedIn, and it shouldn’t even be your goal. So your safest bet is to utilize the platform’s targeting options, which allow you to narrow down your list of market segments to target.

Create Effective Targeted Content

First off, create a list of your primary business goals and ask yourself these questions: Do you want to enhance brand awareness through increased website visits, focus on building a community and reach out to like-minded individuals, or advertise your products?

Then, identify what type of content your target audience typically consume and proceed to creating high-quality, easy-to-digest content that aims to educate and provide solutions to your audience.

Lastly, set an attainable goal and budget.

Luckily, LinkedIn’s content mediums are at your disposal, which brings us to the next topic.

Optimizing Content Marketing Strategies on LinkedIn

As already mentioned, LinkedIn offers B2Bs the opportunity to reach a massive professional audience, and with it comes another challenge of avoiding this cringe-worthy scenario — LinkedIn users rolling their eyes at a posted content that doesn’t offer anything new.

So make it worth their time by optimizing your content and making it relevant to your target audience.

But first, you need to choose from a variety of content types from different media within the platform:

Photo/text ads– You can write a compelling copy that summarizes a topic and end it with a call-to-action, and include an image or a link to a LinkedIn article or a landing page. The headline should be interesting enough to catch the users’ attention and drive the readers to click.
Video ads– This form of sponsored content on LinkedIn is ideal if you want to promote events or share a product demo or brand story. This type of content auto plays on the newsfeed without sounds. To make it less time-consuming (especially for those who are in the workplace and couldn’t listen to the audio track), keep the video short and add subtitles. You may even use a video ad to promote a LinkedIn article.
LinkedIn articles– Another way to boost your online reputation is to publish business articles. If you’re planning to use the LinkedIn publishing feature, the factors you need to take into account are the relevance of your topic and the quality of the content, headlines, CTAs, and images used, as well as the timing of your post. Publishing insightful, high-quality content will keep your target audience engaged and help enhance business credibility.

Increasing Leads with an Optimized Company Page & Showcase Pages

Potential B2B buyers visit the LinkedIn profile before deciding if they’d make a purchase or not. So don’t waste that opportunity to make a good impression. A well-optimized company page has:

A profile image (business logo) and a company profile banner that adhere to LinkedIn’s requirements.
A well-written ‘About Us’ section that answers the most basic questions about the business (i.g., what type of company, what are the core values, where are you located, what are the products/services offered, what makes the business unique, etc.). Although you’re targeting an audience of business-minded professionals, this section doesn’t always need to have a formal tone. Keep the words simple and the sentences concise to make it easy to read.
The important information included in the page such as your professional website’s URL, local and/or international address(es), type of industry, and size of the company.

Showcase pages, on the other hand, allow you to maximize your targeted advertising strategies on the platform. Creating showcase pages enable you to highlight the different areas of your business and publish specific content to your target audience.

So how can you make the most out of this feature? Keep posting! Keep the specific audience of each customizable page informed and engaged by regularly posting videos, text ads, articles, and other superior quality content.

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