There’s a saying in marketing circles: “If Google doesn’t know who you are, no one does.” And while that may be an oversimplification, the truth is that leveraging the power of digital media marketing is one of the easiest ways to become an online authority and increase conversions.
Digital media marketing is the way that SMBs are able to compete with the ridiculous budgets of their corporate enterprise counterparts. When you have a strong understanding of the principles of digital media marketing, there’s nothing stopping you from turning your business into an online authority.
- Content Creation Matters
As you slowly start to become more and more familiar with the digital media marketing landscape, you’ll begin to realize just how important content marketing is. There’s simply no getting around the fact that, while there are a variety of components that make up your digital media marketing strategy, the glue that holds it all together is the strength of your content marketing efforts.
Which begs the question, “how exactly do you make content that actually converts?” The secret to creating content that converts lies in creating content that is fundamentally engaging to your readers. If you don’t start with that, the rest of your marketing strategy is going to be at a massive disadvantage.
When it comes to creating engaging content, the goal is to make sure it’s either educational or entertaining. As long as you’re able to accomplish one of those two goals, you’ll be on the path towards creating compelling content that drives meaningful engagement and sales.
Creating educational content is relatively straightforward. If you’re an industry expert, you’ve probably internalized the most common questions and issues within your industry; if you’re selling Juul e-cigarettes and vape products, you might want to publish some pieces on the health benefits of switching from traditional smoking, for instance. It’s a prerequisite for building a successful business in your industry, so you’ve already done a decent portion of the homework someone would have to do to create content for your audience.
From there, you have two options. The option that most SMBs choose is to focus on actionable, tangible solutions for their audience. The goal here is to ensure that your audience can walk away with a definitive answer to one of their questions, and apply that knowledge later that day.
Creating entertaining content is, admittedly, a bit more difficult. Not only does it require a deep understanding of what your audience wants, but it also requires you to have mastery over the craft of content creation. And since most SMB owners likely weren’t writing blog posts before they because a founder or CEO, it may be best to bring on some hired help here.
As for the style of content your business produces, you’ve got quite a few options. The first, and most common, is to focus on written content. Blog posts, e-books, and newsletters have great conversion rates, provided the content is top-notch and well-presented.
But don’t think for a second that you have to focus on written content. For one, not all audiences love blog posts. More importantly, if your industry simply doesn’t lend itself to written content, consider one of the many other options available. These days, more and more people are using video content, and with good reason. It’s naturally engaging, capable of surprising depth, and appeals to the visual learners in your audience.
- Understand Your Audience
When you first started your business, there’s a good chance you put together some buyer personas. These buyer personas informed a variety of decisions you made, and now they’re going to help you come up with the best possible digital media marketing strategy.
Don’t look just to know the average age of your audience or what kind of keywords rank highly within your demographic. You’re looking to develop a deeper understanding of your consumers. What level education do they have? What other businesses do they take cues from? These are the questions you need to be ready to answer.
Understanding your audience is the key to growing your social media following to rival that of Jed Triplett in the movie People You May Know.
- Learn To Use Social Media Properly
If you’re new to the world of digital media marketing (and by extension, social media marketing), then there’s a chance you’re not entirely familiar with the difference between marketing on a traditional media platform and marketing on social. When it comes to marketing on more traditional platforms like TV, radio, and newspapers, you’re relying on the mechanism of passive consumption that these platforms are built around.
When the average person watches a TV show or turns on the radio in their car, they’re not doing much more than just consuming whatever’s being projected at them. From a marketing perspective, that’s great for exposure. People are just going to sit there and listen to what you have to say. It’s like having a billboard that people have to look at before they drive by.
But where traditional marketing platforms struggle, digital media marketing shines — driving engagement. When you tell someone to “call now!” at the end of your 30 second TV spot, there’s not much compelling them to do it.
Aside from a pressing need they already had, there’s usually not much you can say in the span of 30 seconds to offer real value to your audience. But social media marketing doesn’t have that problem. In fact, when you combine it with content marketing, you’re able to leverage the interactive nature of digital media marketing to create something truly valuable and unique.
What digital media marketing strategies are you implementing in your business?
