5 Tips to Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Whether you're new to digital marketing or you've spent your fair share of time improving your skills, there comes a time when feel like you've reached a plateau. Maybe you're not getting as much traffic to your site as you'd like. Perhaps you've noticed that your social media profiles just don't seem to be drawing in the visits and engagement that they used to. What should you do?

Well, if you're looking for ideas for your digital marketing strategy or how to improve your results without spending a ton of money, we're here to help! In this article, you'll find five great ways to improve your strategy without breaking the bank.

1. Take advantage of an app.

You know the saying: “There's an app for that!” You've heard it before, and you might even believe it's true. But it's not always true—because there probably isn't an app out there that is tailored to your business.

At Zoek, we offer app-building services. We'll talk with you about your marketing goals and help you design something that's truly one-of-a-kind. For more information, check out our demo.

If you're not interested in working with Zoek to create an app, there are still plenty of other ways you can build one. It might take some digging and negotiating, but you'll be able to find something out there through sites such as elance or fiverr.

No matter who you choose to build your app, you might still be wondering how this can help your business.

Well, let's say you run a restaurant. An app could help customers place an order using a phone or a tablet, or it might offer coupons or a way to make reservations. You can offer periodic deals or sales that are only accessible through your app. There are lots of ways to get creative, no matter which industry you're in. The best part about an app is that because they are so popular, they're a great way to reach more customers without worrying about too much investment upfront.

2. Stick with mobile-compatible platforms.

Most consumers have used a mobile device (such as a smartphone or tablet) to perform local searches. So if you're not mobile compatible, you're not reaching as many customers as you could be. Many people want to access information about products and services with very little effort: They want business hours, phone numbers, websites, street addresses or links to online shopping, or menus from restaurants. Still more look for Yelp reviews or BBB listings. Most of these things can be found through a quick local search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo!.

What does this have to do with your digital marketing strategy? It's simple: make sure that all your company's information is up to date and displays correctly on mobile devices. Designers should easily be able to do to this for you—and we at Zoek also offer mobile-friendly site designs for our clients. Check out some of our templates here.

3. Are you a content creator? If not, it's time you become one.

“But I'm not a writer!” you might be thinking. And you really may not be a writer. But that doesn't mean that you can't create content!

That's because content isn't always blogging. You can create content in a number of ways:

• Social media posts or ads. For example, promoted tweets or Facebook advertisements.

• A video tutorial or tour. It's free to film a video on your smartphone and upload it to Youtube. Try putting together a tutorial for your customers (e.g., “How to stop a faucet leak” or “how to make your own Mandarin chicken salad at home”), or give your customers an exclusive tour behind the scenes!

• Photo galleries and other evergreen content. Images can also be “evergreen” content—that is, content that will be relevant years down the road. Show your customers examples of the work you've done. Ask for feedback on your portfolio. Get people involved with your personal work and you've got yourself some great content that everyone can get excited about.

• Create a podcast. It's not as easy as, say, writing a social media update, but it doesn't have to be super time-consuming or expensive. Reach your audience in a way others in your industry don't. Give your listeners weekly challenges, talk to them about tips and tricks of the trade, or how to save money. Check out sites like rawvoice.com or soundcloud.com to get ideas and find out more about podcasting.

The key is to find something you feel you can handle in a timely and professional manner. You might not like the amount of effort it takes to plan a podcast, for example, but you may enjoy putting together videos. It's up to you!

4. Run a promotional event.

You might be wondering how this could help improve your digital marketing results. Well, a great way to get people sharing your content and talking about your business is to offer them an incentive to participate in a promotional event.

For example, you could offer them a chance at winning a coupon for 50% off their next purchase if they share a post of yours. Or you could offer them the chance to try your next product for free. You could even collaborate with another local business to provide a really unique prize. Be creative and experiment with your offers. You don't have to spend a ton of money on promotional events, and people love the idea of doing something simple, like sharing a post, for the chance to win something!

5. Hire a digital marketing service.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that search engine optimization still delivers one of the highest returns on your monetary investment. Take a look at this chart over at Moz. You’ll likely notice that SEO is affordable and the results are worthwhile, even for smaller monetary investments. However, you’ll also see that it requires a bit of a time investment and an expert to help you navigate the subtleties that come with the SEO process. Thankfully, that's what a digital marketing agency is here for—to help you! Check out our plans and pricing to see which one works the best with your budget and long-term marketing goals.

#marketing #seo #apps