According to Smart Insights, a UK-based marketing publisher and learning portal, 49% of organisations do not have a clear digital marketing strategy. More often than not, most organisations mistakenly consider addition marketing activities as a financial burden. Marketing activities are often being associated with spending more either for increasing company’s sales or for attracting prospect customers, yet the expected goals (such as increase in profits or generate leads) are less guaranteed. The good news is that there are several cost effective ways on how to boost digital marketing strategies. Unlike many other articles, in this writing, we share 5 ways that we explore from dual perspectives; that is, 5 ways from the theoretical or academic perspective, and 5 ways from the management or industrial perspective.
Fully Utilise the Company’s Website. The Web era has begun since early 2000. During the early stages, website functions are usually less interactive (as compared to social media functions). Often, a company’s website is managed by website developers with only little changes can be made by users. Now, the functions of a website has transformed tremendously from a one-way to a two-way communication medium. Thus, it’s a shame if businesses do not take full advantage of the interactive functionality of their corporate website especially to increase consumer engagement.
There are many inexpensive ways that a company may use to boost its interactions with consumers, but often these tactics are underutilised. To name a few, a company may use its corporate website for conducting surveys, allowing for comments / suggestions, and collecting email subscribers. To make the corporate website interesting and stand out from competitors’ website, the company may also include audio and video files rather than relying solely on texts and pictures format. A research by Animoto, a social video platform company, on social media platforms show that 64% of users express that viewing a video on social media influenced them to make a purchase.
Take Advantage of Social Media Groups. Surely, one would be surprised to know that there are thousands of social media platforms available online. Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter are among just the few examples, but these are among the most popular social media platforms for companies; either for business-to-consumer (B2C) or for business-to-business (B2B) types of companies. By now, many companies (both B2Cs and B2Bs) have at least one social media account. Some companies use social media for communicating, while others use it for advertising and for sharing contents on their social media page.
However, instead of sharing contents on the company’s social media page, a company may better utilise its social media by sharing contents with other social media groups. What do we mean by social media groups? Social media groups consist of many social media users with similar interests. Here are among the examples of social media groups: Online Shopping Group, High School ALUMNI, and Fitness and Health Groups. Based on researches by A-List Daily, at least 70% of buyers are more likely to make a consumption based on a social media reference and more than 85% of women turn to social networks prior to making a purchase. Thus, sharing contents with social media groups is definitely an easy way for companies to reach a great number of their target market!
Make Use of the GPS Navigation. No one wants to get lost, so do the consumers. Chances are a consumer will have high level of satisfaction toward a business if the way to get to the business is relatively easier and faster than getting to other businesses. Based on data by Google, 75% of local customers who find helpful information in online search results, are more likely to make a visit to the physical stores.
One simple and free digital marketing strategy that may boost consumer satisfaction is by placing the company’s location on Google Map or Navigation Application such as Waze. A company may also make use of the free Google Listing facility by not only placing the company’s location online, but also by sharing business information such as operating hours, website URL, and business phone number online. If the information available on Google is inaccurate, the company may make amendment of the company’s information on Google Listing. Having accurate and detail information on Google Listing will definitely improve a company’s Local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Offer Online Advertising and Referral Link. As mentioned earlier, advertising is often associated with increase in marketing cost. One way to advertise without incurring high cost is by advertising the available space to public. A company may also allow other businesses to advertise their referral links on its company’s website (external link), and as a return the company can also advertise its referral link on other companies’ websites (backlink). So, it’s a win-win situation.
Based on the Advanced Web Ranking, more than 60% of marketers agree that link building is the hardest to execute. In the situation in which the company feels like having a referral link (backlink) on a particular website may not generate leads, don’t be discouraged to allow referral link (external link) advertising on the company’s corporate website. Make full use of this opportunity and receive some income for allowing referral links (external link) to be advertised on the corporate website.
Adopt Integrated Marketing Strategies. Because there are many marketing platforms that can be utilised by a single business, it is very easy to be focusing on the few common platforms and pay less attention on the other marketing platforms. However, research by Lister on The WordStream Blog signifies that there are generational differences on types of marketing platforms. For example, Generation Y-ers are more likely to be using Facebook whereas Baby Boomers are more likely to be viewing corporate website. Another example is that the Millennials are more likely to engage using social media whereas the Generation X-ers are more likely to make purchase on social media. Hence, it is crucial to link all the company’s marketing platforms with each other. This way, the company may gather more leads, and reduce the chances of consumers missing out the company’s marketing efforts.
According to Altimeter, at least 70% of marketer either lack a consistent or integrated content strategy. To integrate a company’s marketing strategies, the company may link its company’s website with social media pages such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The company’s social media page may also advertise the company’s corporate website or e-commerce site. The company may even embed the company’s location map on its website and social media page. It’s easy, self-exploratory, and free. It’s even better if a company is able to integrate its digital and traditional marketing strategies. Research by Smart Insights also indicates that only 6% of organisations think that their traditional and digital marketing integration process was fully optimised. The key point here is integration. Integration is one of the key success to great marketing efforts, hence don’t forget to integrate!
I just want to tell you this. FYI, this article was written with Mr Khairul Anwar, who is the Director of Aidan Group of Companies. Mr Khairul Anwar and I won the World Marketing Plan Competition of The ASEAN Colloquium back in 2016, making us a world champion and maestro in the subject of marketing plan.
Dr Nur Amalina is a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, with an area of expertise in Digital Marketing. She earned her PhD from Griffith University, Australia, an MBA Degree from Western Michigan University, USA and a Bachelor Degree from Indiana University, USA.
