You have been in business for some time, but you are still a small brand. You have a loyal client base, which has a lot of potential. How can you compete with well-known and big brands with your modest resources? Is it even possible to be in the same league as these mammoth players? Definitely.
Social media presence can help expand your brand awareness. With almost 3.5 billion active social media users worldwide, it is not impossible to introduce your brand to new markets. Social media helps level the playing field among market players. You could tap the same markets that heavyweights like Nike, IBM, Coca-Cola, and other bigwigs are catering to. The trick is in creating an effective digital marketing framework. “The world of electronic marketing is chaotic, and without a digital marketing framework to propel your efforts, you can’t soar toward success,” according to digital marketing firm Propelrr.
How do you create a digital marketing framework that drives online success? Here is your guide.
Define Your Success
How can you expand your brand online? Start by defining what “online success” means to you. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurements of online success, which vary based on the goals of the business or organization. KPIs may be divided into major categories such as sales, marketing, customer service, and project management. These categories may be further split into subcategories. For sales, sample KPIs include average order size, gross profit, average margin, and conversion rate. Marketing KPIs may be site traffic, time on site, bounce rate, and the number of subscribers.
Your KPI will be your guide in devising a digital marketing framework. As Propelrr CEO Gary Viray said in a recent Takeoff Session, “Every strategy starts with objectives to direct it.”
Decide How You Want to Be Identified
Beauty company Glossier partners with women who share beauty routines (using their products, of course) while tights manufacturer Heist collaborates with female artists to present the female form in novel and innovative ways. Increase your brand awareness by identifying your brand voice.
“Brand voice is where we not only state our beliefs but what we say and where we say it reveals our personality: clever, serious, funny, witty, grave, academic, smartass, deadpan, corporate, et al. We are all the colors of the sea,” notes Patrick Hanlon on Medium.
Your story, or your brand voice, and how well you tell it will help you stand out from the rest.
Wield the Power of Your Data
To grow your social media presence, wield the power of data. Analytics, according to Propelrr CEO Gary Viray, “will give you good insights and a solid data attribution model that will lead you to better business and marketing decisions moving forward.” Web analytics will help you acquire a deeper understanding of your business and customers.
Multi-channel analytics provides information on where your data is coming from, including social media channels, guiding you in serving your customers better. To measure the viability of both offline and online marketing initiatives, Propelrr recommends an integrated marketing analysis. This will help you decide which initiative to boost and which to let go.
Know the potential of your data and maximize it to increase your brand awareness.
Engage and Inspire Action With Quality Content
Content is what primarily brings in traffic; it can keep your audience engaged and encourages them to bring in new traffic by word of mouth. The success of your social media presence is, to a great extent, dependent on the quality of your content. “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue,” said digital marketing expert and bestselling author Andrew Davis. Content comes in various forms such as articles, photos, videos, infographics, listicles, etc.
What is quality content? According to Google, pages should primarily be for users and not for search engines. The content must make your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Google does not provide for what your content should be, but it lists what it should not be.
Keep in mind that content is not the end result but the means to your objectives. If you define your online success as an increased number of subscribers, your content should be geared towards active and dynamic interaction. Users should be able to share your content with their network on social media. “Content is more than the story you tell. It must invite action,” advised Propelrr CEO Gary Viray.
Go Mobile-Friendly
There are more than 3.2 billion mobile social media users globally. If your web pages are not yet mobile-friendly, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. A mobile-friendly website helps ensure that your pages perform well across devices, thus boosting your brand awareness. Moreover, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly pages, so if you want to rank high on search results, make sure that your website is optimized for mobile users.
If you are to develop a website, select a responsive template or theme that adapts the user’s display screen, no matter the type of device they use. If you want to make your existing website mobile-friendly, you may need to hire a web developer. Google provides web guidelines for developing a mobile website if you have the skills to do it on your own.
Ensure an Amazing Customer Experience
Bringing in traffic can be tough, but converting visitors into loyal customers is an ongoing challenge. Aspire to create an amazing customer experience to increase brand awareness. “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all,” said business management expert Michael LeBoeuf.
Customer experience refers to the interaction of visitors with your website, social media channels, and apps. You would know that you delivered top-notch customer experience when the visitor is converted into a subscriber, a customer, or a referrer.
To ensure amazing customer experience, be consistent with your brand experience across channels. Use the same colors, font style, and voice. Make your website user-friendly by placing visitors on the shortest path to any goal. Most importantly, attend to queries and complaints at the earliest possible time.
There are countless brands created every day. With the accessibility offered by the web, standing out is a continuing challenge for businesses both large and small. Expand your digital presence by understanding your goals, identifying your brand voice, maximizing your analytics, creating quality content, becoming mobile-friendly, and delivering top-notch customer experience.
Finally, go back to your foundation—what truly matters to you. “Stay true to your values. That’s why you were a success in the first place, and that’s how you make incredible things happen,” shares entrepreneur and philanthropist Rafe Offer.
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