Digital marketing might be the driving force behind your marketing team, or it might be brand new to your business lexicon. Wherever you are on the digital marketing spectrum, your plan could always use a tune-up. Here are 10 drills anyone can get working on to bring you up to speed on the best digital marketing approaches.1. Build a Quality Website
No Digital Marketing Bootcamp can get off the ground without the basics. Your social media and SEO efforts are at the mercy of feeds and page ranks, but your website is entirely under your control. Your hard work will be diluted if you create a spot-on social media campaign that brings potential clients to your website...which is a bust. If your site is a buggy, tough-to-navigate eyesore, it'll be a challenge to keep people from clicking away. Once you have a solid site, you can use that foundation to build up to an excellent digital marketing plan.
2. Foster Digital Brand Relationships
You can become the shining example of A+ digital marketing and your reach will still only take you so far. Get people talking about your brand, and you're going to go much further. This is why useful content is a better way to spend your time than sales pitch content. A useful article is likely to get shared and commented on many times over a sales article.
Minecraft is a great example of this. At their annual MineCon conference, Minecraft offered a "Video Creation 101" class that taught the attendees how to make their own Minecraft tutorials. After the conference, fans went home and created their own videos, which they shared with their audiences. Without Minecraft having to do any of the work, fans created a massive percentage of YouTube Minecraft videos. The massive Minecraft success is even more impressive considering they lack a marketing budget.
3. Pay Attention to Data
Data analysis plays such a huge role today that the Harvard Business Review listed data scientist as the "sexiest job of the century." Data gives you the opportunity to measure your return on marketing campaigns, so tracking, storing and interpreting it is vital to knowing what moves to make in the future. Digital Marketing Bootcamp runs on data.
4. Don't Forget About Email
Email isn't old news just yet, and it's not going to be anytime soon. In digital marketing terms, email is accessible to pretty much everyone using technology of some kind. A well-crafted message will reach the savviest tech geniuses along with the business owner who finally signed up for an email address last week. It's still a great way to pick up leads and new customers, so don't give up on gathering those addresses for your email list.
5. Mobile is the Top Screen
Digital media is now consumed mostly via mobile devices, so for the majority of people, they spend more time looking at their mobile screen than a desktop screen. While you're looking at revamping your website, it's now just as important to have mobile optimization that won't drive away clients. Prioritize a mobile site that gives your visitors everything they'll need without gumming up the experience.
6. Accessible Digital Platforms
Does your company use digital platform software? Technology costs are declining over time, so more and more companies are able to use CRM and digital marketing automation software. Platforms like HubSpot, Marketo and Constant Contact give you the power to automate and simplify your digital marketing approach.
7. Invest in Social Media
Social media was originally so appealing to marketers because it was a free way to reach an audience. Now that social media has been flooded with brands, sites like Facebook and Pinterest are taking advantage of the opportunity to offer ads. Facebook's sponsored posts and Pinterest's promoted pins are just a couple examples of how social media is capitalizing on brands' presence in the social media world. Investing in these ads can be great for the right kind of business - use data to measure results and make sure you're getting a worthwhile return. Social media was free.
8. Get On Board with Mobile Apps
Technology has improved, and mobile app development isn't the sky-high expense it once was. It pays to do it right, but it's more accessible than ever before. With mobile use surpassing other devices, it's easy to see why the investment is worth it for the reach.
9. Pay Attention to Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is all about looking at your brand experience through the eyes of a customer, and working to make that experience as seamless as possible. Consumers take a multi-device approach to most of their transactions, and companies should be aware of that. For example, a customer may want to search reviews while in a physical store or see the same saved shopping cart on their desktop that they had on their mobile phone. Multi-channel marketing focuses on reaching the consumer from several different platforms, but omnichannel works backward, starting from the consumer's experience.
10. Video Use
YouTube, Snapchat, Vine and Periscope are a marketing goldmines if you're looking to reach millennials. After all, millennials prefer YouTube over TV for entertainment. High-quality video content will continue to be on the rise, and brands will continue to find ways to create shareable content to engage their audiences. Take a look at the Calgary Humane Society's clever "Used Cat Salesman" video, which was viewed more than 600,000 times on YouTube -- and helped 34 cats find homes at its Cat-tastic Summer Pawty.
