It’s good to be where your customers are – online. Now is the time to embrace digital marketing, because digital marketing can benefit businesses of all shapes and sizes.
First things first: 93% of Finns have ever used the internet and 82% use it more than once a day. Last autumn, 57% of Finns had also shopped online (Population ICT Use Survey 2021).
Let’s start with a brief overview of what digital marketing is and the benefits it can bring.
Digital marketing refers to all marketing that takes place in a digital environment. Traditional marketing includes other marketing tools such as newspaper, television and radio advertising, billboards, brochures, direct mail and leaflets.
Digital marketing has a number of benefits that may be more difficult to achieve with traditional marketing. The benefits of digital marketing include:
online visibility to improve the visibility of the whole company
in principle, it is possible to reach an almost unlimited audience
online, new and old customers can be easily reached
information can also be collected on customer behaviour
communication is usually two-way (unlike traditional marketing, where marketing messages are transmitted in only one direction from the company to the customer)
digital marketing can be targeted by location, age, gender, interests, website behaviour, etc.
there are many tools to measure marketing and the measurement is accurate.
However, digital and traditional marketing should always be combined according to needs. By using more than one channel, your business has a better chance of finding interested customers. Ideally, the channels will support each other.
Let’s look at 7 different ways to do digital marketing.
1. Your company website as the basis for digital marketing
The first step in digital marketing is to promote your business online. The foundation of digital marketing is your company’s own website, so it’s a good place to start.All the conversions that matter most to your business, like making a purchase or filling in a form, happen on your website. Other digital marketing tools are more of a support tool, with the ultimate aim of driving visitors to your business website.
On a website, it is good to consider the following:
informative, engaging content that addresses the different stages of the customer journey
visual appeal, with a look and feel that is in line with your brand.
ease of use and clarity: the website is easy to navigate and contact details, for example, can be found quickly
responsiveness: the site works on mobile devices and different screens
Fast loading of pages
search engines can find the pages.
You can think of a website like a bricks-and-mortar store: a clean and functional environment keeps customers happy and attracts new customers to buy.
2. Search engine optimisation for digital marketing
To make sure your website can be found, you should invest in search engine optimisation.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of tailoring the content of a website so that it ranks on the first page of search results, and preferably as high as possible. The ranking in search results can be influenced:
by developing content that already exists on the page
by adding new content to the site that is valuable to the customer
optimising the structure of the site
adding links within the site
removing technical challenges on the site
improving page load speeds
and, of course, by collecting and analysing data and improving the site based on that data.
Search engine optimisation should start with keyword research. This will help you find the most relevant and searched keywords and terms for your business. A good keyword is popular enough, but not too competitive. The keyword should also match the content of your website. When doing keyword research, you should also keep your target audience in mind. Read more about search engine optimisation here.
3. Keyword advertising in digital marketing
Another effective way to drive traffic to your website is Google’s Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It can be used to reach target audiences, especially those already well into the buying process. For example, a customer who searches Google for hairdressing salons in a nearby area is likely to have already made some degree of decision to book an appointment. In other words, your advertising is actually targeting people who are interested in your products or services.
Keyword advertising involves buying advertising space on search engine results pages above organic search results. Google offers different pricing strategies for different campaigns, based on clicks, impressions, conversions or impressions. However, no large upfront investment is required and you can start with a very low threshold. You can even adjust your advertising budget in the middle of a campaign, and you only pay for the actual results.
Keyword advertising should also take advantage of the results of keyword research.
Tip! Test your keyword advertising, especially during your company’s peak seasons.
4. Display advertising in digital marketing
You can try to get the most out of Google by using its own display advertising. It can be used to create highly targeted and visually striking advertising. The most common forms are banner ads (i.e. usually rectangular, clickable image ads), but video and text ads are equally possible.
Ads can be displayed through the display network on millions of different websites, including news sites, mobile apps and YouTube – all sites owned by and partnered with Google.
Display advertising has the potential to increase brand awareness in particular. It also works well for remarketing, showing an ad to customers who have already visited your website.
5. Social media in digital marketing
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest… That’s a breathtaking number of social channels. Should your company be present in all of them? No, but you should always choose the channels you use according to where your target audience spends their time.
To start with, you should start with one or two channels and get to grips with them. Then you can consider other channels. Roughly speaking, Facebook and Instagram are often natural channels for SMEs to start their own social media marketing. The two are also easy to manage from the same place.
Social media marketing requires:
knowing your target audience
active content production
time to interact with the audience
a clear content strategy.
Good planning helps yourself when you know what you want from social media and what your goals are. It will also make it easier for you to stand out from other businesses. So it’s worth
share your content in a planned way
respond to others’ updates
start and participate in conversations.
In addition to text, you should use images and videos in your updates. This will help you increase your visibility and stay in people’s minds.
You can also try using your own personal brand, as humanity, stories and edginess are often more interesting than just the products or services you sell. Of course, it’s worth highlighting these too, but not necessarily in every update.
One tip worth trying is to take advantage of Instagram’s Stories feature, for example, where you can share visual, quickly consumable and engaging content. Even with a small but engaged following, you can achieve a good number of sales.
Social media can be completely free, but it is often worthwhile to increase your visibility through paid advertising, as organic updates have limited visibility. Soma channels offer their own tools for advertising and its measurement.
6. Email and digital marketing
Email marketing is a cost-effective way to deliver effective marketing while deepening customer relationships. Email marketing is suitable for all businesses, regardless of size.
One of the best things about email marketing is that newsletter subscribers have already expressed an interest in your business by subscribing to your newsletter. You also have a lot of control over the communication, as you can determine who gets your message and when. There are also a number of different email marketing tools available for free.
It is also worth monitoring the results of your email marketing, such as how many people have opened the newsletter, how many times the letter has been opened, which links in the letter have been clicked on and how many people have unsubscribed. By tracking these, you can get an idea of what your newsletter subscribers are interested in.
7. Other digital marketing tools
The digital marketing tools don’t stop there, as there are many other options.
Since both customers and search engines like regularly updated and interesting content, it can be a good idea to set up your own blog. You should keep your target audience in mind, but otherwise you can write about almost any topic, such as your company’s services, current industry news, trends or other tips. For example, if you sell barbecues, your blog could be about outdoor cooking all year round.
Another form of digital marketing that has become increasingly popular in recent years is influencer marketing. Influencer marketing involves working with a social media influencer who promotes your products or services to their followers.
In addition to the above, you can write your own e-book, start your own podcast or otherwise invest in content marketing. You can also combine free and paid advertising. The only limit is your imagination (and, unfortunately, often your time).