According to recent data, the marketing budgets of UK firms increased during the first quarter of 2017. In fact, 26.1% of companies suggested that they would
increase their total budgets for the coming year, with the majority of this spend being committed to digital marketing activities.
If you're an entrepreneur, it also likely that you'll place a strong focus on using SEO to increase the online visibility of your brand. After all, customers are increasingly likely to source, research and buy products online, with
virtual retail sales hitting £133 billion in the UK during 2016.
With these points in mind, it's crucial that you're able to successfully target customers online if your to promote your business and drive traffic to your website.
Here are some tips to help you achieve this and get the most from your marketing spend.
- Don't forget about assisted conversions
Even with a focus on SEO and online marketing, it's important not to be consumed with all things digital. After all, this can have a detrimental impact on your marketing efforts, primarily because it prevents you from leveraging the power of assisted conversions.
Assisted conversions relate to the individual interactions that customers have with a brand before they make a purchase. These include both on
and offline channels, while each can be ascribed a value based on the role that it plays on driving a successful conversion.
It's interesting to note that offline channels such as billboards provide the most powerful assisted conversions, due to the levels of trust and engagement associated with the medium. As a result, billboards drive significant brand interaction through mobile and online channels, with research by Outsmart revealing that consumers are
17% more likely to engage with a brand through their smartphone after seeing an out-of-home (OOH) advert.
So, creating an integrated marketing campaign that takes account of assisted conversions can enable you to improve the online visibility of your brand.
- Use link building effectively
While link building continues to be derided by some, this remains crucial if your brand is to feature prominently online. After all, content and website landing pages cannot rank highly without links, while studies have shown that the number of domains linking to a page correlated with high rankings more than any other individual factor.
It's therefore imperative that you create an informed link building strategy, using expert service providers such as the
Web Marketing Group to help guide your decision-making. This should enable you to develop a natural back-link profile and climb the organic search engine listings.
- Create a story around your online brand
Google has been focused on driving organic traffic for years now, through a series of carefully plotted changes to its algorithm.
It's crucial that your online and digital marketing methods reflect this, while developing brand new ideas that can create traction for your business. An excellent way to achieve this is to create an engaging narrative around your brand, which can create new angles to share your messaging, promote products and drive traffic through social channels.
The key here is to involve your businesses key stakeholders and customers in your narrative, creating an immersive brand that creates a truly organic sense of engagement.
