Digital marketing is a broad generic term used by practically everybody. It is so widely used that people often assume that everyone knows how to do it well or will at least understand what they should be doing. Often this is not the case. If you think about your Digital marketing as a “machine with lots of components”, all the parts should be well oiled and moving at the right speed to get optimum performance.

Below are some simple tips and tricks to get your digital marketing machine working harder. Here at Creative Twist, we aim to empower our customers so that we can get the best out of your brand and catapult your business forward online.

Website performance is key to digital marketing

Digital marketing improvements, should start with your website, so that any efforts of attracting new visitors do not fall by the wayside.

1. If you haven’t updated your website in the last ten years, it’s time to re-fresh. A clean, modern simple to use design is key in digital marketing. It ensures that you meet best practice guidelines and adhere to modern Web standards.
2. Make your website mobile-friendly! The major search engines will penalise you if you are not mobile accessible, you will get pushed down the search rankings. It’s been found that nearly 80% of local mobile searches will end in a purchase or interaction on your website. Impressive statistics, you can’t ignore!
3. Ensure basic SEO is up to scratch, take time to complete your site’s metadata (title tags, alt text, etc.). Not doing so can negatively impact your visibility on SERPs.
4. Generate and add new content to your website regularly. A business blog can be a fantastic way to do this. If done correctly it can help boost your site’s SEO and set you apart from your competitors. Use your blog to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, this encourages trust and encourages interaction with your brand.
5. Depending on your business, you may want to target locals, to do this you’ll need to optimise your website with local information like your address and geo-targeted keywords.
6. Make sure there are clear buttons on your website for customers to contact or purchase from you – we call these CTA (Calls To Actions)
7. Check your page speeds and investigate your weaknesses with google analytics.

SEO is key to improving your digital marketing

There’s little point in having a slick looking website if your customers can’t find you, so here’s some tips for getting optimised and improving your digital presence.

1. Having a blog is useless unless you regularly create and promote sharable content which is original and related to your industry. When you regularly share good quality content you are able to help prove your relevance to search engines and therefore search engines will rank you higher.
2. You should always  try to encourage readers to share your content, so include visible share buttons on your blog if possible, then readers can easily post your content to their social media pages and drive visitors back to your website.
3. Set up and optimise your Google+ business page to help your company name, phone number, location, etc show up in Google Map searches and get listed in Google’s local search results.
4. If you are after local business you should include geo-specific keywords, such as your town, city or county, neighbourhood, and post code. Include these in your website pages, on your blog, and even in your social media copy to appear in search results for these terms.
5. Repurpose blog posts as engaging images, quotes, or questions in order to generate additional views, shares, and subject relativity, this saves you lot’s of time continually researching new topics.
6. Get backlinks from influencers and other industry-related websites that have already established credibility are great for building your own authority and driving more visits back to your site.
7. Once you receive positive reviews from customers, promote them on your website and social media sites so that consumers who search for you business on social sites or local directories see the great things others say about your business.
8. Images rank in search engines. So it’s important not to name your images “photo.jpg,” and instead name them more descriptively, add alt text, or captions on your website to help your images show up in search results.

Get more from Social Media, with our digital marketing top tips

Social media is often described as the “content train that never stops”. Stretch your content out to make it go further and save yourself time.

1. Be creative and engaging, vary the type of content you are sharing to keep it fresh
2. Pick the right platforms to find your appropriate target market
3. Before you make a social media post or comment always think, review, and then double check. It is difficult to take back a social media mistake once it has been shared.
4. #whocreatedit – before you jump on a trending hashtag, it is important to know the purpose of said hashtag. With out proper research you can potentially cause social media regrets
5. Since customers who interact with your brand have the ability to start good (and bad) conversations about you, you could think about setting up alerts that notify you of new mentions, comments, or messages. This allows you to engage (or firefight if necessary), whichever is needed – and either way it allows you to show followers that you monitor and care about your customers and your brand.
6. Invest in a good social media management platform can reduce the amount of time you spend on creating posts, it can help you follow what your competitors are doing and help keep you on track with analytics.

Hopefully you found this article useful. If you’ve read this and you’ve already mastered the basics and/or would like some assistance with taking your digital presence to the next level call Annabel on 07540750312, email or send us a note using the form below, we’d love to work with you.

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