Unless you have been sleeping under a very big and heavy rock in recent years you will already know that digital technologies are the most important marketing tools available to marketeers today. In fact, 2017 will represent the first year where digital advertising spend will supersede that of television advertising. But there is so much choice… What digital marketing activity will suit your business and your budget? Based on my experience this blog will discuss four digital marketing activities that are in my opinion a must to excel as an Irish Small or Medium Business (SMB) today.
1. A Content Management System (CMS)
This is the first item to feature on my list and possibly the most important item to feature given the importance of a professional and regularly updated website for brand credibility across all organisation types be that B2C or B2B. It is crucial that you have access to a reliable and easy to use CMS that facilitates a non-technical staff member to add or remove crucial pieces of content fast and seamlessly without having to constantly liaise with expensive third party agencies. Personally, I selected to work with a WordPress based CMS after Dublin based agency Lucidity Digital (now Isobar) developed our website and all its features.
Isobar’s Website can be found at http://www.isobar.com/ie/en/
At the briefing stage of WordPress website development, it is absolutely crucial to request a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plug-in. My own experience has thought me that the best SEO plug-in to use is Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO allows a logged in user to write engaging and interesting content pieces while focussing on what search engines crawl for and thus allows your content piece to be found. Upon writing your piece, Yoast SEO runs what you have written through an SEO checklist. This check list makes sure that your content piece is picked up by those spiders that crawl the web.
Find out what Yoast SEO can offer you at their website at https://yoast.com/
Pro: A good and easy-to-use content management system will save you an absolute packet compared to using expensive digital agencies.
Con: Google are constantly changing the goal posts when it comes to SEO. If your organisation reaches the top one or two places on Google’s organic listings don’t take that for granted. Google can change their search algorithm at the drop of a hat and you will need to rethink your approach to SEO (but so will everybody else too).
2. Google AdWords
To me the most crucial digital marketing tool for any ecommerce business is Google AdWords. Google AdWords (again, in case you have been under that same large rock) allows you to present your product(s) to a relevant audience of potential customers. Google AdWords works through a bidding process, that allows you (or an appointed search based agency) to bid on keywords that are relevant to your business as part of a silent auction process. The highest bid for each keyword will appear on top of Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
The best feature of Google AdWords is the control granularity that it offers. Google AdWords offers control capabilities that allow you to reach potential customers at specific times of the day, people living in certain parts of the world or using particular devices e.g. desktop or mobile.
From my experience, learning to use Google AdWords can be a slow and difficult process. The learning curve is steep and becoming familiar with all the capabilities of Google AdWords takes time. Google offers a learning facility where you can become Google certified (you can be become Google certified here (https://support.google.com/partners/answer/3154326?hl=en).
If you are seeking to learn how to use Google AdWords it is crucial to interact with the interface to learn the various features. Sadly there is no “simulation” system that will allow you to learn that doesn’t require you to attach a credit card. I have found YouTube a great way to learn what the interface looks like and a good link to get you started and to become familiar is below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd79h_xiwMg&t=139s
If you do not have the time or resources to build Google AdWords campaigns there is an abundance of Irish based agencies that will do it for you. From my experience the best search based agency in Ireland is Wolfgang Digital https://www.wolfgangdigital.com/. Wolfgang Digital is a multi-award winning Dublin based agency that has a current and dynamic team.
Pros: Accuracy, relevance, transparency and control.
Cons: Google AdWords can be bloody expensive if you do not know what you are doing.
3. Social Media
Social media is an absolutely crucial part of any digital marketing campaign. The social media universe now mainly consists of six big players consisting of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat. It is absolutely fundamental, if your business has a B2C presence that it features in some way, on some or all of the above social media.
For maximum effectiveness it is important to have a social media activity plan. Content can be scheduled in advance to automatically post and in planning activity marketeers should consider that certain posts will perform at better times of the day, week, month and year. Unfortunately there is no rule book and only experience will teach you what times are the best to post.
For brevity, I will only discuss what I feel is the best social media advertising platform.
Facebook for me is the mother ship of social media. With almost two billion monthly users, Facebook is for definite the world’s most important and influential social network and the catalyst of the digital revolution over the past decade. Facebook has made it fun and exhilarating to post about oneself but what it’s actually doing is building a gigantic database of people who can be targeted on the basis of their likes, interests, where they live and what they look at while online.
In a similar vein to Google, Facebook offer business an incredible advertising solution. Facebook offers advertisers the opportunity to tailor their campaigns, targeting potential customers based on their interests and profiles such as gender, age, where they live or what device they use.
Pros: Advertising on Facebook is far cheaper than Google AdWords. It offers control and accuracy.
Cons: Click Through Rate (CTR) and conversions are typically not as good on Facebook ads versus Google AdWords.
4. Video
Video is my personal favourite part of digital marketing. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine (only behind Google itself) with over four billion videos watched worldwide per day. Moreover, 92% of B2B customers watch online videos and 34% of shoppers are more likely to complete a purchase upon watching a video. I am personally a YouTube fanatic and have always been a massive fan of the power of video.
While working in the ferry industry I used the services of Wexford based company Pinnacle Productions to produce videos that were placed on YouTube and also listed on our website. Una O’ Dowd at Pinnacle Productions can be contacted at http://pinnacleproductions.ie .
Pros: Stats show that a consumer is 60 – 85% more likely to complete a conversion after watching a product video online. Video is also fantastic at transferring a lot of information quickly.
Cons: Video production can be expensive. It’s best that you save video production for priority projects/ products. Quite a few different skillsets are needed as part of the production process. Moreover, video production can take quite an amount of time. If you have a project that needs to be completed quickly it is best to use a different more suitable media.