The advertising of today is vastly different from just a few decades ago. And the pace of change is creating lots of new opportunities and trends for boosting your business. Let’s look at seven of them.
1-Google and Facebook Ads
One of the great benefits of Google and Facebook advertisements, also known as Pay Per Click (PPC) ads, is how easy it is to customize ads and target specific audiences. Whether your business is local, in various locations, national or global you can customize for who and where you want your ads to appear. But it is even more important than ever to create high quality ads and to optimize your funnel through continual monitoring of conversion rates, testing of new market audiences and overall strategic evaluation.
One of the best ways that Google and other search engine ad campaigns boost small and medium sized businesses is, they don’t only sell their ad spots to the highest bidders. The two biggest players PPC marketing campaigns also reward the best ads. They look for the ads of the best quality and the ads that users like the most and reward them. If your business creates a high performing ad then Google and FB make it possible for you to play with the bigger fish!
So if you are looking for the best way to advertise your business, whether small or medium sized, developing high quality PPC ads for FB and Google is a great place to start. In addition high quality ads will often lead to higher click-through rates which will also lower your overall costs.
2-Youtube Video Ads and Content Videos
One of the fastest growing digital advertising trends is YouTube Commercials. They are a great way to capture your target audience, especially a younger group. COO of WebMatrix Group, Aimee Tariq said,
“YouTube commercials are the most effective form of paid traffic advertising because it leverages the search engine history of the user with google AI.”
Additionally, Youtube adwords come at a lower cost than Google adwords which translates into increased ROI for your business.
Anything that you can write about you can create a video about. And while informational content is king, visual content (video) is the emperor of content delivery. Well done videos are incredibly effective communication tools for explaining difficult topics and complex ideas in a short amount of time. With the rapid rise in popularity of videos combined with the relative ease of creating video content and linking video content to your website through social media, YouTube is a great marketing tool.
3-Instagram
Instagram is another best way to advertise your business. It is possible to connect with local customers, using features like hashtags by your city, county or state as well as location tags. Once you have established an audience you can work with potential customers who have big groups of followers. Message them and offer to exchange a free product or service for an Instagram post or story sent to their followers. Instagram is also a great way to cooperate with and support local businesses that you enjoy. Creating real conversations by connecting with other local businesses and sharing actual experiences on social media will help your whole community get authentic information. Getting started is as easy as typing your city in the ‘locations’ tab and discovering which small businesses appear. If yours doesn’t then you have some work to do.
4-SEO
SEO has been the king of digital advertising for some time. Every business in the know about digital advertising is gunning to be on Google’s first page for a local search of products or services they offer. Your business will already be getting a big SEO boost if it is effectively using Google and FB ads, Instagram and Youtube. But you can boost your business’s digital presence even more if you optimize your website.
Taking advantage of Google’s own My Business page is a simple way to boost your ranking with Google. Make sure that your business’s Google My Business page is completely filled out with accurate information about your business. In addition make sure you are posting regularly on your Google My Business page. These two actions will create a greater level of confidence with the AI spiders that crawl the web to check for high reliability and high quality content from businesses it will promote in its rankings. Also develop a monthly Google review of your website to make sure everything is up to date and accurate.
5-Quality Blog Content
Content marketing is another important cog in the SEO ranking machinery. Writing high quality and useful blog posts for your company’s website will help push your business up the rankings. And in order for content to appeal to your local customers you will want to write specifically for their needs and interests. A good example of this would be a hair care company based in Ft. Lauderdale creating relevant content about keeping your hair silky and gorgeous even in the Florida sun, heat and humidity. And by including keywords specific to hair care, South Florida, and Ft. Lauderdale you will likely see your ranking move higher. Develop your keywords and blog topics so that they provide answers to your target customer’s specific needs and questions. As people find quality answers to their questions and needs, their trust in your business and your products will grow.
6-White Papers, Checklists and Guides
These informational giveaways are a lot like blog posts, except that they are more in depth, with greater detail and insight. In the same way they must scratch where your potential customers are itching. The difference is that you will make these available for download in PDF format. In addition to your blog posts that are free to any user, white papers and guides provide your customers with in-depth content that you will leverage into offers. Your “offers” are available for download only when the user provides their email and any other information you ask them to provide (don’t press your luck). Valuable content is given for free in exchange for valuable user contact information. Examples include:
- Multi-step guidebooks for improvement in your area of business/service.
- In depth research into products, business ideas or a popular hobby/interest.
- Lists of how-to’s covering a vital aspect of life, hobby, or self-care.
- A user-friendly template that is ready for quick and easy use.
- New insight or information on popular topics still not available to the public.
7-Build and Use Your Email List
Email marketing is a fantastic way to connect with your customers and keep them coming back. There are a number of creative ways to build an email list of your customers. Your website will be your number one tool for building an email list and it can do so automatically. If you haven’t updated your website in a while it is vital that you have a mobile friendly format that allows people to see your whole webpage on their phones. Then it is crucial that you create multiple landing pages on your website. These landing pages are simply boxes that target specific users on your website to help you get their attention and their email address. They may promise new information on products, a free white paper or guide, answers to their questions, etc., but they are excellent at collecting email addresses.
All the old sign up sheets and sign ups at the register can also be used. But once you have collected a good list of email addresses it is time to reach out to those customers with unique information, with offers, with specials, and anything you can think of that will maintain their interest and patronage.
Final Thoughts
Although there isn’t one best way to advertise your business, there are a lot of really great ones. Focusing your marketing efforts on these seven digital advertising trends will help you draw more customers through your door and to the homepage of your website. And will help create momentum for your business locally, statewide or nationally depending on how you do business.
The next step for you will be integrating all of these ideas into the nuts and bolts of running your business. There will be a lot of new tasks and responsibilities in the course of integrating these ideas into your overall marketing strategy.
The good news is that you have options. You can hire a marketing guru for your business, you can contract with a team of marketing experts, or you can work out your own step by step strategy. Or you can approach a full service marketing agency with your goals in mind, and work with them to hone your brand, design an overall marketing plan that is tailored to your company, and let your marketing agency develop and grow your quality inbound leads through digital marketing.
Here at zo agency we work to build long term relationships with our clients. We call it Tribe!
We will work diligently to discover your vision, your passion, your needs, your hopes and dreams for your business and then will create an overall marketing plan that meets your needs and fits your budget. Visit us today at www.zo.agency
