How Marketers Can Adapt To Digital Marketing Successfully

digital marketing Surely it can’t be that hard? All marketers need to do is hire someone who understands how to create a website or banner image and move our advertisements from print to digital – right?

Hands up, if as a marketer, this has been your approach to marketing in the digital age? Maybe you introduced email marketing and created a Facebook page. And it’s possible you’re seeing results, but more than likely you’re not, and you’re spending more time and money than ever before, with fewer leads and customers.

If you’re like many marketers moving into the digital age, you may find it difficult and confusing. And with limited budgets and time you can't afford to waste either resource.

Here are some steps that will help you transition to the digital marketing era, improve your results and marketing ROI.

Understand the consumer now has the power. There’s nothing you can do about this, the best thing is to accept it, and learn how to harness this power switch to your advantage.
Know what this switch in power really means to your business. Traditionally consumers used to turn to the sales representative for information, product brochures, demonstrations etc. Now they go looking on the internet – Google searches and social media. They are telling you what they want to know.
Research your prospects to understand what information they are looking for. Research buyer personas, keywords, and understand their buy process – at different stages they’re looking for different information.
Publish content that provides answers to your prospects’ questions. Not salesy, self promotional content, but helpful and valuable content, in various forms; blogging, web pages, social media posts, ebooks, webinars, images and videos.
Market to your prospects and customers, not to search engines. Don't get caught in the trap of focusing all your marketing efforts on keywords to improve your Google rank. This won't generate leads and customers.
Don’t let fear of transparency to competitors limit your marketing efforts. The benefits of publishing free content to generate leads and customers, far outweighs what you think your competition may learn.
Be consistent. Unlike traditional marketing where you invest in an advertisement or mailout and get instant results – digital marketing is about creating an online footprint that builds in momentum over time. So it may take longer to see results, but the good news is, it will continue to grow.
Build your brand on quality content your audience wants. Not annoying interruptive messages that are irrelevant and damaging.
Market like a thought leader or educator, not like a marketer. Making this switch in your approach to your marketing will help you stand out from the noise.

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For additional resources on strategy and implementation see links below. And download our ebook to help you implement the inbound marketing methodology into your marketing mix.