There are at least 3.3 billion reasons to believe having an online presence is important for every business. That’s how many searches are performed on Google, the world’s most popular search engine, every single day. When younger customers and tech-savvy older clientele look for the answer to a question, a product to buy or something to entertain themselves, they almost always start by picking up their phone or their mouse and navigating to a search engine.
If they are looking for your product, service, or business, making your next sale depends on their ability to find you and what you have to offer.
What is Digital Marketing?
Search engines find your company by establishing a context for your web site. By comparing the words, images, tags and titles on your site with what that search engine knows about other sites in your category, it is possible to determine where your pages should fit in results for one phrase over another.
Making certain your pages say what they should about your company is the first step in digitally marketing your products. Quality content helps make sure you are findable, but you also have to be sure your site is found after searches likeliest to be performed by your customers.
Search Engine Optimization
Digital marketing is also referred to as search engine optimization or improving the way you appear in search engine results. Once you identify your keywords, you’ll want to change the content of your web site so it includes these key search terms. In the case of my aforementioned client, we updated the content on their site to include all relevant moving services and the geographies they serve. Now Google and other search engines will have a better idea of how to rank the site, because they can see who it’s for and what it’s about: people looking for Chicago moving services. Hopefully, quality content with the right key words will make your site rise in the rankings (appear closer to the top of search results) for those important search terms. Higher rankings, in turn, drive more relevant search traffic to your site, which hopefully means more converted sales.
Mobile Friendly Business
If your company is interested in the younger demographic, it is vitally important your web site and all your digital marketing efforts take mobile devices into account. It is far more likely that the first contact anyone has with your web site will be on a mobile device, and it is worth considering the fact more than 90% of time spent on mobile devices is spent using an app of some kind. Additionally, Google recently updated its algorithm, making it even more imperative that you have a mobile-friendly site.
To capture these customers, your company not only needs a digital presence, but also needs a mobile strategy. Perhaps an app will help your company convert new customers? Perhaps your mobile strategy can be integrated with your web strategy? Whatever your approach, making certain you are where your customers are is good business.
As with any business strategy, there are no sure things. But you do stand a much better chance of building new sales and advancing your company if your digital marketing initiative is effective.
