Most marketers tend to miss out on the golden step to make their business a success. Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Co-Founder of HubSpot highlights this common mistake that’s delaying or blocking success. “Many people have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.”
A strong online presence has become a significant necessity in today’s competitive business landscape. Online presence makes it easier for customers to find and purchase products or services from a startup. It allows businesses to establish a good reputation, building brand credibility.
An exemplary marketer would aim to make the website easy for visitors. Some goals of the outstanding marketer would be enhancing customer engagement and retention, offering targeted content, including eye-catching graphic design, etc.
Key Elements that Contribute to Successful Marketing Campaigns
How will marketers have successful businesses if their websites are not attracting any users? The key elements of a website and functionality are crucial for a strong marketing business. The following are key elements that contribute to successful marketing campaigns:
- User-friendly Navigation
Have clear and intuitive menus, search bars, and well-structured content.
- Responsive Design
Make the website accessible and visually appealing (good graphic design) across different devices.
- Compelling Visual Elements
Having high-quality images and videos to convey the brand’s message with clarity will attract users.
- Call to Action (CTA) buttons
These buttons are strategically placed throughout the website to encourage users to click on specific buttons that the brand desires. Examples of this are buttons to make purchases, sign up, contact the company, etc.
- Loading Speed
We all know how annoying it is when the webpage keeps loading, and loading, and loading. If your website’s loading speed is slow, you’ll chase away your audience. However, if you can manage your website in such a way as to keep the loading speed swift, you can give users a good experience.
Digital Marketing Strategies
Can anyone who hasn’t trained for the Olympics win a gold medal? Most likely not, unless they’re naturally very very talented. This applies to almost everything, even with digital marketing strategies. If you have never received training in marketing, how will you make your business a success?
Three marketing strategies will be emphasized, namely, SEO, content marketing, and social media integration.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If a website is structured properly, then search engines can easily locate that website. For example, if Google wanted to find an ideal website about the best healthy snacks, it would start observing the titles, headings, subheadings, and keywords on websites. If a website is properly organized, Google can easily process the data. Then, that website can be put as a “rich result” by Google.
Keep your websites readable, meaning don’t have a big text with no indents, line breaks, etc. Be honest, do you read everything on a website when you’re trying to find specific information? No, that would be a waste of time. You just look at the heading and at some of the information under that heading. Hence, keep your paragraphs short, but informative.
Content Marketing
Let’s understand content marking in simple terms. It is a form of marketing that focuses on creating content for a targeted audience. Have you ever searched for a specific video on YouTube, and then videos of the same topic you searched popped up on your feed the next day? That is content marketing.
Companies gather data about your interests (what you search, for or like), and then they provide you with content on the same topic. They do this to keep you hooked on their publications, which eventually, earns them more money.
Social Media Integration
Social Media Integration is very simple to understand. It’s a strategy to expand your market by gaining followers across different social media platforms. This strategy is simple, yet effective.
Emphasis on the Synergy of the Strategies Mentioned Above
The synergy of the above-mentioned strategies is the secret to having a well-optimized website. Using SEO, content marketing, and social media integration simultaneously can boost the speed of your market’s growth.
If you only use one or two of the three strategies, it’s not that your market won’t do well. Same thing about the other side. Just because you use all three strategies doesn’t mean your market will be successful. However, your chances of making your business a success will be much higher than other businesses (that don’t use these strategies).
If you can do something, and you do it to your full potential, then chances are your market will grow well.
Businesses That Significantly Benefited From Marketing Strategies
Starbucks – Efficiency
The popular coffee company, Starbucks, has a loyalty program. In the program, Starbucks gives members a variety of discounts and other offerings. Through their app, they can order their drinks and pick them up from the store without having to wait in line! This compels people to continue visiting the coffee company.
Amazon – Better Convenience
Amazon offers personalized recommendations to users, for it drives 35% of their sales. They recommend products based on what the users have previously viewed and what they have or had in their carts. Products are also recommended based on items purchased by others who bought a similar product.
DoorDash – Sensitivity to Audience’s Feelings
During lockdown, restaurants were closed. This led to many job and financial losses. DoorDash worked with chefs and operators to convey the message, “They are still there for you, now you can be there for them. While the doors may be closed, the kitchens are open for delivery.” Through this message, DoorDash showed that it cared for the people who had financial losses due to the pandemic.
Potential Challenges That Businesses Should Be Aware of
Many challenges can come up with website-driven marketing strategies, such as:
- Poor-quality
Always do quality checks to see if users can enjoy the quality of the website or not.
- Poor digital security
If by chance, user data is lost, then the audience will lose trust in the company.
- Dull graphics
Eye-catching graphic designs are loved by everyone! If the images on your website don’t bring excitement to your audience, then you have a lower chance of succeeding in your business through your website.
- Being outdated with information
Time flies really fast. If you don’t catch up on the current information soon, then your audience will catch other up-to-date companies. Keep the information on your website updated.
Once again, website-driven marketing cannot do well until the website really serves the users. Search engine optimizations, content marketing, and social media integration are a few examples of digital marketing strategies. Having responsive design, good loading speed, user-friendly navigation, etc. are secrets to keeping your users engaged with your website.
Companies that have greatly benefitted from website-driven marketing are Starbucks (online and in-person), Amazon, and Doordash.
Although marketing through websites can be very beneficial, it also has potential challenges you must look out for. Namely, poor digital security, poor quality, dull graphics, and being outdated with information.
Create a professional, responsive website that can easily be titled as a rich result by search engines (through SEO). Use social media platforms to connect with your users to understand them better. Always update your knowledge and your website to stay up to date.