It
is hard to believe that 2015 is right around the corner.
As
the weather starts to cool down, digital marketers’ brains just begin to warm
up and think about the budget for the New Year. The million-dollar question is
what are the best digital networks to invest into and what platforms should
receive more exposure for 2015?
Malcolm
X was quoted as saying; “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
If you are reading this article, you are likely a step ahead of the competition
by staying sharp in news and trends in the online marketing field. By starting
to think about the future of online marketing, you can plan out a successful
2015 year for your business while staying a step ahead of the competition.
The
15 step guideline for the perfect 2015 digital marketing strategy will provide
you with a digital marketing blueprint for the upcoming year.
Once
the ball drops on New Years at midnight, you won’t drop the ball when it comes
to digital marketing strategy.
1. Get started on Instagram:
If
you haven’t started an Instagram account for your business, what are you
waiting for? The younger generation has flocked to this social media platform
with over 200 million monthly active users. Advertisers are getting more of an
opportunity to share their content through filtered photos. Instagram is one of
the most natural ways to share content for your brand. It is better to be a
step ahead of the game than 2 steps behind it.
2. Yahoo! Bing network:
The
average cost per click on Yahoo! Bing was 10% to 24% lower than
on Google Ad Words. A lower cost per click can yield a lower cost per
acquisition, which is the exact reason why you should start taking the search
network seriously that receives 11.6% of the market share this upcoming year.
If
you are in an expensive industry in the pay per click world like the legal profession,
insurance industry or medical field, having a lower cost per click can help
with a profitable PPC campaign.
3. Facebook lookalike audience:
What
exactly is a Facebook Lookalike Audience? According to Facebook, Lookalike
audiences let you reach new people who are likely to be interested in your
business because they’re similar to a customer list you care about. When you
use Custom Audiences, you can choose to create a lookalike audience that
targets people who are similar to your Custom Audience list.
Let’s
say you have an email marketing database over 5,000 contacts and are in the heating and cooling industry.
You can upload this onto Facebook’s advertising platform and target the EXACT
demographic similar to your existing customers! This is a neat feature that
advertisers should at least test during the upcoming year.
4. Paid promotion on Facebook:
Adding just $5.00 in
promotion to selected Facebook posts will drastically increase your
interaction. You’ll start to notice a major spike in communication when you
boost your post for a small budget. With Facebook’s Edgerank Algorithm, the
likelihood for a business to appear high in the news feed is less likely. This is
why for 2015, you should focus on posts that can yield the best results and
boost them for a small budget.
5. Email marketing:
If
you are a business that only sends out one email blast per month, start
doubling this number and send out at least two per month. Nordstrom sends out
multiple email blasts EACH DAY! If you have compelling content that would be
informative to the subscribers on your email list, tell them about it via email
communications.
6. Twitter outreach:
There
has been a lot of frustration amongst marketers over all of the advertising
that various social media channels are forcing businesses to partake in.
Luckily, Twitter is still a great platform where you can grow your following
organically. Start searching for hashtags within your industry and reaching out
to users in this fashion. Compliment someone on Twitter about a blog post that
they wrote. Begin asking questions related to your hashtag. The result will be
more interaction and core following of people who are interested in your
content! There is a reason why Twitter has nearly 1 billion registered
users! Start reaching your target audience via tweets through the
perfect Twitter outreach strategy in 2015.
7. Facebook re-marketing:
If
you are a social media marketer and have not taken advantage of display advertising on
Facebook, you are missing an outstanding opportunity. Not only will
this yield one of the highest return on investments for your clients, it will
help with brand exposure, lead to better conversion rates and provide a
flexible budget which will lead to a more effective strategy.
An apartment community in Columbus implemented
beautiful graphics with relevant messaging for one of its apartment communities
for Facebook re-marketing. When someone would drop off of their website and
visit Facebook, this messaging would follow them around. This resulted in a 33%
uptick in conversion for their Polaris Apartments community!
Start
seeing an uptick in conversion by implementing a Facebook re-marketing strategy
for 2015.
8. Better blogging:
We
like to refer to blog content as the match that starts the fire. When you write
a compelling blog, it has the potential to rank well organically in the search
engines. 80% of daily blog visits
are new so this is a great driver of new website traffic!
Additionally, a blog can serve as content for a Facebook and Twitter post as
well as a teaser for an email marketing campaign. By creating better blog
content in 2015, your web traffic will increase and your content will become
more compelling
9. Google+ game plan:
Google+
might not gain you that much interaction on your social media posts. This
social media platform plays a crucial role in search engine optimization on the
localized level, which makes this a must for marketers in 2015.
The
more reviews you get,
the more content you post onto your page and the more followers your obtain,
the higher the likelihood that you will start ranking well for localized search
terms.
10. YouTube videos:
Did
you know that Google owns YouTube?
By implementing videos into your online marketing mix, you can start to get
search engine exposure for the videos that you upload onto YouTube! There are a
lot of great tricks to obtain more video SEO Exposure. Choosing a proper title
tag, uploading a transcript and embedding the YouTube video are just some of
the tricks for optimal SEO exposure. Online video should definitely be included
in your 2015 digital marketing strategy as this form of rich media can be a
game changer in terms of publicity for your company. People will interpret your
YouTube videos that you are taking your marketing initiatives very seriously!
11. Compelling graphics:
The
more compelling your graphics are on various social media channels, the more
interaction you will receive. If you have a graphic designer, start sending him
or her over your social media calendar so they can help create beautiful
imagery. In 2015 you will want to increase engagement and
great pictures certainly help. If you don’t have a graphic designer, don’t
worry; there are affordable sites that offer stock photography like BigStock.
12. Search engine optimization:
Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) leads have an average close rate of
14.6%, while outbound leads (such as cold calls or print
advertising) have an average close rate of 1.7%. Having your website optimized
for SEO is a necessity heading into 2015. By having an SEO strategy in place,
you can increase your leads and grow your business for next year.
13. Content contribution:
If
you want your content to be seen by more eyeballs and gain more exposure, start
contributing content to other blogs in similar fields. If you own an apartment community in Nashville, start writing for a local
Nashville website that talks about the best activities around town. You will be
seen as an expert in your city and this can help drive more traffic to your
website. While people might not be looking for an apartment immediately, they will remember that you have
invested time and effort into content within the community!
14. Digital PR:
You
can build off of the content contribution by implementing a Digital PR
strategy. If you reach out to various media related websites and send them over
a solid pitch, they might just write an article on your company or feature your
CEO in a blog post. The more people talking about your company, Tweeting
about your business and mentioning your brand, the better exposure you will
receive for the upcoming year.
15. Unique promotion:
Brainstorm
a unique promotion that people will actually enjoy that can drive massive
publicity for your company in 2015! Whether it is coming up with a user
generated jingle contest or a photo upload promotion, entice your great fans on
social media to interact with your brand in a clever way. If the promotion is a
success, it will be one of the most talked about campaigns for your company in
2015.
We
don’t expect digital marketers to hit on each and every one of the 15
guidelines referenced above. Within the list, some of the suggestions are
relatively new while others have been around for the past decade. If you
incorporate some of the 15 Steps from our Guideline, you might just have the
perfect year in 2015 from an online marketing perspective!
Source :http://www.jeffbullas.com/
