What is Digital Marketing Integration
We all today are having a virtual word but hardly know about what integration. You may
be inclined to think a brand is merely a logo, a tagline, or even just the name
of your business or individuals. However, a brand is much more than that, it is
the emotion invoked at the mention of your business or individuals. A
successful brand gains widespread recognition, ideally through trust and
loyalty. Branding informs people about the reputation, products, and services
being provided.
Your brand voice, message, look, and feel are weaved through the
other components of your digital marketing components. How you market your
brand works to competitively position your business in the eyes of potential
customers.
Content
Without
content, you don’t have an Integrated Digital Strategy. Content must be
customer-centric for the purpose of content strategy is to attract and retain
customers by creating consumable and usable content on a regular basis. Once the content is created, the format it is delivered in and its placement in Digital
marketing vehicles such as email, social posts, website landing pages, blogs
are critical. A content strategy should clearly maintain a consistent message
and amplify the brand.
All this
workaround content creation then provides a way for customers to find you
organically and for you to communicate with them without trying to explicitly
sell them anything. If you are going to go through the effort and resources to
produce company content, then you need a content strategy to make sure all that
valuable content is being put to good use, consistently and clearly amplifying
the brand’s messages.
Website
Just as
your content needs to be customer-oriented, your website should be at the
center of the digital experience. All other digital components and tactics will
drive potential customers to it. Content placed in an email, social posts, and
blogs all drive traffic to the website.
Whether
you capture a customer’s information social media or even at an event, they are
going to pay a visit to your website and currently, website landing pages is
still, the predominant way that customers provide the most information about
themselves and ask for contact from your company.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your
brand message and content feed into the tactical components of an Integrated
Digital Marketing plan. SEO is an important, tactical component of an
Integrated internet marketing strategy, used to make a brand’s web presence
accessible to a search engine and ultimately to improve the organic rank of the
site on search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO is determined largely by
certain elements search engines look for. These include content on website
pages and blogs, (text, titles, and descriptions), website performance, and
user experience. Conversely, search engines are not looking for the following
attributes: keyword stuffing, purchased links, and poor user experience.
Specifically, Blog Strategy is an important part of SEO. It has the potential
to be the voice of a company in an informal and approachable way. Being
relatively simple to implement, a blog is a great way to draw traffic to a
brand’s website while also projecting company personality. Make sure to put forth
content that solves problems rather than selling brand products and services.
Given
that searching done online is the first way customers come into contact with
your brand, google and the like are the new yellow pages. SEO helps search
engines like google, bing, yahoo determines what a given webpage is about and
whether or not it’s useful for the user conducting the search. Ranking high on
SERPs is no longer an option, but a critical component of a larger marketing
strategy.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A broader
term than SEO, SEM utilizes search engines to grow your audience by advertising
your brand on the web through paid for tactics. It is essentially the practice
of buying traffic for a brand’s web presence mainly by bidding for search terms
so that your banners and ads are placed ahead of others optimizing for the same
terms. These tactics are commonly referenced as CPC (cost-per-click) and PPC
(pay-per-click) marketing. Another way this tactic is enhanced is by
retargeting i.e. following someone who has clicked on your ad around the web so
that you stay on their mind when they are ready to buy your product.
Even
companies that have globally recognized brands use PPC, CPC, and re-targeting. The bottom line is that SEM will garner you more awareness in a quicker time frame
than SEO. But both are necessary- the day you start doing SEM is when you show
up both organically and via a paid ad on the first page of a search – although
if you rank organically and via SEM, then you own more real estate on the first-page search results. With attributes like increased visibility, precise
targeting, and trackability/ measurability, SEM is a must-have in any digital
marketing strategy.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
SMM
focuses on creating content worth sharing. Think word of mouth, but for the
internet age. The ultimate goal is still to gain traffic for the brand’s web
presence, but in SMM the traffic is gained through promoting your brand and
content via social media outlets.
Many
consumers perform searches on social media channels and the social channels are
accommodating this by dramatically improving their search functionality. So it
is in a brand’s best interest to have a notable and engaging presence on such
channels. SMM is also a way to connect directly with your audience and provide
customer service in a personal way, all the while generating brand awareness.
Its’ also a great way to engage with customers and advocates for your brand and
services.
Others
Email Marketing: disregard the naysayers who claim email marketing is dead because
of its potential for spamminess. But 59% of B2B marketers say email is the most
effective channel in generating revenue.
Website Design: Alluded earlier to the fact that if a person’s eyes are the
windows to the soul then a brand’s website is the main door to the company. The
company website design (usability, navigability, accessibility) will determine
who walks through the door and ultimately becomes a retainable customer. Design
well and reap the rewards of loyal, satisfied consumers.
Why Work on Digital?
Leads
generated digitally using content marketing have a proven value that far
exceeds those generated using traditional marketing methods such as direct mail
or events. They show a journey of engagement, allow for ease of access to your
brand, and provide a strong indication of interest depending on the number and
duration of digital interactions. Whether it’s increased ROI (inbound marketing
is much more cost-effective than traditional outbound marketing) or the willingness of leads to turn into retainable customers, B2B businesses today
need a digitally integrated content marketing strategy.
So are you integrated Online? But I Do