Do's and don'ts of digital marketing

For many companies, digital marketing, especially on social media channels, is intimidating. Here are a few simple do’s and don’ts of digital marketing to help ensure customers will get your message:

1. Find the right channels

You have a target market, and in order to reach them effectively, you need to identify the right channel where you can reach out to them with your content. The type of channel you select will depend on your targeted audiences. For example, visual-based marketing strategies may get good results using Pinterest or Instagram, while B2C (business to consumer) marketing will get better headway with Facebook and Pinterest.

2. Post original content

Stand out and be noticed by posting high-quality original content that targeted audiences will like and remember. To get the best outcome out of your content strategy, be sure to gear all content on your website, blog and social media for your customers. Valuable and relevant content is what will get your business ranked high on the first page of Google search. Make sure the content you produce answers a question, solves a problem or provides valuable insight.

3. Know your brand; know your competitors

Having an active and efficient branding strategy is what differentiates your business from your competitors. Before spending money on digital marketing, be sure to build a strong brand. Similarly, knowing what you are up against is the best way to stay ahead of your competition. Knowing what your competitors offer and how their products are better or worse than yours can help make your business stand out. You can use your competitor’s weaknesses and strengths to improve your marketing.

4. Engagement and personalisation are essential

Digital marketing is customised. You have to know your audience and what works. You can't be a bullhorn, but rather have to go for engagement – you want people to talk on your page; you want a smaller community that's engaged as opposed to a large audience that's not engaged.

5. Have your digital house in order

Have a website and send out a regular newsletter. Engage with your community to build social capital via your website, newsletters and social media channels.

6. Don’t spam

The best type of digital marketing reaches its audience by consent. When you start clogging up inboxes and hitting social media feeds every few minutes, you quickly lose that. The line between consistent effort and spamming shouldn’t be hard to draw, although some companies still struggle with it. For most firms, the digital marketing should be targeted to ramp up for specific events—a sale promotion for example—and slowed down to a consistent but mostly unobtrusive pace the rest of the time.

7. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

The results count when it comes to the long term for digital marketing, but they shouldn’t dictate what you do. There are a lot of outlets for digital marketing, and some of them will suit your business better than others. Some people prefer to create monthly newsletters or write articles for partner sites, while others prefer the smaller but more regular activity of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

However, if your company naturally takes to a type of digital marketing, it may well be worth continuing even if the results aren’t what you’d like. Try out different marketing techniques to find out what the best way to market your business is. Instead of putting all your eggs in one digital marketing basket, take advantage of the various elements of marketing available.

8. Don’t “sell”

People don’t want hard sell any more. If you want to nurture a healthy interaction and engagement with your targeted audiences, then do not sell your product. Post about ideas, concepts, and answers to solutions – get their trust with your content first – and they’ll be interested enough to want to know more about what it is you have to offer.