How To Prioritize Your Digital Marketing Strategies For 2014

June 27, 2014 - 7 minutes read - SEO, Social Media

A question we often get here at Mod Girl Marketing is, “How do I prioritize my marketing dollars?” Most of our clients have some understanding of what needs to be done, but they either aren’t sure how to accomplish their goals best, they don’t have the time to implement it all themselves, or they don’t have the dollars to do everything and need help prioritizing. Every situation is unique, which is why we ask that you fill out our questionnaire so we can best serve you. Although, there are a few general points we can also make about how digital marketing is trending in 2014.

1. Invest: Mobile deserves your attention.

Nielsen found that mobile customers use their devices to compare prices, read reviews, and browse product information. More than half of mobile users regularly access retail / shopping apps. A whopping 85% of these shoppers check social media via their smartphones. Therefore, it’s imperative that you at least put a little muscle into developing your mobile website if you haven’t already. Your mobile site needs to load fast… like 1 second fast… so de-cluttering might be a good start once you have a mobile design. Consider investing in mobile features like click-to-call, mobile coupons, store locator, barcode scanners, and customized content for the mobile viewer. Keep in mind that location and timeliness are crucial factors to optimizing your site for mobile customers.

Image Source: IDGKnowledgeHub.com

2. Commit: Social Media combined with Content Marketing adds massive value, but do you have the resources to do it right?

Social media is too big to ignore. Globally, 1 in 4 people use a social network, and 88% of marketers will use the platform to peddle their products and services this year. For these marketers, social networks provide insight into consumer behavior, a method for customer support, branding opportunities, a place to republish content and publish new content, and a place to sell. However, we always tell people, “With social media, you get back what you put in.” It’s not enough to create a site and let it sit there. You’ve got to manage it. Mod Girl Marketing offers many different tools that make this task quicker, easier and cheaper. You can DIY following our consultation or opt to have us automate some of the work for you. Check out my #8ways post for social media and content marketing tips: 8 ways to promote your content with social media.

Let’s not forget about SEO-friendly content marketing. Integrating SEO with Social Media is not only a powerful digital marketing strategy for 2014 and beyond – but it’s becoming a necessity. The best way to create viable, long term digital growth is through strategic and SEO-friendly content marketing while utilizing social media to promote the content. A social advertising budget also helps spread the word quickly when you are promoting content, even if it’s only $20.

Image Source: InfographicDesignTeam.com

3. Spend Wisely: Digital Advertising is great, but make sure you are doing it wisely and not wasting your advertising dollars.

Despite click fraud concerns and very costly PPC campaigns, paid search is still a very popular and viable strategy for marketers in 2014. Although you’ll hear us telling you to invest in more long-term growth strategies like SEO, there are still affordable and very effective paid advertising strategies. It’s not just Google Adwords that is raking in the advertising dollars from businesses, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are also an amazing advertising platform. I use the word “amazing” lightly – if you don’t know what you are doing, you can lose your shirt, and then some! Digital advertising, no matter what the platform, requires strategy, optimization, and constant tweaking. If you don’t know what you’re doing and have never ran a paid advertising campaign before, it’s best to seek the help of professionals like Mod Girl Marketing. We are constantly tweaking our keywords and approach based on performance. Hiring an agency is the best way to see your advertising dollars working for you, not against you!

4. Focus: Know who you are optimizing for.

Many of the willy-nilly strategies we see are only ailing because the marketers have been running a one-size-fits-all campaign far too long. Focus on discovering which groups are most interested in what you have to offer, and identify which customer life cycle stage each customer is at. Create micro-sites and carefully crafted messages that appeal to targeted groups. Speak directly into the heart and soul of the customer.

5. Invest: Consider technology that will save you time and hassle.

For some businesses, investing in technology can greatly optimize the entire digital marketing process. For instance, the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin can assess your keyword density and give your SEO a boost. Best of all, Yoast offers many free tools for WordPress. One of our favorites: Raven Tools helps you view essential digital marketing metrics such as SEO and social media research, build links, research industry keywords, and find your best backlinks. HootSuite lets you manage and advance-schedule all your social media posts from one easy-to-use dashboard. Ask Mod Girl Marketing about tools that can improve your digital marketing efforts for 2014. If you don’t have the money or time to buy and learn all the software you desire, consider outsourcing part of your company marketing to us. We have a team of experienced marketers and we already own all the software necessary to help us manage and grow digital marketing campaigns.

Contact us today to get a second opinion on your business.

Tags: audience segment, content, digital marketing, Effective Search Engine Optimization, Mobile Marketing, mobile website, paid search, Ppc, prioritize seo, Search Engine Optimization, Seo, Social Media