We get it. Marketing is hard. Marketing takes time and money. Valuable time and money.

But what if there were something you, a business owner or marketing manager, could do about it? What if there were simple marketing tactics you could implement to see results?

Believe it or not, they’re out there. We even put together 11 marketing tactics just for you, someone with little time but someone who still recognizes the importance of digital marketing.

Feel free to peruse the entire article for maximum effectiveness, or simply click on the item below to learn more about it. Enjoy!

Areas:

SEO

Contrary to whatever nonsense you may have read, SEO is not dead (unintentional rhyme). Search engine optimization is still crucial to drive targeted users to your website. Targeted users are interested in what you offer. While the term is actually “search engine optimization,” you’re actually optimizing your website for those users.

In short, you need to make it as easy as possible for website visitors to find what they’re looking for – whether that be a product, service, monthly special, information or more.

The easier it is for users, the more action they’ll take. The more action users take, the more search engines will send people to your site. It’s a never-ending cycle.

1) Website Speed

Does anybody enjoy a slow website? We didn’t think so.

In today’s world, people need immediate answers. While it may seem silly, there’s simply not enough time to wait for a slow website when there are so many other options on the internet. In fact, around 50% of all online traffic is likely to completely leave a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load!

I’ll pause while you quickly check your website speed…

Speaking of which, there are many free tools out there to check your site speed. Some of them even provide suggestions on how to speed up your site!

If 50% of your traffic leaving isn’t enough to sway you, let’s focus on conversions. For every additional second of load time your site takes, conversions drop by 40%! Just imagine the extra revenue and sales you can create by speeding up your website by a few seconds!

Foot Locker brings in a Gross Profit of $7.2 Million every day (on average), imagine what they could generate by cutting a second off their load time?

2) Linking

It saddens a digital marketing agency like us to see linking so often ignored by businesses. Did you know that referral traffic is the most likely source of traffic to convert on your website?

Linking can be broken down into two groups: Internal linking and External linking.

Internal Linking – many companies have main products or services that they offer. Those main products create the majority of revenue. A sound internal linking strategy includes linking back to these pages as often as possible. Give your customers the ability to find these products/services as much as possible. Just be sure to naturally incorporate these links where they make sense.

External Linking – please don’t buy any links from random websites. Google is much smarter than that. Instead, try to build professional relationships within your industry. Create valuable content that others will want to reference and send people to. Attracting users from websites ending in .org, .edu, and .gov show the search engines that you are credible!

3) UX

User experience, also known simply as UX, is extremely important when it comes to conversions. Plus, major search engines like Google take UX into account when it comes to their rankings.

UX has become even more important in today’s on-the-go world. As more and more people turn to mobile devices, your website must adhere to mobile preferences. Can users easily contact you from your website? Do you provide simple click-to-call or click-to-email options? What about making it as easy as possible for people to, you know, BUY THINGS on your website?!

Again, with so many options today, users not only hope for a flawless user experience – they expect one.

4) Content Creation

Are you creating valuable content for your website visitors? And by content we are talking everything from blogs, to infographics to videos and images. Search engines aren’t going to send people to websites without content, no matter how awesome your products or services are. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is at least 200 words per page. That provides users with a solid amount of information.

Don’t forget to naturally include important keywords that your target audience uses during online searches. While keyword stuffing worked in the past, Google and other search engines have grown to realize this poor tactic – often penalizing sites that partake in it.

When it comes to social media, content is extremely important. It’s great to share with everyone that it’s Sharon the accountant’s birthday, but are you doing more with social? Social media can be extremely valuable when it comes to referral traffic. Take advantage of that and promote content prospects will enjoy.

Online Advertising

“Hey, wait a minute. You said none of these tactics cost money!”

That’s false, but believe what you want. Obviously, advertising of any kind requires an investment. However, unlike traditional advertising like the yellow pages, billboards, radio and television, online advertising is extremely measurable.

When something is measurable, it’s easy to calculate whether the venture is worth it financially or not. Finding the ROI of these advertising platforms is easy to track, especially if you utilize the platforms as efficiently as possible.

The targeting features that come with online advertising are truly remarkable. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for everyone to see a billboard, instead invest in online ads that only your target audience can see!

5) Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC, is one of the easiest ways to attract targeted users to your website. Major search engines like Google (via Google AdWords) and Bing offer platforms where marketers and advertisers can create ads for their website.

These ads are extremely targeted due to the keywords you choose. You can also choose negative keywords to ensure your ads don’t appear for searches you don’t want to appear in. This way, you get the most value out of your budget, which you also have total control over.

Be sure to have well-worded ads that entice prospects, landing pages that make it easy for them to convert, and a budget you can afford.

6) Social Media Advertising

Millions and millions of people across the world are on social media. Whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and more, social media has become a part of our everyday lives.

You know what that means right? It means there’s a good chance your target audience is on social media. Are you taking advantage of it?

Like PPC advertising, social media advertising makes it very easy to target users based on demographics, geographics, interests and hobbies, salary, job title and so much more. Be sure to install proper tracking features so you can tell which campaigns provide the most value to your company!

7) In-App Advertising

How many apps do you use throughout the course of a day? One? Five? More than 10???

Did you know more than 1/4th of the United States population has a Pandora account? Did you know Snapchat was the 2nd-most downloaded app in 2017? Did you know the average Spotify user listens for nearly two and a half hours per day?

It’s no secret why in-app advertising has blown up recently. Advertisers go where people are; smart advertisers go where their target audience is. Find out which apps your target audience uses, and explore in-app testing there.

Don’t fool yourself: in-app advertising isn’t just for B2C companies. B2B employees use apps in their free time just like everyone else!

8) Video AdvertisingVideo marketing and advertising are at an all-time high. Why? Because the younger generations, who are slowly but surely moving their way into important decision-making roles, grew up with video.

Plus, it’s easier than ever. YouTube advertising, like every other platform we’ve covered in this section, allows companies to pinpoint different categories of video where their ads are shown. This way, only users who are watching a video that is related to what you do will see your ad.

Video advertising is also popular across the web and in apps like Pandora and various games.

Don’t have the budget for the $3,000 camera and equipment? That’s fine! You’d be amazed at what you can accomplish with a simple iPhone camera. With the accessibility to platforms like YouTube and social media, there really is no excuse to not invest in video advertising.

Content Marketing

Now that you’ve perfected organic search engine marketing and explored the possibilities of online advertising, it’s time to attract everyone else. Content marketing, sometimes referred to as inbound marketing, is the perfect marketing tactic to achieve that goal.

Pushing valuable content out to your target audience creates just another touchpoint in the sales cycle. Stats show that, depending on your industry, it can take up to 11 pieces of content before a purchase decision is made.

Like SEO, we want to make it as easy as possible for potential buyers to become customers.

9) Buyer Personas
The easiest way to excel at content marketing is to first develop buyer personas. In the past, buyer personas were simply demographics. A sample buyer persona could have been:

Jim, age 38, married with two kids, $100,000 yearly budget

Digital marketing has evolved past that. What we like to focus on, especially when it comes to content marketing, is content habits. What is Jim’s go-to source for industry information? Does he prefer emails or phone calls? Will he read a 20-page eBook or would he rather watch a 30-second video?

Once you better understand your buyer personas and where your target audience is in the digital world, it will be easier to push them valuable content that will get them to purchase! Plus, don’t forget to repurpose content to ensure you’re covering every channel.

10) Lead Nurturing & Marketing Automation

We understand that every company has a different sales process. However, every company should have the same sales goal: make as many sales as possible! And if you aren’t investing in lead nurturing or marketing automation, there’s no way you can achieve that goal.

Whether you choose Hubspot, Pardot, SharpSpring (we’re certified experts in all 3, no big deal) or something else, it’s essential to be able to track engagement from your prospects. This can include website actions as well as engagement on social media and in emails.

While this sounds exhaustive and time-constraining, lead nurturing and marketing automation actually shorten your sales cycle. You can set predefined processes and workflows that will automatically trigger actions – without you having to lift a finger! These platforms will even alert you when it’s time to close the deal on a lead.

11) A/B Testing

Want to increase your content marketing success? Start A/B Testing now! There are many ways to implement A/B testing throughout your workflows. Whether that’s testing the subject line of an email, switching up the text on a call-to-action button, or picking a different day of the week or time of day to push out an email or notification – just be sure you are only changing one variable per test. That way, you’ll be able to tell which tactic is more effective.

More simple examples of A/B Testing include:

• Try a different landing page
• Different image in a social media post
• Pricing (gasp!)
• Site navigation

The opportunities are endless. You can pretty much test anything!

Summary

Do it all, don’t do it all. Whatever you decide is fine. We just wanted to give your company a few options to help create a killer marketing plan that you can start on today.