Digital marketing is a growing industry, with the amount spent on it in the next year likely to stretch into twelve figures – and outstrip many of the more traditional forms of marketing as it does so. However, it is still one of those industries that looks confusing and murky from the outside, and to many business owners it can seem like it’s offering style over substance. If you’re not getting the best from digital marketing – or haven’t even dipped your toe in the waters yet – the following nine scenarios might be familiar to you. As the top digital agency in Surrey, they are areas we can help in.
You know you need to do this, but don’t know where to begin
Digital marketing is not a single-effort process; you need to have multiple layers to your efforts, and without these layers the whole thing will fall flat. Chances are, you’re aware of that, because in any guide you can see there is a long list of stuff to do. You may very well be asking where you even start. Should you get active on social media first, and if so – which platform? Or maybe you need to overhaul the website content to be more search-engine friendly? Remember, digital marketing is process-oriented; a professional will take you through it from A to Z.
You don’t have a marketing specialist
Most businesses will have some concept of the fact that digital marketing is, at least, a necessity – whether they address it head-on or not. What’s more important is how they approach their marketing. Is it left up to somebody who already works for you as a secondary duty once they’ve done everything else, or do you have someone who specialises in marketing? The differences in outcome between a dedicated marketer and a flustered amateur can be colossal.
You expect the search engines to just come and find you
To the uninitiated, Google is the Yellow Pages of the Internet – you get your site online, and the search engines will find you and reward your efforts by putting you face-to-face with grateful customers. Maybe, knowing a little more, you recognise that nothing will happen without the right content and actually submitting your site to the search engines. In fact, there is still more to getting to the top of Google than this – sequencing is everything, and this is where an expert makes all the difference.
Your performance is flatlining
Although digital marketing, and especially SEO, is a very process-oriented business, the proof of the pudding is in the results this process delivers. When you have completed your digital marketing efforts, you should begin to see results within days – weeks at the most. If your marketing isn’t delivering results, then it needs to change. You need to do more of it, or do it better; regardless, you need some expert assistance.
You don’t understand digital marketing, so you don’t want to waste time and money
There are plenty of people who hold to the idea that if you aren’t good at something, you shouldn’t waste your time with it. There’s some merit to that argument, too – but digital marketing is becoming more and more relevant in business and those companies that refuse to engage with it are going to become less and less relevant. So either you get good at digital marketing, or you hire someone who is good at it. It’s not going to go away if you ignore it, and mastering it will pay off.
You are using SEO but have no idea if it’s been effective
SEO is not like a light switch, where you flip it to “on” and can see it in action. Nor is it like a tap, where you can watch the flow of water strengthen the more you open it up. It takes time to be effective, and it’s not always easy to see when it has started to deliver – you’ll need to truly understand your stats dashboard and know why certain things are changing when they are changing – with experience comes understanding.
You are sticking with local newspapers and static billboards
It makes sense that a lot of people still lean towards the “old ways” when it comes to marketing; they are, after all, tried and tested. The fact of the matter, though, is that newspapers are losing circulation faster than can be counted, and moving most of their operations online. Billboards, for their part, are expensive and immobile; only mega businesses have anything like the budget to make them a practical part of a marketing budget.
You’ve left social media on the table
Digital marketing is nothing without effective use of social media. You have the ready availability of sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok and anything else that springs up, and these sites are free at the point of use. Why on earth would you not make the maximum use of these resources to point people to your best deals? SEO professionals will know how to make the best use of social media; if you need their expertise, they’ll provide it.
Your organic, word-of-mouth strategy has plateaued and you don’t know where to go next
A new business grows in stages, the first of these being a “word of mouth” phase wherein your early customers may well be family, friends of friends, and other people who know you. There can be a lot of people who come to you through purely organic growth, but that cannot sustain indefinitely; you’ll need to add clients through other means, and digital marketing is both the fastest and the cheapest way to reach the widest customer base.
If you find yourself in one or more of the above categories, rest assured that there are benefits digital marketing can offer you. Experts at a top SEO agency in Surrey like https://thewebsitespace.com/ can offer you the chance to benefit from their proven experience in this vital field.