Determining how to market your business is a multifaceted task that can be extremely overwhelming. Not only do you have to know the terminology and technical procedure, you also need to consider who to target on which platform. So, how do you break through the haze of beginning and launch a successful digital marketing campaign? To start, follow these five tips:
- Do Your Research
- Before starting any project, it’s vital to spend a few hours researching, whether it be researching how to set up a Facebook campaign, which social media platform would most effectively reach your audience or how to narrow in on your target demographic. Reading online literature and making informed decisions about an advertisement campaign is an absolute must, especially since campaigns require funds to get them up and running. Without preliminary research, you’re likely to spend way more than anticipated and still not see the desired results.
- Tailor the “Creative” to the Platform
- The “creative” of an advertisement is the artistic design. For example, when you’re browsing Facebook and an ad pops up, it usually contains an image, text, a logo and a call to action. All of these are elements of the creative. What image was chosen, where the logo was placed and the contents of the text form the artistic and digital rendering of an abstract thought or business objective.
- Still, you might put hours of thought and work into designing an advertisement only to find that it doesn’t do well when posted. This could be because you weren’t thinking of your audience in the right way. It is important to remember that each social media platform has a different audience. For example, 85% of Facebook users are not from the United States, and 35% of total users are men between the ages of 18 and 34. As another example, YouTube users are overwhelmingly on mobile, which means YouTube advertisers have to cater their creative to mobile viewing.
- Audiences change vastly depending on the social media platform. It seems like a simple idea, but it is incredibly important to only advertise with platforms that will reach your desired audience. If you are trying to reach 50-year-old professionals, advertising on Snapchat would be a waste of time and money.
- Know Your Audience
- To reach an intended market, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. It sounds pretty straightforward, but pin-pointing your market can be the most challenging thing in online advertising. Often, advertisers have a target demographic, however, if you’re unsure of who your target demographic is, your ads will be extremely inefficient. Online research is a great place to start finding your audience. Look up user data on social media websites. Find authoritative commentary on what various demographics are visually drawn to. Without knowing your audience, advertising will be fruitless.
- Set a Clear Objective
- When crafting an ad campaign strategy, remembering an objective will make your creative stronger and ultimately lead to increased engagement. The objective can be anything from driving site clicks to selling x units of product. Whatever the goal of advertising is, remember it as you make the creative and tailor your narrative accordingly. For example, if the objective is to drive sales, talk about the value of the product and ease of purchase. If the objective is to drive site traffic, tease users with information so that they will click the link to find out more.
- Drive Brand Recognition
- Always include the logo of your business in the advertisement. If users fail to click or engage, they will still be exposed to your business, which may make them more likely to engage in the future.
Hopefully, these five tips were helpful. If you still find yourself struggling with digital advertising, consider consulting with a professional marketing firm. Often, they provide incredible advice that gets your website traffic moving.