The Three Basic Elements of Digital Marketing

digital marketing services can be expensive. It is really easy to waste a lot of money, especially if this is something you are exploring for the first time. To make the most of the online resources and services available, it’s important to have a basic understanding of your goals. That’s why we created this guide to help you make informed decisions about your website and online marketing strategy. This guide will cover the three basic elements of digital marketing:

Evaluating the effectiveness of your website.
A basic understanding of Google’s search algorithm, and how it might apply to your SEO efforts.
How to use social media and content marketing to generate interest.

To help illustrate the examples and concepts, we are using a chiropractor as the example. However, these basic principles should be applied to any industry.

#1 – Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Website

Your website is at the core of your digital marketing. It allows you to guide visitors through a sales process and build a connection with potential clients. The most important job of your website is to convert visitors to customers/clients. To do that, your website needs to showcase your business and convince those visitors to choose you over your competitors.

When someone new visits your website, what’s the most important thing they should know about your business? What do you want them to see and read first?

Once you know what you want to communicate, the next step is figuring out how to do it effectively. That means considering factors such as color scheme and visuals that will support your message. This leads to the most important question to answer:

What do we want them to do next?

If someone visits your website and doesn’t take any action, it’s like they walk into your physical business and then immediately turn around and leave.

This is called a bounce. Not only do you lose the opportunity to turn this visitor into a customer, but a high bounce rate can also harm your search engine rankings and make it harder for other people to find your website. How? I will explain this and what other factors Google takes into consideration in the Basics of Google section below.

For now, lets go back to the question, “What do we want them to do next?” For that, we need to know the end goal of your website. For a chiropractor it’s pretty simple: You want them to schedule an appointment online, or pick up the phone and call you. Now, what would it take to achieve that result?

When you look at your website, doing so from the viewpoint of your ideal customer or client is a great way to evaluate its effectiveness. One other thing to keep in mind: You only have their attention for nine seconds.

Above the fold
This is an old publishing term from the newpaper industry. The bigger papers, like the LA Times, Washington Post are always folded in half when they are on display. The half that’s visible to you when you first look at a newspaper in a stand, is what they call above the fold.

On your website, the fold is the point where someone has to scroll down. Your most valuable digital real estate is the above the fold section that they first see. That is the space you have to deliver your most effective messaging. Anything below the fold should be supporting information.

Emotional Connection
Every major purchase decision you have ever made has been an emotional decision. You may have used logic to justify it, but you chose the option you emotionally connected with if it was within your budget. In order to get someone’s attention within those nine seconds, your website has to make an emotional connection.

The colors, font, spacing, images, and headlines all have to combine to tell the story of your business. You may not think this is true right now, but every business has a story to tell. With the Internet, how effectively you tell that story is what will set you apart from your competitors.

Once you have an effective website that converts visitors to customers, Search Engine Optimization is the next essential component of your digital marketing plan.

#2 – The Basics of Google

To understand what Google is looking for in a website, we first need to understand the history of online search. Before Google, the main way of finding something was to look through alphabetical directories of listings. If you wanted to find a chiropractor in your local area, it would be like looking through an online Yellow Pages, with AAA Chiropractic as the first listing, closely followed by AAAA Chiropractic!

Then Google came along and literally changed the online world. They realized that people knew what they were looking for, but not who they were looking for. In short, they wanted the internet to do the work and show them the best chiropractor in the area, not just the ones with the most A’s at the beginning of their name.

How was a computer program such as Google going to know if one website was better than another? Google was going to let the internet tell them. They developed an algorithm which counted how many other websites linked to yours. The basis of the theory was that if people were willing to link to your website then it was obviously better than the one nobody is linking to.

As Google gained in popularity, SEO companies figured out the magic formula and started selling backlinks to businesses. That all changed in 2011 when the New York Times investigated J.C. Penney who were number one on Google for almost every search term during the previous holiday season. They found tens of thousands of artifical backlinks and asked Google for comment. Google’s “comment” was to manually correct J. C. Penney’s search position to page 7, and then it went to work on rewriting its algorithm. In fact, over the past 17 years, Google has made hundreds updates to their formula, some of them, major re-writes.

Artificial Intelligence
Google has also been at the forefront of AI research. Their AI has gotten so sophisticated that one of their engineers claimed their Chatbot is sentient. Google still wants the internet to tell them which sites are better than others, however, they are harnessing the power of AI to find trends in anonymized data and make connections between demographics and websites.

Whenever you are signed in to Google, the search results you are shown are personalized to you. If you click on a link from a search, Google tracks how you react to that website. If you bounce you have told Google that website was not what you were looking for. Conversely, if you stick around, read a lot of their content, and tell others about the site, Google takes note of and acts on that data accordingly.

Every change that Google has made to its algorithm, has been to improve its ability to match websites with people. As web designers, it is our job to help you identify your target audience and create a site that they are going to love. If we create the perfect website, designed specifically for your target audience you know that every change Google makes to its algorithm will aim to strengthen that match.

So, how does Google match websites and users? Here are a few of the things that it looks for.

Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate (explained above) is one of the clearest indications that your website is not what they were expecting and Google is tracking that through its search pages. If someone clicks on your site from a search, closes it and then clicks on another one, Google notes that your site was not relevant to that user.

Amount of Quality Content
Here is an excerpt from Google’s guidelines on how to create a Google-Friendly website:

“Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.” https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en

For more information on how to create quality content, see our 7 tips for Creating Engaging Content article.

Social Media Activity
We will go into a lot more detail about social media below. However, if you create great content that becomes popular on social media, then people are likely to like it and link to it. That is definitely going to increase your Google rankings.

Mobile Friendliness
Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means it gives priority to websites that are optimized for mobile devices. Because more and more people are using their smartphones and other mobile devices to access the internet, and Google wants to ensure that these users have the best possible experience.

If your website is not mobile optimized, it may be difficult for mobile users to navigate and read, which can lead to a higher bounce rate and lower ranking on search engine results pages.

On the other hand, if your website is mobile optimized, it will be easier for mobile users to access and use, which can lead to a better user experience and a higher ranking on search engine results pages.

Part of our goal to create the perfect website, designed specifically for your target audience, is to make sure the user experience is perfect.

Mobile Speed
Page loading speed is a crucial part of the user experience. If a page takes too long to load, it can be frustrating for users. Google places a high importance on mobile speed, and if your website is slow on mobile devices, it can affect your search ranking. One of our clients saw their ranking drop when Google implemented mobile-first indexing. We worked to improve the speed of their website and within a week, they were ranking in the top three for several competitive keywords. To make sure your website is performing at its best, it’s important to score in the high 80s on Google’s Speed Test page.

#3 – The Basics of Social Media

Social media can improve your search rankings, but that’s just one of the benefits. It also allows you to build a following and reach a larger audience. When you connect with someone on social media, they have the potential to share your business with an average of 200 people, including their entire social circle.

Choose the Right Platform
Not all social media platforms are right for every business. It’s important to research and identify which platforms your target audience uses the most. For example, if you are selling to other businesses and professionals, LinkedIn would be an excellent platform to focus on.

Develop a Content Strategy
Developing a content strategy involves deciding what type of content you want to create and how often you will post it. This can include blog posts, social media updates, videos, podcasts, and any other type of content that you want to use to reach and engage your audience.

Engage With Your Audience
Social media is a powerful tool for engaging with your audience because it allows you to have a two-way conversation with them. This means that you can not only share content and updates with your followers, but you can also listen to their feedback and respond to their comments and questions. This can help you build a strong and loyal community of followers who feel connected to your brand.

To effectively engage with your audience on social media, you should:

Respond to comments and messages: When someone takes the time to comment on your posts or send you a message, make sure to respond in a timely and helpful manner. This shows your followers that you value their input and are willing to listen to their feedback.
Ask for feedback: Encourage your followers to share their thoughts and opinions by asking them questions and inviting them to share their experiences. This can help you gather valuable insights and ideas for improving your products or services.
Share user-generated content: Re-posting or sharing content created by your followers can help you show your appreciation for their support and can also help to promote their content and profiles.
Host Q&A sessions or live streams: These can be great opportunities to interact with your followers in real-time and answer their questions or address their concerns.

By engaging with your audience on social media, you can build stronger relationships with them and create a sense of community around your brand.

Analyze and Adjust
Using social media analytics to track the success of your content is an important part of any social media strategy. By analyzing data such as engagement rates, clicks, and website traffic, you can gain valuable insights into what types of content are resonating with your audience and what areas may need improvement.

To analyze and adjust your social media content strategy, you can:

Track metrics: Use the built-in analytics tools provided by each social media platform to measure the performance of your posts. Look at metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks to see what content is getting the most engagement.
Use third-party tools: There are many tools available that can help you track and analyze your social media metrics. These can provide more in-depth data and can also help you compare your performance to that of your competitors.
Identify what works and what doesn’t: Based on the data you collect, try to identify any patterns or trends in your content performance. What types of posts tend to do well, and which ones don’t seem to resonate with your audience?
Make adjustments: Based on your analysis, make any necessary adjustments to your content strategy. This could include changing the types of content you create, the frequency of your posts, or the way you promote your content.

By regularly analyzing and adjusting your content strategy, you can ensure that you are creating and sharing content that resonates with your audience and helps you achieve your goals.

Be Consistent
To be successful in content marketing, it’s important to be consistent. This means setting a schedule for creating and sharing content, and sticking to it. For example, if you are a chiropractor, you could make a plan to post stretching and exercise tips every Thursday to get your followers ready for the weekend. It’s also important to maintain a consistent brand voice and message in all of your content. By being consistent, you can build trust and credibility with your audience and keep them engaged with your brand.

Overall, the goal of social media for content marketing is to build relationships with your audience and drive traffic to your website.

How we Can Help

We can:

Evaluate your website and let you know where it can be tweaked or improved.
Create a marketing strategy for your business, which includes blogging, social media, and email marketing
Help you implement your online marketing strategy or train you on how to do it yourself.
Help you write your blog articles and create social media posts.

If you would like a quote for your project, please call us at (541) 225 8087 or fill out our interactive questionnaire.

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