To find the best digital marketing agency, first, we need to understand “what is digital marketing”, “will digital marketing benefit your business” and answer the question “how do I get more leads for my business?” – What should be the purpose of any marketing.
What is a Digital Marketing Agency?
The dictionary definition of digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, primarily on the Internet, but also includes mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital media. So simple to sum up in one sentence, yet it can be a complicated process to get right and ensure all your digital marketing works together, not as isolated activities. This is where the expertise and experience of the best digital marketing agencies can be hugely beneficial.
Traditional advertising, newspapers and directories on paper, such as Yellow Pages, are less and less effective for companies. Whereas a few years ago people would go to a computer to search for a product or service, today people are connected to the Internet 24/7 and “live online.” Searching for information, a product or service is as quick and easy as searching on your laptop or work computer or picking up your mobile or tablet. Digital marketing focuses on getting your information, products, and services in front of people when they search online. The best digital agencies understand the buying process for your products and services and make sure that your information is highlighted to the potential customer at the right time. In the world of digital marketing, the various stages of the buying process, i.e. research, consideration and purchase, are called “micro-moments” and the best digital marketing agency will present the relevant information, service or product at the specific moment. of the purchase process. .
While some digital marketing agencies will also create and manage traditional advertising or commercial marketing, such as newspaper advertising, specialized digital marketing agencies will focus on online marketing rather than the “marketing companies” that are commonly referred to. They concentrate on television, radio, and print marketing.
Regardless of whether your business is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), digital marketing can be a fast, often instant, and reliable way to get leads into your business and increase revenue. The best digital marketing agencies will manage all digital advertising based on return on investment (ROI), making sure that the leads generated are at a cost that makes business sense and increases profit levels. Digital marketing will benefit your business and answers the question “how do I get more leads for my business”?
Digital marketing, sometimes referred to as website marketing, can be broken down into a number of important features and services:
SEO Services
Search Engine Optimization, more commonly abbreviated to “SEO,” is the process of getting your website found on search engines like Google when people perform a search that is relevant to your business, services, or products.
Regardless of whether your website is for e-commerce or selling services, you will generate leads and sales in your business if the search terms people use (often called “keywords”) are found to search for you on Google.
SEO requires experience and an understanding of how Google reads your website. What messages and information you want Google to read for a web page or website and knowing where to put that information so search engines can find it. A good SEO company will have a proven track record of ranking websites high in the search results.
SEO works best when proven methods of getting rankings are applied alongside the latest traffic-driving trends. An example of this is the “near me” phenomenon, which has seen 150% growth in the last 12 months, where mobile phone users add “near me” to their search query, i.e. “Company SEO Near Me”. These customers are looking to shop and buy from a local provider of services or products.
Although SEO can be a standalone service, it is most effective when combined with PPC, social media, and reputation marketing. SEO is also the cornerstone of effective PPC, social media, and reputation management campaigns.
pay per click
Pay Per Click (PPC), often referred to as “Google Advertising” or “Online Advertising,” is when you place ads at the top of search results for specific search terms. These search terms can be the words people use when they are in the “research” phase of making a purchase, or they can be targeted to “buy keywords” when potential customers are looking to buy.
Although your ad, depending on your budget, may show every time a search is performed, you only pay when an Internet user clicks on your ad and is taken to your website or called directly from the search results page, which means you only pay when you get a click from a potential customer, hence the name of this form of pay-per-click marketing (often abbreviated as PPC).
The amount you pay per click is determined by a few factors. “Cost per click” (abbreviated as CPC) is determined by the quality and relevance of the ad to the search term being used and the relevance of the page on your website that the potential customer lands on. These factors contribute to your overall “quality score.” The higher your quality score, the less you’ll pay per click and the less you’ll pay per lead on your business.
In the UK, Google has the vast majority of search traffic and most of your budget should be placed there; however, you don’t want to miss out on the smaller, but still considerable potential for search engine clients like Microsoft’s Bing platform, and a small portion of the budget should go to other search engines. Additionally, the best PPC management companies will also look at distributing your PPC budget across a series of campaigns targeting different parts of the customer journey. A small part of the budget should be allocated to the research stage of the buying process when people use broad search terms to find information, a small part of the budget when people search for the name of your company, that of your competitors or that of the market leaders. Most of the budget when potential customers use search terms directly related to making a purchase, and lastly, a small part of the budget for remarketing (showing your advertising to people who have shown interest in your services or products visiting your website) to capture and increase conversions from previously advertised customers as well.
The best PPC agency will be a Google Premier Partner. A Google Premier Partner status indicates that the company has a proven track record of delivering high-quality campaigns, generating good competitive/low CPCs and delivering high, positive ROI. The best PPC agency will have a robust PPC management process in place to react quickly and capitalize on changes to their competitors’ PPC campaigns.
Unlike SEO, which can take some time to be fully effective, Pay Per Click is instant in the fact that as soon as your campaigns are live, they can generate leads for your business.
PPC is highly effective when carried out in unison with SEO. A well-optimized website will improve the quality score of your Google ad campaigns, resulting in a reduced “cost per click”, which means you get more leads for your budget.
social media marketing
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are now legitimate places for a business to attract potential customers. Facebook has over 38 MILLION active and regular users in the UK and the number is projected to grow to over 42 MILLION by 2020. Whether your business sells to consumers or other businesses, your potential customers are on Facebook and you they use frequently.
Facebook is great at building awareness during the “research” stage of customers, reminding them of your services or products during the “consideration” stage, and getting your specific products in front of potential customers at the “purchase” stage. With such a large audience and the flexibility to target customers throughout the buying process, Facebook can be a great avenue to generate leads and sales and deliver great ROI.
A good digital marketing agency will have a proven track record of delivering highly effective Facebook ad campaigns. The best digital marketing agencies will be able to demonstrate the conversion rate and cost per lead of their social media marketing.
Again, social media marketing and specifically Facebook marketing can be carried out as a standalone activity, however it works much better when combined with SEO and/or PPC. When a potential customer visits your website, their computer is marked as visited. This allows you to target the user of that computer, who has shown an interest in your products or services.
reputation management
When considering making a purchase, a potential customer will search the internet to find comments and reviews from past customers. Your online marketing and sales can live or die based on reviews of your business, services, or products. Making sure that positive reviews are easy to find and that any negative comments are handled well can greatly benefit your conversion rate.
Digital marketing companies call this “reputation management” or “online reputation management.”
Many companies are concerned about allowing the public the ability to openly provide feedback. You can’t please everyone all the time, and companies worry that one bad review will have a negative impact on their business. First of all, if someone is determined to leave a bad review for your business, they will find a platform to do so and there are thousands of platforms to choose from. It’s better to be in control of where customers are encouraged to leave a review. Secondly, a bad or bad review, if managed well, can be positive for your business. Engaging with a bad review highlights that you care about feedback and consequently care about your customers. One well-managed bad review can be as good for your business as ten good reviews.
A good digital marketing company will use one of the few recognized review platforms and provide the tools and means to enable you to capture, manage, and respond to customer reviews.
