Thanks to the digital revolution, getting familiar with digital marketing is easier than ever before. Nowadays, when almost everyone represents themselves or their brand on the Internet, you have lots of resources to learn how to build a strong online presence. However, with so many businesses promoting their products or services online means enormous competition in practically every existing sector.

Entrepreneurs or small businesses need to compete with established companies when it comes to visibility and customer attention. These companies have a challenging time, but this does not mean that it is impossible to get ahead of your competitors. Luckily, there are countless solutions if you want to boost your business, improve your Google ranking or make your ads more successful. With the digital marketing tips listed below, we want to help you establish and strengthen your or your brand’s online presence.

#1 Don’t take on too much at once

Most beginner marketers or business owners make the mistake of taking on far more than they can handle. What do we mean by that? Well, we read in many places that social media is a great marketing tool, which is absolutely true. So what does a newbie marketer do? Register the brand instantly on 5 popular platforms. Paid ads? Launch 10 campaigns. Also,  it doesn’t hurt to have a blog, right? So two blog posts a week can be posted easily…

If you find yourself doing something like this, you’re doing things very wrong. Especially at the beginning of your career, when you perform all marketing tasks as one person. Instead, you should definitely not take on more than you are able to perform regularly and accurately. The more channels and devices your attention is divided between, the less time you will have for each. Only start something if you are sure that you will be able to deal with it regularly. Why? It is simple: regularity and uniformity are one of the keys to long-term success.

#2 Find the ideal social platform that works for you

As mentioned before, most people know that it is worthwhile to be present on social media, but many people make the mistake of trying to be present on all platforms at the same time. Unfortunately, it is impossible to handle as a one-person job (especially if you want to deal with other areas of digital marketing). In the first instance, your goal will be to find the ideal social platform for you (or two), which is worth spending time (and possibly money).

When it comes to choosing, you have to take several aspects into account. First of all, for example, ask yourself on which platforms you can reach the largest part of your target audience. This is the most important aspect when choosing. For example, it is not worth looking for the older age group on Instagram.

Also, make sure you don’t get stuck with platforms that aren’t effective enough. If something doesn’t work, don’t waste your time on it. If you manage to find one or two ideal platforms, then focus all your social activities on them until you get used to them, or your marketing team expands with more members who can handle multiple platforms.

#3 Try influencer marketing (and do it well)

At this point, we are sure you heard of this branch of marketing. Although influencer marketing is relatively new, many people still don’t know about it. And those who do, many of them still do it wrong.

But what is influencer marketing? Moreover, what is an influencer? Well, an influencer is an influential online personality who has gathered an interested, loyal community (follower base) around them. Followers trust influencers and take their word for it. Influencer marketing builds on this trust. Instead of reaching your target audience directly, you find a few influencers who cover topics related to your brand and invite them to introduce your products or brand to their audience.

Influencers can be present on social media, YouTube, or even have their own blog – any platform where they can share content with their followers. The power of influencer marketing lies in the fact that people trust influencers much more than the marketing messages of brands. Influencers achieve this with a direct, fan-centric style and attitude that very few companies can emulate.

So what is it that so many business owners get wrong in influencer marketing? Well, one is that they make connections with the wrong influencers. It is important to take into account that it is not only the number of followers that matters, but also what those followers are interested in, how active they are, and of course that the influencer represents the same values, which the brand also embodies.

The other problem is that in the eyes of most people, influencer marketing is nothing more than placing backlinks for the purpose of link building. This used to be a working method. However, Google is now cracking down on such forced link building methods, which is not beneficial to anyone. In short, you need to develop honest, close relationships with the right influencers. Make sure that the deal is beneficial for all parties, including the brand, the influencer, and the target audience.

#4 Create an email list

An email list is one of the most valuable tools of a digital marketer. Why? Because it is cheap, pays for itself multiple times, enables personalized communication with customers, and, another special advantage is that it is your own! What do we mean by your own? Well, in the way that you own it, as opposed to, for example, social profiles that platforms can have and put whatever restrictions they want on them, or even suspend them. Of course, this does not mean that email is better than social media, it is just ideal for other purposes.

 Most of your competitors – mistakenly – believe that email marketing is an outdated thing of the past, but this is not true at all. With a solid email marketing strategy, you can convert a lot of really interested users into satisfied customers. If you want to learn how to build an email list or how to create a top-notch newsletter, dive deeper into our blog!

#5 Get familiar with the 80-20 rule

The 80-20 rule means that 80% of your success will come from 20% of your efforts. This in itself does not mean much, but interestingly, this ratio can be applied to several areas of marketing. For example: in order to be successful, 80% of your content must be informative, interesting, and valuable, while the remaining 20% can be devoted to advertising. And what is considered valuable content? Everything that is fresh, unique, and relevant (from the perspective of your brand and your customers), answers the audience’s questions or helps solve their problems.

Many companies do it completely the other way around: roughly 80% of the time they post self-promotion (on blogs or social media), while only 20% of the time they pay attention to offering something of value to their followers. Don’t copy them!

#6 Focus on search engine optimization 

You’ve probably come across the term search engine optimization (SEO for short) and you probably know what it means. If not, here’s the short version: search engine optimization is a set of techniques and methods that aim to make your website’s content more visible in the results of search engines (e.g. Google). The better your website is optimized, the better chance your content will appear in high positions and, consequently, the more people will click on it.

If all that weren’t enough, SEO can be done essentially completely free (or at minimal cost), making it one of the most profitable marketing methods. Of course, this sounds great, because who doesn’t want to appear in a higher position in Google results, and without having to pay for it? Well, as soon as webmasters and marketers find out how time-consuming and complex SEO is, most of them turn away from it and don’t bother with it.

However, despite all the difficulties, search engine optimization is the best way to drive organic (free) traffic to your website. The saying “patience pays off” is perfectly true for SEO.

SEO is a huge topic, so we will only mention it here. If you want to learn more about it, don’t hesitate to click here. Search engine optimization broadly includes the following activities:

• Site-level optimization
• Page-level optimization
• Optimizing for devices
• Link building

 Of course, this is only a very general list of categories – each of these contains additional subcategories with their own methods and procedures. SEO is a time-consuming thing, but it is worth dealing with it, or simply looking for a specialist who will ensure the optimization of your website with up-to-date methods.

#7 Use paid ads

Many business owners make the mistake of spending most of their initial marketing capital on paid advertising. There is nothing wrong with initially paid ads, as they can greatly increase the popularity of a company. However, many people spend most of their time on them and neglect important basic elements such as the creation of a sales funnel or the previously discussed search engine optimization.

The problem is that without a good foundation, PPC (pay-per-click) ads will not be very effective, and relying only on them is not a viable long-term strategy. It’s true that ads help drive traffic to your website, but they don’t guarantee that that traffic will convert. A poorly made paid ad is only good for throwing money out of the window, but it won’t bring any results.

So what do you need to make a good ad? Well, it depends on several things, for example, on what platform you advertise, in what format, to whom, and for what purpose, but in general you should pay attention to the following:

• Offer something valuable and relevant
• Your ad should be backed by high-quality content
• Target your ideal audience with PPC ads to drive them to your website

#8 Pay attention to user experiences

User experience (UX for short) is what must permeate every single part of your digital marketing strategy. There are many ways to solve this – the point is to deal with it. Here are some examples of elements that affect the user experience:

• Website Content
• Content style
• Site navigation
• The website’s structure and user interface
• Website speed

 The user experience is also an extremely important aspect of search engine optimization. If Google perceives that your website provides a positive user experience, you will have a much better chance of ranking in the top search positions. These include objective aspects (e.g. everyone likes a website to be fast), as well as subjective aspects that depend on your target audience (e.g. the content and its wording). 

Here are some additional tips to ensure a good user experience: 

First, aim to inform and inspire your target audience with your content. This will create a positive image of your brand in them, which will remain in their memories for much longer. You will also need a customer management strategy that will help you connect more directly with your customers. This strategy will determine all your interactions with your audience, and how you collect and evaluate your audience’s feedback about your brand. This way you can make more informed decisions in the future and provide an even better experience for your prospective and existing customers.

Final Thoughts

These were the easiest 8 digital marketing tips that can help you get ahead of your competitors. No matter what business you are in, achieving success is strongly connected to being able to stand out with your marketing strategy and leaving your competitors behind. These tips and practices work and they are easy to implement in your marketing, even if you are a newbie to the world of online businesses. Many times success doesn’t happen overnight, but if you rely on the right practices, results will come guaranteed.