The Coronavirus pandemic accelerated digital adoption across the working world. As a result, organisations across many industries now recognise the importance of a strong and effective digital marketing strategy. They’re also seeing the benefits of combining different techniques to create the ideal mix for their organisation. In The State of In-Housing Report 2022, we look closely at how in-house teams are innovating. We’ve identified differences between industries and see that companies across all sectors recognise the importance of digitisation for their organisation.
The ascendancy of digital has become integral across all organisations, not simply those with a tech focus. Organisations recognise the need to invest heavily in digitally enabled strategies and digital-first business models. Let’s look more closely at the importance of advancing your digital marketing strategies and the core areas of digital marketing to consider for business growth.
In this article we explore how to maximise your digital marketing strategies and the four key forms of digital marketing your business needs:
- The impact of digital marketing strategies
- Content marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Social media marketing
- Video marketing
- Conclusion
The impact of digital marketing strategies?
Your digital marketing strategies are vital in business growth and informing the direction of your marketing and advertising tactics. Marketers need to understand and maximise the most valuable strategies and forms of digital marketing to suit their business. Our report found that 44% of respondents have increased their digital marketing initiatives over the last 12 months, which is likely to increase. Our respondents also shared the ways in which they are growing these digital initiatives, with 41% expanding their e-commerce strategy, 40% expanding shoppable social media tactics and 38% increasing their influencer marketing.
In-house marketers have the added advantage of close and intimate knowledge of their brand, allowing them to create tailored strategies within budget and deliver a range of measurable results, including:
- Increased brand awareness
- Sales and lead generation
- Improved customer engagement
- Improved ROI
- Viral growth
Your business’ approach to digital marketing and the tools you use will depend on your goals and also where you find the bulk of your customers.
Content marketing
Our report found that 48% of respondents have seen demand for content increase in the last twelve months. When done properly, content marketing never fails to impact your business’ growth and customer engagement positively. Hubspot found 48% of companies have a content marketing strategy that leverages blogging, but this is just one form of content you can effectively incorporate into your strategy. A regularly updated website with quality content in a range of formats keeps customers interested and adds value to their experience with your organisation. As well as blogs, organisations can create case studies, eBooks, white papers and image-rich infographics to help keep customers engaged. Using your website as an information and advice hub has become a popular marketing tactic, as customers naturally head to your website when looking for further information. A regularly updated website is also easily shareable across social channels.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has gained significant traction in recent years. The industry is set to be worth $16.4bn by the end of 2022. Gaining traction with influencers used to be limited to product-based brands, but service-based companies are also recognising the benefits of influencers as part of their digital marketing strategy. For example, our State of In-Housing Report found influencer marketing was the top initiative for financial services respondents (30%). Although not a traditional combination you’d expect, it demonstrates how influencer marketing isn’t limited to young, photogenic brands that rely upon trending products. With the right influencer suitable to your niche, you can leverage their audience and reap the benefits.
Identifying influencers can be the hardest part of the process. However, with the growth of niche strategies that focus on micro-influencers, there is space for everyone to benefit from influencer marketing. Micro-influencers are increasingly popular due to the exceptional levels of engagement they get from their followers. They may have thousands rather than millions of followers like you may expect from an influencer, yet their audience are much more engaged. The market share of micro-influencers is increasing steadily, from an 89% share in 2020 to 91% in 2021.
Social media marketing
Social media is one of the most budget-friendly means of digital marketing. It is also relatively straightforward to access valuable target customers and deliver content and information directly into their feeds. As already mentioned, your social media channels are the perfect platform for sharing your content. Hubspot report 45% of marketers are already using infographics over social media, and it’s clear to see why. Social media lends itself perfectly to visual content, and short messaging is easy to share and attract your target customer. The strategy of social listening is also a key component of successful social media marketing. Social listening allows you to monitor and analyse the activity of your target customer and tailor your messaging accordingly.
Video marketing
Our recent report found online video skills are among the most sought after by our respondents. 26% said they have brought in additional online video skills. A further 19% reported they are planning to bring online video in-house soon. The power of video content has never been more evident. Social platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube engage with users at rapid rates, and organisations that want to keep up have to brush up on their video marketing. Short-form video is becoming a vital component of effective digital marketing strategy. Cisco report video will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic by the end of 2022. Furthermore, Wyzowl suggests 86% of businesses in their report are already using video as a marketing tool.
Video’s power is in its versatility. Businesses can use video for a wide range of different purposes, including:
- Demonstration videos for product showcasing.
- Educational and training videos.
- Event videos to show your attendance at industry events and highlight your stand or table.
- Employee interview videos – giving customers more insight into your business.
These are just a few examples of how video can be leveraged as a marketing tool.
Conclusion
Your business’ digital marketing strategy must evolve in line with the consumer. As our The State of In-Housing Report 2022 shows, marketers are more than willing to invest in new digital initiatives to advance their business growth. Any organisation with a growth mindset must modernise and advance its digital marketing strategies to match the consumer’s changing needs.
Would you like to know more about advancing your Digital Marketing Strategies? Book a personalised demo with one of our experts today.
Want our latest articles to your inbox? Subscribe today!
