5 Important Digital Marketing Channels For Your Business Growth

A few years ago, people used to go to the bookshops for purchasing books. Automotive manufacturers used to sell their cars in showrooms and garments industry had clothing outlets. Today, although the number of shopping centers is increasing in Europe but at the same time, the number of online shoppers is also increasing. According to United Nations, the world population will reach 8 billion by 2025 which means that more shopping resources will be required to meet the needs of rising population.

According to Global Shopping Centers report, technology and communication has led to global shrinking. Countries with higher number of senior citizens including South Korea, Japan, Singapore and North America, may seem a little challenging in the transformed e-Commerce world.

On the other hand, small and medium-sized businesses prefer e-Commerce for immediate online presence overseas and instant ROI.

As the competition is increasing and more people are moving to e-stores, there is a dire need to review your online marketing strategies for making more business. The smoothest way to dive into the ocean of online marketing is to find out the most resourceful and business making digital channels for marketing your business.

Here are 5 channels to add more to your business growth.

Social Multimedia Marketing

SMM or social media marketing is the engine of online business machine today. It fulfills the primary purposes of attracting more customers, converting visitors into leads, online advertising, improving sales, introducing new products and finding prospect businesses.

Content is the fuel of social media engine. With changing trends, people want less time-consuming, more informative and more attractive content. Google also optimizes the web pages which deliver quality and quantity both.

Social multimedia marketing refers to using different type of media to compose your business promotional content. Images, stock photos, graphical illustrations, infographics, graphical images, 3D pictures, videos, audios, text content, webinars and all other content types are mixed to attract maximum types of visitors on one post.

Popular social networks for social media marketing include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, MySpace, Reddit, and popular blogging websites.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a business which brings profit at both ends. Globalization has shrunk communication and world but for choice makers i.e. customers. For businesses, it has increased local and global competition.

Affiliate marketing is a successful technique to improve your local or region-specific business. For example, following the Global Centers Shopping Report, China is one of the fastest-growing e-markets in the world which means that competition is tough in China.

An affiliate marketing campaign in a country like China will come up with mass coverage and without additional costs. Once your business is promoted locally, you can start working with affiliates on Pay per Click, Pay per Sale or Pay per Lead basis.

Referral traffic is also a form of affiliate marketing. Google algorithms have matured against backlinking therefore the safest strategies for referral traffic are BrandMentions and content sharing. In latter type, you share the content of other websites on your website and in return, they share your content on their websites.

BrandMentions is a term introduced by Google. In BrandMentions, Google records and optimizes the brands searched in its search bar or brand websites which are individually typed. It does not include the brands mentioned in comments or which are hyperlinked for Click-to-Redirect function.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is one of the top most contributors among all digital marketing channels. Modern organic search engine marketing not only helps you promote your business but also improves your online sales and conversions by making your website securer for visitors and increasing SERPs.

Blog is one of the key tools to communicate with the customers and add value to your business. When it comes to devising a digital marketing strategy, content is always the king. Blogging is a source of inbound marketing tactics and according to Hubspot, inbound tactics produce 54% more leads than paid marketing.

For promoting your business on search engines with the help of blogging, here are the tips.

• Increase word count of text content to at least 1000 words.
• Provide qualitative and research based information to the visitors.
• Improve site security by choosing a secure web server. Hire technical web experts to improve off-site security of your web pages against hacker attack.
• For e-shops, make sure to integrate safest shopping carts only.
• Include different types of media in content including image, video, audio and others.
• Use composite keywords or long-tail keywords so that Google may relate the content with your desired niche. For example, pink is a color and Pink is music album as well.

Another way is to promote your blog on social networking sites.

Online and Mobile Display Advertising

The modern concept of online display advertising refers to targeting local or niche-specific audience with the help of graphical images, banner ads, video ads and rich media ads.

Social Network Advertising

There are a variety of channels available for display advertising.

For example, Facebook has introduced Multi-Product Ads in which one brand purchases slot and space on the Newsfeed page where their company ad runs in the form of gallery. You may put various products in the gallery or different images of one product only.

Another way is to integrate different social networking sites for attracting more audiences with one ad only. You can integrate Instagram with Facebook to share countless images of Instagram in the form of your Facebook ad.

Search Engine Advertising

Search engines are also used to advertise your content. Google and Yahoo are the largest advertising forums. You may also advertise on popular websites like Forbes and Reddit.

For launching an advertising campaign on search engines, here is a step-by-step guide.

1. Set up your business goals.
2. Choose payment mode which will also indicate the rate of your success. These include Cost-per-Click, Click-Through-Rate, Cost-per-Impression, Cost-per-Conversion and others on your choice.
3. Define your target audience.
4. Define the networks or forums popular among your target audience.
5. Go to your desired search engine or advertising forum and search ‘paid advertising’, ‘display advertising’, ‘online advertising’ or related keywords. Contact the authorities and start advertising.
6. Keep tracking the success rate of your campaign and make necessary changes when needed.

Mobile Advertising

Out of 3 billion active internet users, there are 1.7 billion active mobile social accounts with a penetration rate of 23%. The increasing number of mobile users is adding value to mobile marketing. Contrary to the common concept, it is not essential to have a mobile app for marketing or promoting your business. There are more creative and cost-effective ways to improve your business promotion through mobile marketing.

Responsive Website

Instead of developing an extra website for mobile phone customers and visitors, you can simply make your existing website responsive for all screen sizes. It is an investment forever.

Mobile Display Ads

Here we are not talking about short service messages. Mobile display ads are web banner and text link ads posted on mobile websites or website which are responsive to all screen sizes.

In-App Mobile Display Ads

There are three types of mobile app-specific ads.

• Branded Apps – A brand creates its personalized app which also promotes the business by redirecting app visitors to the business website.
• Sponsored Apps – These are joint apps owned by the brand and sponsor. These apps promote sponsor’s business as well as your business.
• In-app Ad Unit – The promoter business can purchase a subscription of a mobile app development company and place ads on app in the form of a banner, small but rich media ad (for example image gallery), integrated ads placed in games) or interstitial ad which appears only when the application is loading. In-app ad units may also be placed on websites.

After selecting your desired digital marketing channels, start slowly and track the success rate of your business promotion. Testing the results and making necessary adjustments helps in boosting your ROI.

Although globalization has made online sales competition tough but it has also introduced countless ways to approach your target audience. Mobile and social media are becoming primary platforms of mass communications and online business. Adapting them today will save you tomorrow!