Digital Marketing is the most important things you can do in the coming months and years to promote your brand. One misconception about digital marketing is that it’s all about advertising. While advertising does play a role, there is a lot more to digital marketing than just creating commercial ads. You need to establish yourself as a thought leader and producer in your industry.
Srish Agrawal: A Leader in Business and Entrepreneurial Thinking
You also need to adopt an approach that includes DIY media and marketing. Not every company will want to create their own media, nor will they have the tools or the budget to do so. But there is a trend that is coming that involves creating your own content that projects the ideologies and strengths of your own business.
This is something Srish Agrawal has done extremely well with over the years. Not just for himself, but also for the brands, businesses, clients and individuals he has worked with as well. With all of this in mind, we’ve been able to compile a list of top digital marketing trends and working methods to follow in 2018.
A Word About Digital Marketing Types
Digital marketing itself includes any type of digital asset that you use to help grow your brand or online business. Some of the most common types of digital assets that you can use are listed below:
1. Blogs
Blogs are a part of a business website that is often located on the same URL as a company website. They may be a separate link on the main website or there may be an off-site blog that serves as the company blog. Either way, a blog can be used for communicating to customers or visitors about your business.
2. Websites
Your website is the main focus of your digital properties and should be the center of activity regarding your business site. You should have your sales pages to major products available on your main site, as well as a “subscribe” button for people to subscribe to your newsletter or other assets.
3. eBooks
Writing an eBook can add to your digital assets and help you develop credibility with your brand. You can link out to your videos and other assets in your eBook, as well as linking back to your main website.
4. Videos
Videos help create a visual journey that your customers can take through your brand or product line. Use animated videos or other types of video to engage and entertain your audience and increase your conversions.
5. Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to resonate with another portion of your potential audience. It is a portable type of media and can be taken with them to listen to later. You may be able to reach people through audio that you don’t reach through other means.
6. Social media posts
Social media is still one of the most important ways to reach your target audience. Use it often to attract your customers through visual media and engaging text.
7. Slideshows
Using PowerPoint or Slideshare to create your message can help you pull in more people than traditional media. Slideshare also allows you to target your audience and invite people to see your show online and share with others.
All of the above digital marketing assets are valuable tools to use as you start to plan for the coming year in 2018. It’s never too early to start planning when it comes to planning your digital marketing strategy.
Our Tips for Digital Marketing in 2019
Srish offers the following valuable tips when planning your 2019 marketing strategy, using the important types of media listed above.
1. Use your website and blog in a complementary way to attract the most people.
One way you can do this is to update your blog weekly with fresh content. This will keep your site and blog higher in the search engines and encourage others to connect with your brand.
2. Post on social media daily.
People are on social media daily. Millions of people on Facebook and Twitter are looking for new content from their favorite brands. If you have many followers on Facebook or Twitter, they will be notified anytime you post updates or offer new information to your fans. This can create a bigger impact on your social media success.
3. Use eBooks and podcasts to increase your following on different platforms.
If you want to work on improving your credibility, use eBooks that you can link out to your website. It’s also a good idea to create a link from your website to your eBook online. This can help readers and visitors see that you are credible and an influencer in your field of industry. By using eBooks and podcasts to get your brand out there, you’ll also get to people on various platforms that might not otherwise see it.
4. Use videos on social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to increase your reach.
Video increases conversions by a minimum of 65%. Customers who view a video on a product or service are much more likely to purchase. So use video on all of your platforms, including your main landing page, blogs, and social media pages.
5. Learn from influencers in your area.
Entrepreneurship is a lone activity. But it helps to connect to people in your industry to increase your credibility. By connecting with top influencers in your field, you can use this influence to gain some respect from people who do not yet know you. This can help you build trust with your brand as you are growing your business.
6. Think beyond the commercial ad.
If you are going to master digital marketing, you need to consider it to be beyond commercial advertising. Make your message less sales-oriented when you produce videos or podcasts or other assets. This will appear to the potential client that you are trying to help them, rather than sell them something. This can help you gain trust from your audience.
7. Be a rainmaker.
A “rainmaker” is anything which has the power to create a revenue stream for your business. The Rainmaker FM website makes a great point in their podcast entitled, “Why the New Rainmaker is the Digital Content Producer.” In this episode, this digital marketing firm talks about how anyone can publish content nowadays and how small businesses are in a much more powerful position than they think. They go on to say that focusing on the power of being able to create and produce your own content is the key to success for small businesses.
You are the producer and you can adopt a smart content development strategy that has no restrictions on corporate media or other “powers that be” that empower you to reach your customer through your digital media with no “red tape” or other factors between you and your potential customer.
8. Focus on mobile.
With over 4.93 billion users predicted to be active on mobile devices by 2018, you’ll need to make sure that your content is mobile-friendly and that you have used positive UX with your design. You should try out your content on multiple devices and platforms so that you will know it will work for various devices and platforms.
9. Be an “entreproducer.”
This is a new term coined by Brian Clark, media, and digital marketing expert. An entreproducer is an entrepreneur who is in tune with the importance of creating and developing their own content. The more you can create a connection between your content and your audience, the more conversions you will make.
10.Just do it.
To borrow from Nike on this one, “just do it.” This means that you should see yourself in a multiplicity of roles and create a plan for execution of every project that is practical and results-driven. In short, just start something and see how well it works. You can always change it later if you need to.
We hope these tips will help you to get into the “content creation” mindset and to take charge of your digital marketing in 2018. Producing content yourself is a new way of thinking and it takes some thought and organization. But the opportunity for growth through content marketing is immense and it cannot be ignored.
An Integrated Approach
Use all of your resources together to create your content for your business. Statistically, most businesses do not produce their own content. But the ones who do may be the leaders of tomorrow as the content marketing craze rages on.
First, you have to change your thinking from a high-end ad strategy thinking to one that empowers your own business to be the producer of your content. But who is better to do it than you?
The year 2018 looks good for those who jump on the “do it yourself” content approach. Maybe you’ll be the next one to join the success train.