Have you accepted that digital marketing is the way to reach more customers? But you're uncertain about why you need a digital strategist?
Maybe you're running a Google Adwords campaign and posting on Facebook 3 times a day. But you can't figure out why everyone touts such great digital marketing results. You're certainly not getting the response you expected when you invested in digital.
5 stats will help explain what's going wrong and how working with a digital marketing strategist may be the best decision you ever make.
Only 22% of Businesses are Satisfied with Conversion Rates
This stat is worded in the positive. But flip it around and you have 78% aren't satisfied with their conversion rates.
Most businesses today recognize the importance of digital marketing.
They know that digital marketing is more effective at reaching their customers because it meets them where they are (on the Internet) in a less intrusive way (through social, content, search marketing).
They also know that it helps them reach customers at the right time in that customer's journey -- when they're actually looking for your product or service.
And they have a good idea of what digital marketing is.
They get social on social media. They run some pay per click (PPC) ads on Facebook and Google. They start a blog and begin investing in SEO content assets to engage their target customers.
They develop a series of landing pages to help guide incoming site visitors to buy. They may even invest in some retargeting in which they send targeted ads after someone has visited their website.
But without a digital marketing strategist, their efforts can be disjointed. They're not creating a seamless customer journey across devices or demonstrating consistency in their brand.
They may not have access to -- or not know how to utilize -- data to better understand who their customers are and how best to connect with them.
A digital marketing strategist can help these businesses run more efficient and interwoven campaigns. A digital strategist designs and implements short term and long term strategies to help businesses meet their marketing goals.
$92 Spent on Acquiring Leads; Only $1 was Spent on Converting
Those aren't great odds. It demonstrates a lack of follow-through. Companies are spending all of this money generating more leads.
But either, they're not generating the right kind of leads, like:
- Qualified leads
- The right target audience
- High customer lifetime value (CLV)
Or they don't know how to convert these leads by:
- Optimizing landing pages
- Creating compelling offers
- Providing a seamless user experience
- Maximizing brand strategy
- Generating promoter activity (reviews, shares, likes, recommendations, etc.)
A digital strategist won't simply send a bunch of leads your way and then consider their job done.
They understand how to increase the number of leads entering the sales funnel and turn a higher rate of those leads into paying customers.
The Click Through (CTR) for Native Ads 200% More Effective than Regular Display Ads
Native ads have been around for a long time. But digital has taken them to a whole new level. The idea behind a native ad is that the ads are delivered to customers in a non-threatening way.
Business blogs, sponsored content that looks like an editorial, promoted social media content and search engine ads could all fall into the native ad category.
But making these ads feel, well, "native" requires really understanding the customer and speaking with them in a language they can relate to.
Ultimately, your goal is to make a sale. But you want your target customer to feel that:
- He/she's in control
- He/she discovered you not that you discovered him/her
- You're offering value and customer experience with no strings attached
- You share his/her values
By connecting first in a non-threatening way, the customer is more willing to hear what you have to say.
A traditional ad has less than 7 seconds to get attention and gain interest. It then tells a customer what to do instead of leading them down a path toward choosing their service.
Native ads help customers reach the buy decision in a more natural way that feels like it's on their terms.
A digital marketing strategist understands how to balance promotion with experience. They know how to reach the customer without raising protective barriers that many people have developed to ward off overzealous sales people.
93% of Buy Decisions Influenced by Social; Only 14% Trust Ads
Buyers don't trust ads anymore, they're wise to traditional marketing schemes.
Making an ad not seem like an ad is an art that a digital marketing strategist knows well. While there is a time and place for ads in any digital marketing campaign, a digital marketing strategist understands how to harness social media activity and direct qualified leads back to the website.
They understand how to build brand awareness through social that leads to purchases that lead to customer loyalty.
44% of Marketers Use Big Data Analytics to Improve Responsiveness
You can't run an effective digital marketing campaign today without access to data -- and a lot of it.
Customers and your competition leave endless trails of digital data. You only have to understand how to get your hands on it to use it in your favor.
You need to be able to acquire this data -- typically through multiple sources. You have to aggregate (sort and prioritize) this data to make sense of it. You then analyze the data and develop a course of action.
Most businesses don't have access to the tools needed to accomplish these tasks. And if they do, they may not have the in-house expertise that effectively aggregate and analyze this data to develop effective strategies.
But this is what a digital marketing strategist lives for. They love data, they understand how to make it work for you. They know how to take this data and link it to automation tools that will help you reach the right customers at exactly the right time.
A Digital Marketing Strategist Helps You Achieve the Right ROI
A marketing strategist will use data to optimize all of your digital efforts. That means that you're getting the best return possible on your marketing budget.
At Imagine That Dream Bigger we help attain what may seem impossible with a holistic approach to digital marketing.
To learn more about how our digital marketing strategists can help you get the most out of digital marketing, contact us today.