DIGITAL MARKETING PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS, AND SOME STATISTICS

Digital marketing is a fantastic way to reach a huge audience with much lower setup and maintenance costs than ‘traditional media.

That said, there are still a lot of challenges to overcome, and businesses often have the same issues when it comes to increasing engagement and conversions online.

2020 was a challenging and chaotic year for everyone. Business owners, in particular, were hit hard by the pandemic.

Many brick-and-mortar businesses shut down, either temporarily or permanently, due to lockdown restrictions.

Countless others had to regroup and move their businesses online.

This has meant much more competition in SEO, content marketing, and social media for both new and existing digital marketers.

HOW DO I GET MORE SOCIAL TRAFFIC?

We talk about fans, shares, and engagement, but ultimately businesses want their social media efforts to result in traffic and conversions.

If you have plenty of the former, but none of the latter, you need to start referring followers to your site.

The average order value for a social media conversion is £59 (and growing), so your business could be missing out on a lot of revenue if you don’t manage to convert social followers.

• What’s the solution?

Link back to your site – so many businesses forget to do this!

Make sure that your followers know about your new products and latest offers, and don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.

HOW CAN I REDUCE MY BOUNCE RATE?

The average bounce rate is 40-60%, meaning that around half of your web visitors probably leave your site straight after entering.

Improving this figure is far easier than trying to get a lot of new traffic (and losing half of them through bounces), so if you can find any areas to improve it’s definitely worth doing it.

• What’s the solution?

A high bounce rate doesn’t have a single solution; it could be your site speed, your design, or even your main traffic sources.

For example, if you do a lot of PPC and your ads misrepresent what’s on your site, you will get a high bounce rate.

To improve it, you need to measure your site speed and look at your entrance pages, as well as traffic sources, to find the pages and traffic types with the highest bounce rates and draw conclusions from those.

HOW DO I GET WEB TRAFFIC FROM MY LOCAL AREA?

This is quite common in the age of search engines and social media

your content could be getting shared abroad when you only offer services in the Home country.

Since 50% of consumers visit a physical shop within a day of a local search, it’s essential that you stay on top of local search results.

• What’s the solution?

You can’t stop people from elsewhere from accessing your site – even though they’re not your customers, their links can help you climb up the rankings and their shares could reach someone closer to home.

Improving your local search will mean that a larger proportion of traffic comes from your service area, and it means that when people are specifically looking for you they will find you in the right region.

HOW DO I START ENGAGING WITH MY SOCIAL FOLLOWERS?

Social media isn’t just a way to broadcast – it’s a great way to start conversations with your customers and build a stronger bond with them. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t get to that stage.

• What’s the solution?

If you don’t have enough followers, your main focus should be on posting interesting and useful content to build your customer base so that there are enough people to engage and converse with.

If you have reached that point, it’s time to start conversations. It can be tricky, but simply asking questions and asking for engagement is the easiest way to start the discussion.

You may want to get other people in the company to use their own accounts to keep the conversation going to start with so that your followers can see it’s a safe and easy place to engage

Statistics for Digital Marketing

1. Statista estimates that there will be over 295 million mobile internet users by 2023. Mobile shoppers are driving more and more sales when it comes to e-commerce and purchasing all types of goods and services online.

2. AdWhite reports that 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. This speaks to the need to develop trust and optimize customer service as your potential customers have plenty of other options.

3. The 2020 Omnichannel Statistics Report reveals that marketers using at least three channels for campaigns enjoyed 287% more sales than those only targeting a single channel. Omnichannel marketing is essential for reaching today’s consumers.

4. DemandMetric points out that content marketing is 62% less expensive than traditional marketing while generating three times as many leads. As paid advertising costs soar, focusing on quality organic content is a cost-effective way to promote your business.

5.WordStream reveals that 51% of marketing professionals consider video as the type of content with the best ROI. Video is getting bigger every year, and every business needs to incorporate it to reach their audience.

6. According to SocialPilot, LinkedIn posts with images received 200% more engagement than posts only containing text. This principle applies everywhere as the internet is driven more and more by visuals.

7. Search Engine Journal says that SEO leads have a close rate of 14.6%, while leads acquired via outbound methods such as direct mail or print ads only have a 1.7% close rate. This points to the value of inbound marketing tactics like SEO and content marketing.

CONCLUSION

While 2020 brought about many unanticipated changes, don’t expect everything to return to normal in the Future. Many of the disruptions of the previous year will continue well into the future. For example, e-commerce and virtual events are likely to expand even in the post-pandemic world. If you want to succeed in the future and beyond, you need to be extra mindful of targeting the right customers, building your brand, and staying current with the latest happenings with Google and social media.

About the Author

Digital marketing is a fantastic way to reach a huge audience with much lower setup and maintenance costs than ‘traditional media. That said, there are still a lot of challenges to overcome, and businesses often have the same issues when it comes to increasing engagement and conversions online. 2020 was a challenging and chaotic year…

Digital marketing is a fantastic way to reach a huge audience with much lower setup and maintenance costs than ‘traditional media. That said, there are still a lot of challenges to overcome, and businesses often have the same issues when it comes to increasing engagement and conversions online. 2020 was a challenging and chaotic year…