3 Great Reasons To Go Back To Digital Marketing Basics (And How!)

Quick show of hands:

Who here remembers the Yellow Pages?

That tome of a book was once the go-to business directory of its time.

So, what was it that made it so successful?

Do you know?

Think on that for a second, and I’ll wrap back ’round to it shortly.

More than a book on a shelf, modern digital marketing is constantly vying for your attention.

In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to download an App or watch a clip on YouTube without someone attempting to sell you something…

…with all this noise, it’s no wonder your business’s message is lost to the static.

So how do you break through without breaking the marketing budget?

These two questions share the same answer:

By talking to people when they’re ready to take action. 

That is, when they come to you.

Crazy marketing campaigns? Fancy Facebook advertising? It’s all a waste of time and money if you don’t get the basics right.

But if you do? You’ll be in the best position to focus on the people that are looking for you.

The people who are more likely to convert into leads, enquiries, and sales.

Let’s find out how!

1Go toe-to-toe with technical issues

Picture this:

Months in the planning, your Facebook Ad campaign has just gone live and it’s safe to say your business has a lot riding on this.

Literally! You’ve spent big.

You also couldn’t be more excited to harness the power of social media for your business…

…only, there’s an issue.

The stats show that people clicking on your advert aren’t sticking around.

But why?

It turns out they’re losing interest because your site is loading so slowly.

This is just one way technical issues cripple even the best marketing campaign:

• Can you imagine a promoted Tweet that points people to a page that renders incorrectly on mobile devices?
• What about an AdWords ad that delivers users to a 404 Error Page?
• Or a Contact Us button that just doesn’t work?

‘It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!’ is a common quip in the tech space, but it won’t help you when those bugs cripple your ability to generate enquiries, leads, and sales.

Ensure your site is healthy, and you’ll maximise your marketing efforts.

It doesn’t get much more back-to-basics than that!

Tech issues? Take care of them with these 3 top tips

• Solidify your site’s structure! Add a robots.txt, Sitemap.xml, and HTML Sitemap to ensure Search Engines and users alike can navigate your site.
• Attention spans are short! 3 seconds kind of short, in fact. Hold their interest with short load times and a responsive website design.
• Broken links are just that, broken! People are unlikely to push on past a dead end if they’re on the fence, so keep your links alive and active.

2Sell a solution, not a product

Here’s a question for you:

Who is your business really?!

I ask because it’s easy to broaden your scope in an attempt to hit your targets.

Only, this is the opposite of what you want to be doing: you don’t want to become a jack of all trades, but master of none.

More and more often, people turn to specialists for their individual needs.

Whether that’s accounting, real estate, or anything in-between.

My advice? Avoid the mid-life business identity crisis! 

You’ll just end up wasting more money chasing leads that aren’t interested, and be left wondering where your marketing budget went.

Instead, go back to basics and take a long hard look in the mirror.

Or, go back to the drawing board and define what makes your business different.

What do your customers want?

How can you help?

Develop your core message, and how you solve your customers’ problems.

And then let them know by:

Problems? Promote solutions to client pain points

• Build business with blog posts! Blog about your customers’ pain points and how to address them to effortlessly guide them to your solutions.
• Frequently answer their questions! No matter the industry, business, or product, there’s always a common set of questions on the tip of your customers’ tongues, so ensure you have answers on-hand.
• Promote your products with copy that converts! By adding great content to important service, product, or category pages you’ll boost your search relevance and better sell to curious customers.

3Make the most of proven strategies

It’s pretty clear by now:

The online world is a competitive space.

After all, it’s what took the Yellow Pages from invaluable resource to doorstop or monitor prop!

When the rubber meets the road – or the money meets the marketing, so to speak – it’s all too easy to get caught out attempting to one-up your competitors.

Who will, in turn, attempt to one-up you!

It’s a cycle with nothing but the end of your marketing budget in sight.

With all of these options at your fingertips?

I don’t blame you!

This is why it’s crucial to step back and take stock, returning to the basics and doing the little things well in order to maximise your potential reach.

It’ll even enhance your future efforts, too!

Boosting sales? It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3…

• Improve your click through and conversion rate! All the page views, traffic, and other metrics won’t mean much if you’re unable to convert, so ensure your site is maximising Calls-To-Action, Sign-Ups, and other methods.
• Optimise for your target audience! It’s easy to stuff keywords into Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Headings…it’s more difficult to remember to optimise these areas to your target market with mentions of your brand name and location.
• List with the modern day Yellow Pages! The old book may be all but dead and buried, but the Yellow Pages lives on through Google My Business, Google Maps, so list with these places and ensure you’re found where customers are looking for you.

Any thoughts or ideas? We want to hear from you! Leave your comment below.