Digital marketing has always been important in business, and any self-respecting businessman worth his salt knows that. However, the global events happening right now have underlined and emphasized that importance even more. With the worldwide pandemic restricting our physical interactions to the barest minimum, the digital marketplace has grown well above any expectations to help businesses increase sales.

With this being the case, digital marketing became not just part of a business but the key to its very survival. This article will cover how digital marketing can be used to increase overall profit online. Digital marketing has never been more relevant than in today’s world of social distancing.

The Top 7 Digital Marketing Techniques to Increase Sales

Simply put, digital marketing is advertising made through digital channels, such as websites, social media platforms, web applications, and mobile applications. In this day and age of instantaneous communication, it makes a lot of sense. Almost everyone on the planet is connected and within easy reach of content, making digital marketing extremely successful.

Below are seven of the most widely used techniques on how to drive sales using digital marketing.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Many consumers do their research online first before deciding to buy a particular service or product. To make matters even more complicated, very few even turn to the next page of the search engine results page when they search. What this translates to is that only those that make it to the very top of the search results can get leads and sales.

The overall catchphrase for the way to make it to the top is SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is the process to make sure that websites rank on the first page of the search engine results page. SEO is crucial, and at the heart of an effective SEO campaign are the keywords.

Essentially, keywords are words that are used by people searching for your products in the process of making a purchase. Therefore, it is essential to find out what these keywords are, and once you find them, incorporate them in all of your digital marketing efforts.

You can use specific tools for SEO keyword research and even hire people to do it for you. Once you decide on a digital marketing campaign, it will start with keyword research, so never skimp out on this process.

Related Guide: SEO 101— Learn the Basics of Search Engine Optimization | SEJ

2. PPC Advertising

Another popular (and for a good reason) way of achieving success in making sure your products make it to the first page of Google is PPC or pay-per-click advertising. Simply put, you pay Google for every click you get on your ad.

One of the best things about a PPC campaign is that you can use it across multiple platforms, such as search engines, social media, and even app-based advertising.

The goal is to make potential buyers to your website’s landing page, where your content will then play a critical role in making sure that the customer stays interested in your product. This is the perfect chance to introduce the next item on our list, which is content creation.

Related Guide: PPC 101 — A Complete Guide to Pay-Per-Click Marketing Basics | SEJ

3. Content Creation

Content can be many things, but it’s mainly the things you put into your website or platforms relevant to the services or products. The main focus is to reach, engage, and connect with your would-be customers via your shared passion.

Content can be articles, blogs, videos, or even infographics that create reactions and keep your target audience engaged while inserting a call to action to buy your products.

For example, if you are selling succulents, your content can be a beginner’s guide to caring for them or the top three kinds that are easy to care for. The critical information here is that although the content is designed to entice customers to purchase, it still must provide value to the reader or viewer. This way, your one-time customers can become repeat customers.

4. Social Media Marketing

Another indispensable part of digital marketing is social media. Practically everyone on the planet uses it at one point in a day, and any business that overlooks this fact faces doom. The staggering potential of social media platforms to reach an audience is always something that business owners take advantage of. This is why no business is without any social media presence these days.

The primary focus of SMM (social media marketing) is mainly to build brand awareness and interact with potential and existing customers. However, as the platform’s popularity increases, many have integrated point of sale applications embedded in their social media sites. This allows social media to be a powerful digital marketing tool, becoming an all in one-stop-shop for consumers.

5. Email Marketing

It is a well-known fact among digital marketers that email is the most cost-effective way to conduct digital marketing to potential customers. With a whopping 4400% return of investment, email marketing is hard to beat.

To put that into perspective, if you happen to invest $1, you will get $44 in return for it. This massive ROI emphasizes email marketing as an indispensable tool in your digital marketing arsenal.

The great thing about email marketing is that there is an abundance of tools to automate them for you. Analytics are almost always a part of the package and are extremely important in campaigns. To have the ability to know what works and what does not is excellent value indeed.

Related Article: Crafting the Future Course of Email Marketing With Artificial Intelligence

6. Video Marketing

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Video marketing is digital marketing with the sole focus on creating videos for consumers. It works the same as content creation but solely focuses on videos. Video marketing focuses and leverages the search engine YouTube, which ranks as the world’s second-largest search engine.

What does being the second mean in terms of searches? It means 3 BILLION searches per month, which is more than enough for businesses to take notice.

The same goals apply to video marketing, and that is primarily to promote brand awareness but, at the same time, provide real value to those who engage. Value is the only constant that will make sure your customers stay as your customers, because yes, customers are a picky bunch.

Related Report: The State of Video Marketing 2020

7. Retargeting

Ads retargeting or remarketing is trying again to reach the customers when the first attempt did not work. Retargeting can be done as many times as possible so long as the target audience does not opt-out of any subscriptions or email campaigns you might have active at any given time.

It does not mean that you just bombard your clients with ads, though, but depending on the analytics on how well the previous ad was received. If the reception is warm enough, you can now target those that responded positively on the same lines and prepare a new strategy for those that rejected the previous attempt. Most ad campaigns work this way; essential to pay attention to your audience’s likes and, more importantly, avoid what they do not like.

Related Guide: Dynamic Creative: Everything You Need to Know for Better Retargeting

In conclusion

These seven techniques are in no way comprehensive, as we are sure that there are others. However, they are of paramount importance to any digital marketing campaign. Truth be told, following and sticking to even just a couple of them will undoubtedly impact any business positively.