Consumers are always evolving— shifting away from the old in pursuit of the latest trends. Businesses have been slow to evolve alongside their consumers.  Companies everywhere are clinging to irrelevant marketing platforms: billboards, newspaper ads or radio spots.

Now, the consumer’s attention is digital— rather than watching a commercial, they scroll through their social feeds.  Their news is delivered via an app and we’re lucky if a driver is looking at the road instead of their phone.

Now is the opportunity for your brand to get creative. Rather than think of traditional ways to market your brand, it’s time to put yourself in the consumers’ shoes. Your eyes glaze over traditional advertisement— and so do theirs.

Understand where the attention is at, and market there. With 10 hours and 39 minutes of the day dedicated to staring at a screen according to a Nielsen Company report, the answer is digital marketing.

These tips are effective ways to get your brand’s name out there and on the platforms that your consumers are looking at daily.

Evaluate Your Brand

Before you implement new strategies or axe others— it’s important to do an internal evaluation. Note all of the digital marketing your brand is currently doing. Discover what’s working, and make necessary improvements. If you aren’t seeing a return in certain areas, find a way to adjust.

Starting with an evaluation allows you to understand the strength of your digital presence today, and allows you to monitor your progress effectively.

Understand the Demographics

One of the first questions to ask yourself when you begin digital marketing is, “what platforms are my customers using?” Each social media platform has their own unique demographics.  Do a little research to understand where your target market spends their time. If you know that consumers are really active on Twitter, and ignore LinkedIn, it is logical to focus attention on Twitter. Rather than taking a one-size fits all approach, interact and engage with consumers through a customized approach to each platform. 

Use Profiles to Your Advantage

Great resources are readily available to you for free, if you know where to look.  Free business listings on Google, Yellow Pages and Yahoo offer business profiles that are constantly viewed by new consumers. By keeping your company’s listing updated and detailed, you’re increasing your target reach.

Helpful Tip: Be sure to verify your business’s location through Google. Doing so not only adds your location to web searches and the Google Maps app, but it also raises your business listing on the search platform.

Join the Movement

When it comes to spending your advertising dollars, the proof is in the numbers. Need another reason to begin marketing your brand digitally? Your competition is already doing so. In fact, by 2021, digital marketing spending is expected to be at $118 billion according to Forrester Research. Allocating budget dollars to digital ads or social media boosts can be a very effective way of getting your brand seen and gaining a greater customer-base. 

Check For Results

Analytic tools on social media platforms have become a great resource for businesses to make intelligent decisions about the future. Once you establish your social media pages as a ‘business profile,’ you can monitor the results of your posts, followers, impressions and engagement.

This data helps you understand what is working socially for your brand, and what needs to be tweaked. You can check your analytics as often as you’d like, but it is important to avoid obsessing over it. The best marketing strategies take time to reach peak performance, and require consistent evolution to reach your goals. 

There is no longer any doubt digital marketing should be part of your overall marketing mix. Digital marketing expenditures reached a record $60 billion in 2016, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual report. 

Today, the question is how much of your strategy should be digital. Not sure? We can help.