Digital marketing is one click away from every prospect.
It’s much more than online marketing. It’s on-time marketing because digital channels have an uncanny way of feeding us what we want when we want it.
Do you know why digital marketing is receiving more than half of annual marketing budgets these days? There are a ton of statistics that would justify the confidence, but consider one hot trend: In 2020, U.S. adults spent 13 hours, 38 minutes with media per day and more than half (i.e. 7 hours, 50 minutes) was spent with digital media. By 2022, digital media will account for 60.2% of total U.S. media time.
Remember one of the first rules in marketing? Go find your tribe and get in front of them.
Well, guess what? They’re on digital media—hopefully right alongside your brand, which needs to keep pace with this growing trend.
To make sure you’re focusing your efforts, a digital marketing campaign can be broken down into three components that include earned media, owned media and paid media.
Since the launch of the internet in the 1990s, owned media has taken root in every marketing budget. It’s great because it allows your organization to control the story—and that’s very valuable. There’s also earned media, which is really an old tactic, that leverages third-party assets to amplify your story. If done correctly, you can get a lot of bang for your buck with earned media.
But this blog will focus on the heavy hitters, the digital marketing gems that generate leads quickly and around the clock.
Let’s review five paid media tactics that generate leads:
1. Digital Marketing Starts With SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a practice that speaks to algorithms, which determines how high your company will show up in search results. When it comes to web traffic—SEO’s specialty— it delivers quality and quantity.
SEO works hand-in-hand with your content, which is why this service is part of your paid media strategy, as well as your owned and earned media program.
You should start with the technical aspects of SEO. This technical part makes it easy for search engines to index your web pages. For example, verify your website with Google Console, submit an XML sitemap to various search engines and optimize your site structure and URL structure to make it easy for search engines to work with your website.
On-page SEO looks at all things you can do on the web page, such as optimizing page titles, H1 tags as well as subheadlines (i.e. H2, H3) throughout your content, which increase time duration on your pages, but it also helps web crawlers connect you with the right prospects who are searching for answers. And don’t forget to optimize your images, which runs the gamut from filename, file size and ALT text that is written copy that appears in place of the image, benefiting visually impaired readers and overall search rankings.
Off-page SEO pertains to scoring backlinks back to your website from other high-ranking websites, a digital form of respect that demonstrates your expertise in a certain area. It culminates in a score called domain authority—and the higher, the better. But make sure you have invested most of your energy at first in the on-page stuff, which builds a solid foundation before taking your campaign to new heights with the off-page tactics.
When software-as-a-service company BOAST asked CMA for a more product-focused approach, we updated the website with SEO best practices and conversational copy, including FAQs and imagery. We also designed and tested landing-page copy alone with producing an educational video. The 12-month campaign generated 16,774 total users, 16,835 new users and 32,835 pageviews.
When IM Supply, which provides electrical and lighting maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) solutions across North America, asked us for a new digital look, we gave them a new website that included SEO best practices, FAQs, new imagery and engaging content. We also added an animated explainer video and industry blogs to improve our on-page component.
As a result, the new website had 13,046 users during a four-month period, a 387.7% increase compared to the same prior year. In all, the campaign delivered 28,571 pageviews, a 440.2% increase.
2. Digital Marketing Buys Time With Search Ads
When it comes to business, time is often more valuable than money. That’s why your digital marketing program should include search advertising, also known as PPC.
Search ads are special because they capitalize on a prospect’s intent and provides an instantaneous answer to their problem. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where you could go and ask for help about anything? Well, there is. It’s the search box on your favorite search engine. And when you type in your problem and click, you receive search ads and listings.
Search ads reach prospects when they are deeper down the buy cycle; that’s what makes this tactic so valuable. At this point, the prospect has already gone through the “Awareness” stage and determined they have a problem that needs to be addressed. Now, they are considering possible solutions. What a great time for your ad to pop up!
Successful search ads begin with copywriting that sells the “pain” to connect with the prospect. Great stories, even five-word stories coupled to an eye-catching image, begin with “why.” Add a strong headline and a direct call-to-action and you’re more than halfway there.
Create at least three ad extensions, which are additional pieces of information that make them more relevant to your intended audience. Seller reviews, links to your website and phone number are examples of the little things that can make a big difference.
Like any marketing tactic, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Make sure you look beyond clickthrough rates (CTRs). Review analytics for impressions, clicks and conversions. Then, tweak copy to continually improve.
When First Bank wanted to promote its personal banking campaign, CMA launched search and display advertising campaigns in two targeted counties. The campaigns, which covered a total of four months, yielded an impressive 1.93% CTR along with 4,960 total clicks and 729,42 impressions. During the same time, new users increased 27.9% on First Bank’s website and time duration jumped 101.7%.
3. Digital Marketing Deepens Engagement With Social Media Ads
Social media has become word-of-mouth. It’s great at turning shared interests into new relationships, especially during times of uncertainty. Last year, 50% more people increased their time on social channels.
From a business perspective, you will need multiple “touches” with a prospect to generate a conversion. Social media is the perfect tactic that gets the job done. It helps them recognize a problem and provides solutions to solve the problem—around the clock, day after day.
That’s why you should include social media advertising as part of your lead-gen marketing campaign. Consider some statistics from 2020: 1) Average cost-per-million (CPM) cost on social media was $4.33, 2) Average CTR for social media ads was 1.3%, a slight increase from the prior year, and 3) 83% of B2B marketers used social media advertising and ranked its success second only to search engine marketing.
To get better results with social media advertising, make sure to leverage popular keywords in your ads, as well as hashtags that speak directly to your prospective audience. When you set up your ads, invest in higher-value action that goes beyond engagement. Focus on app installs, leads and video views, which bring your prospects even closer to the checkout page.
When an LED manufacturer wanted digital sales leads from six different audiences, CMA developed 70 original pieces of content—blogs, press releases, guides, case studies and landing pages—and delivered them directly to their prospects with social media advertising.
As a result, CMA’s digital marketing campaign produced 500 leads. The social media advertising campaign generated more than 810,900 impressions and more than 13,000 clicks to high-target web pages via Facebook and LinkedIn ads. Web traffic increased to 265,662 sessions, 152,049 users and 908,924 pageviews.
4. Digital Marketing Finds Prospects With Geo-Fencing
Imagine walking into our favorite store and your cellphone starts to ping. You just received a buy-one-get-one offer—from the store that you’re in. Coincidence? Nope. That’s probably an example of geo-fencing, which is a digital marketing service that uses GPS and your location to put the right message in front of the right people in the right space.
It uses radio frequency identification (RFID), Wi-Fi, GPS or cell data to prompt a marketing action when the mobile device enters or exits a geographic boundary.
There’s a bunch of evidence that underscores the value: 1) 71% of consumers prefer a personalized experience, 2) 75% of consumers complete an action after receiving an ad when approaching a specific location, and 3) 53% of shoppers visit a retailer after receiving a location-based ad.
To set up the campaign for success, limit your geography. Remember, the value of this tactic is that your prospects are physically nearby. Set up the virtual perimeter so it’s about a five-minute radius. In urban settings, it should cover people within a five-minute walk. But in suburban or rural settings, it should cover a five-minute drive.
In addition, make sure your call-to-action is clear, direct and includes urgency. Your prospects are where you want them; now is the time to upsell.
When Amerlux, an award-winning B2B LED lighting manufacturer, asked us to create buzz around their industry event, CMA delivered a two-fold digital marketing and geo-fencing advertising campaign that ensured Amerlux would get in front of the right person at two high-profile lighting conferences.
Amerlux successfully unveiled its new set of LED lighting products at LEDucation and LightFair and captured the attention of its two primary audiences—architects and lighting designers—digitally and in-person over a combined five months. As a result, the geo-fencing component helped generate a combined 821,951 impressions at two conferences during a 2½ -month period.
5. Digital Marketing Stays Top of Mind with Retargeting
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a digital marketing service that stays in front of your prospects after they leave your website.
Have you ever noticed seeing an ad for the website you just left—on another website? Weird? Nope. That’s retargeting.
It’s also good value. Only 2% of your prospects will buy your product or service on their first visit, so it makes good business sense to stay in front of them, especially since you know they know and like your brand enough to visit your website at least once. That’s a big head start. Don’t give away that advantage.
Consider the statistics:
- Retargeted web visitors are 43% more likely to convert.
- Website visitors who have been retargeted are 70% more likely to convert.
- Compared to search, email and other display ads, 91% of marketers find that retargeting performed better.
Linking your retargeting copy to the sales funnel will help increase conversions. For example, the first ad might promote your site’s homepage, while the second one promotes your product pages. Also, target high-intent prospects like the individuals who made it to the cart or filled out the contact page or viewed several webpages, which infers a level of engagement and interest.
When a lighting manufacturer wanted to stay in front of event attendees, CMA leveraged retargeting campaigns that tallied 1,132 combined clicks over nearly a three-month timeframe. The ads garnered a 0.15 percent clickthrough rate and a 0.13 CTR at each event.
Paid media adds monetary value to the rest of your marketing campaign because it often serves as the last part that compels a prospect to covert. It’s a crucial part of any digital marketing campaign that finds your leads wherever they are.
Do you want to learn more about how digital marketing can work for your business? Contact us today, to start the conversation.