There are myriad aspects to digital marketing that require deep thought, analysis, patience, and perseverance.
When you choose to make your money through the infinite possibilities the internet provides, navigating the online ‘chaos’ takes lateral, logical thinking and good habits gained from experience.
Here are seven basic habits digital marketing your business needs to adopt in order to make it in this constantly evolving and demanding global marketplace.
Habit One: Thinking in Terms of Psychology
A key part of conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is getting into the minds of your customers and making the best efforts to ‘mould’ their thoughts to encourage them to buy. Aspects of CRO like social proof, anchoring and creating authoritative content should be continually audited. You need to get good at objection handling, negotiation, and appealing to people’s drivers.
Audience research driven by data insights will help you formulate messages that really resonate with consumers’ changing tastes. You need to be thinking long-term, not just hacks and gimmicks. Try to build a brand that people just can’t resist or say ‘no’ to — content and CRO will both play a big part in this.
In everything you do as a business, you should be looking to solve your customer’s’ problems.
Habit Two: Thinking Critically
When doing research at every stage of the production process, it can be easy for business owners to stick rigidly to their findings and ‘see things through to the end’ even if a campaign is clearly not bringing the results you had hoped. The whole point of digital media is embracing the feedback loop, and engaging with what your customers want from an online interaction. You need to take a step back and get some critical distance in order to truly evaluate your own marketing efforts.
Testing frequently, even for social postings, will prevent your team from getting complacent in their ‘angles’ and output. It needn’t take up a lot of time and there are low-cost ways to analyse, A/B split test, and make adjustments to ensure that your output always makes an impact for the right reasons.
Habit Three: Updating Your Tools
Efficiency is a priority in any supply chain. If you can reduce the instances of human error by lowering the ‘points of human contact’ in the production line, you can speed-up your processes and use your skills in more useful areas.
Digital marketers have reaped the benefits of using automated tools in their work for years. Project management software, digital marketing tools, schedulers, analytics, there are new technologies appearing all the time. Constantly keep an eye on ways new tools can help you increase productivity, lower your costs and keep the number of mundane tasks down to a minimum.
Habit Four: Learning More About Your Customers
As mentioned previously, ‘getting into the minds’ of customers begins with research of their common queries and problems. How have they got to where they are today? What is their mindset, and what messages inspire them to build a better life for themselves?
Instead of just being on ‘send’ mode, embrace the merits of social listening, customer surveys, and collaborations between marketing and support teams. You need to really get under their skin in order for your marketing to feel genuine.
One way to get the most out of customer research, is to build habit-forming experiences into your retention plan. Think about how you can use the power of habits to bring your brand closer to your customers’ everyday lives.
Habit Five: Sharing Expertise & Experience
Marketing and PR companies encourage businesses to establish themselves as experts in their chosen field. The opportunities for free publicity are greatly increased if a brand has a unique and distinct voice ready and is willing to dispense authoritative advice to journalists at short notice.
Creating content and a social media profile that truly reflects the human aspects of your business will help you make an impact on the wider commercial market. The passion and skills demonstrated in getting your business off the ground is part of your brand’s ‘story’ and you can share this with your fans to build up a loyal following of people who want to see you succeed.
Habit Six: Expanding Skillsets
When you start out in marketing, you know very little in terms of the tools and conventions of what makes a great ad or website. The learning curve at the beginning is steep and marketers know that the path of learning never really ends.
Professional development is an essential part of a marketer’s survival in this industry. Simply put, the rules change with every search engine update and competitors are constantly finding new ways to strive. Digital marketers need to get into the habit of educating themselves on aspects of their industry, as well as wider trends and technologies on a daily basis. And as a business owner, you should share this same learning mindset in order to give you the competitive edge.
Habit Seven: Making Connections
Building relationships within your chosen industry is encouraged for both marketers and brands. Every development, trend, and product is being talked about somewhere online and you need to ensure that you are part of the conversation.
Networking in-person is just as important as social networking and there are a range of ways you can get out there and meet like-minded business owners. For instance, there is a range of apps for fellow professionals, as well as free and paid-for conferences. If you can, you should aim to attend an event twice a year and make a new contact within your industry at least once a month, on social media or in-person.
The habits digital marketers acquire in their profession helps them remain adaptable to the changing needs of clients, consumers, and industries as a whole. Adopting their mindset and keeping your operations flexible can help your business succeed too.
Victoria Greene is an ecommerce branding expert who loves to help niche businesses grow online. She’s also a freelance writer and runs her own blog at victoriaecommerce. I’m a big fan of crime novels & I love walking my dogs when I get some downtime.
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How Targeted Marketing Moves Customers Through the Sales Funnel
Effective Link Building Strategies for 2018
Increase Your Conversion Rate with Simple Psychology
Helping Small Businesses Grow and Adapt with Marketing Automation
