The document outlines essential digital marketing tactics, emphasizing strategies like SEO, search engine marketing, and content marketing to attract targeted audiences. It also discusses the importance of responsive web design, email marketing, and the use of social media and marketing automation to enhance engagement and conversions. Key trends include local search marketing, influencer marketing, and the rising significance of video content in digital marketing campaigns.

1. Steve Trahanas - Effective Digital Marketing Tactics and Strategies
When it comes to digital marketing strategies, you can create a lengthy scroll of every
available technique or technology available today. While you’ll likely hear plenty of
suggestions that all or some digital marketing strategies are better than others, which ones
are the most essential?
1. SEO
There isn’t anything more important to digital marketing than SEO, something that might
still mystify you in its ongoing complexity. While it’s true Google’s algorithms can still
become confusing, you can better grasp how it works when you work more with the
concept.
It’s always better to have an expert to manage SEO for you if you want to truly succeed.
While you can learn some basics, you’ll want someone who’s worked in it a while to fully
help you realize the best strategies.
One recent strategy involves new HTTPS requirements already impacting SEO results. If
you’re used to using HTTP pages, Google now suggests you to switch to a HTTPS format. The
reasoning behind this is many contact forms using HTTP pages aren’t deemed secure
enough.
Now that Google is going to label these “non-secure”, it’s essential to update your website
with the HTTPS designation. Otherwise, having a “non-secure” stamp on your site could
become a new scarlet letter for your placement on search engines.
2. Search Engine Marketing
If you’re new to search engine marketing, you’ll usually see it abbreviated as SEM. It’s a
form of Internet marketing where you increase your SERPs through paid advertising
methods.
You’ll want an expert to help you in this field as well, especially one who’s worked with
Google Ads and search/display ads. In the case of Google Ads, you’ll want to educate
yourself first on how the process works.
What you’ll appreciate the most is Google makes its Google Ads easy to use through their
attention to customization. They let you choose whether you want graphic display ads,
YouTube video ads, text-based search ads, or in-app mobile ads. All of these are going to
depend on your business style and the targeted customers you need to reach.
Google makes it even easier with localized ad capability, plus superior metrics to track how
well your ads work.

2. 3. Local Search Marketing
You’re seeing a lot more attention on local search marketing in the last few years. It’ll
continue being important far into the coming decade as local businesses realize the value of
being found by local consumers.
To get started with local search marketing, you can again utilize more gifts from Google.
Through Google My Business, you’ll be able to have your listing turn up the second someone
does a Google search based on the user’s keywords. This includes your business appearing
on Google Maps.
4. Content Marketing
As a connective string to inbound marketing above, content marketing is a big part of
attracting a targeted audience. What’s essential about content marketing is that you need
to make your content valuable, relevant, and consistent to make it worth the time of those
consuming it.
In today’s time, you need to focus on creating content that can solve pain points and stay
evergreen. Using shortcuts or black hat SEO tactics just to move to the top of search engines
won’t work thanks to Google’s all-seeing eye.
So always keep “content is king”, as many like to put it. To make content marketing work
well, you need to focus on mobile content, native advertising, influencer marketing, and
marketing automation.

3. Think seriously about mobile content because smart phones are already making up 50% of
all global devices. This is going to affect digital advertising, and how influencers promote
your brand.
Automation tools send content to prospects on their mobile devices at just the right times.
5. Remarketing
Another critical aspect of digital marketing is going after prospects again with marketing
content if they didn’t respond to your site’s banner ads the first time. This works by tracking
these visitors through cookies and creating new ads on related sites.
You can also create new ads on your site to better target your prospects. The information
you get from your site visitors gives you valuable data to tweak your ads to their pain points.
Ultimately, remarketing helps you stay more engaged with prospects, aids in brand
awareness, and increases conversions. You can also gain the customers of your competitors,
helping pay back any investment you place in creating new ads.
6. Responsive Web Design
Reaching customers by mobile is more or less the standard now, and that’s going to go on
into the coming decade. Making your website conform to mobile screens is one of the most
essential parts of digital marketing. The only way you can make this work successfully is
through responsive web design.
With responsive programming, you can make your website automatically conform to all
mobile screens. This is going to mean more than one format, including tablets and
increasing use of smartwatches.
While you’ll have to work with a web designer to make this work, you’ll want an SEO expert
for another aspect of RWD. AMP (or Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a new open-source code
helping to make mobile web pages load faster.
Google gives precedence to websites using this, so take it seriously. It’s especially useful if
you have a publishing site or post content to your website on a regular basis.
7. Email Marketing
No doubt you’ve done some email marketing, but how effective is it in reaching your
intended targets at the right times? Email marketing is already a great tool for generating
more leads than possible through any other marketing method. You can also increase your
sales and conversion rates.

4. If you’re already suffering from overspending on other digital marketing, email marketing is
one of the most affordable methods out there. In some cases, it’s free, unless using
outsourced services.
Since you can combine it with other media, it’s also one of the most integrated marketing
methods. You can add social share icons, plus referral reward systems. Email marketing
ultimately helps you shorten your sales cycles when using compelling content.
8. Social Media Marketing
No doubt you’ve posted content to social media already. Yet, what can you do to make it
more effective this year and the next?
To capture today’s audiences, Forbes notes various things, including automation to post
your content when you know your audience is reading. Using tools like Hootsuite for post
scheduling helps immensely when reaching users in other time zones.
You’ll also want to curate some content if possible to prove your clout. Don’t be too proud
to do this since it adds luster to your expertise and brand. When you curate content from
others, they’ll likely reciprocate.

5. 9. Marketing Automation
As you can see, marketing automation is an important element in a lot of digital marketing
techniques. Knowing more about it, in general, should become a top priority as it becomes a
standard for businesses around the globe.
With 91% of successful businesses now saying automation is very important to their success,
you can get a vision of what the present and future of marketing is.
To become successful with this, try looking for a CRM platform with marketing automation
built-in. These can work together well because your CRM already has contact information.
Automating marketing content directly to your contact list helps you integrate your
marketing all in one place rather than using disparate sources.
10. Influencer Marketing
Have you thought about how you can take on a digital marketing campaign without having
to spend a fortune? While you can save money doing email marketing and inbound
techniques, hiring influencers does the same.
If you think hiring influencers to promote your brand online is all about hiring celebrities,
think again. An influential person on social media doesn’t always have to mean being a
celebrity. It can simply be someone with a lot of followers and a good track record of
promoting products.
Forbes notes you need to identify top influencers first, which is going to involve a little
research. You can do this by doing hashtag searches on places like Twitter to see what
people are saying about topics related to your industry.
Reach out to these influencers on social media and ask them if they’d be willing to promote
your brand. Some may offer to do it in exchange for free products. However, most are going
to demand a fee.
Be sure to track your results to assure your ROI. Keep in mind those with fewer followers
can have just as much influence as those with ten times the amount of followers.
11. Video
Over the last decade, we became a more visual culture attracted to imagery in the digital
realms. A lot of this comes in various forms, but there isn’t any question video rose to the
top.
We’re at the point now where more consumers of content prefer video above any other
visual medium. Recent statistics show 87% of all online marketers now use video content of
some sort.

6. A lot of this comes from massive viewership on places like YouTube. Regardless, where you
post videos isn’t going to matter without compelling content.
The personalized video has become a norm lately, or at least ones directly addressing pain
points of targeted viewers. The same goes with making your business look more human.
Successful video marketing can mean behind-the-scenes tours of your business, or
testimonials to show the human side of your brand. This means paying attention to one
major trend in video marketing: Storytelling.
When you can tell a compelling story about your business and prove you can solve the pain
points of customers, you have a can’t-miss formula.
12. Revisiting Your Landing Pages
If you’ve already created a landing page as part of your digital marketing campaign, are you
sure prospects who visited before are going to come back?
This is a question that should become the central core of your digital marketing efforts. All
marketing experts reiterate how landing page traffic is the nucleus of successful inbound
marketing.
The problem is your landing page perhaps isn’t very enticing at the moment. Solving this (in
part) comes down to web design, including where you place your Call to Action and
advertising.
It goes beyond what you place on your website, though. You’ll want to invest in PPC
advertising (pay-per-click) to place ads for your site on related digital channels.
Other options include buying sponsorships with other companies, or just simple email
marketing. In the latter case, placing a link that takes the reader to your landing page for
further content is a common strategy.
For CTA’s, be sure to include one on your homepage to avoid complications. Even a CTA at
the end of your blog gives a connective string to your content to entice another visitation.