According to a Nielsen audience report released last year, American adults spent an average of 10 hours and 39 minutes of each day staring at a screen during the first quarter of 2016 — a one hour increase over the same time period just one year prior. Since marketing is all about being at the right place and the right time to meet your customers, present times dictate that as a marketer, you have to meet the customers where they are spending most of their time, and that is online.
The pervasive nature of digital marketing means that consumers can access information anytime, anywhere. The days when customers used to know only the information businesses wanted them to know are long gone.
Digital media has provided a platform for entertainment, socializing and shopping. This means that customers not only get to know what you say about your brand or products, but also what the media and their friends and relatives say about it as well.
Customers want brands that personally relate to them, and this can only be enhanced through relevant and personalized communication that is tailored to suit the needs and preferences of the consumer. The importance of digital marketing can therefore not be understated. This is exactly why as a business, you need to have a digital marketing team with the relevant skills to target an increasingly informed audience.
SEO and Content Marketing
Any business looking to carve out an online niche for itself has to make use of search engine optimization. SEO is the best way to improve your business rankings when specific keywords are searched by potential clients. However, filling your website with a host of keywords is not sufficient. Content marketing is required for you to take full advantage of the way search engines track SEO.
Content marketing can be defined as the regular updating of a website with relevant information targeting a specific audience with the aim of retaining and increasing that audience. Knowing the content that resonates well with your audience is the first step to making full use of content marketing. It helps not only in keeping the customers you already have, but also targets new ones through a diverse online content startegy that include articles, eBooks, PowerPoint and many others.
Because your business or organization will be the main agenda, the targeted keywords will be seamlessly featured throughout your content, which will significantly drive your SEO capital.
Maximizing Results
In order to fully utilize SEO and content marketing, it is important to write content that gives you a solid foundation, is easily understandable to your targeted audience and helps them understand your products better. Desperate businesses will hurriedly craft poor content stuffed with keywords just to fill the SEO quota. This is one blunder to avoid at all costs. Keyword stuffing is detected by search engines, and it can significantly hurt the chances of your website earning top rankings.
The Power of Retargeting/ Remarketing
We often see products “following” us online. You may notice these products every time you log in to your Facebook page. Many people in fact end up buying those products, possibly believing it is fate that brought them together. This is actually the power of “remarketing.”
Many people are unfamiliar with how remarketing works. In simple terms, users are “cookied” when they visit a website. A code is placed on that page, and it triggers ads to follow the ‘cookied’ user on the web — be it on social media or any other online page with advertisements. This allows users to see the ads on sidebars or top banners of other sites. Remarketing can be used to target all visitors or visitors who open specific pages of your website. Either way, it is one of the best ways of retaining your audience.
Facebook Remarketing
Facebook remarketing, on the other hand, works in a similar fashion as remarketing, but only targets Facebook users. Remarketing in Facebook is often referred to as “Custom Audiences” but is basically a similar concept to remarketing. Every time a user clicks on a page or comes into contact with a brand, a code is implemented that allows the business to follow them. Every time they log in to their Facebook pages, your ad will pop up, reminding them about your products.
In the end, remarketing works because consumers are always comfortable with a brand they have had prior interactions with. It is sort of like dating, where the first date is normally awkward and intimidating, but the second date is usually more comfortable, especially if you enjoyed the first date. The same goes for remarketing. A user who has had a prior interaction with your website and has clicked on your ads before stands a higher chance of purchasing your products than a person seeing them for the first time.
Takeaways
The Breakdown
Content marketing is the regular updating of a website with relevant information that targets a specific audience. The aim is to retain and increase an organization’s audience.
For effective SEO you need:
• correct subject matter
• smart use of keywords and phrases
• regularly updated content that will easily retain and grow your business.
Why use Facebook remarketing?
• Facebook’s monthly user base is larger than the population of China.
• With over 20 billion ad clicks per year, it presents an invaluable opportunity for a business to grow.
• It has been shown to result in three times the consumer engagement than regular Facebook ads.
Ben Boyce is the owner of NOLA Graphics Design and Digital Marketing, located in the Central Business District of New Orleans.
