100 Digital Marketing Tips from the Industry Experts
The digital landscape is constantly evolving so keeping up to date with the latest digital marketing trends and techniques can often be a challenge. So I set myself a task to collate all of the best tips and techniques from the leaders in the digital marketing industry, to keep as a list, which I could refer back to, for ongoing and future projects.
So here it is, I hope you find it useful…
Gary.
Website Design:
1. Start with a Rough Sketch - Good web design rarely starts with code. Diving right into the meat of a project is actually detrimental to the end result! What you want to do is start wireframing instead.
2. Keep Load Speed in Mind - Good website design includes serving data to your visitors swiftly. Nobody is going to stick around if every image takes three minutes to load.
3. Think Mobile First - A responsive, mobile-ready page is mandatory when it comes to modern website design. Over 50% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices!
4. Learn Some UI/UX Design - One thing is certain: good user experience will draw in visitors and make a huge difference in your website design. If users feel that your site is easy to use and navigate around, and attractive to look at, then you’re well on your way to tons of clicks and views.
5. Put a Visual Hierarchy in Place - Where you place things on your website design is extremely important. Humans are visual creatures, and presenting them information in a way they can easily digest is critical in getting their attention and ensuring they retain the data you are presenting them with.
6. Find Headlines That Really Work for You - Don’t underestimate the power of a great headline or subhead. They can grab attention and engage users—without relying on flashy graphics or video files. A poorly worded headline or subhead is a missed opportunity to generate interest.
7. Beware the Fold - The fold is the first glimpse of a website before a visitor must scroll. It could be the single most important part of your entire website design.
8. Space Out the CTAs - Good website design should still include additional CTAs elsewhere on the page; not every single visitor is going to immediately act. Your goal is to persuade them to make a choice, and this often happens beyond the fold.
9. Keep it Simple - You want users to love your content. But you need to avoid drowning them in too much content. Part of how to design a website is knowing what to display to visitors. Focus on a less-is-more approach and give them one detail at a time.
10. Embrace White Space - People hate clutter. What does this mean for your website design? Use white space. Plenty of padding on paragraphs gives room for your text to breathe and makes it easy to read.
11. Simplify the Signup Forms - Literally nobody on this planet likes a long signup form. If you need to place a signup form in your website design, keep it as short and sweet as possible.
Source: https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/design/website-design-tips
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
12. Page speed is a critical factor for SEO – remove anything that slows down your site.
13. Link to other websites with relevant content – Linking to blogs is critical to growth. And linking out to high authority domains shows that you know what you’re talking about, and helping your visitor, and in return, boosting the credibility of your own site.
14. Get inbound links from high authority domains - This will dramatically boost your search engine rankings. A high authority domain linking strategy is paramount.
15. Write for humans first, search engines second - Create content that will help someone.
16. Content is king! And it always will be - Think outside of the box. If you produce incredibly useful content, not just good content, people will share it, and in return, you will receive backlinks, which is a power search engine ranking factor.
17. Have web analytics in place at the start - After defining your search engine optimization goals clearly, you need software to track what’s working and what’s not. Google Analytics, Google Search Console and other, private web analytics software solutions can help you track your success.
18. Write unique and relevant meta descriptions for every page - One of the most important SEO tips that most people neglect is the well-crafted meta description.
19. Build momentum with social signals - Social media is an integral part of SEO strategy, and search signals are important.
20. Use the right keywords in your images - Google dedicated an entire section of its search results to images. This should tell you how concerned the search engine giant is with pictures.
21. Create & publish unique content consistently to improve your rankings - Whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, you need to be disciplined, when it comes to content creation. It’s even more important than you might think, due to something called the “fresh factor.”
Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-most-important-seo-tips-you-need-to-know/
Paid Search:
22. Show when it counts - Adjust your campaign to consider user peak times
23. Choose keywords carefully - Various tools will help find specific keywords or phrases that are being used by your audience.
24. Select longer tail terms - Another useful aspect of the Google keyword tool is that it can help you find Longer Tail terms. Longer Tail terms are ones that appeal to users searching for very niche or specific items.
25. Go negative to be positive - Staying with Keywords—think negative! A lot of keywords are included in B2B, B2C, and general social searches. Appearing in the results for anything other than your target market is a waste of time and potentially a waste of money.
26. Think seasonal - Some products are going to be more or less popular depending on certain times of the year due to holidays, weather, or major events. If your business sells seasonable products, it may be worth upping your spend in the months leading up to these high-demand times.
27. Ad copy is key - You’ve spent ages picking quality keywords and setting up your campaigns and hopefully now your CPC ad appears high on the Search Engines…you’re there in front of your potential customers, so don’t fall at the last hurdle. Ad copy is one of the single most important components in differentiating you from your competitor.
28. Back it up - Don’t think of your other promotions, be they offline or online, as separate entities. People may see your print ad, for example, and remember the creative and the product you’re selling but not your company name. If they typed your latest marketing slogan into a search engine, would a recognizable CPC ad appear for your company taking them to your site for more information?
29. Trial the Content Network - Google AdWords allows you to display your ads across their content and partner networks. However, the content network is not always great for the B2B market, as it relies on Google understanding the contextual content of pages and then only bringing your ad back on the pages that are relevant. To make ads more effective, you can specify the sites you wish your adverts to appear on
30. Go Local vs International - Is your business local or international? If it’s international, you may need to set up campaigns on a country by country basis and tailor your keywords and ads to the various languages, time-zones, product variations, specific landing pages, etc.
31. Use CPC management tools (Google AdWords) - In addition to Google’s keyword tool, there are two others that are particularly helpful. The first is AdWords Editor. It’s a free tool that offers you great control over multiple and/or large campaigns. The benefits include uploading bulk campaigns and keywords, making multiple changes to any part of the campaign, getting stats across all campaigns, etc. The second tool is Google’s Search Query Performance Reports. These reports show you what people are searching for to trigger your ads.
Source: https://searchengineland.com/10-tips-for-a-more-effective-paid-search-campaign-13543
Display Advertising:
32. Set up a remarketing list - Remarketing is an easy to use function that provides you with the ability to show your adverts to people who have previously viewed your website.
33. Combine different targeting methods – Contextual, Placement, Topic targeting and Interest targeting
34. Get creative with your call to action - The words used in your CTA can be what drive the user to click through to your website, or not.
35. Use as many ad formats as possible - Ensuring that your ads are seen in as many places as possible, and grab the attention of enough users is a very important target. One key way of giving this a go is by getting your adverts into as many formats as you can.
36. Stick to your branding - With any type of marketing, consistency is key, and that’s no different when it comes to display advertising. You should never stray from your branding guidelines, because after all, that’s what they’re there for.
37. Keep it simple - You want your ads to stand out, that’s completely understandable. However, the worst thing you can do is start over complicating them.
38. Try the responsive ads function - Google’s “responsive display ad” creator is a great tool in which you input all of the required information, leaving Google Ads to create and push your ad out in all shapes and sizes, based on your targeting.
39. Provide a relevant, effective landing page – It’s essential that you direct your PPC traffic to relevant landing pages that make sense to the user.
40. Track your conversions - A conversion is the meaningful interaction you require the user to complete for a PPC click to be deemed successful. In e-commerce this will likely be a purchase, in lead generation you would be looking for the user to sign up to a newsletter or make an enquiry.
Source: https://www.pixelkicks.co.uk/blog/9-google-display-network-ppc-tips-for-2019/
Email Marketing:
41. Write a Killer Subject Line - the best place to start is with the email subject line. Perfecting the subject line can be the difference between recipients opening your email, deleting it or, even worse, reporting it as spam.
42. Nail the Preview Text - With email preview text ranging from 35 to 140 characters, depending on the client, this is an aspect of your email you can’t afford to neglect.
43. Write for the Web - Writing email marketing copy is similar to writing web copy. That means it’s important to follow a logical structure, keep paragraphs short and include one main idea per paragraph.
44. Know your audience - Getting to know your audience so you can write email marketing copy that meets their needs is a great way to boost conversions. Use what you know from web and social analytics and interactions with customers to build your buyer personas.
45. Be Relevant and use Segmentation - Avoid generic marketing in favor of targeted marketing. Customer avatars give you broad segments you can focus on in copywriting, but within those there are also smaller segments. After all, you’re not going to send the same email to a new subscriber as to a repeat customer, are you?
46. Know Your Goal or Objective - it’s best practice to have a single goal – the one thing you want to achieve – for each email. This will help you focus your marketing copy.
47. Get Personal - It’s true that using people’s names in subject lines and email marketing copy gets their attention, but there’s more to personalization than that. You can send different emails depending on the age, gender and location of your audience, whether they are looking for a personal or business purchase.
48. Let Readers Get to Know You - Most people like getting emails where they can see a picture of the sender and where there’s a personal rather than generic sender. When you take this approach, it’ll help subscribers form a connection with you, which is the first step in winning conversions.
49. Align Everything - With the best email marketing copy, everything’s aligned. Your copy delivers on the promise of the subject line, and your email delivers on the promise of the optin form and the landing page where subscribers signed up.
50. Test and Split Test Email Marketing Campaigns – It’s important to A/B split test every element. Test subject lines, preview text, headlines, copy, CTAs and more, until you come up with your best-performing email.
Source: https://optinmonster.com/9-tips-for-writing-email-marketing-copy-that-converts/
Social Media Marketing:
51. Be consistent - How consistently you post should be specific to each social media site you’re utilizing. Some platforms like Twitter and Instagram Stories require you to be active multiple times per day to get the maximum potential from your audience.
52. Focus your messaging - Each platform you use will have its own unique demographic. There will be overlap of the people you’re targeting on each platform, but it’s still essential to understand your demographics so you can tailor your message to have the most impact. What is your main objective? Think of the 3 E’s – Educative, Entertaining or Emotive.
53. Keep an eye on what’s trending - If you notice a pattern or strategy rising in popularity and it aligns with your messaging, then it’s a great idea to capitalize on it to drive engagement. However, be wary of jumping on board every new internet trend you see. Creating posts that don’t align with your overall messaging to appear relevant is a quick way to alienate your target audience.
54. Invest in video content - Social media users are consuming more video content than ever before. Not only is engagement higher on video content, but networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are giving higher priority in their algorithm to people posting video content.
55. A/B test whenever possible - One social media marketing tip that a lot of professionals take advantage of is A/B testing. A/B testing, or split testing, involves using multiple headlines for the same piece of content to see which generates a better response.
56. Interact with your audience - Make sure your social media strategy includes answering questions posted on each platform. You should promptly respond to people who mention you, thank people who share your content and add value where you see people mentioning your brand.
57. Partner with influencers and micro-influencers - A great way to target your audience on a more personal level is to partner with influencers in your niche to help you promote your products more organically. When you partner up with an established influencer that has an active following in your niche, you expose your brand to a new audience that might not be aware of your company.
58. Involve your entire team - Your social media team doesn’t have to be the only people contributing to your social media posts. Encourage employees from your company’s other departments to help your social media marketing efforts. Whether it’s contributing content to the blog, sharing their photos, or taking followers behind the scenes, the more involved your team is the better.
59. Go live – Using Live video to give product demonstrations, tutorials or holding Q&A sessions (tell, don’t sell) is a great way to generate engagement and stay in front of people in a way that you know they will see.
60. Build a community - A group can be very niche, about your brand or product, or it can be about a broader topic that affects your industry as a whole. Before you start the group, get very clear about the purpose behind it and what you hope you achieve in creating and moderating it.
61. Use hashtags appropriately - Focus on your own branded hashtags and participating in trends that matter to your audience and that you can add actual value to discussion in.
Source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-tips/
Video marketing:
62. Tell a Story - Instead of being overtly salesy, an effective video tells a story. As the Digital Marketing Institute notes, businesses should utilize the emotive power of video by appealing to their customer’s needs and desires.
63. Make Sure Your Grab Their Attention in Under 6 Seconds - A little like how we are unlikely to click on an email if we’re not inspired by the subject line, an incredible one fifth of viewers click off a video within 10 seconds if they’re not interested in what they see. With this in mind, the introduction of the video is vitally important and should be made inspiring, entertaining and informative, to hook the viewer and encourage them to view the whole of the video.
64. Create a Stimulating Title - your video’s title should be stimulating and eye-catching in order to grab a viewer’s attention. Furthermore, by using relevant keywords in a title, the video is likely to show up on the search engines when viewers search for the topic.
65. Focus on the Mission and Less on the Product - Instead of being overtly focused on the product and all its benefits, channel the message of the video into the mission of the product.
66. Don’t Be Boring - Who wants to watch a boring video? It goes without saying, if you want your business’s video marketing campaign to be successful, create exciting and inspiring videos that can never be considered boring.
67. Make it Mobile Friendly - With more and more people using mobile devices to get online, it’s imperative corporate videos are mobile friendly. In fact, according to YouTube, mobile video consumption increases 100% every year! Marketing videos therefore need to consider mobile UX such as subtitles and screen sizes.
68. Educate Your Audience - As the Digital Marketing Institute informs, one of the most powerful ways to implement effective video marketing is to educate viewers. Often videos that offer advice, information, tips and other informative content can be more effective than a solely promotional video.
69. Make the Video More Atmospheric with Music - Music is a powerful tool on video content, evoking a myriad of emotions. Don’t be afraid to use music in your video that fits the mood of the message and crafts a more exciting and emotive video.
70. Take Viewers Behind the Scenes - Consumers love to get up close to a brand and video marketing offers the perfect opportunity to take customers behind the scenes and into your business’s ‘natural surroundings.’
71. Keep Them Short - Online viewers often don’t have much time to spare before they’re off looking on a new site and at a new video. In this sense, shorter marketing videos can tend to work better than long ones
Source: https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/05/tips-for-creating-marketing-videos.html
Content Marketing:
72. Establish Campaign Goals - You need to collect a lot of data about your target audience to set up the right campaigns to reach them. When you use the keyword research tools, focus on the keywords that are being used in search. These are the keywords that you want to use when you develop content.
73. Create Valuable Content for Your Audience - If you want to build a loyal audience, you must create valuable content. Keep your content fresh to stay in touch with the readers. Use an editorial calendar to remind you when to publish content. Focus on creating content for the customers, not for you.
74. Stop Selling - Companies often get in the mindset of selling themselves to the customers. They will use their blog and guest blog posting opportunities to promote their brand and sell to the readers. You need to stop working in the selling mindset and start focusing on offering content that is valuable. Place yourself in the reader’s shoes to determine what they want to learn, and why they would subscribe to your blog.
75. Use Social Media - To market your blog effectively you need to know what to create and when to post. You need to use social media to help you create awareness for your posts. Plan on using multiple distribution methods to engage your readers on both paid and organic social media channels.
76. Use Multiple Distribution Methods - Since social media is easy to use, it often becomes the only way people market a website. You need to focus on using multiple distribution methods. Consider partnering with the right companies that specialize in outreach opportunities. The best content marketing tips will include link building with high-quality websites through guest blog posting, video marketing, and influencers.
77. Define Your Audience - Reframe the content to best suit segmented audiences. In doing so, you can focus your traffic to different segments, allowing a steady stream of traffic to come to your website from multiple niches.
78. Optimize Everything - Every piece of content you write must be optimized for the search engines. Without effective optimization, it is challenging for the search engines to find your content. This will make it harder for the readers to actually find your content, and provide you with the traffic you need.
79. Read Analytic Reports - One of the most important content marketing strategies is to watch your analytic reports. You need to check on them and measure what is working. Since the readers can change their minds, it can shift the way you write and market your content.
80. Use various formats – Video, Infographics, whitepapers, the possibilities are endless. Think outside of the box and produce content that your target audience want to consume.
Source: https://www.outbrain.com/help/advertisers/content-marketing-strategies/
Referral Marketing:
81. Always Be Thinking of your Customers - It’s the old 80/20 rule; 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, so don’t take them for granted.
82. Get Scientific - Like a lot of businesses, you probably track web traffic, Google rankings, Twitter followers, and maybe even email open rates. But what about referrals? You need to start by getting scientific. Create a program that tracks leads, tests offers, and ultimately measures ROI.
83. Keep Customers Engaged - Communicate with emails, blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, new products, promotions and contests. Better yet, pick up the phone or pay your best customers a visit and ask them if they’re happy, and if there’s anything more you can do for them.
84. Ask at the “Wow” Moment - The best time to ask for a referral is when you’ve “wowed” your customer. Whether you’ve just given them great service, a great price, or a great product, you need to use that window as an opportunity to ask your customer for a referral.
85. Make the Referral Easy - Whether it’s completing a form, sending an email, or simply sharing a Facebook post – make the referral process as simple as possible for people promoting your business.
86. Reward for Referrals - If you threw a party for all your customers, employees, and fans and followers, how big would it be? And how much bigger would it be if you invited everyone in each of their networks? A lot! So encourage referrals with savings on future products or services or loyalty program points.
87. Connect with Influencers - When Universal Studios went to launch the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, they did it by only telling 7 influential bloggers. In 24 hours, 350 million people had heard of the park. Think about influencers in your industry and how you can work with them to help promote your business.
88. Testimonials are Referrals - Ask your customers for a testimonial and reward them. And instead of having a dedicated “testimonial” page on your site, scatter customer testimonials, quotes, and Facebook posts throughout your site – especially on your homepage.
89. Reviews are Referrals Too - People trust what other customers say about your company more than what you say. Encourage people to offer reviews and incentivize them with points, discounts, or as part of a loyalty program. Not only will reviews help with your SEO, you’ll get great feedback on how to better your business.
90. Be a Referrer - If you want people to refer your business, you have to refer people to other businesses. Work on the karma principle, and you’ll be surprised how people will look positively on your business and be more prone to return the favour.
Source: https://senseimarketing.com/10-essential-tips-for-online-referral-marketing-success/
Analytics & Reporting:
91. Understand what is success for YOUR Business - Every business is different, and while tools like Google Analytics are fantastic at collecting information about your website generally, you should consider what IS success for you specifically.
92. Understand YOUR website Funnel - Every business has a funnel, regardless of what you do. The top of the Funnel is the total amount of traffic that has visited your website. The bottom of the funnel is the total number completed conversions/goals on your site.
93. Use Campaign tracking codes - Once you understand how your website as whole is converting, you should then start to break this down to each of the marketing initiatives you are running with Google UTM campaign tracking URLs.
94. Remain Focused - It is easy to start looking at all kinds of reports but try to remain focused, look at the top line of how your website is performing. Once you understand the overall picture, then start to drill down to the next level.
95. If you can’t make a change or decision….why look at it? - Any report should always be questioned with ‘So What?’ You should ask yourself if you can make any changes to your website, business, marketing etc If it is more ‘of interest’ than an ‘actionable insight’.
96. Filter your data - Filtering out traffic to your website from people you work with i.e. agencies or within your corporate network will give you a more accurate picture of how your website is performing.
97. Automate Reports & Dashboards - make life easy for yourself, create dashboards for specific questions or specific people and automate them send on a daily/weekly/monthly basis so you don’t have to always log in to your analytics tool to see your reports.
98. Track onsite Search - This provides a wealth of information that should be used to plan future activity such as: content marketing, PPC/SEO and R&D.
99. Monitor Bounce Rate % - Look at which pages have a high Bounce Rate and look at how people are finding those pages, you can then either address the content of the page or the marketing activity that is driving traffic to those specific pages.
100. Learn & Improve - You can always improve your marketing, you can always improve your content, you can always learn and improve your website. Don’t stand still, your competitors aren’t standing still so strive to improve.
Source: https://funnelmetrics.co.uk/tip-no-1-when-using-web-analytics/