The best tip I can offer for your business’s digital marketing strategy is to try it all out. There’s no way to know what exactly works best until you test it. Just because I see great results from a particular digital marketing strategy with one client, it doesn’t mean it’s the best for all my clients. Every business is different, every market has subtle nuances. There might be some indicators of what might work best, but there’s always the possibility of something else that might work better. It’s important to not contain your digital marketing strategy to a box.

As the saying goes, throw it at the wall and see what sticks the best. This is my tip for an effective digital marketing strategy. However, I would advise putting all your eggs in one basket though. Just because something works better than all the others doesn’t mean that you should only focus on that. Keep around everything that works and only cut dead weight.

The Four Digital Marketing Strategy Channels To Choose From

There are endless options for coming up with a digital marketing strategy but you’re really limited to about only 4 channels of digital distribution. These are:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Email Campaigns

SEO – The Long Term Digital Marketing Strategy

If you’re looking for a digital marketing strategy for the long run that doesn’t take money to make it happen, SEO is the way to go. Instead, the investment is in time and content so you have to be patient. This blog post is a perfect example of this strategy. It’ll be at least 6 months before I expect any traffic to regularly be flowing through my site from it.

SEM – The Paid Digital Marketing Strategy

Let’s say you can’t wait 6 months to a year for your content to be ranking effectively. Maybe you don’t know how to write search engine optimized content that even will rank, SEM is an immediate solution to this dilemma. You can deliver advertisements to your target market the moment they are searching for a way to make a purchase. The major downside is that you pay a premium for this option most times. For example, realtors/lawyers/contractors have known about this marketing channel the longest so the cost to show your ad can be as high as $20 for a click!

The way to get around this is to identify phrases that aren’t so expensive to bid on. Or maybe you’re lucky and are in an industry that doesn’t have a high cost per click. My tattoo artist clients get the best bang for their buck because there are very few shops that know about this advertising channel. We get clicks for as low as $1 so it’s hard to beat.

SMM – The Paid/Organic Digital Marketing Strategy

Social media is where most people spend their time on the web so it’s the perfect place to introduce them to your product or service. You can do this unpaid organic way by creating good content and sharing it with the world. The idea behind this is that those who enjoy your content will follow you and make a purchase when they are ready. The other method is to use paid advertising to introduce your content or advertisements to new audiences.

Email Marketing – The Oldest Digital Marketing Strategy

This digital marketing strategy is great if you have your target audience’s emails. You can get right in front of them and custom tailor emails to the individual. However, since this is the oldest digital marketing strategy it is oversaturated. Everyone’s email box is filled with spam, that’s why there is specifically a spam folder. Personally, I like to use the traditional “cold-call” strategy but with emails instead.

A/B Test – Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Regardless of what digital marketing strategy channel you are using, there are always ways to improve your strategies. The trusted method of testing minor variations of your content over time is the sure way to get better results. This is why I say to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. You might think your potential clients want to see one type of advertisement, but something entirely different might get better results.

This applies to even choose the best channel to focus on. Whatever campaign you’re thinking of, test it out on all the different channels. There might be some slight changes but overall you’re figuring out what works best for your goals.

A/B Testing Your SEO Content

There is so much content you can write about to get exposure. There are some keywords that have almost no competition, but very low traffic. There are also keywords that have a lot of traffic but are also high in the competition. Ideally, you want to find high traffic, low competition keywords but that isn’t always possible. So try writing content for each type of traffic and see which one works better for you.

This goes beyond just testing what types of keywords to target, you can A/B test what you do in your headlines, what featured images you use, and what the content structures are like. Does your target audience prefer long detailed blogs or short ones with lots of imagery?

A/B Test SEM Advertisements and Landing Pages

You don’t want to just limit yourself to one advertisement, you want to try as many as possible. Make slight variations over time. First, a test which headlines get the most clicks, then see what descriptions help boost those clicks. Consistently updating your ad copy is how you can get more clicks to your website and have better advertisements.

Additionally, consistently A/B test your landing pages for where these clicks are taken. You can spend all your time getting the highest click rate, but if users aren’t converting to leads on your landing pages it might because the landing pages aren’t optimized. For example, you can have the same advertisement and send half your audience to a landing page with one type of offer and the other to a different offer. This will allow you to determine overtime what offer gets you the most results.

A great tool for testing landing pages is Google Optimize. This a free tool from Google to make slight changes to your landing pages and testing what works best for your goals. Rather than creating two entirely separate pages for one little tweak, you only need one page and Google Optimize tweaks the appearance of your website depending on who visits it.

Social Media A/B Testing

If you’re using paid advertising on social media this is pretty similar to A/B testing for SEM. Consistently optimize your ad copy and landing pages over time. When it comes to organically grow your account, you can A/B test what types of content get you the most amount of engagement. If you’re a chef trying to get more followers, see what works better: recipes, video tutorials, final platings, or maybe a combination of all three.

As I said, you don’t know what works best for your audience until you test everything out. You might have a preconceived notion that nobody is going to care to see you cook and only wants to see the final plating, but are you 100% sure that’s true?

Email Marketing Campaigns

A/B testing this digital marketing strategy is a combination of all the others. The subject line is like A/B testing an advertisement’s copy. The actual email is A/B testing what content works best. Depending on what you want users to do with your email, you might even need to A/B test the landing page as well.

A/B Testing Relies On Data

A/B testing isn’t a judgment call, it’s tracking data over an extended period of time. This is why I stress the importance of a system behind your business to tack all the data flowing through it. What campaigns bring in the most leads? What’s the percentage of leads converting through a certain campaign? Do these leads tend to spend less or more? Google Analytics is the best way to examine your data and see what’s working best. Visit our 3 Free Systems for Business That Improve Your Workflow blog to learn more about what systems are crucial for tracking data in your business.

Need Help Coming Up With An Effective Digital Marketing Strategy Best Suited For Your Goals?

If you’re looking for more assistance coming up with a digital marketing strategy that best suits your goals, DOS-M can help. We specialize in marketing as well as many other digital services. Please visit our contact page to get in touch or schedule a free discovery call. We help provide creative solutions for creative entrepreneurs.