There are such a variety of digital marketing strategies out there that it’s hard to tell which ones are best if you don’t know what’s out there. Here’s a brief list of the current best strategies and what they’re best used for.

Content Marketing & SEO

What it is?

Creating outstanding content—written or in the form of video, images, infographics, or audio—that informs, entertains, and attracts potential customers is known as content marketing. But crafting high-caliber content isn’t enough. It also has to be optimized so search engines will notice and promote your content to your target audience. That’s where SEO, or search engine optimization, comes in.

Why is it important?

The internet runs on content. Every day, millions of new pieces of content are posted online in the form of articles, videos, and other forms of media. Any company that isn’t putting out content is at an immediate disadvantage for generating exposure and interest in their brand.

Creating great content also helps potential customers get to know your business or organization before making the decision to make a purchase. SEO makes all this even easier by encouraging search engines to show your content to potential customers. If you aren’t optimized, someone else who is might take your business.

How will a business benefit from this?

No matter what type of business you have, there is someone out there searching for terms related to what you have to offer. Creating high-quality content and optimizing it to show up in search engine results will introduce new people to your business on a regular basis.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?
Any business can benefit from great content. That is especially true, though, about any company that produces and sells a product of some kind. Content about how to use the product in new and interesting ways will build an audience around your brand. SEO will help your product appear in search.

Social Media Management & Advertisements

What it is?

Social Media isn’t just for teenagers and grandparents sharing cat videos. Brands big and small maintain a social media presence to build a following and introduce potential customers to their products or services. Advertisements on social networks are among the most effective these days because they are excellent at targeting a specific audience, especially Facebook.

Why is it important?

Nearly 100% of your potential customers are active on social media. So are all of your competitors. If you don’t get your brand message out there, your target audience will see other brands instead. Also, their ability to target super-specific audiences and find similar people you’re not reaching helps you narrow down your ideal customers so every advertising dollar has the best possible effect.

How will a business benefit from this?

What is the ideal customer for your business? Where do they work? What hobbies do they have? What TV shows do they watch? With such details, you can use targeted advertising and social media content to build a dedicated following for your brand. Such a following can snowball into a powerful movement of word of mouth marketing, in which people share your brand with their friends.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?

Any business that has a very specific niche can greatly benefit from the targeted advertising of social media. No matter how niche your product or service is, you can build a dedicated following by putting out content and advertising that is specially designed for your ideal customers.

Email Marketing

What it is?

Email Marketing involves creating advertising and content campaigns that reach potential or repeat customers directly to their email inbox.

Why is it important?

The only ethical way to get someone’s email for marketing is to ask for it. For this reason, email marketing is very powerful. People only get your marketing emails because they have opted in and expect to receive information from your business. This means they are more likely to pay attention to what you have to say, perhaps even clicking through to a product or sales page.

How will a business benefit from this?

Businesses can use strong email lists to move large numbers of people to take a specific action, be that entering a giveaway, taking advantage of a sale, or referring a friend to join the mailing list.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?

Any business that has the potential for repeat business can especially take advantage of what email marketing has to offer. For example, a doctor’s office may offer a short questionnaire through their email list so patients can rate their experience. Once patients are part of the mailing list, the office can send occasional special offers. Any other service-based business, or a technology business that has a couple of new releases a year, can do the same to turn one-time customers into repeat business.

Search Advertising

What it is?

Search advertising involves paying search engines such a Google or Amazon to feature your website or products at the top of certain searches.

Why is it important?

Because of advertising, SEO just isn’t enough to help a business get ahead of the competition. But adding paid advertisements to search engines allows any brand to stay front and center when potential customers are looking for something related to what your company offers.

How will a business benefit from this?

When someone makes a search for a product or service, they are really looking for a solution to some problem. Because of this, people usually don’t take the time to search through page after page of search results. Instead, they normally click on the first option that catches their eye. Using search advertising, your company can make sure it is at the top of searches that are most related to their brand.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?

A business that has a lot of competition can take advantage of search advertisements to get its website above those of its competitors. Also, any company that is geographically limited, such as a physical office or location, can use advertisements on search engines to appear first for anyone making certain search queries in that specific area.

Affiliate Marketing

What it is?

Affiliate marketing takes advantage of influencers on social media to help get their products or brand message out there. You can do this by paying anyone with a large audience to talk about your products. In return, you offer an affiliate commission for every item or package sold.

Why is it important?

Trust is a huge part of marketing and branding. Influencers have already gained the trust of their extensive audience. By paying them to talk about your product or brand, you’re gaining trust and social proof. Alternatively, by offering affiliate benefits to your customers, you can turn any happy customer into an enthusiastic evangelist, adding a powerful word-of-mouth effect to your brand.

How will a business benefit from this?

Every brand has a certain reach. The total number of people your brand can affect is defined by SEO, social media marketing, and advertising. But that reach will always be limited. Adding affiliate marketing is a dynamic way to extend that reach beyond that limit. By paying influencers or even ordinary people, you can get your brand in front of people you’d never be able to reach otherwise.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?

Affiliate marketing is based on commissions for the sale of a product of service. Only businesses that offer something specifically priced like that can get the most from paying affiliate marketers. Also, if a business is geographically limited to a physical location, paying large social media influencers may not be as effective as offering discounts to ordinary customers for referring their friends.

Contextual Marketing

What it is?

While advertising on social media is very specific in targeting people based on who they are, contextual marketing involves deploying targeted advertisements and content to people based on their recent searches and browsing history.

Why is it important?

Contextual marketing hits people with what they’ve been thinking about lately or what they’re looking for or shopping for. Getting the right piece of content or sales offer in front of the right person at the right time can mean a huge boost in sales.

How will a business benefit from this?

Instead of wasting advertising dollars on what your company thinks is its target audience, contextual marketing ensures a better success rate by targeting people who are actively thinking about or searching for the same kind of product or service that your business offers.

Which business type will benefit from this the most?

Any business that offers a product that can be sold online can really benefit from the targeting power of contextual marketing. You offer your product to them in the form of an advertisement, YouTube video pre-roll, or by some other means, right when they are in the market for what you have to sell. At such a time, advertising feels less like marketing and more like help at the right time.