As the end of 2018 quickly approaches, now is the time to make sure you are ready to kick off 2019 with a solid and effective digital marketing plan.
Doing what you did last year isn’t going to cut it. Technology is evolving, consumer behaviors are rapidly changing and the entire digital landscape seems to be shifting every day. In order to have an effective plan it is a necessity to pay attention to and adapt to all of these changes.
To help you get started, we put together our top five essential digital marketing tactics to consider while building a solid digital marketing plan for 2019.
1. SEO, SEO, SEO
We all have heard this a thousand times, but let us just say it again. You must have a solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) foundation for your website. By making sure you are on top of your SEO needs in 2019, you will continue to gain organic traction in search, while amplifying the return on your paid digital efforts.
While basic SEO efforts like keyword research and metadata are still important, these are just a small portion of what search engines are looking at now due to the overwhelming amount of content on the internet.
Domain authority, external and internal ranking factors, site organization and more are now playing a big part in how you are showing up in search. Make sure your team is ready in 2019 to face these challenges or look into working with an SEO specialist to supplement your efforts.
2. Content Platform Research
We all know Facebook, Instagram and YouTube aren’t going anywhere based on the behaviors we see with Gen Z, but there may be new ways you can interact with these platforms that you haven’t tried in the past.
- Facebook has Facebook Watch, Facebook Live, Messenger Chatbots, Facebook Remarketing and a variety of ways to connect with your audience rather than just posting organically.
- Instagram launched IGTV, and Instagram Stories are becoming more popular than ever. Try incorporating these into your content plan.
- YouTube is where Gen Z lives. Advertising and content opportunities on YouTube continue to prove successful and cost effective for businesses across multiple industries.
- Pinterest has launched some new advertising opportunities such as carousel ads and new analytics that could prove successful for businesses using this visual search engine.
All in all, looking at your social media marketing strategy will be pertinent to making sure you are reaching your audiences in 2019.
3. Video Marketing
Video marketing tells your audience about your products or business in a way no other medium can. It engages viewers and pulls them into your story.
Like we said earlier, Gen Z lives on YouTube. Facebook Live, Facebook Videos and Instagram stories continue to see steady increases in engagement.
In 2019 your video marketing budget should be higher than it was in 2018, no question. These videos can be used on multiple platforms from YouTube to Facebook and from Connected TV to Internet Radio.
4. Responsive Ad Units
Earlier in 2018, Google released new Responsive Search Engine Marketing and Responsive Display Advertising ad units. Rather than the traditional static text and banner ads, these ad units generate dynamic ads based on machine learning through Google. Let us break it down further.
- Responsive Search Engine Markehttps://compassmedia.com/ting
- With these ad units you now have the ability to create responsive search ad units that pull from a set list of headlines and descriptions to automatically generate the most effective ads for your brand.
- Through Google’s machine learning, ads are dynamically created with the best combination of copy based on how well each headline and description performed over the course of the campaign.
- In these responsive ad units, you can write up to 15 different headlines and up to 4 different descriptions for each campaign. Collectively, these headlines and descriptions can be arranged in 43,680 different search ads.
- Responsive Display Advertising
- Similar to responsive search ad units, with these ad units you can create a display campaign that will generate responsive display ads using copy and images from your business. These ads will be created to fit perfectly in virtually any ad space available on more than 2 million websites and apps.
- These ads that Google assembles will increase reach through dynamically adjusting their size, appearance, and format to fit just about any available ad space. For example, a responsive display ad might show as a native banner ad on one site and a dynamic text ad on another.
5. Transparency
People are becoming more and more accustomed to getting all of the information they are looking for right up front without having to dig online for it.
If your company isn’t giving consumers answers to the questions they need up front, then it’s likely they are moving on to a competitor’s website that does.
Consider putting pricing breakdowns, reviews, testimonials, photos and more on your website, if applicable. You want to make it as easy as possible for someone to make a purchase, book an appointment or complete and desired action on your website.
By being transparent, it can help you gain the right clients or customers you’re looking to obtain. If your pricing or process expectations scare someone away, they may not have been worth your team’s effort anyway.
We know these five items only scratch the surface of what it takes to create an effective marketing plan in today’s digital marketing world. However, we hope these will help give you a head start when you begin planning your 2019 digital marketing plan.
If you need help with determining what digital tactics will work best for you, Compass Media can help. Just give us a shout to discuss your digital marketing strategy. Good luck planning!
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