The 8 foundations of a great digital media marketing presence

A digital presence doesn’t just happen overnight. Everyone starts at the bottom, making connections with others in their industry or their customers, before rising through the ranks to make an impact. But you can’t just go about that haphazardly hoping that something good will come out of it. Instead, there are a few necessities to maintaining a good presence online to draw customers in and keep them coming back time and again:

1. A digital marketing strategy

Throwing everything at a new website isn’t the way that you’re going to make it online. A strategy that builds up your influence and recognition to become a market leader, expert or simply the best place to go for your products is the way you need to go.

Everything mentioned in this list should be a part of your strategy – SEO, PPC, content creation, outreach, social media – but you shouldn’t just be throwing your all at every one of them. You need to work out which areas your industry thrives in, who your competitors are and what they’re doing, and where your customers search for your services or products, whether that’s a specific social media platform or simply a quick Google search. That way you can know where to focus your efforts to get the best results from your online presence.

2. A well-designed website

The first thing your customers notice when they land on your site is what it looks like. Even if you’ve got the best prices for your products, they’ll be likely to turn back around if your site was built in 1999 – people nowadays just simply don’t trust sites that don’t look good!

It doesn’t need to be a work of art – although we can help with that if that’s your goal! – but it needs to be well-planned, clear, mobile friendly and designed with the customer’s journey in mind. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has just landed on your site and see it through their eyes, or get friends and families to point out any pitfalls in trying to make a purchase on your site, that way you’ll be able to notice where you need to make changes.

3. Social media presence

The way that we check whether a company is legit nowadays is to check out their social media. If you haven’t heard of a company before or you’re a bit wary about ordering from them, the first thing you do is see whether they’re on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and how active they are.

Social media is also where a lot of people now spend their time online. If you can get yourself in front of their eyes in a place they trust, whether that’s organically or with paid ads, your brand awareness and recognition will sky rocket.

A common downfall of this though is to go in all guns blazing on every platform then experience burn out or wasted time. Only certain platforms may be relevant to your industry so find which these are and don’t overdo it where you don’t need to.

4. Company blog

Having a blog is one thing we recommend to all our clients. It gives them the opportunity to engage their customers with content that means something to them, to share their company news, and to create additional content that helps optimise your site better.

Some ideas of types of content you can publish on a blog are: industry news updates, company press releases, videos, graphics or infographics, real life imagery from your business, downloadable PDFs and how to guides, and even eBooks.

You’ll want to stay away from the clickbait and offer content that is actually useful and valuable to those wanting to use your services or purchase from you. But don’t give away too much, leave them hanging so you can provide the rest!

5. SEO

When you’re searching for a product, what’s the first thing you do? If you’re like the vast majority of us, you’ll go to Google, type in a couple of words and hit Go.

Getting your site in the first page of a Google search is absolutely key to gaining the traffic you need to get conversions. You could have the best looking website in the world, but if you’re not getting people on it, you won’t be making any money.

SEO is a mixture of off site and on site factors, from keeping your backlink profile in check to making sure your content is using the correct keywords. If you’re not well-versed in the language of SEO, it might be a little overwhelming, but it’s absolutely key to maintaining an excellent online presence.

6. PPC

Pay Per Click advertising, more commonly known as PPC, is a type of display advertising, usually run by Google AdWords. This is a fantastic way of getting your brand in front of a highly targeted audience. You’ll most commonly see this at the top of a Google search or in ads at the side of websites.

It’s an area where it’s easy to get it wrong if you don’t have expertise in PPC, as you might spend thousands of pounds without seeing results if you set it up wrong, but can gave hugely effective results when it’s done right.

7. Outreach

Finding the right audience for your content and getting your brand in front of the right eyes is key to having a good digital presence. If a digital influencer, whether a blogger or a social media influencer, who is well established with an engaged following takes an interest in your brand, you might experience a spike in conversions like none other. People trust these online influencers nowadays, whether they’re celebrities or simply normal people who’ve garnered a good following, and as a result, will buy based on their recommendations.

Carrying out outreach isn’t as easy as it seems though. You need to find the right people for your brand who have the right presence; they need to be invested in your service or product, and they need to be able to convince their following of that too. Sometimes you may need to create content for them or provide them with samples that they can show off. Incorporating this into your strategy can yield fantastic results.

8. Reputation Management

Finally, online reputation management is a big part of maintaining a good digital media marketing presence nowadays. If someone is looking at your site for the first time and considering whether to use your service, they’ll be likely to seek out reviews to check that they’re going to get what they expect. Think of it like a restaurant – you wouldn’t go in without checking TripAdvisor or having a recommendation from a friend first, and if you’ve heard bad things, you’ll probably choose the one across the street you’ve visited many times before.

It’s hugely important to keep an eye on reviews, encourage customers to publish good ones and dig further into negative ones, taking feedback from them on why the customer was unhappy and what you can do about it. If you can make a return customer out of someone, make sure to do it.