Online marketing is more competitive and complicated than ever. With dozens of avenues to follow, it can be a jarring process discerning what strategies to prioritize for your brand. Beating your competition requires superior planning and innovation when it comes to executing your online marketing.
With technology and consumer behavior changing, your brand must adapt and implement the right techniques to differentiate itself from others. To that end, here are five techniques you ought to try to crush your competition.
1. Keep Data Tracking Simple With Google Analytics
One of the biggest traps digital marketers fall into is springing for a dedicated third-party data tracking tool. While dashboards like Databox, DashThis, and even HubSpot can unify your data sources, they all carry similar weaknesses. Most often, those weaknesses are in data congruency and supported integrations.
Most tools struggle to align accurate data values in their dashboards due to misaligned API calls. Additionally, they can’t always support a huge breadth of data sources. That means you might only be able to integrate 70-80% of your channels, while the rest can’t integrate due to technical limitations or underdevelopment.
In a lot of cases, some third-party tools might offer custom APIs for additional fees, but this can ramp up your reporting costs quite quickly. That’s why advertisers should make the most use of their Google Analytics account. Use it as your final source of truth. The moment you have two or three data reporting tools in the picture, information can get muddy.
That said, you could also contact marketing professionals to optimize your data tracking setup. For example, working with one of the top marketing agencies could help ensure accurate data integration and offer expert insights into leveraging Google Analytics effectively. It may be a bit to learn upfront, but it’s easily the most powerful tool available and will help your brand conserve marketing dollars.
2. Invest in SEO and CRO
Search engine optimization is still a fundamental part of digital marketing and despite what some may tell you, it is far from dead. As long as people search for things on the web, SEO is worth investing in. A good SEO strategy means your website ranks highly in search engine results, drives organic traffic, and increases visibility.
Keyword research, quality content, and link-building research are a large part of SEO, but so are the technical aspects like indexing, link building, site hierarchy, and mobile optimization. It’s practically anything on the backend of a brand’s website that helps search engines categorize and prioritize a website’s content with a user’s query.
SEO, as opposed to paid media channels, does take time to mature. It’s a marathon, not a race. For that reason, it requires patience and investment to see consistent results over the long term. Additionally, a strong SEO strategy should be paired with a strong CRO if either one is going to be effective.
Conversion rate optimization is all about tailoring your website experience toward your offer and satisfying your users’ needs. It means optimizing the funnel of your sales offer as well as the components on your site to get users there. To boost your conversion rates, consider A/B testing different elements of your pages, simplifying navigation, and ensuring your call-to-action buttons are clear and compelling.
3. Partner With an Influencer
The first thing to grasp about influencer marketing is that it can be incredibly powerful for certain types of businesses. Influencer marketing really needs a highly demonstrative brand paired with a network of highly enthusiastic and passionate content creators for it to truly work well. Without either of those things, it is likely to struggle or not work at all.
E-commerce brands should seek influencers whose core audience mirrors their own brand’s ideal customer. If the two fit, then that’s where the prospect of an influencer marketing strategy can take off.
It’s difficult to forget the ceased project that was Fyre Festival, but arguably, the best aspect of that entire arrangement was the masterful execution of influencer marketing leading up to the event.
When choosing influencers, make sure to consider their relevance, engagement rates, and authenticity. Working with influencers who genuinely align with your brand will get you more authentic and effective campaigns. This can also be complemented by using micro-influencers who have highly engaged and niche audiences. Working with micro-influencers can be a smart way to stretch your marketing budget further too.
4. Get Creating With Video Marketing
Video content (particularly short-form video) is no doubt one of the most popular marketing formats right now. It’s an engaging and flexible medium that can convey complex messages quickly and efficiently to large audiences.
Businesses should include video marketing in their strategy by creating content like product demos, tutorials, testimonials, and live streams. You can even create videos showing what goes on behind the scenes and introducing your team. Customers often prefer brands they think are personable, so put some faces to your name.
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok provide businesses the chance to reach and engage with their audience through succinct video content. Optimizing videos for SEO by using keywords and tags will increase visibility and drive traffic too, which attracts more of your audience to your brand.
5. Try Email Marketing Automation
Email marketing is a super effective channel for driving conversions and strengthening customer relationships. In fact, email marketing consistently drives high ROI figures, often in the vein of $36 in revenue for every $1 spent.
Email marketing automation means businesses can send personalized and timely messages to their subscribers based on their behavior and preferences. The way these are so effective is in the amount of personalized, focused information that can be delivered straight to the inbox of a prospect.
What many fail to realize is that most people configure their emails to appear on their phones, which often appear as pop-up notifications. That means a simple email from your brand can be the first thing your audience sees when they open their phone. Automation tools can segment audiences, personalize content, and schedule emails so the right message goes to the right person at the right time.
Getting and Staying Ahead
Each of these techniques offers unique advantages, but their true power lies in how well they are integrated into a cohesive strategy that showcases what makes your brand stand out. To truly outshine your competitors, continually refine your approach, stay attuned to evolving consumer behaviors, and innovate relentlessly. With thoughtful planning and execution, your brand can succeed in the ever-competitive online arena.
