Digital Marketing Strategies: Overcome the Challenges of the Online World

Digital marketing is essential for businesses looking to overcome the challenges of the online world. It covers a wide range of tools and tasks that serve different goals: stronger branding, better engagement, increased traffic, attracting prospects, converting visitors into leads and generating sales.

A different strategy should be created for each goal, because this is not only about being found online but about knowing how to be found. Having a strategy defines the path you need to take to reach your goals.

In this article we outline some of the most practical digital marketing strategies for attracting prospects and increasing your online sales. We will look at three types of strategy you can start applying right away to bring traffic to your website.

Before you implement any of them, however, make sure your website is optimised to generate sales. Since all the traffic your efforts produce lands on your site, best practices for your landing pages and site experience have to be in place if you intend to turn those visitors into leads.

1. How do you build a strategy that creates value?

One of the most established modern marketing approaches involves creating value for customers. You may have heard terms such as inbound marketing or content marketing; all of them focus on creating value.

Not long ago, brands called the shots and demanded value (money) from consumers while offering nothing in return other than their products and services. Things have changed. In this competitive marketplace consumers make the rules, and they demand additional value, not just products or services.

So what is “creating value”? Simply put, it is the act of providing additional material or content that is useful and relevant to the consumer: blog posts, ebooks, videos, webinars, infographics and so on. These are designed to solve the consumer’s problems, help them get better at what they do, or improve their own product or service in a B2B relationship.

Be careful: creating value does not mean talking about your brand in every single piece of content.

The three stages of the buying process

The buying process consists of three main stages: awareness, evaluation and decision.

1. Awareness: the prospect identifies a problem or a need and starts looking for a solution.
2. Evaluation: they begin considering all the possible solutions to that problem.
3. Decision: they compare different providers to see which one solves their problem better.

The idea is that you need content for each of these stages. If you want to mention your brand, it is better to wait until the decision stage, when your prospect is actively looking for providers. Mention it earlier and they may be overwhelmed and fail to see the value in what you offer.

How does all this content sell? The secret is to guide prospects through the stages by connecting all your materials until they choose your product. Brands that create value for their consumers earn trust and loyalty, and over time that means more sales.

So where is the best place to showcase your content? You can use any content medium or platform: blogs, social media, email campaigns, landing pages and more.

But remember: an effective digital marketing strategy has to be integrated and consistent across all media. For example, you can send a newsletter that links to several of your blog posts, and direct prospects to landing pages and to your blog where they can download some of your material. Planning your content alongside your SEO work is part of that consistency.

2. What do automation strategies do?

Automation strategies give you the opportunity to automate a series of actions tied to a specific process with a specific goal, such as converting a prospect into a customer or following up with an existing one. This is called a workflow.

Beyond saving time, since they require little to no human intervention, these strategies have proven highly effective at increasing online sales. Why? Because of the accurate and consistent follow-up you maintain with every customer.

For example, imagine a prospect downloads a piece of content from your website and adds one of your products to their shopping cart. Despite showing clear interest, they leave your site without buying anything.

An automation system sends that user an email highlighting the benefits of the product they were about to purchase, encouraging them to complete the order. And if they still do not buy, the system sends a second email a few days later that includes testimonials from customers who bought that product.

3. How do online advertising strategies work?

If the first two strategies sound out of reach because of the work, technology and cost involved, do not be discouraged: there is another option, much simpler, more affordable and, best of all, effective.

Online advertising has become one of the most preferred options for businesses looking to attract prospects, because it increases their visibility on the internet’s main platforms. Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are the primary examples. Google Ads and Meta Ads are the two most widely used channels here.

Users who click an ad for a specific product or service are far better segmented, because they are already in the decision stage and are therefore more likely to become customers of your business.

One of the advantages of this strategy is that you only pay for results. Put simply, you decide whether to pay for impressions, clicks, leads or conversions. If your main goal is increasing sales, for instance, conversion-focused campaigns are the right choice.

Online advertising platforms also include measurement tools, so you can see exactly how many visitors, leads or customers each ad generated. That lets you calculate your return on investment and compare the effectiveness of different ads.