When brands talk about the value of digital marketing, they often focus on the direct return on investment their strategies can bring. Marketers are always working toward quick wins like a higher position on the search engine results page (SERP) or more qualified site traffic because these improvements can directly impact their revenues.
And, with a limited budget, it’s only reasonable for most brands to try and maximize their effort. They’ll always be asking how can they make at least five dollars for every dollar they spend on digital marketing?
That not the only thing digital marketing does, however. A good strategy also produces long-term benefits that aren’t as obvious as hard figures like conversion rates and sales growth. Although these measurable metrics are essential indicators of campaign performance, they don’t always equate to sustainable brand growth because they don’t communicate long-term measures of success like customer loyalty and brand credibility.
So, what does all this mean? It means that while short-term strategies can bring immediate results and boost your sales, playing the long game in digital marketing is what helps you achieve bigger business goals, whether that’s to expand internationally or to become the go-to brand in your market.
Now, how do you build a winning long-term digital marketing strategy? Tonic Enterprises shares three techniques you can start with: SEO, content marketing, and web design.
SEO
SEO is a long-term strategy in itself. It takes months to produce noticeable results, which many brands find frustrating. These marketers often opt for PPC advertising, which brings more qualified traffic much faster.
The goal of SEO, however, isn’t just to drive more website traffic; it’s to improve your online visibility and ensure that whenever a user looks up something related to your business, your brand name will appear on the SERP.
To achieve that level of searchability, though, you need to keep working on your SEO. This means continuously auditing your website to look for areas for improvement, updating existing blogs to keep them timely and relevant, and performing regular competitive keyword research to maintain your search rankings.
It’s important to note, however, that just because your website appears on the SERP it doesn’t ensure that people will click on it. In fact, zero-click searches rose to nearly 65 percent in 2020, which means that brands aren’t getting as many site visits as they want.
Zero-click searches may sound like bad news for marketers, but they actually can bring you long-term SEO value. These searches occur because of featured snippets, which are the brief excerpts on the SERP that provides quick answers to queries.
Featured snippets take up a bigger space on the SERP than regular organic results, so securing them can give you more exposure. Additionally, being the one to provide quick answers to people’s questions improves your credibility and reliability as a brand. So, even if users don’t end up visiting your website, you’d be reaping the benefits of your SEO efforts in the form of brand familiarity and credibility, which are things that contribute to your long-term business success.
Web Design
Appearing on the SERP is only half the battle of converting users because after they click on your webpage, you still need them to contact you or check out their shopping cart — and your web design is what helps you convince them.
Studies say that 75 percent of people’s opinion on website credibility is based on web design. If they’re not happy with what they see on your site, they’ll click out and head to a competitor with a better user experience.
Besides making a strong first impression on visitors, good web design also encourages people to engage with your site. They’re more likely to browse through your product pages or read your blog if your content is organized and if your site is easily navigable. If your content is laid out intuitively, it’ll lead the user to where you want them to go on your site, whether that’s the contact or checkout page.
Marketers should also note that web core vitals have recently become search ranking signals. Google now considers website performance when ranking pages, including how fast a page loads, how fast it responds to user actions, and how stable the content is as it loads. This means that even if you have high-quality keywords and content, your search rankings won’t be as high as you want them if you don’t make the cut for the other aspects.
Ultimately, good web design lets you satisfy both search engines and users; it helps you increase your online visibility and guides consumers further down the sales funnel.
Content Marketing
If SEO helps people find you online, content marketing is what convinces them to keep coming back to your website. Users assess your content — the ones you publish and the ones other sources publish about you — to decide if your brand is worth their time, money, and trust.
People look for reviews, comparisons, and other information about your products to make smart purchasing decisions. Providing these kinds of content lets you fulfill the information needs of consumers in different stages of the buyer’s journey — from awareness and consideration to decision — and helps convince them that you are indeed worth buying from.
As a long-term endeavor, content marketing also enables you to slowly build a comprehensive source of reliable information that people go to when they have problems to solve. As you continue publishing relevant, helpful videos, blogs, and infographics, you’ll eventually be recognized as an expert in your niche and improve your brand reputation.
Having a reputation as an industry authority makes it easier for you to cultivate deeper relationships with your existing customers, which is what converts them into loyal brand evangelists. Evangelists not only return as repeat customers, they also willingly promote your products and services to their peers, which can translate to higher revenues.
Ultimately, the goal of content marketing is to cement your reputation as a trustworthy business so that more consumers will put their trust in your products, services, and recommended solutions to their problems.
The Value of Long-Term Digital Marketing
Creating a long-term digital marketing strategy doesn’t mean that you’ll stop aiming for quick wins like a boost in lead generation or new site visits. It only means that you’ll also invest in strategies that build your credibility and reliability in the long term.
The purpose of marketing, after all, is to position your brand as the solution to a customer’s problem or need. You need to cement this reputation so that people would continue supporting your products and services. The way to do that is by implementing digital marketing strategies that build on your brand because it is your reputation that sets you up for long-term success.
Digital Marketing Agency in Orlando
More than just a digital marketing agency, Tonic Enterprises is your partner in catapulting your brand growth. Our digital marketing solutions are tailored after your long-term business goals to make sure you meet your key objectives. We regularly monitor the progress of your campaign to identify areas of improvement to keep it high-performing.
Book a consultation today with Tonic Enterprises to start strategizing your SEO, content writing, and web design for the long term.