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8 Powerful Focus Areas of Digital Marketing That Will Boost 2019

8 Powerful Focus Areas of Digital Marketing That Will Boost 2019

What areas of focus in your digital marketing strategy are top-level for your 2019 marketing campaign, that will assist you to reach your target market? Your answer is here:

As we gradually walk away from 2018, marketers like you are exploring various avenues that will enable them to strengthen their digital marketing campaigns in the coming year.

Digital marketers are taking advantage of new channels to reach clients and prospects–it is the essence of marketing.

In fact, marketing is about connecting with your buyer persona in places where they are hanging out. And in today's world of modern technology, your target market is spending time on the web.

Therefore, what areas of focus in your digital marketing strategy are top-level for your 2019 marketing campaign that will assist you in reaching your target market?

Nevertheless, we will answer the above question later in this article. But if you're new to this business module, you might be wondering…

What is digital marketing?

Here is my description of digital marketing…

Digital marketing uses digital technology to promote and market your products or services, specifically on the Internet.

Digital marketing embraces email marketing, display advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and all marketing channels that use cyberspace or electronic devices.

This marketing approach enables you to affiliate with your clients and eventual customers.

So then…

Here are the best areas to focus on in your digital marketing effort for 2019 to help you reach your audience and future customers.

1. Your blog or website user experience (UX)

Your blog or website is your online empire that deserves all your focus. Why? Because it enables users to form a positive or negative impression of your brand.

If your website UX is ideal, users will immediately bond with your brand–concluding that you're serious about your business.

The positive impression comes as a result of a seamless website user experience (UX), or the usability of your site, which is described by the following elements:

  • Satisfaction
  • Learnability
  • Efficiency
  • Memorability, and
  • Error

It goes to show why having a remarkable website design is vital. However, web design is NOT all that matters to impression users.

You must create a website that meets these criteria

  • Mobile responsive
  • Increase speed
  • Seamless navigation

Personally, I can't click on a site and just sit there waiting for it to load. It must be up to speed for me to continue to other pages.

How about site navigation and mobile responsiveness? Are users able to navigate your site and find what they're looking for? Is your site responsive to mobile?

These key performance indicators (KPIs) must be monitored to ensure they're in place for a great UX.

In fact, a phenomenal website UX will help you boost conversion rates because visitors to your site will see you as a professional and an expert in your industry.

2. Social media platforms

Social media is a fascinating digital marketing component that needs your attention, much as your website. It is not only great for building relationships but also for growing your business.

Social media allow you to promote your business and blog content on different channels to:

But as you may already know, there are many, many social media sites springing up every now and then–presenting you with more than enough social platforms to grow your business.

As a result, it is important to identify which social sites are best for your business–in terms of where your buyer persona is hanging out and consuming content.

As a business owner, you need to meet your target market where they are, so it's essential to pinpoint which platforms are the best fit for your marketing strategy.

The most amazing trend about social media is that it is free to use. So go create a free profile or business page and start advertising your brand.

*Important* Although social media is free for all, it also offers you the option of paid services–also called premium or paid social media. These services will help you increase your return on investment (ROI).

3. Content marketing

Digital marketing would be incomplete without “content marketing.”

This marketing tactic concentrates on consistently creating, curating, and distributing useful content assets that add value to your buyer persona.

These content assets will aid you in the following areas:

  • Generate website traffic
  • Create brand awareness
  • And so forth.

If you execute content marketing correctly, it will assist you in building trust and attracting and retaining your target audience.

The following channels play a vital role in your content strategy:

  • Blog posts
  • News articles
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Ebooks
  • Infographics
  • Whitepapers
  • Press releases

Content marketing embraces the overall aspect of your digital marketing campaign–a solid way of establishing loyalty with your clients and eventual customers.

Recommended: How Interactive Content Can Boost Your Marketing Campaigns

This digital strategy is a formidable area of focus in your 2019 marketing campaign, especially since 90% of marketers saw increased website traffic via content marketing.

Further study shows that 75% of marketers have increased their investment in content marketing as the foremost marketing strategy in their repository.

On the other hand, 90% of B2B marketers are using content marketing to scale their digital marketing strategy.

What does this mean for marketers?

It simply means that if you've not taken content marketing seriously as part of your digital marketing strategy, you need to rethink your stance because you're already leaving money on the table.

4. Big data analytics

With the rise of modern technology, marketers now have more access to customer data than in the past.

Big data marketing analytics makes it easier for you to figure out where your customers and potential customers are consuming content.

This makes “big data marketing analytics” a significant part to focus on as you plan your 2019 digital marketing strategy.

In simple terms, big data analytics enables you to understand your target buyer so well that you can predict which products or services he needs and what marketing strategy will be more effective for him.

So it should and must be a key element of your digital marketing strategy in the coming year.
Therefore, use this amazing tool to find out what's most vital to your customers and create marketing campaigns that will address them properly.

5. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, as you may already know, is the practice of optimizing your web content and website to improve website visibility and increase organic traffic and Google search rankings.
This digital marketing approach is a noteworthy online reputation management tool. If your website uses WordPress, use WordPress SEO audit tools to boost search engine ranking and traffic.

As much as there are many other brands in your industry that are competitive with you, it is not always easy to find you on the web.

SEO will help internet users to find you online if done correctly and easily. Some digital marketing strategies that profit from SEO are:

  • Blogs
  • Websites
  • Infographics

A well-optimized website will appear on page one of the Google search results.

Basically, internet users are more concerned or focused on pages one and two of search results. Those are the pages they tend to click for answers to their search queries.

Hence, SEO is critical to your strategy for your content and website to show up on these pages and drive massive inbound traffic.

6. Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is an interesting area of focus in your digital marketing procedure for 2019. Why?

Because marketers are constantly looking for ways to increase conversion–to transform website visitors to loyal consumers and recurring customers.

It is one of the best marketing formulae to focus on because, with incredible tools like “Analytics,” you can create a phenomenal online reputation by identifying what moves prospects to a particular product or service.

However, there is much conflicting information about CRO. For example, an article on the WordStream blog indicates that long-form landing pages increase conversion rates by 220%.

However, some marketers have found that short-form landing pages increased conversion to 103% for their marketing campaign, while long-form landing page conversion took a nose dive at 23%.

Another study revealed that 75% of businesses said they struggled to find expert digital marketers to help optimize their landing pages for conversion.

Yet, another recent study points out that 84%  of landing pages have navigation menus, while an A/B test case study shows that removing navigation bars can increase conversion rates by 100%.

As you can see, the numbers are staggering and conflicting, yet pointing to one objective–the need to focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO) in the new year.

Interestingly, you agree that many websites have no problem driving tons of website traffic.

But the problem all websites are dealing with is “the ability to convert site visitors to loyal customers.”

Thus, when you examine your return on investment (ROI), look at your conversion rates to figure out which pages are converting and those that are not.

Let it be an area of focus for 2019.

7. Marketing Automation

The overwhelming marketing practices in today’s digital marketing arena have left marketers no choice but to resort to marketing automation.

This is a process where you use automation software to automate your basic marketing activities to boost efficiency.

In other words, you can use software to automate your campaign and streamline your work instead of manually carrying out your daily marketing undertakings.

This marketing approach has become so popular that more and more brands rely heavily on marketing automation for their day-to-day digital marketing activities to help reduce manual effort.

You can automate recurrent assignments such as:

  • Email newsletters.
  • Lead nurturing.
  • List building.
  • Social media scheduling projects.
  • And so on.

Nonetheless, as the competition intensifies,  more automation software will be introduced to the digital marketing landscape to aid marketing processes.

8. Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

It is no secret that Google loves the mobile version internet. You can clearly see this in their support for:

And the fact that global mobile internet users have overtaken desktop users indicates that you should walk along and start using mobile pages.

If your site is not optimized for mobile, ensure you get it done, as it will help you with SEO and Google search rankings.

To get a clear picture of AMP, please consider these questions:

  • How fast do your web pages load on mobile?
  • Do your web pages load instantly on mobile?

If your mobile pages are not loading faster, it is likely that your blog or website visitors will leave, increasing the bounce rate.

This will hurt the overall website user experience (UX), website traffic, and Google rankings.

Since Google released its updated search algorithm in July, marking the start of a new mobile-first search index, webmasters have prioritized mobile page speed.

Consequently, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is worth your focus in the coming year because it is designed for faster load time on mobile.

This simply means that websites that enable accelerated mobile pages (AMP) load faster than those without AMP.

Nevertheless, if you already have a website, here's how to convert it to a responsive design.

Wrapping up

Here, we've outlined the top 8 areas of digital marketing that you need to focus on in 2019.

Although there are more, these 8, including big data marketing analytics, will provide you with a platform to identify components of your marketing strategy that are working and which are not.

This will allow you to make better marketing decisions that will improve your digital marketing campaign and increase your return on investment (ROI).

Accordingly, here is a recap of the main areas to focus on when planning your digital marketing strategy for the coming new year:

  • Website user experience (UX)
  • Social media
  • Content marketing
  • Big data marketing analytics
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
  • Marketing automation
  • Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

However, although we have mapped out the top areas to focus on, it is best that you quantify your 2018 digital marketing strategy to obtain the best data that will assist you in upgrading your 2019 digital marketing campaign.

Moss Clement is a freelance blogger and content marketing manager at Writers Per Hour. He is working closely with B2B marketers and individuals like you to grow your business by delivering highly informative content that is tailored to the needs of your buyer persona. Connect with him on Twitter & LinkedIn.

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