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How to Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy for 2020

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How to Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy for 2020

Every business needs to have a digital marketing strategy in 2020. If your business has any kind of online presence at all, as every business should at this point, digital marketing is essential to your survival.

But just throwing money at your digital marketing isn’t going to get you very far. If you want your marketing to have an impact and achieve your goals, you need to have a solid strategy at the core. Developing a comprehensive strategy doesn’t have to be difficult; you just need to approach it in the right way. Here’s what you need to know to develop your digital marketing strategy in 2020.

Start by Defining Your Brand

Throughout all of your digital marketing campaigns, the essence of your brand should shine through. The first stage of planning for any new marketing campaign should be working out what you want to say and what you want to convey to your audience. Messaging is very important with regards to marketing, and all your marketing needs to convey something about the nature and ethos of your business.

Having a clear and detailed definition of your brand and what it stands for is essential if you want to put together a thoughtful marketing strategy.

Set Yourself SMART Goals

SMART goals are goals that are simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. This means that they should be easy to understand and you should have a clear idea of how you will achieve them. There’s nothing wrong with setting yourself ambitious goals, but if you set yourself unrealistic goals, then you will be setting yourself up for failure and frustration.

Keep Things Scaled

You do need to make sure that you keep your digital marketing strategy scaled as much as possible. This means that you should be exploring your budget and keeping things under a tight level of control. Letting the costs balloon is one of the easiest ways for your company to end up in trouble. You can’t trade a fantastic marketing campaign for an unhealthy financial situation. Luckily, there are options for small businesses including solutions such as small business SEO packages. This will provide the marketing service you need without the heavy costs that larger companies endure.

Call in Professional Help If You Need It

Not every business is in a position to do their own digital marketing to the best of their ability. Some businesses will be better served by calling in an external digital marketing agency like Smartboost to handle their strategizing for them. There is no sense struggling to put together a comprehensive digital marketing strategy if you don’t have access to the resources and knowledge that you need. Hiring a marketing agency to do things for you might be a smarter move financially than trying to do it all yourself.

Always Track Your Results

It is only by tracking the results of past marketing campaigns that you can learn the lessons you need to improve future campaigns. The data and feedback that your campaigns produce is the most useful tool you have for refining your marketing strategy and improving your approach for the future. You can never know too much when it comes to your past campaigns and the impacts that they have. Knowing what has worked and what hasn’t enables you to take a more considered approach the next time.

A coherent strategy is an essential foundation for any successful marketing campaign. If you don’t have an overarching strategy, your marketing is inevitably going to be aimless and unfocused. Sticking to the advice above will enable you to develop the digital marketing strategy you need to make 2020 a success.

The Dark Art Of Local SEO

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, The Dark Art Of Local SEO

In 2019, local SEO was important, but in 2020, it is essential!

With people locked down in their homes and unable to go anywhere much outside of their immediate community, companies need to focus on targeting customers who live close by. They have a captive market – quite literally.

Local SEO is something of a dark art, but also a skill you can master, so long as you practice the following techniques.

Encourage Customer Reviews

Local businesses live and die by their Google and TrustPilot review scores. Therefore, you must encourage your best and happiest customers to leave reviews online about your business.

A few years ago, Google changed its algorithm to prioritize reviews in its search rankings, promoting companies with excellent performance. The more positive feedback you can generate, the better.

Create Listings For All Your Locations

YEAH! Local recently did some extensive research on the importance of using services like Google My Business to create online listings. Companies that sign up get preferential treatment because Google is able to confirm that they are, indeed, genuine enterprises looking for customers.

The smartest companies list ALL their locations so that users can see their nearest option.

The more listings you have, the more visible your site becomes.

Reference Keywords In Your Page Titles

Search engines are smart, but they still rely on keywords to inform them of the content of a page. Smart firms, therefore, include relevant local keywords in their page titles.

Here are some examples of how you might do this:

  • Honda Dealership in Swansea
  • Car Mechanic In Boston
  • Logistics Company based in New York
  • Atlanta Hairdresser
  • Music teacher in Cincinnati

You get the picture. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler you can make it, the better.

Optimize Your Page Copy To Reflect Your Target Geography

It is not accidental that most businesses include the name of the local area in their page titles. They do this because they know that SERPs will pay attention. The same, however, is true of page copy too. You want the text also to mention the local search terms you wish to target.

Keep Your Address Format Consistent Across The Web

How you write your address online matters more than you might think. Search engines want to have confidence that they’re presenting their users with the correct information about your company. Thus, they scour the web for data relating to your email address, telephone number, and physical location. If the algorithms are confident enough that the information is correct (because it is consistent across the web), they will present it to customers and boost your ranking. If it isn’t, then Google can punish you.

It is vital, therefore, to check all your social media accounts, directories and websites to ensure that the data is consistent.

The coronavirus pandemic is making local SEO more important than ever before. If you can provide services to local people, your business will be in a much better position to thrive once the dreaded lockdown comes to an end.

Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business’ s Financial Position

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial PositionBusinesses have been hit hard in recent times, as the pandemic situation has given many business owners cause to worry about their finances. Not that worry is anything new, of course. The life of an entrepreneur has always been a difficult one, as there are all kinds of other factors that can cause financial worry, including the threat of the competition and the ever-changing marketplace which can leave some businesses struggling.

Chances are, you might be struggling within your business, and your financial position might not be as affluent as you would like. This might be because of the factors we have suggested, or there could be other reasons why your business isn’t as fruitful as it could be.

Of course, it might be that your business is doing just fine. If this is the case, then great! Still, no matter how well your business might be doing, we’re sure you would like to reach further heights of financial nirvana.

So, whatever the case is for you, be you happy or otherwise with your financial situation, here are some of the actionable steps you can take to make improvements.

#1: Assess your current situation

To know how well you are doing, you need to get on top of your accounting. If you have an accountant or any other type of financial adviser, sit down with them to discuss your finances. Do the same if you have people on your payroll that deal with the monetary sides of your business. Together, work out where savings could be made, or where other changes need to be put in place and take the necessary steps to make an improvement to your financial position.

And if you haven’t already, consider cloud ERP solutions for your business. These will give you a clearer picture of your finances, with Business Intelligence tools to help you evaluate every part of the financial side of your business. Using the data before you, it should be possible to get a better understanding of how well your business is doing financially.

When you have assessed your current situation, you will be able to work out the way forwards. The following suggestions might be useful to you, so keep reading.

#2: Assess your marketing tactics

For any business to make a profit, marketing has to be key. The more you can to do to get the word out about your business the better. However, you don’t want to waste money with your marketing efforts. If you are investing a lot but seeing zero or minimal return, then you need to rethink what you are doing. It could be that you are targeting the wrong demographic, for example, or you could be using a marketing method that no longer appeals to customers.

So, here’s what you need to do. Firstly, analyze your marketing tactics. You can do this using analytic tools, so check out the link and put them into practice if you haven’t already. Speak to your team too, and ask them for their opinion, and collect feedback from your existing customers to ask about the relevancy of your marketing.

For those marketing tactics that are working, keep using them. But consider how you might improve on what you are doing, and what tweaks you could make to make these tactics work even better for you. And then think of the marketing tactics you need to ditch. While they may have worked in the past, it is important to remember that time moves on and that you might need to try different ways to engage with potential customers. Check out these digital marketing trends if you haven’t already, and take a deep dive in to work out what might be practical for you.

#3: Sell those things you no longer need

Not only will you make more money if you sell some of your unwanted assets, but you will reduce your storage costs too! So, take a look around your business and consider the items that are no longer relevant to you. You might have surplus desks or pieces of computer equipment, for example. If they aren’t being used, and if they are unlikely to be used in the foreseeable future, it might make sense to sell them. Consider the same for any other items you have lying around your office, or that are filling up space in your storage areas. When you have made money from them, put a portion of that cash into your savings if you don’t need to spend it immediately, as you will then strengthen your financial position in the future.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial Position#4: Shift your surplus stock

Especially if your business is seasonal, it is important to sell off your surplus stock before you need to get rid of it through less-profitable means. So, mark down your prices and highlight them on your website. Send word out to your customers via email or social media. And if you’re still using leaflet drops to market your business, send the word out door-to-door about your discounted products. You will then make money rather than lose it, and for the short-term at least, you will see a rise in your financial position.

#5: Check for government grants

In certain circumstances, you may be eligible for a government grant. If you were to innovate in any way, for example, perhaps with a product or service that could make a difference in people’s lives, you might be able to apply for a grant from your local government. Similarly, if you were to make green improvements to your business, you might also be eligible for some money. It’s with checking, so have a look at grants.gov for anything you might be eligible for, and continue your research online for other pots of money you might be eligible for.

#6: Deal with your business debts

The longer your business is in debt, the worse off you will be, as you will never have the opportunity to fully spend your profits on things your business needs. So, do what you can to reduce or eliminate the debts that are currently holding your business back. You might want to consider consolidating them, as if you can combine your current debts into one low-interest loan, you will make life much easier for yourself. You might want to contact your lenders too, and ask if they will freeze interest charges to give you a better chance of paying off your debts. You should also pay more than the minimum payment each month, as this way, you will be paying off more of the debt rather than just the interest charges. There are further ideas here on how to manage your business debt, so have a read, and get rid of them as soon as possible.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial Position#7: Stop spending more than you should be

If you want to improve your financial position (which, of course, you do), you should take a long hard look at your expenses. If you are paying too much in certain areas, stop! There are all kinds of ways to reduce your business expenses, so read the linked article, and start to make those savings. Of course, going beyond your expected expenses, you need to think about frivolous spending too. If you are buying unnecessary things for your business, then you are simply wasting money. Assess your spending, and keep in mind that saving is better than spending when you’re tempted to buy something you shouldn’t.

These are just a few of the steps you should be taking to improve your business’s financial position, so go back through each one, and commit to further research to help you increase your business profits.

We wish you every success with your business!

How Social Media Changed Tourism Marketing

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How Social Media Changed Tourism Marketing

Social media has changed the way people communicate and exchange information. Because of this, industries in almost every sector have had to adapt to stay ahead of the curve. For some companies, making the switch was difficult. For others, the rise in social media has improved not only exposure but also the way companies market and do business. The travel and hospitality sector is one of those areas. Social media has become the most effective form of marketing since it allows exposure to your business organically. The travel industry has particularly benefited from this change.

There has been a rise in social sharing because of social media platforms. Over 97 percent of millennials share photos and videos of their travels online, according to Entrepreneur, and the travel industry is catching on. Some companies have encouraged their customers to engage with their business through social media.

Consumers turn to social media platforms to research places to visit and the best ways to travel. To find out places to travel, 89 percent of millennials plan travel activities based on content posted by their peers online. This is thanks to social media sites like Instagram, TripAdvisor, and Yelp. Though Facebook is not specific to travel like TripAdvisor, Facebook Recommendations allow its users to ask advice to their peers about the best cities to travel, which hotels to stay in, restaurants, and activities to do. All of these things essentially use word of mouth, which is the most effective form of marketing.

StrategyDriven's Social Media Publication Timing Whitepaper


Social media has also impacted the travel agency sector. Once consumers have found a destination, they are likely to book on their own using their mobile devices. Break The Ice Media reports 35 percent of travelers have used mobile to book a tour or activity while already on location. Travel agencies have had to catch up to the rising trend focusing on selling experiences instead of materials. Self-booking has not completely knocked out the travel agency business model as they are responsible for 55 percent of airline bookings, 77 percent of cruise bookings, and 73 percent of package bookings, reports Entrepreneur.

Making it easier to communicate directly with consumers, social media has also allowed travel and hospitality companies to improve their customer service. Consumers utilize things like Trip Advisor, and Yelp to share customer satisfaction. Most companies also have a social media presence making it even easier for disgruntled or confused customers to reach out and share their dissatisfaction. Uhuru says when customers reach out to a brand on social media, over 50 percent expect a reply. This may sound like a customer service representative’s worst nightmare, but it is actually very good for the business. By quickly responding to comments on social media, they can easily improve their reputation. This helps consumers see your brand is professional and they feel valued as a patron. Listening to a customer’s complaints or concerns is another way to learn more about your customers, allowing your company to provide an excellent experience.

5 Ways to Increase Post Engagement on Your Facebook Business Page

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 5 Ways to Increase Post Engagement on Your Facebook Business Page

Are you using Facebook as a platform for your business? Do you notice your post engagement losing some steam?

Post engagement is one of the key metrics that say how effective your Facebook business page is. It measures your followers’ loyalty to your brand.

With 80% of businesses using Facebook in their marketing strategies, you need to increase your Facebook page post engagement. But how do you do it? What are the techniques that you need to start practicing?

Continue reading below as we look at five effective ways to increase your post engagement.

The Value of Post Engagement

What is post engagement on Facebook? As we mentioned earlier, it is a metric that measures the activities your Facebook posts generate.

But why is it important?

Facebook engagement helps increase your social media reach. Your brand will get more exposure. In turn, you will generate more leads faster.

Furthermore, post engagement also serves as a cost-effective way of marketing your products. Instead of paying for expensive TV ads and billboards, social media engagement will cost you very little.

5 Techniques to Boost Your Post Engagement

Part of learning how to grow a Facebook page is managing your posts. Here are five effective ways that will boost the number of interactions on your Facebook account:

1. Timing is Key

Don’t just post on Facebook anytime you want. Instead, schedule your posts accordingly. Post during times when most of your fans are online.

Use a Facebook scheduling tool to determine the best times to publish your posts.

2. Create More Videos

Do most of your posts involve plain text? Try upping the ante by posting more videos.

Users love watching videos. They find it more engaging than plain text. But you need to make your videos entertaining and informative at the same time.

Moreover, post the videos directly to your Facebook page. Avoid posting a link to your videos coming from your YouTube account.

Also, consider publishing interactive Facebook posts. Try doing a Facebook Live once a week. Users love it when they can directly interact with the brands they follow in real-time.

3. Boost and Recycle

Remember your top posts from a month ago? Consider boosting them to increase engagement. Boosting will only cost you a minimal fee.

Alternatively, you should consider recycling your top posts.

When recycling them, tweak the posts a little. You may add a question or incorporate a video or image.

4. Brevity and Quality

Another effective way of increasing engagement is to shorten your posts. Keep them brief as much as you can, as longer posts may bore users.

But make sure your posts do not fall short in quality. Try using witty statements or ask them quick questions.

5. CTA Matters

Last but not least, you need to include a call-to-action (CTA) to your posts. A CTA sends the message that you want to hear from them. Throwing a question at the end of your post is a good option.

You may also create polls to see how they feel about a certain topic. You can go here to learn how to create a poll on Facebook.

Take Your Facebook Business Page to the Next Level

By increasing your Facebook post engagement, you can build your brand faster and create new leads for conversion. But post engagement is only one area you must work on.

Learn more strategies by reading our different articles. We discuss other techniques that will help take your social media pages to the next level.