5 Essentials Of A Successful Digital Marketing Strategy For Your Business in Plano or Dallas

A digital marketing strategy is essential for a business in Plano or Dallas to remain competitive in today’s mobile-first world. The majority of people use their smartphones to perform online searches and research businesses before they buy.

82% of mobile users search online to find local businesses. If your business is not online, you are not reaching a large number of potential customers.

Your digital marketing strategy needs to have 5 essential elements to successfully promote your business online and increase leads, sales and conversions.

1. A Mobile Friendly Website with Responsive Design

Mobile devices continue to be the primary means by which consumers make online search queries and access websites. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2017 found that 77% of Americans use smartphones, and 95% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind.

A mobile friendly website is the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. A mobile-friendly website is essential for a business for online marketing to connect with mobile customers and increase leads and sales.

Your website is the foundation for all your internet marketing efforts. Your search marketing, content marketing & social media marketing efforts are all focused on your website. All your online and offline marketing methods will send customers to your website for additional information or to make a purchase. Most customers will be using mobile devices to access your website.

Here are some statistics about mobile devices provided by Google,

  • In 2012, 50% of people said they will use a business less often if its website is not mobile-friendly.
  • In 2015, the number of search queries on mobile devices on Google in the USA exceeded those on desktops.
  • 94% of people in the US who own smartphones use their smartphones to search for local information.
  • 77% of mobile searches will occur at home or at work where desktop computers are also available.
  • 82% of smartphone users search online to find local businesses.
  • 82% of people check their smartphones while they are in a store to make shopping decisions.

These figures show how important it is that your business website is mobile friendly. When a customer visits your website, your website should perform well on a smartphone. All the website content should be easy to read and the website should be easy to navigate on a mobile device.

If your website is not mobile friendly, the customer will have to pinch and zoom to read text that is too small, scroll sideways to read pages which are wider than the mobile screen, and will have difficulty filling out any forms to contact you. After a few attempts they will leave your website in complete frustration never to return again.

In addition to being mobile friendly, your website must also be designed with Responsive Web Design.

Responsive Web Design is a method of web development that is used to develop mobile friendly websites. A website that is Responsive will scale in size and change its format so that all the website contents will fit the size of the mobile phone, laptop, tablet or desktop that the customer is using to browse your website. Responsive web design ensures that all your website content is easy to read and use on all devices.

Here are some of the benefits of a website with responsive web design,

  • Google recommends using Responsive Web Design over other web design types.
  • The main advantage of responsive web design is that you only have to have a single responsive website on a single URL to update and maintain. You will not need to have a separate mobile website and a separate desktop website with all the maintenance and costs of keeping 2 websites updated and constantly match the content between them.
  • A single responsive website is designed to scale in size, change its format and perform well on devices of all sizes from smartphones to tablets to laptops to desktops.
  • A responsive website provides an optimum user experience and ensures that your website performs well in today’s multi-device environment. Since it is easy to read and use on all devices, it keeps your website visitors happy and they are likely to visit again.
  • In April 2015, Google changed their search algorithm to give mobile-friendly sites a higher search ranking. This means that on Google search queries, mobile-friendly websites will get a higher search ranking compared to non mobile-friendly websites.
  • Google is rolling out their mobile-first search index to all websites by September 2020. With Mobile-first indexing, Google will crawl, index and rank the Mobile version of a website to add to their search index. The mobile version of a website will be considered the primary version of the website.

To read more about why Mobile friendly websites are essential, check out our article on 7 Reasons Why Mobile Friendly Websites Are Essential For Online Marketing

2. Your Website Must Be Optimized For SEO or Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a search marketing method of optimizing websites to improve their rankings in search engines.

SEO helps to increase the quality and quantity of organic (free) traffic that your website receives from the search engines. SEO is essential to your digital marketing strategy.

Why do you need SEO for your business website? Here are some reasons,

  • Search engines are the most important source of new visitors to websites. It is estimated that 85% of customers begin their search for products and services on the Internet.
  • Search Engine Optimization of your website is essential so that your website can be found when customers search online for your products and services.
  • SEO helps to improve your website’s rankings in competitive search engine listings on Google and other search engines. Your website needs to compete with millions of other websites and rank well on the Google search results when customers search for your products and services.
  • With Search Engine Optimization, targeted traffic is directed to your website based on keywords which are relevant to your business. The customers who are directed to your website are already searching for your products or services.
  • Google is rolling out their mobile-first search index to all websites by September 2020. With Mobile-first indexing, Google will crawl, index and rank the Mobile version of a website to add to their search index. The mobile version of a website will be considered the primary version of the website. This is another important reason why your website must be mobile friendly, responsive and SEO-optimized to rank well on Google search rankings.

Your business website must also be optimized for Local SEO to be found by people searching in your local area.

The number of people who use search engines to search for local businesses is increasing.

Google offers a free business listing called “Google My Business”. You should list your business on “Google My Business” to be featured in local listings. You should include all relevant information including your business address, phone number, services and images. You can list on “Google My Business” at https://www.google.com/business/

Here are some statistics from Google on the importance of Local SEO:

  • 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to look for local information.
  • 50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphones visited a store within a day, and 34% of consumers who used their laptops or desktops to search did the same.
  • 18% of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase in 1 day vs. 7% of non-local searches

As Mobile-First becomes the new standard followed by Google and others, it is important to have a mobile friendly website which is optimized for SEO to rank well in competitive search engine listings. To read more about local SEO, read our post on 10 Local SEO Tips to Boost Search Rankings

To learn more about SEO, read our article:
11 Reasons Why You Need SEO or Search Engine Optimization

3. A Paid Search Marketing Campaign

Paid Search advertising campaigns using Google Ads(previously called AdWords) are an effective way to reach online customers who are searching for your products and services.

Google Ads is a paid search advertising service offered by Google. It enables businesses to run paid search and display ads on Google’s search results pages and Google partner websites that are part of the Google search and display advertising network.

Google Ads is an effective method of paid search advertising that can bring targeted customers to your website and increase traffic, sales and leads. Google Ads advertising is quicker than SEO to rank on the top pages of Google since it is paid search advertising.

Google Ads Pay Per click(PPC) ads are the ads you see on the top and bottom of the Google search results pages when you search online for a product or service. Customers searching for a product or service can click on the ads to go directly to your website.

With Google Pay Per Click advertising, you pay Google only when a visitor clicks on your Google ads. You are not charged for the ad impressions or the number of times the ads are shown to customers.

Google Ads and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) are two methods of search marketing. Google Ads is different from SEO because you have to pay Google to run the paid search ads. SEO is free or “organic” search rankings on the search engines.

To learn more about PPC, read our articles on What is Google Ads PPC Marketing and 8 Benefits of Google Ads Advertising

4. Content marketing and a Blog On Your Website

How do you get customers to visit your website again? By engaging them with a blog with content that they find interesting. Content marketing is important for your digital marketing strategy and SEO.

A business website must have a blog with informative articles, videos, images and infographics relevant to your business. Your blog is important for content marketing to bring visitors back to your website.

A blog brings visitors back to your website regularly to read articles. Once you regularly continue to provide engaging and informative articles to your visitors, they are more likely to come back and engage with your business. They will sign up for your newsletter, contact you for more information or make a purchase.

Content marketing with a blog is also very important for SEO. You can have articles with important keywords that will rank well in the search engines and bring visitors directly to your website.

A Blog also helps with Inbound marketing. Inbound marketing helps you attract target customers to your business at a minimal marketing cost compared to outbound marketing methods like radio and print ads.

Once your target customers are regularly visiting your website, it gives you more opportunities to engage with your visitors and convert them to customers.

Read more about blogging in 11 Ways Blogging Improves the SEO Rankings of a Website

5. An Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing is an important element of your digital marketing strategy to increase brand recognition and sales.

Regularly posting links to interesting articles and blog posts on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and others can increase your marketing reach and help you connect with customers.

According to a Pew Research Center study done in November 2016, Americans are using social media to look for information and connect with others. According to the Pew study,

  • 79% of Internet users use Facebook making it the most popular social media platform
  • 32% of Internet users use Instagram
  • 24% of Internet users use Twitter
  • 29% of Internet users use LinkedIn
  • 31% of Internet users use Pinterest

Social media marketing is a method of inbound marketing. It can help you connect with customers at a much lower cost than traditional radio and TV advertising. It helps you build brand recognition and increase traffic to your website.

Conclusion:

A majority of people are using their mobile devices to search for and research businesses before they make a purchase. It is important for a business to have a strong online presence to remain competitive in today’s mobile-first world.

An effective digital marketing strategy for a business website requires each of these 5 essential elements:

  • A mobile-friendly and responsive website
  • SEO or search engine optimization
  • Paid Search advertising
  • Content Marketing & Blogging
  • Social Media Marketing

These digital marketing methods will help your business in Plano and Dallas, TX reach online customers and mobile users and increase leads, sales and conversions.

Article First Published: November 17, 2017, Updated: April 17, 2020.

References

1. Google, Understanding Consumers Local Search Behavior, https://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/how-advertisers-can-extend-their-relevance-with-search_research-studies.pdf
2. Google, Find out how you stack up to new industry benchmarks for mobile page speed, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks.html
3. Google, What users want most from mobile sites today, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/research-studies/what-users-want-most-from-mobile-sites-today.html
4. Pew Research Center, Mobile Fact Sheet, January 2017, http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/
5. Pew Research Center, Demographics of social media users in 2016, November 2016, http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/

Related Articles

• 7 Reasons Why Mobile Friendly Websites Are Essential To Online Marketing
• 5 Reasons Why Responsive Web Design Is Essential To Your Internet Marketing Strategy
• Responsive Web Design: Why Is It Important?
• What Is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?
• 8 Benefits of Google Ads
• 11 Reasons Why You need SEO
• What is Google Ads Pay Per Click Marketing

 

Need Help With Digital Marketing in Plano or Dallas, TX?

Gold Mango Design LLC. is a web development and digital marketing company in Plano near Dallas, TX. We help small and medium businesses build a strong online brand and increase leads with professional websites and digital marketing services. Our digital marketing services include Mobile-Friendly & Responsive Web Design and Development, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Google Ads PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing, Digital Marketing consulting services and more. Visit our website at https://goldmangodesign.com or contact us at Gold Mango Design LLC, Plano, TX to discuss an effective digital marketing strategy for your business in Plano or Dallas, TX. We also serve businesses all over the USA.