Do you know that your business needs to be on the right digital platforms?

– By Vikram Kumar, Co Founder and Director of SRV Media and EaseBuzz

In today’s world, for a business to be successful, it has to be present over a large number of digital avenues to connect with a diverse audience. You may say, ‘okay, I already have a website and a Facebook page!’ which is good, but it is not really enough. There are so many other platforms a business needs to focus on, depending upon the type of services or products they offer, and connect with the target audience where they spend the most of their time.

Digital channels such as websites, blogs and social media are a staple for businesses as they act as an extension of one’s branding initiatives. However, there are other valuable options to explore and to reach out one’s audience next door or across the globe. Let us see how you can determine the right digital platforms for your business:

Picking the right audience
To begin with, determine the nature of your product or service and to whom you intend to sell. Because, of course, different audiences “hang out” on different platforms online. If you wish to bring your offerings to their notice through regular posts or advertising campaigns, you need to know where your money is best spent.

For example with social media marketing,
– Professionals can be seen on LinkedIn,
-Teens can be targeted on Instagram and Snapchat,
– Female audiences mostly are present on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Take a look here to identify where your audience hangs out the most.

Utilizing content sharing platforms other than blogs and websites:

Content is central to all digital campaigns and activities. The content you want to share can be in a variety of formats including blogs, infographics, videos and other visual and written formats.

With more than a billion users in the world, YouTube is by far the largest video sharing platform. Posting videos of different forms– how to videos, new product guide, announcements, latest features, etc., could potentially influence new prospective customers and keep your existing clients engaged. What’s more? YouTube is quite cost effective– it not only allows to you promote your business on a large scale but, at a minimal cos. You can take help from a video making agency to create engaging videos.

Similarly, Slideshare on LinkedIn is a free online channel that you can use to your advantage to share your content to the corporate world out there. Note that, Slideshare has 70 million users and around 400,000 presentations are uploaded every month on this platform. Doesn’t that sound like the place to be?

Tapping the power of paid advertising
For some businesses, promoting a brand organically may not be the best option, as it could require a lot of time and effort. In that case, they can support it with paid campaigns. With paid advertising, you can run a very targeted campaign built only for a set demographic, classified on the basis of age, gender, location, interests, occupation, etc., to reach them quickly and efficiently.

You can start with leveraging social media advertising on– Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. AdWords– believe it or not, is ubiquitous today! If you are serious about digital advertising, it is incomplete without Google AdWords. As it not only gets you more traffic and leads but, also the lessons learnt from running a tight pay per click campaign on AdWords would serve you well on other digital advertising platforms too.

For example, a newly established college may start with a website, post on blogs, work on SEO strategies in an effort to rank well, but obviously these strategies may not pay off right away. Especially, with the admission season fast approaching, the college would want to show up everywhere that students are online. In such a scenario, a paid campaign by the college on Facebook can help by displaying the advertisement in the students’ feeds, and propel them to click on it and know more about the college.

Include email marketing in the strategy
Emails have the ability to keep your customers, partners and leads informed. It enables sales through emails, newsletters, latest blogs, and more. With email marketing then allows following up with the targeted audience with personalized messaging, to further drive them down the funnel.
It is possible to find out if someone on the list clicked opened the email, clicked a link, viewed the product, but perhaps did not buy the product. You can program your email marketing tool to automatically follow up with these users by sending out an email with a discount code or a hurry up message to entice them to purchase.
Doing PR right
Not PR in the traditional sense– – newspapers stories, print magazine articles, TV ads, but online PR. This includes media outreach, collaboration with influencers, building relationships with online journalists, press release distribution, and participation in forum discussions, all to gain press hits, citations and increased referral traffic.

Platforms to monitor digital marketing efforts
As you continue to add new platforms to drive your brand’s exposure, do not forget to add analytics and monitoring tools to your arsenal, to measure what is working and what is not.

Even the basic tools like Google Analytics, AdWords, Hotjar, GetResponse, SproutSocial, allow you to manage and track traffic on websites and your social pages. Also, it helps ensure the ROI is sound for any running marketing campaign.

Looking for expert advice?
Perhaps you have been into the digital marketing campaign thing for a while now, but are you sure you are fully utilizing the right digital platforms to drive your business forward? It is critical to understand which platforms are better suited for your business, brand, product, or service. To answer this, you need to begin with evaluating your marketing goals, audience, and budge,. Then use the right platform for the right job.