How Indiana businesses can benefit from digital marketing
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The state of Indiana boasts a booming business landscape, with it being home to numerous Fortune 500 companies while also being focused on growing the tech sector and providing endless opportunities to cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship. However, even with a strong business ecosystem, companies in Indiana and nationwide are fighting for market share, putting increased pressure on marketers to prove marketing ROI.
Achieving success and showing profitable growth in digital marketing can be difficult, with the ever-changing industry and the rise of new marketing channels. Fortunately, Indiana is one of the best states to benefit from digital marketing. With it consistently ranked as one of the top states for business due to its low costs and available funding resources, companies statewide have the capacity to allocate more resources toward cost-efficient marketing efforts to increase revenue, lower overall costs, and create ultra-efficient marketing teams.
Here’s how to start if your company wants to benefit from digital marketing.
First, outline your target audience.
Knowing and understanding the target market is one of the most important things in digital marketing and can be pivotal when making marketing decisions. It guides campaigns to people interested or potentially interested in the products or services offered by a specific company. With an accurate read on who you’re trying to reach, your company can better advertise and market to these potential customers, leading to more conversions.
Once you’ve gained additional learnings from your digital campaigns, you can focus future efforts on your most engaged audience. Learn which elements resonate and which don’t and adapt accordingly. The goal will always be to show the right ad to the right people at the right time.
Consider your channels.
Every marketing dollar is precious, so you must be confident that you’re investing in the right media platforms to reach your goals. When planning out your digital marketing strategy, think strategically about which channels to use by looking at which ones your target audience visits the most, as this data can arm you with the knowledge of where to spend the majority of your time and resources.
There are several options your business can utilize, such as search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), display marketing, programmatic marketing, content marketing, email marketing, video marketing, podcast advertising and more.
Incorporate paid media strategies.
Businesses that want fast results should consider incorporating data-driven paid media strategies, also commonly known as pay-per-click (PPC), in their digital marketing efforts. A paid media strategy is important for your business because it can have an immediate impact on revenue, sales and lead generation due to the ease of campaign set up and keyword targeting, as the consumer has already shown interest by searching for your keyword. If you’re not incorporating paid media within your marketing mix, you may be losing out on meaningful conversations with prospects to competitors. Fortunately, with the right planning and support, your paid media campaigns can be wildly successful with a healthy ROI.
Build a budget designed for your goals.
Digital marketing can be effective for budgets of all sizes. But setting budgets too low or spreading budgets too thin across several platforms just to be present can be detrimental to campaign performance. For all businesses, no matter the size, it’s essential to focus more on what’s working and make adjustments when it’s not – that will cycle back to where the budget is placed.
Testing is one of the best ways to determine your budget allocation strategy, which helps see what will work best before allocating the full budget towards a particular platform. Testing will also give you an idea of the ROI on the digital marketing investment and how much value it could have at scale. With this flexibility, your company can be better armed in making budget decisions that reach your desired audience and achieve your business goals.
Regularly review data.
A ‘set it and forget it’ strategy does not work in digital marketing campaigns, so it’s important for your marketing team to plan, measure, and analyze your marketing data. A regular optimization strategy can drive down costs-per-click and costs-per-acquisition while revealing valuable insights into your audience, messaging and consumer journey that can be leveraged across every channel.
When a campaign is launched, plan a regular review cadence in advance, with more frequent reviews within the first days and weeks of the campaign, to uncover gaps in the data or irrelevant keyword placements and make quick adjustments. Using this data in your digital marketing strategy can help unleash its true potential and generate a stronger ROI.
No matter the size or industry, digital marketing is an effective option to move your Indiana business forward and generate positive growth. However, digital marketing campaigns require close attention and constant evaluation to generate a high ROI. Ensuring your marketing teams have the right tools and support to deliver successful campaigns that generate the necessary leads to grow your business is essential.
Julie Warnecke is the Founder and CEO of Found Search Marketing in Fishers, an agency specializing in direct-response digital campaign management.