Did you know that nearly 20% of businesses fail within the first two years? The good news is that there are steps you can take to prevent this from happening.

It’s no secret that online advertising is one of the most important responsibilities that entrepreneurs have when it comes to ensuring the success of their business.

However, the last few iOS updates for Apple mobile devices have impacted the way that businesses can advertise online.

These factors can impact ad visibility for your brand. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about advertising online.

App Tracking Transparency

When people discuss the complications associated with online advertising due to iOS updates, this is what they are referring to. App tracking transparency is a new feature that was introduced in iOS 14.5.

It requires app developers to get explicit permission from users before they are able to track them across different apps and websites.

The concern for businesses is that this could lead to a significant reduction in the number of people who are willing to be tracked. This would in turn lead to a reduction in the effectiveness of targeted advertising.

This is still an unfolding situation, so it remains to be seen what the long-term impact of app tracking transparency will be.

You should prepare for the worst, though. The last thing you want is for your future campaigns to fall short.

IDFA Changes

In addition to app tracking transparency, there have also been changes to the way that IDFA (identifier for advertisers) works on iOS 14 devices. IDFA is a unique identifier that is assigned to each Apple device, and it is used for targeted advertising.

Under the new policy, IDFA will still be available but it will be opt-in rather than opt-out.

This means that users will have to actively choose to share their IDFA with businesses in order for targeted advertising to take place

Again, this could lead to a reduction in the number of people who are willing to share their IDFA. You may then find that targeted advertising is not as effective as it used to be. Depending on how you leverage this type of advertising, you may need to pivot to a more reliable method.

Changes Made to Social Media Advertising

The changes to IDFA have also had an indirect impact on social media advertising. For example, Facebook relies heavily on IDFA for targeted advertising. As a result of the changes to IDFA, Facebook has had to make changes to the way that its ad platform works.

In particular, Facebook has had to introduce a new limit on the number of ad targeting options that businesses can use. This limit is currently set at eight, but it could be reduced further in the future.

This change is likely to have a negative impact on the effectiveness of social media advertising for many businesses.

It’s worth noting that the changes to IDFA are not just affecting businesses that advertise on Facebook.

Any business that uses IDFA for targeted advertising will need to find a way to deal with the changes. Depending on how you choose to configure advertising for your business, the effect this has on your company can range from substantial to negligible.

What About iOS 15 and iOS 16?

Apple’s internal data has shown that many users choose to disable personalized ads on their devices. This is likely to continue with future versions of iOS, which means that businesses will need to find alternative ways to reach their target audiences.

It is still too early to know for sure, but it seems likely that the changes made in iOS 14 will have a significant impact on online advertising for the foreseeable future.

How to Adapt Your Advertising Strategy

If you’re concerned about the impact of these changes on your business, there are a few steps that you can take in order to adapt your advertising strategy.

It’s important to remember that not all of your customers will be using iOS devices. This means that you should still focus on other platforms (such as Android) when you’re planning your advertising campaigns.

In addition, you should consider using other methods of advertising in order to reach your target audience. This will help to ensure that your business is not overly reliant on online advertising.

Of course, it’s essential to should keep an eye on the situation and be prepared to change your strategy if necessary.

Finally, working with a digital marketing professional can help you get started on the right track.

They will have all of the tools and resources to help you navigate these changes and the complications that they impose. When searching for someone to work with, be sure that they have a strong reputation and have worked with businesses like yours in the past.

This is the only way to gauge the results that you will get.

Advertising Online Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

Businesses need to be aware of these changes and adapt their strategies accordingly. The landscape of online advertising is constantly changing, and those who are able to keep up with the latest trends will be the most successful.

Be sure that you keep the above information in mind when advertising online for your business so you can make the decision that is best for you.

Want to learn more about what we can do? Be sure to reach out to us today and see how we can help you.

Websites are so important that 75% of consumers judge a business’s credibility by its website.

Bad website design can mean the difference between flourishing and failing. This is a startling statistic but one that needs more explanation. In what exact ways does a bad design harm your business, and how does that work?

Let’s take a look at 7 ways that bad website design could be limiting or harming your business.

What Is Bad Website Design?

To get details about how a bad website design hurts a business, let’s first determine what a bad design is:

• Slow loading times

• Not mobile-friendly

• Difficult to navigate or use

• Poorly written or ineffective content

• Disorganization

• Poor choice of fonts, colors, and images\

• Lack of optimization

This is often due to poor or lacking technical SEO optimization. Consider hiring a professional who understands technical SEO to assist your business.

Now let’s move on to the impact that bad website design will have on your business.

1. Customer Trust

It should come as no surprise that having a bad website design can destroy customer trust. There are a lot of threats and dangers in shopping online. Modern consumers know this well.

The more professional and easy-to-use a website is, the more trust customers will have. They form this opinion less than a second from the moment they visit the site. Your website needs to grab potential customers from the moment they land.

If a website doesn’t seem well put together, customers will leave. They won’t be willing to spend money on a product or brand that seems unsafe or out-of-date.

2. SEO and Ranking

You could have the best on-page and local SEO efforts in the world. They won’t do you any good if your website isn’t well-built. The goal of SEO is to direct people to your site, and if they leave as soon as they arrive, you’ll begin to lose ranking.

Google modifies the algorithm all the time to ensure customer satisfaction. Sites that people don’t stay on don’t please their customers. A high bounce rate is due to poor design, and that can lower your ranking.

This means that any money you spend on SEO and content marketing was for nothing.

3. Lose Mobile Customers

People who surf the internet on their mobile devices expect quality websites. In fact, they want them to look as good on the phone as they do on the computer. Not optimizing for mobile traffic dooms you to lose out on over 62% of website traffic.

Imagine if you had a brick-and-mortar business and sent away over half of your customers when they entered the door. That is what poor website design does for a modern business, whether it is e-commerce or not.

Mobile traffic is growing every year as well. The impact of not having a mobile-friendly web design will only increase. Well-designed websites must take this into consideration.

4. Out of Touch With Customers

Having a bad website will make your business seem archaic and out of touch. This will convince people that you don’t care about your customers. They won’t feel a connection to your brand, and personalizing your brand is a goal of all modern marketing.

This undermines any effort or investment you make in marketing, digital or not. People want to feel like a business puts them first. That means their time, energy, and their wallets get reserved for businesses they connect with.

This also leads to the fact that website design has changed over the last 10 years. Looking out of date can make your website look like poorly designed websites. Load times may also be slower with older layouts and design features.

5. Marketing Efforts

It doesn’t matter whether you invest in digital or traditional marketing. A bad website will hurt both and curtail any efforts to grow your customer base. For digital marketing, a great deal depends on the performance of your website to even get started.

Content, landing pages, and other hallmarks of digital marketing won’t help a bad website. Marketing will attract customers, but a bad website will chase them away as fast as they arrive. This will leave you with investments that can’t bring any return back to your business.

6. Frustrating Customers

Nothing will get under a customer’s skin like a bad website. The delay in surfing the internet drives people crazy. No one wants to sit there staring at their phone, and modern customers are far more demanding when it comes to loading times.

A website that is difficult to navigate is as bad. If someone wants to get around your website or look at content, it must be easy to do. The longer and harder it is, the fewer customers will wait around.

This also highlights the importance of the color scheme in web design. Customers won’t tolerate a website that is hard to see or read. Sometimes the difference between good and bad website design can come down to color choices.

Customers aren’t forgiving when it comes to businesses that wasted their time. A reputation for poor design will develop as social media will allow customers to vent their frustration.

7. No Second Chances

There are many things that a business can do that customers will forgive. A lot of people are willing to give second chances if they believe that there’s a good reason. This gracious attitude does not extend to negative experiences with websites.

A majority of customers, in some studies over 80%, will not give a second chance to a bad website. There’s no margin for error when it comes to website design. The importance of web design can’t be overstated.

Bad Website Design

All your hard work, investments, and time can will get destroyed by bad website design. Chasing customers away that won’t come back is a death knell to many businesses. Few customers will tolerate a bad website, and you don’t want to get limited to the ones who will.

If you want to improve your technical SEO and website design, contact us.

Here’s What SEO Consulting Can Do for Your Business

Knowing the rules and regulations regarding SEO will help boost your business’s marketing game. Here’s what SEO consulting can do for you.

Almost 70% of all experiences online start with a search engine. Most people (75%) never look beyond the first page of results, though. If your site doesn’t appear on the first page, consumers might not find your brand during a search.

With search engine optimization (SEO), you can reach the top! Then, you can start attracting new customers to your business online.

On the fence about investing in SEO consulting services this year? Here are a few reasons you need SEO for businesses! Read on to learn more.

Leverage Experience and Expertise

Google makes changes to its search engine algorithm each year. Each change could impact your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Remember, most consumers never check the second page of results.

If your ranking drops, your brand’s online visibility could as well.

You could find it difficult to adapt to the newest search engine algorithm changes. If you’re completely new to SEO, it can take time to learn the ropes. You don’t have to work through it alone.

Instead, consider hiring an SEO consultant this year. You can leverage their years of experience and expertise to create a strong, effective strategy. Otherwise, you could waste valuable time with trial and error.

Try to find an SEO consulting agency that has experience helping businesses within your niche. They’ll have a better understanding of your competitors, industry, and customers. Then, they can help you create a customized SEO strategy bound to generate results.

Leveraging their experience and expertise from the start can set you up for immediate success.

Keep Track of Trends

As Google makes changes to the search engine algorithm, new SEO trends pop up as well. Remember, tracking these trends can help you improve your rankings. You could get a leg up on the competition as a result.

For example, about 48% of consumers now use a voice assistant to complete general web searches. About 41% of these searches come from a featured snippet. Featured snippets appear at the top of SERPs.

Learning how to format your content for featured snippets and voice searches can help you reach new consumers.

In fact, nearly 75% of voice search results rank in the top three for a query.

Video content is gaining popularity as well. Today, video is the number one form of content used in content strategies, overtaking blogs and infographics. Videos also appear as featured snippets.

Optimizing your video posts and adding transcripts could help you rank higher on SERPs.

You can work with a local SEO consultant to make sure you never fall behind the trends. Then, you can find new ways to reach consumers online.

Generate Brand Awareness

It takes multiple interactions between a brand and consumer before the consumer becomes aware the business exists. Each time you appear in front of a consumer online, brand awareness will grow. With SEO, you can boost your brand visibility.

In time, brand awareness will grow into brand recognition, allowing you to remain top of mind. The next time that consumer needs your offerings, they’ll recall seeing your brand on SERPs.

They might visit your website directly, allowing you to gain more direct traffic. Your rankings could improve, helping you reach even more people online.

Optimize Your Website

If you lack experience with SEO, you might not know how to correctly optimize your website.

First, you’ll need to gather audience and keyword research. Each page on your site will need a unique target keyword. When a consumer searches using that keyword, your content could appear.

Your website’s backend can impact your SEO rankings, too.

For example, Google looks for websites that offer a positive user experience (UX). If your site is easy to use, people will explore your pages. Their dwell times will increase as a result.

If your site is messy, slow, or difficult to use, they’ll leave without exploring other pages. Your bounce rate will start to increase, which can hurt your rankings.

Your SEO consultant can make sure your site is fast, secure, mobile-optimized, and user-friendly. They can also make sure your site appeals to Google’s Core Web Vitals. Making these changes can boost your rankings.

Create Quality Content

Google also looks for unique, fresh content when determining SEO rankings. Learning how to hire an SEO consultant will ensure there’s always fresh content for your blog.

They can use the keyword research they gathered to create quality, informative, personalized content for your customers. Personalization can help you forge stronger connections with your target audience. Consumers might feel more inclined to choose your business if you offer personalized content.

Posting quality blog content can help you generate more traffic. It could help you gain backlinks, too. Backlinks are one of the top ranking factors.

Your SEO consultant will make sure you’re not making these SEO mistakes, too.

Generate Traffic and Leads

If you’re struggling to generate website traffic, hire an SEO consultant. They can complete an audit to determine where your SEO strategy is struggling. Then, they can make the necessary improvements to help you generate traffic.

As you generate more website traffic, you’ll also have the chance to generate fresh leads and sales. Your ROI will improve as a result.

Save Time and Stress

To create an effective SEO strategy, you’ll need to put it in a lot of time, effort, and research. That’s time you could otherwise dedicate to your customers. For example, an effective SEO strategy requires:

• Audience research
• Keyword research
• Link-building
• Content creation
• Web design and development
• Data analytics

Neglecting even one part of your SEO strategy could impact your success. Instead of losing time with your customers, hire an SEO consultant to handle these tasks for you.

Improve Your ROI

A strong SEO strategy can help you improve your company’s ROI. Then, you can start growing your business without blowing through your marketing budget.

Boost Your Rankings: Request SEO Consulting Services Today

Don’t miss the chance to boost your business this year. Instead, consider investing in SEO consulting services. With a strong SEO strategy, you can get leagues ahead of the competition in no time.

Eager to get started? We can’t wait to help.

Schedule a free consultation with our team today to get started.

About 75% of search engine users never look beyond the first page of search results. With SEO, you can improve your organic rankings to appear in front of consumers first. If you’re using black hat SEO, however, Google will blacklist your sites from search engine result pages (SERPs).

Consumers might never find your website online as a result.

What is black hat SEO, exactly, and what techniques should you avoid to improve your rankings this year? Read on to find out!

After learning more about black hat SEO techniques, you can improve your overall SEO strategy to help your rankings rise. Improve your strategy with these tips today.

What Is Black Hat SEO?

First, let’s cover the basics. What is black hat SEO?

Some business owners and marketers use black hat SEO tactics to quickly improve their organic search engine rankings. These techniques involve manipulating search engine algorithms. However, these techniques violate search engine guidelines.

Search engines like Bing and Google have already outlined SEO practices that go against their terms and guidelines. You can find Google’s Webmaster Guidelines here. If you use black hat SEO techniques, these search engines will likely penalize your site.

You’ll either get blacklisted or receive a lower-ranking position. You’ll start noticing a decline in organic traffic to your website as a result.

Without strong SERP rankings, you could also struggle to:

• Generate brand awareness and recognition
• Appear ahead of competitors
• Gain brand trust
• Generate loyal customers
• Generate more leads and sales
• Improve your ROI
• Become a credible resource within your industry

Don’t risk it by using black hat SEO tools and techniques. Instead, consider partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency. They’ll ensure you’re using the proper techniques to boost your organic rankings.

Once you rank at the top of a SERP, you can start generating more brand awareness, traffic, and online sales.

The Risks

Why is it such a risk to use black hat SEO techniques?

For a start, these practices are considered unethical. Using tricks to improve your search engine rankings won’t benefit you in the long run, either. For the most part, cheating the system only provides short-lived benefits.

According to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, violations could lead to your site getting removed from the Google index. It might no longer show up in results on Google or any of Google’s partner sites.

As a result, black hat SEO tactics could negatively impact your search rankings and online visibility. If you lose traffic and visibility, you’ll start losing conversions and revenue as well.

If the majority of your customers find your business online, you need a strong search engine presence. It won’t matter how many keywords you target or how many blog posts you write. Your content won’t appear on Google if you’re using black hat SEO techniques.

You might lose a huge source of income, leading to job losses or even the closure of your entire business. Losing organic traffic could hurt your paid media strategies like PPC, too.

Google will recognize you’re using unethical practices as well. If it blacklists your site, you won’t reap any benefits from using black hat techniques.

If you want to experience the long-term benefits of higher SEO rankings, you need to use white hat, ethical SEO techniques.

6 Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid

If you want to improve your search engine rankings, you need to make sure you’re avoiding black hat techniques. Here are a few to avoid as you develop your SEO strategy for the year.

If you’re still struggling to boost your organic rankings, work with an SEO agency right away. They’ll assess your current SEO strategy to determine why your rankings aren’t improving over time. They could help you recognize you’re using black hat tactics before your rankings drop.

1. Keyword Stuffing

Each page and post on your website should target a specific keyword. Targeting keywords can help you rank for relevant searches, allowing you to reach customers online.

It’s not beneficial to stuff a page or post with a single target keyword, though.

Instead, the keyword should appear naturally within the text.

If you’re overusing the same keyword within a given post, consider using synonyms or related keywords instead.

2. Duplicate Content

Many businesses struggle to create unique, informative blog content as part of their SEO strategy. Creating quality content is one of Google’s top ranking factors. However, some businesses try to improve their rankings by automatically creating content or duplicating content.

Make sure each post on your page is unique and helpful.

3. Cloaking and Hidden Text

Hidden text is text that is the same color as the background of a page, hiding it from view. Some marketers use this technique to stuff keywords or place a list of keywords on a page.

Cloaking, on the other hand, involves serving different URLs to users and search engines, providing different experiences on each.

Instead, focus on creating quality experiences for your users.

4. Paid Links

Generating high-quality backlinks can help improve your organic rankings. Some businesses have started paying for backlinks, leading to link schemes.

Try to avoid:

• Automated link building
• Site-wide footer or sidebar links
• Large-scale article marketing
• Forum spam
• Blog comment spam
• Excessive link exchanges

Also avoid paid or sponsored links that don’t contain a rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” attribute.

If you’re not sure how to generate natural backlinks, hire an SEO agency.

5. Misused Structured Data

Structured data can help pieces of your content appear at the top of SERPs, helping you reach customers before your competitors get the chance. Misused structured data and rich snippets involve giving factually incorrect information.

Hiring an SEO specialist can help you appear for rich snippets using proper techniques.

6. Misleading Redirects

Using redirects on your site ensures your content is organized while improving the user experience. However, sneaky redirects can deceive search engines by displaying content that differs from what the user sees.

For example, the user might reach a different destination URL than what a search engine indexes.

Improve Your Rankings: Hire an Agency to Avoid Black Hat SEO

Don’t let these black hat SEO tactics hurt your organic rankings. Instead, consider hiring an experienced SEO marketing agency this year. With their help, you can focus on using white hat SEO tactics to rank higher on SERPs.

With higher rankings, you can reach more customers to give your business the boost it needs.

Eager to get started? We’re here to help.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

Staying on top of the latest search engine optimization trends helps you capitalize on the 40,000 internet searches people use each minute. A solid SEO strategy uses the most popular search words to get high-ranking search results! Outrank your competition!

There are several SEO trends to learn about, including creating great content, knowing your competition, and increasing your mobile-friendliness. Tackling these tips means more people visiting your website, more business, and higher profits.

Read more about the nine latest SEO trends to help your business.

1. Create Great Content

Establish the business as an expert in your web content. Write ‘how-to’ and advice blogs with popular search words and get them ranked highly.

Creating unique and one-of-a-kind content makes you the ‘go-to’ for exclusive stories. Also, consider using your own research for your SEO strategy, and you’ll quickly learn the importance of SEO.

When you create great content, others will link to your website, thus increasing web traffic to your site.

2. Knowing Your Competition

Look at your competition and analyze what words and phrases they use as part of their SEO services. Sometimes, your competitors are people you don’t think are your competitors! Get a competitive analysis for your business!

Checking your website ranking (and your competitors) is one of the benefits of SEO. You can quickly adjust your game plan when things fail to work correctly.

Keep up with your competition and make your content and user experience better. Think about ways to improve ways to make people want to visit your website over your competitor.

3. Be Mobile Friendly

Everyone carries a smartphone with them, and you must seize the opportunities to expand your SEO services! You also must make sure people can read your content on mobile devices. Many people use their mobile phones over their desktop computers.

Some ways to make your website more friendly include optimizing the layout, avoiding pop-up ads, and keeping clutter to a minimum. All of these techniques will improve the importance of SEO for your business.

The world’s most popular search engine has a free test that allows you to measure the mobile-friendliness of your website.

4. Hire an SEO Company

When you hire an SEO company to create specialized content for your website, you get skilled writers and creators.

Using a professional company doesn’t mean you’ll break the bank. You can adjust prices and budgets. Everything is trackable, so if something isn’t working, there are ways to adapt.

An SEO company also knows the latest techniques, trends, and length of articles for your website. Having skilled professionals look over your website is one of the significant benefits of SEO.

5. Use Video

There are a lot of people who avoid reading information on websites. Simply put, they would rather watch a video. With more and more people using video searches, it’s essential to mix up your SEO strategy.

Testimonials add great content. Take a few of your best customers and have them explain (on video) the benefits of your product or service. Ask a few of your best (and most well-spoken) employees to explain what your product does or how it’s made or assembled.

Video presentations are easy, and you can avoid hiring a professional video company. You can take videos on your phone and upload them quickly. Plenty of online kits help you set up lighting and audio.

6. Add Social Media

Be sure any content you create as part of your website appears on social media. About seven in ten Americans use social media for news and information. It’s an important opportunity to seize!

There’s an ability with social media to allow posts to go viral. You gain even more media attention when you’re famous!

People also ‘like’ and ‘share’ social media content; this means your content gets noticed by people outside your initial audience. In addition, many people will read your social media content and fail to react.

7. Make Things Interactive

Good links on your SEO content can beef up your content. Choose strong links from the government or well-known and established sources to support your claims. Give people something reliable if they want more information.

Can you add a poll to gauge interest?

Add a section where you invite people to leave feedback. Also, be sure to make sure your contact information is up to date!

8. Be Conversational

Regardless of your content, it’s important to be conversational in your writing style. You want to give people an easy-to-understand experience when they read your content. The last thing you want is for people to feel like they are reading a dictionary or encyclopedia.

Avoid jargon in your writing. For example, medical terms can be difficult to understand. Is there a way to explain things in a more down-to-earth way?

Use short, declarative sentences. Articles on your website should be written at an eighth-grade level. Be sure to write in a way that ‘sells’ your product or service and keeps people wanting more!

9. Check for Mistakes

Sloppiness signifies a lack of concern or care for your website. Imagine if you read a book and it was full of mistakes? You’d want a refund!

Comb over your website content and make sure it’s free of errors. Rewrite sentences that might be long and complicated. Read things aloud to yourself and see if it makes sense!

Plenty of free online resources can help you fix grammar and spelling mistakes.

Nine Essential SEO Trends

Nine essential SEO trends can help boost your SEO strategy, including using great content, eyeing up the competition, and being mobile-friendly. Also, hire a professional, use video, and capitalize on your social media. In addition, be interactive and conversational, and check for mistakes.

If you want to boost your SEO strategy and stay on top of the latest SEO trends, contact us and let us help! A strong SEO strategy improves your website traffic and leads to better profits and higher search visibility!

In today’s world, people ages 9 to 90 turn to the internet for products and services they need. If your business doesn’t have an online presence, you could miss out on thousands in revenue.

Strategic online marketing helps businesses reach their target audience, increase brand awareness, capture leads, track customer data, stay top of mind, and drive revenue. Perhaps that’s why top brands spend an average of 72% of their total marketing budget on digital marketing!

If you’re starting a business or want to improve the online presence you already have, you need a targeted digital marketing budget to make the most of your investment.

Keep reading to learn how to create the ideal digital marketing budget for your business.

How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost?

Are you wondering how much digital marketing for businesses costs? There are a variety of factors that determine which digital marketing tools your business needs and how much you should spend.

For instance, say you’re in a highly saturated niche in a competitive market. You will probably need to invest more into your digital marketing to stand out from the crowd.

On the other hand, if your business is in a small town with very little competition, you can invest less in your marketing.

Your current digital marketing status also determines how much you will need to spend. If you’re a start-up or your online presence needs a lot of help, you will need to invest more. You won’t need to spend as much on your digital marketing if it is established and already converting well.

Let’s talk some hard and fast numbers to give you a ballpark on what you can expect to spend.

On average, digital marketing agencies charge between $80 and $200 per hour. A good rule of thumb for the best results means spending 20 hours per month on digital marketing.

Typically, small to mid-size businesses pay $2,000 to $6,000 per month for digital marketing. Large companies spend between $10,000 and $50,000 monthly. It’s not uncommon for giant corporations can allocate $100,000 per month and beyond to digital marketing services.

Creating Your Digital Marketing Budget

Digital marketing is constantly evolving. Too many companies take a “throw mud at the wall and see what sticks” approach instead of budgeting for precise results. Here are some tips for developing a digital marketing plan to get maximum results from your investment.

1. Set Your Digital Marketing Goals

What do you hope to achieve from your online marketing? Do you wish to boost brand awareness, make more sales, or a combination? Your desired outcome will influence your digital marketing strategy and budget.

If you want to increase brand awareness, your goal may be expanding your reach and growing your following. If you’re going for more sales, your plan should include measurable sales metrics.

If you’re not sure which marketing will help your business the most, consult with a digital marketing company like SMDigital. We will evaluate your business and help you decide where to focus your energy.

2. Determine Which Types of Digital Marketing You Need to Achieve Your Goals

Think of each digital marketing tool as a vehicle to “drive” you to your goals. You wouldn’t use a bicycle to visit another country, and you wouldn’t use an airplane to chat with your neighbor. Your goals will directly influence the types of digital marketing you need to utilize and where to increase or decrease spending.

Here are popular digital marketing services:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Email marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Marketing automation
• Content marketing
• Application development
• Web development
• Social media marketing

Each is extremely powerful and proven to drive business growth. They all are effective, but you must determine which ones will be the most effective for you.

So how do you decide?

First, take a look at the past. Have you tried any digital marketing campaigns before? Revisit the numbers and determine which campaigns offered the best return and which ones sucked resources with little return.

If you’re still not sure, consult with a digital marketing professional about your goals.

3. Set Your Budget

Once you’ve got an idea of what you need to spend your marketing dollars on, you need to determine how much you can afford to spend.

Studies show successful businesses spend 7-12% of their overall revenue on marketing. Of that, they spend 50% or more on digital marketing. That number is only expected to grow as spending on traditional advertising continues to decline each year.

For example, if your business’s annual revenue is $2 million, you should allocate a minimum of $70,000 per year to digital marketing.

Assess how much you spent on marketing last year. Did you fall short of the benchmark? If you can’t meet the minimum now, how much can you afford to spend on digital marketing until you can?

4. Allocate Your Marketing Dollars Using the 70-20-10 Rule

At this point, you’ve set a digital marketing budget and have a general idea of how you want to use it. Now it’s time to zero in on how you will allocate funds.

One helpful strategy is the 70-20-10 Rule:

• Spend 70% on “now” activities
• Spend 20% on “next” activities
• Spend 10% on “new” activities

Your “now” digital marketing activities represent safety. These are the strategies that have worked well in the past.

Your “next” activities are new-to-you digital marketing. These digital marketing strategies have proven successful in the marketplace, but you have not tried them yet for your business.

Finally, “new” represents experimentation. This tiny segment of your budget is dedicated to emerging technology and trends. Dipping a toe into new digital marketing techniques helps you stay ahead of the competition.

5. Track Results Over Time

Implementing successful digital marketing is an ongoing process. Once you’ve established your plan, be sure to track your results over time. Don’t become too tied down to one strategy — you may be surprised by what ends up working and what doesn’t.

Some measurements to track are the number of site visitors, social media engagement, new followers, new buyers, repeat buyers, and more. After a few months, analyze where you’re seeing the most growth.

By watching your analytics, you can tweak your strategy quarterly or annually to improve your online marketing.

Creating Your Digital Marketing Budget

Companies that deploy powerful digital marketing enjoy exponential growth by spending strategically to maximize their return on investment. Your ROI starts with your digital marketing budget. Your budget starts with your goals.

SMDigital is an award-winning international digital marketing agency. We can help you assess your marketing needs, goals, and strategies to curate a plan that fits your budget.

Are you ready to launch your digital marketing campaign and take your business to the next level? Do you have a project you want to discuss? Reach out to SMDigital today — we can’t wait to help you!