Did you know only 2% of online shoppers convert on their first visit to an e-commerce store? 

The cold harsh truth is that most people who visit your website for the first time leave without making a purchase. Maybe it’s because they aren’t ready to commit yet or they simply get distracted before clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button (our attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s after all).  

In general, first-time visitors leave without converting and rarely return to your website when they don’t have a reason to. But here’s a secret: there’s a way to bring them back.  

Retargeting gives you a second or maybe even a third chance to re-engage your past visitors by reminding them of your brand and products after they leave your website.

To put it in a nutshell, retargeting uses simple tracking codes that allow you to show highly relevant ads to visitors when they visit other web pages or scroll through Facebook and Instagram. 

Ultimately, ad retargeting strategies can help increase the visibility of your brand. And by reaching prospects and potential customers that have already expressed an interest in your services or products, retargeting is a surefire way to get them to buy. 

Need more convincing? Read on for retargeting statistics that just might blow you away.

 

Retargeting Statistics You Need to Know

Here are five statistics that will make you strongly consider implementing retargeting into your digital marketing strategy:

1. According to Wishpond, retargeting ad campaigns perform ten times better than regular display banners.
2. Criteo saw a 43% increase in conversions with retargeted ads.
3. According to CMO, 25% of online shoppers enjoy seeing retargeted ads because they serve as reminders of the brands and products they were already interested in.
4. A Pew Research Center study on privacy found that 47% of consumers are happy to share their information for better deals.
5. MotoCMS reveals that retargeting can reduce cart abandonment by 6.5% and increase sales by 20%.

 

 

Retargeting vs Remarketing: What’s the Difference?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s answer the burning question: what’s the difference between retargeting and remarketing? 

‘Retargeting’ and ‘remarketing’ are often used interchangeably because they help you achieve the same goals.

Both target people who already visited your website and showed interest in your products. Both re-engage people are most likely to convert. Both help you build brand awareness and increase visibility.

While they have a handful of similarities, retargeting and remarketing use different digital marketing tactics to accomplish these goals. 

Retargeting uses paid ads on websites, social media, email, and other platforms to target audiences who have visited your web pages or your social media profiles.On the other hand, remarketing often uses email campaigns to re-engage old customers who have already done business with your brand. To learn more about remarketing, visit our digital service page: Remarketing.

 

How Retargeting Works

So how exactly do retargeting ads work? 

After leaving your website, a visitor will start to see your targeted ads while browsing other online stores, reading a blog post, or scrolling through Instagram. How is this possible?

Retargeting ads use simple pieces of code placed on your website to track a new visitor’s browser cookies. Their cookies will then alert the retargeting platform you are using – Google Ads, AdRoll, or Facebook Ads, for example – to display the most relevant visual or text ads as they browse other websites or scroll through social media. 

Any code placed on your site to run retargeting campaigns will not collect or view personally identifiable information including email addresses, phone numbers, and credit card numbers.

To dive a little bit deeper, let’s talk about the two main types of retargeting: pixel-based and list-based.

 

Pixel-Based Retargeting

Pixel-based retargeting is a great way to keep your products at the forefront of any anonymous visitor’s mind. When a visitor lands on your website, a piece of JavaScript code (aka a pixel) drops an anonymous cookie on their browser.

The pixel acts like a stamp on an online user’s digital passport – it shows that they have travelled to your website or browsed your landing page. 

When the visitor leaves your website, the cookie nudges the retargeting platform you’re using to show specific ads to that visitor based on the pages they visited.

Pixel-based retargeting wastes no time – it re-engages lost customers almost immediately after they leave your website. Because they already showed interested in your products, these customers might be more inclined to visit your site again and complete the purchase after they see your ad.

 

List-Based Retargeting

If you already have an extensive list of email addresses in your database, you may want to take advantage of list-based retargeting. 

The process involves uploading the email addresses to your chosen retargeting platform. The platform (Facebook Ads, for example) will then identify users on the network who own those email addresses and display ads only to those users. 

List-based retargeting gives you full control over what kind of ad is shown only to a specific audience based on information that you’ve already collected and online behaviour traits. Because it is highly customised and controlled, this hyper-targeted strategy gives you the best chances for clicks and sales. 

However, it is worth noting that list-based retargeting requires a bit more time to execute. You’re in charge of uploading and maintaining the list of email addresses. We recommend using this if you have a smaller budget. If you’re looking for a more timely and automatic strategy, then opt for pixel-based retargeting. 

Both pixel-based retargeting and list-based retargeting have their own sets of advantages as well as disadvantages. Choose the strategy that best suits the goal you want to accomplish. 

 

Complement Your Digital Marketing Efforts With Retargeting 

When done right, retargeting can be an extremely powerful digital marketing tactic in driving any type of conversion. Whether you’re looking to build brand awareness or increase sales, retargeting ad campaigns can help you get there quicker and cheaper than a regular online ad.

It’s news to no one that having an online presence is a necessity for any business and brand in today’s digital age. Out of all the channels and tools that can help you build a strong digital marketing strategy for your business, social media has the most eyeballs and ways of keeping users engaged.

Just take a look at the stats:

• In 2021, over 4.26 billion people globally were on social media. That’s over half of the population and this number is projected to increase to almost 6 billion by 2027.
• According to Search Engine Watch, 71% of consumers are more likely to base their buying decisions on what they’ve seen on social media.

Yet many social media experts will tell you it’s not about having a profile on any and every network. There’s a lot that goes into knowing, reaching and engaging with your target audience. In other words, you need a specialized social media strategy that serves your business goals and complements your business’ overall digital marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll break down the ins and outs of building a social media strategy.

• What is a social media strategy?
• The differences between a social media marketing, content and engagement strategy
• 6 steps for building a social media strategy

What is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy outlines your social media goals, tactics and the metrics you will be using to track your performance. It is the plan that guides how you create and post content, and engage on social media.

Tactically, this can include everything from resource allocation, establishing content and engagement guidelines, developing campaigns, and determining when and how frequently you will post.

While this might seem overwhelming, it does not have to be complicated. It is best to keep your social media strategy simple and specific to your brand. With meaningful data tracking, keep in mind that you can keep tweaking and gradually building upon your strategy to make it more effective over time.

Social media marketing, content and engagement

It may help to think of social media strategy broken up into three distinct areas:

Social media marketing

A social media marketing strategy is your starting point and throughline in directing your social media activities. It involves bringing together foundational elements like your target audience and brand identity before developing campaigns and producing content. Author and digital strategist Julie Atherton calls this approach “ABC” for an audience, brand, and campaign.

In the age of Tiktok, there’s a real temptation to be reactive to what is trending. Having a strategy that underpins everything you do will keep you grounded and help you determine what makes sense for your business.

Content

Content is where the rubber meets the road in engaging your audience, representing your brand and tracking your performance. A content strategy focuses on formatting, production and outputs.

Content creation requires planning and research into the campaigns, topics, and formats that will most effectively reach and engage your audience. You will also have to consider your messaging, tone, and the specifications you will be using for each social network. Lastly, tracking how your posts perform and analyzing the data serves as crucial information to optimise your content (i.e. telling you what’s working and what’s not)

Engagement

Social media offers a completely different and exciting way for brands to engage with their audience and customers. They provide a two-way street for businesses to promote their products and services, and for customers to publicly interact and influence how brands present themselves and what they offer. 

An engagement strategy is how you manage your community and grow your following. While certainly related, this is not to be confused with engagement as a metric, referring to the number of times people took an action on your post. These include clicks, shares, comments, or reactions. Social environments require responsible and responsive customer service and thoughtful ways of generating interactions. What are some unique valuable offerings you can share with your social media audience? Some examples might include educational content, free downloadable digital products, or giveaway competitions.

What are the steps for building a social media strategy?

• Set realistic goals

Taking the time to define specific and achievable goals will have a big payoff in guiding your strategy, budget, and day-to-day activities. It helps to start with a big-picture objective that answers why your business is active on social media and what you want to achieve. 

According to the 2021 Sprout Social Index, the most common goals for social were increasing brand awareness (58%) and increasing community engagement (41%). Others include generating leads and sales, learning more about your target audience, or growing your following. While you may want to achieve all of these, less is more, as each will involve different tactics.  

From there you will want to outline your goals according to their relevant metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), your resources, and your timeframe. Using the S.M.A.R.T framework is always helpful here.

• Learn about your target audience

To understand who your target audience is and what they want, start by defining their key demographics (age, gender, income, interests, etc.). From here, you’ll want to spend time doing market research through online surveys or focus groups. Defining a buyer profile and having buyer insights will help you to create a buyer persona — a picture of your ideal customer. While the aim is to narrow down, you can have more than one persona, which will allow you to capture different demographics, insights, and needs.

• Decide which social platforms work best for you

As we’ve covered, you want to avoid being present on all social platforms for the sake of it. How do you choose the best channels to reach your audience? Research which key networks your target audience is spending the most time. It will also depend on what most intuitively suits your business and the type of content your produce. For example, Instagram is popular among younger audiences and is a great visual platform to showcase your products and connect with influencers. However, if your ideal customers are industry professionals, you would benefit more from LinkedIn, as a platform that provides businesses with a way to connect with both B2B and B2C communities. 

• Plan out your content

For each social platform you choose, you’ll want to create a separate yet coordinated plan for your content. Each platform has its own tone, so it’s important to determine the tone of your brand and how you want to speak on each (i.e. formal or informal, sense of humour or more serious?).  Some other helpful tips include coming up with content themes or buckets; creating a content calendar, and scheduling your content to take advantage of optimum days and times for networks and ensure you’re keeping up with the pace of social media with consistent posts. 

• Connect with and manage your community

Connections on social media can lead to great communities that build awareness and engagement with your brand. But this kind of community takes time and nurture, and the key to building it is to be responsive. Responding to queries and comments quickly, with the aim of being helpful and positive in a way that fosters human-to-human connection will not only help you avoid a crisis but will nurture trust. Another tool for connecting with your community is to ask questions and seek feedback or input on a product through polls or surveys. 

• Measure and assess your results

Take full advantage of the tools social media platforms offer to help businesses track analytics. You’ll not only want to see how much traffic your social media accounts drive to your website but what posts people are engaging with the most. You’ll be able to identify trends related to particular topics and content types, and what generates the most interest.

Once you gather these insights, it’s time to reassess what’s working and what isn’t, adjusting your strategy and setting renewed goals across key metrics (e.g. new followers, interactions, visits to your website).

Sources

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-strategy-for-your-business
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/social-media-strategy
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/podcasts/podcast-016-practical-social-media-strategy-julie-atherton
https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2022/03/28/how-to-think-intelligently-about-social-media-strategy-in-2022/?sh=6d8b8097919c
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/11/20/how-social-media-influence-71-consumer-buying-decisions/

Establishing a business online comes with its own set of challenges. You need to build a brand strategy, launch an e-commerce website, create a social media presence, connect with your audience… the list goes on. But don’t worry! The list of digital marketing tools available to help you grow online is just as extensive. Whether you’re a small business just starting out or a well-known brand, you’ll need digital marketing tools to help you stand out and flourish online. There is a multitude of tools to choose from, but here are sixteen of what we think are essential to add to your digital marketing toolkit.  

 

---

1. Social Media

You’re spoilt for choice with so many social media marketing tools available today! Need help discovering fresh content? Or are you looking for tools to help manage and schedule posts? Here are some of our favourites to get you started:

Buffer

We can’t stress this enough: managing all your social media marketing efforts in one place is a huge time-saver. And Buffer makes it so simple (and fun) with its clean and simple interface. Honestly, it’s a game-changer! From planning and scheduling to tracking performance and engaging with followers – Buffer really lets you do it all.

Hootsuite

If you didn’t already know, Hootsuite is the world’s first social media management platform to ever exist. Launched over ten years ago, Hootsuite knows the ins and outs of social media management. Its famous dashboard interface makes it easy and fun to plan, create, and schedule content. You can also use Hootsuite to track the performance of your social media content from calculating ROI to tracking public conversations about your brand.

SkedSocial

If you’re trying to grow your social presence primarily on Instagram, SkedSocial is the perfect tool for you. SkedSocial is an all-in-one Instagram tool that allows you to schedule posts, visualise, and plan your feed. It also allows you to publish to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Snapchat.

BuzzSumo

Post buzzworthy content with the help of BuzzSumo! This tool lets you discover what content is popular by topic. For content marketers, this tool is a must-have. Discover new keywords, find trending topics, and gather shareable content ideas that your audience will truly love! BuzzSumo also allows you to find influencers and other brands that are similar to yours – this is a great way to grow your connections.

MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is a social media management tool that automatically curates your feed with fresh content and does the scheduling for you! It also lets you monitor and A/B test content, which makes it simpler to see what engages and excites your audience across different social networks.   

It’s more crucial than ever for businesses to develop a successful social media strategy that drives brand awareness and healthy ROI. To learn more about growing your business with social media, visit our Digital Service Page: Social Media Marketing.

 

---

2. Email Marketing and Email Automation Tools

For over a few decades, email has been one of the most effective ways to attract prospects and retain customers. And yes, email is still going strong and is here to stay. If you’re interested to learn more about email marketing, check out our blog article: Let’s Unpack the Importance of Email Marketing. For now, let’s take a look at a few email marketing and email marketing automation tools to help you plan and execute successful campaigns!

HubSpot

A longstanding digital marketing superstar, HubSpot is one of the most trusted customer relationship management (CRM) platforms today. But their product, HubSpot Email Marketing, is what we need to put a spotlight on. This tool makes it easy for digital marketers to send and automate emails. You won’t be disappointed with its drag-and-drop email builder, ready-made templates, and simple yet powerful scheduling and email automation systems.

Moosend

Moosend is a user-friendly and affordable all-in-one email marketing and email marketing automation solution. Perfect for businesses that are just beginning to build their mailing list, Moosend is equipped with everything you need to kickstart your email marketing efforts. With Moosend, you can build beautiful, on-brand emails as well as optimise customer journey with its segmentation and personalisation capabilities. It also lets you keep track of your marketing campaign performance with real-time reporting and analytics!

MailChimp

Well-established in the email marketing world, MailChimp is a tool worth trying out. It’s an all-in-one email marketing and automation platform that allows you to manage mailing lists, build custom email templates, and orchestrate your email marketing campaigns! 

Every digital marketing strategy needs to include email marketing and email automation. With the right tools and know-how, email marketing can be an effective profit-building tool by providing subscribers with content that matters to them. Learn more on our Digital Services Page: Email Marketing.

 

---

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tools

As the digital marketing landscape becomes increasingly competitive, SEO is crucial to keeping your brand seen and relevant. Optimise your SEO efforts and keep your website at the top of the search results pages with these SEO tools below. 

SEMrush

Tried and true, SEMrush is a powerful SEO tool to add to your belt. It allows you to take a deep dive into your target keywords by search volume, difficulty, CPC, and trend. You can also explore new search terms to rank for and uncover opportunities with the tool’s breakdown of keyword variations and related keywords.

All In One SEO (AIOSEO)

AIOSEO is one of the most powerful WordPress SEO plugins in the market. It is chock-full of user-friendly features designed to help you easily optimise your website pages and all your content for search engines.

Ahrefs

An SEO staple, Ahrefs makes it easy to discover keyword ideas and new opportunities for search. It also lets you check any URL’s top organic keywords and identify any website’s top-ranking content.

This type of competitive analysis can give you an SEO advantage when coming up with keywords to rank and content ideas for your own website. Ahrefs also makes it easy to spot any areas or content on your website that could use some jazzing up for search.

Practice search engine optimization or SEO to attract more high-quality traffic and grow your revenue over time. If you want to read more about improving online authority, visit our Digital Service Page: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  

 

---

4. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Tools

Drive high-quality traffic to your website that convert with CRO. There is a lot of work involved in optimising web pages and creating engaging content that appeals to the right audience. Luckily, there are a number of tools that can help make CRO a breeze!

Unbounce

Turn your web visitors into paying customers with Unbounce! Thanks to its landing page builder smart features, you can easily tweak, publish, and A/B test content to maximise results. Want to hear something cool? Unbounce combines data and AI to let you create custom landing pages quickly and easily – say goodbye to creative and writer’s blocks! If that doesn’t convince you to try Unbounce right now, we don’t know what will…

Hotjar

Once your landing page is built and your content is up to snuff, you now need to know where your visitors are and aren’t clicking. And there is a tool to help with that. Hotjar lets you get a real-time visual record of your web visitors’ actions and behaviours on your pages through heatmaps and screen recordings. They enable you to monitor and track how much your web pages are being viewed and how visitors interact with your site. You can literally see right there and then what needs to be tweaked to increase conversion. 

Google Analytics

This list isn’t complete without Google Analytics. It’s a powerful and user-friendly tool that every digital marketer needs to add to their toolkit. Best part? It’s totally free! With Google Analytics, you can track how long visitors stay on or bounce from your web pages. It also enables you to see if visitors complete specific goals from a path that you set, and how online users are getting to your website. 

When it comes to effective CRO, you need to make sure your website is working smarter, not harder. Attract visitors and keep them coming for more with not only beautiful, but relevant web content. Want to know more? Check out our Digital Service Page: Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).

 

---

5. Graphic Design Tools

Don’t overlook the power of good design when it comes to improving your digital marketing. And no, you don’t need to be a Photoshop guru to create beautiful content! Below are three user-friendly tools to help elevate your online presence with eye-catching graphic design!

Canva

Need to create a brand logo, graphics for social media, or maybe an email newsletter but don’t have much of a graphic design experience? Canva may be the tool for you! Canva is a graphic design platform that has made life easier for digital marketers, social media managers, and content creators. It includes free templates for any users to get creative! Pick and choose from a library of beautiful graphic elements and photos. It also allows you to use your own graphics if needed.

Venngage

Venngage is an infographic creator for users of any design skill level! Create custom infographics or any other visuals for your website to engage visitors and entice clicks. With Venngage, you can customise any infographics with your own branding and using built-in graphics. Elevate the look of your website and improve clickthrough rate with good graphic design. There’s more to website design that meets the eye. Want to learn more or need resources? Visit our Digital Service Page: Performance Website Design. 

 

 

And then the world came to a halt.

2020 was a year like no other. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, a wave of pervasive uncertainty took over and caused disruption across the world. 

At the height of the pandemic, businesses were forced to reassess and shift priorities quickly. Some flourished. Some suffered. Thousands of small businesses had to shut their doors permanently. Many more lost revenue simply because face-to-face sales interaction was no longer an option.

Consistent communication is key to success. But always remember to focus on selling solutions, not products.

It’s safe to say that the pandemic has changed the way consumers seek information, communicate with brands and purchase products. Ultimately, businesses needed to recalibrate and embrace the digital marketplace to stay afloat.  

As we enter a post-pandemic future and adjust to a “new normal”, businesses have an opportunity to respond to challenges and find new ways to connect with customers, create trust and build brand loyalty.

 

Below are five strategies to kickstart your digital presence and thrive in a post-pandemic marketplace:

1. Embrace the Power of Human Connection

It’s no secret: human connection lies at the heart of physical, mental and emotional well-being. If the pandemic has taught businesses anything, it’s that human interaction and staying connected is necessary, and that it’s crucial to build relationships with customers founded on trust. 

When building your digital presence, make it easy for your customers to connect with your brand and with others. Leverage the power of social media here. For example, if you own an online plant shop, you can set up livestream Q&As, launch a community page, or use Instagram stories to ask questions and invite your followers to answer. 

Consistent communication is key to success. But always remember to focus on selling solutions, not products. Listen to what your customers need and then create solutions for them. This is the first step to building an authentic connection and creating long-term trust.

2. Know Your Customer Segment

Utilising customer segmentation is vital to succeeding in today’s digital marketplace. To optimise your digital marketing efforts and deliver an exceptional experience, you must target specific consumers based on who they are and what their needs are. 

Several factors can be used to segment customers, but the most common include age, gender, location and buying behaviour. 

Your digital marketing efforts and messages need to be personally relevant and aligned to a target customer’s circumstances and values. If you create genuine human connections with your prospects, they will be more likely to engage with your brand and stick around for more.

3. Deliver Hyper-Personalised Experiences

Our reliance on technology skyrocketed overnight as we started working, learning and socialising remotely. The digital surge has also transformed the way people shop. And, naturally, these changes have raised consumer expectations in terms of what brands could provide with digital experiences. 

Businesses are suddenly faced with the challenge of engaging customers who are seeking more authentic, connected and immersive digital interactions. What’s more, customers now expect anticipatory, personalised digital experiences across the entire customer journey, not just at the beginning or at the end. 

Make sure that your digital efforts are meeting customers’ rising expectations with frictionless digital experiences that are relevant to them. Leverage digital tools to help you achieve this. Use real-time analytics, build the right data foundation, and align goals across the customer journey.

 

4. Stand Behind Great Values

Consumers are becoming more environmentally and socially conscious. It goes without saying that quality, convenience and price play a huge part in consumer choice. But sustainability, ethical sourcing, social responsibility and trust are increasingly becoming important to how consumers select products and services. 

Standing behind a great brand just won’t cut it. You need to stand behind having great values. But do so with the right intentions.

 

5. Leverage the Latest Digital Tools

Ever-evolving digital transformation and technologies hold the promise of bringing significant positive changes to your business. But you need the right tools to crack open a whole new world of opportunity and catalyse change for sustained results. 

Plunge into social media and start building authentic connections with your customers. Leverage segmentation tools and real-time data analytics to get to know your customers better. Implement content marketing and targeted pay-per-click campaigns to deliver more relevant, hyper-personalised digital experiences. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many digital tools available to help kickstart and accelerate your digital marketing efforts today.