Welcome to part three of my “it’s a digital world” blog series, briefly highlighting the importance of social media, content and digital marketing and why you should implement these tactics in your marketing plan, no matter how small your business.

Today, I want to talk about some more general digital marketing tactics you should consider, including email, SEO, SEM, display and pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

This list is not by any means all encompassing of digital marketing tactics out there, and is not inclusive of everything you should know about them. But, they are ones you are more likely to come across or wonder about, and the stats supporting them are pretty compelling.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways for you to connect and engage with both existing and prospective customers. Email allows you to provide helpful tips, promote your business/products/service, give inside information and more through text, images, videos and links.

• About 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past year.
• There are nearly 4 billion email users worldwide.
• Consumers open emails with personalized subject lines at a 50% higher rate than emails without.
• A series of three emails performs better than a single email: 90% more orders for welcome emails, 63% more for abandoned cart emails, and 75% more for customer reactivation.
• Emails segmented by user interest see nearly 75% higher click rates.
• Email is ranked as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness, and has the highest return on investment.
• Almost 50% of all marketing emails are opened on a mobile device.

Whether you already have an email marketing strategy or you’re looking to improve it, more than 20% of marketers report email design improves their email engagement rate. Focusing on your design, especially making it mobile-friendly, can help increase your click-through-rates.

Also take into consideration an A/B testing strategy. Litmus reports that companies who A/B test see email marketing returns nearly 40% higher than brands that don’t test their emails. You can test subject lines, images, calls to action and placement of CTA buttons, types of copy, etc.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When we Google something, most of us will stick to the first page of search results, or even just the first few websites, to find our answers. Appearing at the top of that list has to do with your SEO strategy. SEO helps you to understand how your customers and prospects are both searching for and finding you online. Optimizing your SEO strategy can help ensure the maximum number of visitors come to your website by ranking it high on the search engine page.

• About 64% of marketers actively invest time and energy into search engine optimization.
• 49% of users say Google is their primary search engine for finding a new item or product.
• More than 50% of searches on Google end without actually clicking on a result (which is why your meta title and description are so important).
• Nearly 95% of all internet searches happen on a Google property.
• There has been a more than 900% growth in mobile searches for “___ near me today/tonight.”
• 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results.

There are a few ways you can help optimize your website for SEO and high search ranking:

1. Be sure to include title tags and a meta description to help the search engine know what your website/page is about.
2. The body content should be unique, educational and engaging. Answer questions users are searching for, and make the content sharable. Use relevant keywords and phrases with good search traffic potential.
3. Mark your images with alt attributes, which provides alternative information for an image if it can’t be viewed.
4. Be sure your website is accessible.
5. Build relevant links from other high-quality, high-trafficked sites.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Also known as paid search, SEM is promoting your website (with budget dollars) and increasing its visibility in search engine results.

Open a Google tab on your phone or computer. Search something, like “best dog food.” The first few results will say “ad” next to them – those are paid search results (SEM). Advertisers bid on keywords that users may enter when searching for specific products or services, and then you’d appear with those results.

SEM differs from SEO because you pay for search engine marketing traffic, but SEO helps you rank higher organically.

• Nearly 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines.
• Google processes 2 trillion searches each year.
• For each $1 a business spends on Google Search and Google Ads, it makes an average $8 in profit.
• The average click-through-rate (CTR) for the first position on a Google search query is 19.3%.
• Approximately 63% of users will click on a paid search ad on Google.
• 66% of search queries on Google lead to at least one click.

If you have dollars in your budget and want to help ensure you rank high on the search query page, therefore leading to more clicks to your website and increased brand awareness, consider implementing an SEM strategy.

Display and Pay-Per-Click Ads

Digital display and pay-per-click (PPC) ads can help take your marketing strategy to the next level by getting you in front of the right consumers at the right time, attracting customers, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately driving revenue.

• In 2018, U.S. advertisers spent nearly $50 million on digital display advertising, and 68% of marketers state it’s “very important” or “extremely important” to their overall marketing strategy.
• Google Display Network reaches 90% of internet users worldwide.
• Mobile advertising spending is expected to reach more than $280 billion by 2022.
• 65% of all clicks made by users who intend to make a purchase do so through paid ads.
• Visitors from a PPC ad are 50% more likely to make a purchase than a visitor who came organically.
• The average click-through-rate across all industries is nearly 3.2%, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.
• The average cost-per-click across all industries is $2.69, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.
• The average conversion rate across all industries is 3.75%, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.

The most effective PPC channels are text ads, remarking, and mobile display ads. Consider what you know about your customers and prospects – what do they like to do? What websites do they search? What products or services are they interested in? Using audience insights to place your ads is key, and can help lead to higher click-through and conversion rates.