According to Smart Insights, the most effective strategy in 2018 was social media marketing, followed by content marketing, and the least was data management, with SEO being somewhere in the middle of it all.

While this is by no means cut and dry (some strategies will work better than others, depending on a number of variables), it does offer an interesting glimpse as to the most probable methods of lead generation.

Email and video each constantly stand out as effective ways to market almost any product through any industry, though in the chart listed with Smart Insights, it’s not as powerful as content or social media marketing.

What matters more than the type of marketing you are doing is whether or not your all-around approach is well-matched with your brand and message. To that end, the following are some considerations for creating an effective campaign in the context of your business.

Here’s the thing about digital marketing: it’s a bit of a trial and error process. So while you absolutely want to make a plan, you also have to be flexible with:

• Shifting SEO patterns
• Upcoming trends
• Your content calendar and timeline
• One or two social channels only (the ones that perform best)
• Which KPIs to focus on
• When to get progress reports, where you can discuss and regroup

A successful strategy will always need some tweaking and as such needs careful and continual monitoring and adjusting. If you’re working alone or in a small company, don’t be afraid to hire outside consultants to help you dig through your metrics and redefine goals if something doesn’t seem to be working the way it was planned.

No digital marketing strategy will be effective if you don’t first have a clear understanding of who buys your product and why they buy it. Where and how they buy it may or may not be relevant as well. Dig deep and explore various demographics in order to not only understand what they want to buy but also understand what they’re concerned with culturally, socially, and politically.

An example of customer awareness is Airbnb’s success with #weaccept, initially a Super Bowl ad that came out after President Trump’s travel ban. It had 5 million views in a month on YouTube, plus the well-received hashtag gained plenty of celebrity attention. That is not to say that you should take the risk of being political, but being culturally sensitive, especially when on-brand, is never a bad thing.

Mercedes’ #MBPhotoPa ss campaign is just one of many examples of campaigns that used a combination of technology, authenticity, and a simple message with an influencer partnership to capture the attention of animal- and adventure-lovers. This video was part of the campaign. It offers a 360-degree VR view of a canine Instagram star, Loki, and his owner Kelly Lund driving through snowy mountains in a Mercedes. The campaign featured a variety of real people having real adventures, which made it go viral.

Form a robust profile of your audience and inform your tactics by:

• Defining the channels that fit key demographics best
• Speaking their language, considering that “language” isn’t just words
• Understanding their pain points and how to switch on emotions
• Creating useful personas for each of your demographics to help you visualize their lives and predict buying patterns
• Being culturally aware
• Considering unique partnerships such as with influencers
• Focusing on action-oriented experiences and results rather than the product itself
• Using well-developed automation tools for highly detailed segmentation and targeting
  

  Focus on the End Result

  In marketing and product development, there is often so much emphasis placed on the product and the “numbers” surrounding it (profits) that sometimes people lose sight of the need that the product fulfils.

  What truly matters is who you are marketing to, and why. You need to understand their pain points in order to get what they’re ultimately doing with your product. In other words, when you demonstrate the post-buying moments, they’ll then remember why they need it in the first place.

  Use Content for Lead Generation

  There are many ways of generating leads, but one tried and tested method is by providing valuable written content and distributing it appropriately. When you tie your blogs and articles to a specific offer via a landing page, you boost your conversion potential. According to Entrepreneur, bloggers are 13 times more likely to have a positive ROI, and companies have the same type of results.

  Go Live and Use Audio

  When you take the lead on organizing and hosting in-person events, including live webinars that can also be distributed to valued contacts later or used as a special offer, you’re establishing authority and connectivity in the field. And the best part is that these events don’t even have to be formal. If you know that a few peers in your field are in the same city as you, you can plan a meetup night to connect.

  Anything that you record in high-quality or that you do to facilitate education and connection will stick in people’s minds.

  Focus on Mobile

   

  There are so many digital marketing strategies, and sometimes it can be overwhelming when you’re trying to decide which one to prioritize. Marketers looking for the ultimate digital marketing strategy need to have a clear understanding of their business, product, and demographics before choosing a digital marketing strategy that will be effective for their needs.

  In new research, we interviewed 200+ global marketing leaders to find out what they thought the future held for digital marketing, and interestingly enough, digital strategy and planning ranked one of the top four skills they consider ‘extremely important’.

  When it comes to your digital marketing campaigns, you don’t want to waste your time by choosing the wrong one, and you need to stay on top of your lead generation activities as well.

  Here’s a comprehensive how-to guide that can help you drive customer engagement, raise brand awareness, and generate leads in 2019 and beyond

  • The Bottom Line

    

    The bottom line with any digital marketing campaign or tactic is to stay aligned with your core purpose, not just your product. Focus on benefits, address customer’s real needs, and understand what makes them tick. As well, stay on top of which social trends are affecting various demographics. Remember that it’s really your job to “follow” the customer and not the other way around.

    SRC : Digital Marketing Institue