How to Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy – Fast

Posted on January 2, 2023 in Blog

Marketers, whether part of a whole inbound team or the only team member, feel pressure to improve efficiency constantly. It’s great to always want to improve, but you might not know where to go next.

That’s okay.

While no true “quick fix” works for everyone, we’ve put together a few tips to help you prioritize and accomplish your goals. Once you have your workflows smoothed out, keep reading to get 10 fast marketing ideas to get you started.

3 Ways to Improve Digital Marketing Efficiency

The bigger your company is, the harder it will be to maintain efficient marketing plans; with so many meetings, so many stakeholders, so many people wanting to talk to you at the water cooler, it’s a challenge to get everything done. You’ll get more compelling content out the door more consistently by streamlining your ways of working with advanced planning, careful analysis and improved communication.

Plan Far in Advance with Research as a Guide

Looking at your past is the best way to prepare for your future—research what your company has done and use historical data to guide your efforts. Efficient digital marketing isn’t about doing everything; it’s about doing the best things in the best way. Start with assessing your target audience. Who are they? How old are they? What kind of income do they have? Questions like this will help you establish whom you are trying to reach, making it easier to connect with them.

Consider building a monthly report to track results and analyze data visually.

Next, look at what you’ve done. What content was engaging to your audience? Did your blogs connect in the way you wanted them to? Ask challenging questions, too: What didn’t work? Are there channels you should cut out? Now for the tough one: Was poor performance because of your audience or your content?

Historical data is excellent for companies that have been trying for a while, but it’s okay if you don’t have it. Newer companies can use market research to see what their competitors are doing. Don’t guess what prospects in your sector are after; evaluate industry competitors to discover how they turn prospects into customers. For example, surveys and competitive analyses help you see what prospects care about the most when making a purchase decision.

No matter how far ahead you’re looking, NEVER carve your plan into stone. The most efficient marketing plans will react to changes in the market. For more planning tips, read our list of frequently asked questions about annual planning.

Improve Communication in Every Possible Way

When you stop and think, marketing is communication. If your communication is inefficient, you can probably guess what will happen to your marketing. Your marketing efficiency will improve when every person involved in your marketing is aligned – from social to email to paid media experts.

The best communication is visible. When everyone can see and track communication, there’s accountability, people can inject ideas and there is less chance that people will be “out of the loop.”
Don’t let meetings unfold – plan them. Send out agendas and set topics. If people can prepare for the meeting before showing up, you can keep the discussion focused on what it needs to be.
Document processes and hold people accountable for following them. While writing down specific workflows, you may even find out you can cut steps and save time.
If you struggle to connect with team members, these tips can get colleagues to read your emails.
If you work with a marketing agency and other partners, make sure they provide reporting (e.g., monthly) and explain how the strategy aligns with the numbers.
Don’t forget to ask your customers for feedback, whether in person, in an email follow-up or in a survey from an unbiased third party. This communication will make your existing customers feel valued and provide insights for snagging more business.

Create Content to Address the Entire Sales Funnel

When the time crunch is on, it’s easy to focus exclusively on the bottom of the funnel to try and find leads as fast as possible. You won’t see the results you want if you ignore the top of the funnel.

If your marketing team is strapped for time, you probably have several bottom-of-funnel campaigns out in the world and are hoping to find leads fast. But how much time have you spent on top-of-funnel marketing efforts? Creating content that appeals to customers in the research phase increases brand awareness and can increase total conversions over time. This is especially important for businesses that experience seasonal demand fluctuation.

When you connect with people early (the awareness stage of the customer journey) and introduce your product/service and trustworthy brand, they’re likely to think about you first when they need something. Consistent and quality content marketing is an efficient way to address every stage of the funnel.

12 Marketing Ideas You Can Try Out Immediately

Even if you’re getting started in new digital marketing channels, these ideas can be adapted to your business’s existing resources. Efficient marketing is about adapting content to perform in as many places as possible, from email to social media to site content.

Bring more multimedia to your social posts. Let’s face it; we scroll past words and links every day. But how often do you scroll past a picture or video? If you share a piece of your content this week, consider re-promoting it two weeks later with a designed asset to catch people’s eye. A content calendar like Oneupweb’s Condario is an excellent way to keep track of this strategy.
Go live on places like TikTok, Instagram or Twitter. Make sure your followers know you’ll be live answering questions and promoting discussion. Remember, your audience won’t be on every platform. Once you identify your target, make sure to focus on the social media platforms that they use.
Start boosting your posts. Boosting posts on Facebook, Instagram or other platforms allows you to reach people outside your immediate networks. Just because someone is outside your network now doesn’t mean you shouldn’t appeal to them.
Start building an email list. If you haven’t already, start with an opt-in form on your website for a newsletter or email marketing. Transactional emails (post-purchase) and ad landing pages are other places where you can encourage people to join an email list. Email is a great way to connect with engaged members of your audience.
Optimize your homepage and main service/product pages. Content isn’t a “one-and-done” thing. SEO doesn’t last forever as algorithms and user behavior change.
Get an excellent backlink (or two). Your website isn’t the only one on the internet. Getting links from other websites (the more authoritative, the better) can lead traffic to your content. Keep an eye on referral sessions to see what other websites push quality traffic your way!
Host a contest or giveaway. People love free stuff, no matter what. Amplify the opportunity on all your channels to get maximum reach. You may even partner with other businesses to benefit from each other’s email lists and connections.
Cross-channel marketing is your friend. Turn some of your organic social content (like a fun, short video) into an ad to reach new audiences. Or, if you get a lot of clicks from an email to a specific landing page, use the landing page traffic for a retargeting campaign.
Consider a customer referral program. You can decide the incentive for customers who refer friends, relatives and associates to your business. Loyal customers are often your best marketing allies!
Provide answers in niche forums. Forums are an often-underutilized space for connecting with new audiences. People are spelling out their problems, and you can provide the solution and a fabulous brand impression.
Create video content. Did you know that 95% of people retain the information they see in a video, while only 10% retain information from text? Admittedly, video isn’t fast. However, with the rise of social media platforms like TikTok, users are growing increasingly used to short-form video, which doesn’t have the same production requirements as a traditional video. Still not convinced? We have more details about the rise of video marketing.
Technology makes life easier– including marketing. Take some of the guesswork out of your marketing with tools like Hashtagify and Google Trends to get a better insight into what people are talking about. It’s easier to hit a target that you can see.

The Ultimate Marketing Efficiency? Let Us Handle It!

You can improve marketing efficiency with careful planning to get the most out of your resources. At Oneupweb, we provide a full stack of digital marketing services to offer our clients data-driven, creative solutions to meet real-world challenges in any vertical. Hand us your marketing to-do list; reach out online or call (231) 922-9977 to get started.