Within the vast unexplored depths of the internet, it can feel almost impossible to make your brand or company stand out. The power of digital marketing is so expansive that it can help you stand out from above the rest. It can be challenging to navigate the different aspects of maintaining a digital presence, so within this comprehensive guide, you can learn the basics of what services are available in order to build a defining company in the digital marketing world.

Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Businesses that do not want to spend money to advertise within search engines, should focus their attention on search engine optimization (SEO), but what exactly is SEO? Optimizing your search engine results is what puts your website higher on any search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The main goal with using  SEO is to be the best-ranked website for a specific keyword, so when a user searches that keyword, your website will be the first recommended. 

In order to rank high with SEO, you need to take into account the technical quality and content quality of your website. With technical SEO, making sure that your website is clear and user-friendly, and organized in order for Google to promote your website your site should have crawl, render, and index. Other things required for ranking high with technical content are ensuring your website is secure, fast-loading, free of duplicate content, and mobile optimized. While you do not need to have the technical side of SEO to be perfect, you should be mindful that the easier access your website has, the better chance you have to rank higher.

Content-wise it is imperative that you’re focused on keywords since that is the main link between your content and finding your users. Gain insight into competitors' keywords and try to optimize what topics you want to cover for social media, blog posts, or even your landing pages. Keyword research is beneficial to your website since the higher you rank on keyword topics, the more traffic you gain to your website. To put it in perspective, when you’re researching a specific topic on Google, you will see results from websites that use those targeted keywords. 

Web Hosting

Using a web hosting service is efficient since manually setting up your website is very complex and requires a lot of high technical knowledge. Essentially, by using a web hosting service you are paying someone to host your website on their servers. Depending on who you have as a web hosting provider, you will have access to different features like faster website performance or better protection for user data. 

Make sure when choosing a hosting provider that you have a good bandwidth, which is a restriction on how much data can be sent and received from your website. Having unlimited bandwidth is ideal, but some web hosts may restrict you. Also, check that the domain name you want is available with the specific web hosting service, you might have to use an alternate name or top level domain (TLD)  name if what you want is not available. Top level domains are essentially the .com, .org, or .edu at the end of your URL. 

Website Design & Development

The process of using specific elements to make a website's interface accessible and engaging can be tedious if you are not familiar with the important factors of website design and development. A website is a set of custom files stored on its own personal IP address. Developing your own website takes some serious technical skills unless you use off-the-shelf website design programs like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. Using these web development services will be user-friendly and easy to use, the downside of building your own website is a lot of problems can occur. From missing text to not being optimized for mobile devices, there are a lot of small parts that go into making your website one big functioning machine. As a Las Vegas website design agency, we're always here to help guide people who may be interested in making their own website or who are curious about how LSM's website design and development services can save them time and money.

Applications & Software Solutions 

Custom applications are unique programs or applications that require special coding to create a unique desired function. An example of a custom application would be student portals for a university, these have to be customized to be specific to that universities requirements.  A majority of custom applications have specific functions from managing information, calculating numerical values, or writing reports. Depending on your business, you may need a different software that is unique to your needs, and getting custom software done right will save you both time and money. Over time certain custom applications or software may need to be updated, but getting it done by an expert alleviates the stress of updating it since custom software is made to be updated periodically. Plus, having customized software makes your programs and applications more secure than off-the-shelf solutions. At LSM, we are specialists in custom software solutions that make running your business easier and we are always available to discuss your business needs.

E-commerce Marketing

For marketing a digital company you only can rely on various different marketing strategies to organically grow online. eCommerce marketing generates traction and business for a company that does not have any physical locations for consumers to visit. Utilizing tools such as SEO and social media are major factors when marketing for eCommerce.

There are various ways to market for eCommerce business, like email marketing. Still, with the rise of social media, it has become a lot easier to build a platform for online companies. There are over 200 different social media platforms, so it can seem frustrating to narrow down which ones are viable for marketing purposes. Understanding your competitors and how you want to brand the company will help you navigate which social media platforms will suit your niche. In addition, influencer marketing has also become popular for eCommerce marketing. Essentially you are using a social media influencer with an established following to promote your business or product. Not only does this help your eCommerce business gain a following, but it also provides more content for your brand as well. It may feel as though you’re trapped to only marketing digitally, but rest assured that the world wide web has a lot of unique and successful options to advertise any eCommerce business.

E-Commerce Web Design

Web design is very important for eCommerce since it is their main source for customers to access their business. Having a unique and effective website is imperative to any business that wants to have a spot in the online marketplace. Key important factors of web design are having a user-friendly layout, a clear copy of their service or product, and visually stimulating designs.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

A Pay-Per-Click also known as PPC, is an advertising strategy that makes you pay a fee every time your advertisement is clicked. Google is the most infamous platform for using PPC advertising, but it can be used on a variety of places like social media, search engines, or other Google properties from the Google Display Network like YouTube. The cost of this service can vary from $1 to $7, but the convenient part of it is that you only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement. The price will depend on what platform you use and be aware that Google is the most expensive platform their Cost Per Click (CPC) is typically $20. Having a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign can be beneficial to building your brand awareness and also it can help your SEO rank.

Landing Page Building & Audits

The landing page is the homepage you ‘land’ on after clicking a link or simply typing in the domain. Landing pages contain ways to engage consumers into leads by having them fill out a lead form. This allows an increase in your Conversion Rate Optimization by having the undivided attention of your potential customers. To have a strong landing page you need to have strong copywriting, eye-catching visuals, and a solid call to action to properly grab the attention and interest of your audience. Auditing your landing page will help you gain a proper insight if something isn’t working right, of course, it is important to audit all of your website to see the strengths and weaknesses of each page, but the landing page is the most important to focus on. 

Conversion Rate Optimization

Once you have more traction on your website, you will realize the importance of conversion rate optimization. Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO is when you want to increase your ratings of users performing a desired action on your website. So specific things like filling out a form or adding items to cart are examples of certain actions you might want to raise your Conversion Rate Optimization. Keep in mind that having a high SEO rank will lead traffic to your website and which will raise your CRO and more traffic will generate more business. Having a strong Conversion Rate Optimization cannot guarantee an abundance of sales, but it can generate leads who are interested in your product or service. Having a quality service and utilizing your Conversion Rate Optimization, will improve your brand’s recognition and reputation.

Marketing Analytics

Studying different patterns in marketing like different trends or feedback is what can help you reach your fullest potential for creating unique and valuable marketing strategies. Marketing Analytics is a tool to see where you can improve in different aspects of how to be more strategic in your marketing. It can also highlight what is working for your company by looking at different analytics of how users respond to certain aspects of your website or brand. By studying different company analytics you are taking marketing into your own hands by understanding the field and how it affects your business.

Email Marketing

The marketing strategy of sending out promotional emails to people in large quantities can seem a bit outdated, but email marketing is considered one of the most effective and popular marketing strategies. Everyone feels obligated to check their emails, but with any marketing strategy, you need to keep in mind how competitive the field is. Staying genuine is a big key factor in email marketing, you don’t want to come across as spam or robotic. Having strong content writing will be beneficial if you decide to do an email marketing campaign.

Affiliate and Influencer Marketing

Influencer and Affiliate marketing is currently one of the more popularized ways to promote a product or service since social media has a variety of influences that cater to specific niche areas of interest. Partnering with an affiliate or influencer who has a big following in a specific community that you want to target that specific market can be beneficial. Essentially you’re partnering with an influencer to create a unique code or link to track how much traffic the influencer is bringing to your company. 

Content Writing

It requires a certain skill set to be able to plan, write, and publish web content. Having or being a strong content writer is essential to sharing information about your brand, your product, or your service. Building a voice and tone for your company establishes a relationship with your brand and the consumer, so it is imperative that you have engaging content. Additionally, having content that is concise, free of errors, and comprehensive is one of the most important things to come across as qualified. While you have creative liberties with how you frame your content and your tone, making sure your content is error-free is more important since it shows that your company is competent and serious about your business. 

Video and Photo Creation & Content Marketing 

For any sort of business, having video and photo content is key to marketing. Video content engages viewers with your brand and establishes a connection with consumers. You can even build a strong viewership and brand voice depending on what kind of content you choose to make. Having visual content makes your brand feel more personal and it evokes a more emotional establishment between you and the consumers. Having a wall of text will bore a majority of consumers, so it is easier to grab interest and attention with visual content.

Quality always plays a huge factor in if your videos or photos land. Making sure your content is clear and accessible to a large audience is important in gaining more viewership to promote your business. When it comes to building your website, having videos on your website actually can improve your SEO score and it makes your website more engaging for people to have visuals about your product or brand. All in all, video and photo content is a must for any and all areas of marketing. 

Social Media Marketing

One of the most prominent marketing tools to use in this day and age is social media marketing. Since it’s always evolving, it can be confusing how to utilize it for your business. Narrowing down your specific target audience is a good way to judge what social media platforms you should focus on for good brand interactions. Using social media as a way to the market allows you to get a better insight into your audience and the things they interact with. You can generate new leads and build up your reputation and clientele with social media campaigns like giveaways, influencer marketing, or hosting live streams. Promoting your business on social media and having more likes, followers, or youtube subscriptions on your socials can boost your online image and your business simultaneously. 

Social Media Advertising

Between Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and other social media advertisements it gives you an opportunity to push your brand out to the forefront of viewers on whichever social media platform you choose. If you choose to do a paid advertising campaign on social media, be conscious of engagement on your posts and think about how you want to draw in traffic to a new set of audiences. Advertising via social media also indirectly can boost your SEO score, if you have more viewers/traffic from social media, then you more than likely will rank higher if you’re focused on specific SEO keywords.

If you’re still not sure you can tackle digital marketing, LSM is here to help, if you're interested in utilizing our expertise on digital strategies for your business, book a free consultation with LSM today!