Increase Qualified Leads With These 3 Digital Marketing Tactics

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to creating more brand awareness. Even for organizations in the same industry, an online marketing plan from one company to another will likely be different, because what works for one may not work for the other. If you are struggling with qualified online leads, here are three digital marketing tips for you and your marketing team to consider that will boost your sales now.

Tactic #1: Get Your CEO to Jump Into Social Media

If you have a resistant chief executive (CEO), give them these facts:

• Millions of people visit their favorite social media sites on a daily basis, multiple times during the day.
• Facebook alone has a billion people using it daily.
• Instagram now has 200 million users who tap on pictures they “like” around a billion times a day.
• 1 in 6 people who use the Internet are engaged with Pinterest, and the average user has an annual income of $75,000.
• Approximately 80 percent of consumers say they develop a higher level of trust with brands that have a CEO that is visible on social media.

Connect with them by getting active on social media.

Tactic #2: Commit to Blogging – Meet Your New Biz Development Pro

An estimated 140 million people are reading blogs regularly in the U.S., 31 percent of which say blogs help inform them about what purchases they should make. That equals 43 million people looking for informative content that helps them make a more confident purchase. Surprisingly, less than 60 percent of marketers are using this tool to bring more business to clients.

There are reasons for this: No bandwidth for writers. Disagreements on who will contribute content and direction of the content are biggies. Start easy. Go off-page. Start a vertical blog in an area where you are a thought-leader. Think of your blog as a store with categories of reference. What categories do you know best? Start there. Hire a professional blogger as necessary.

Tactic #3: Boost Search Rankings With Content Marketing

You should be doing everything you can to drive more traffic to your website. One way to do this is to work toward a better search ranking. Nearly 80 percent of marketers say that content marketing improves the amount of traffic coming to their site, and it also assists them in getting better search rankings. Quality content not only informs your target audience about your industry, it also optimizes your ability to be found higher on the list in a Google search.

Content marketing, to be effective, must support the following guidelines:

• Must align with the needs of your target audience
• Must align with the online behaviors of your target audience
• Must align with the content consumption interests of your target audience
• Must support your core competency and areas of thought-leadership
• Must engage your audience either by effective storytelling or education
• Must be executed upon a plan

Case Study: Follow President Obama on This One

Want to know what real effective content marketing looks like from the top? Here is an example straight from the White House. In this curated online photo gallery, President Obama shares more than 150 images never seen in any press conference. These fun and interesting images of the President at work over the course of the year take the voter through an experience of what it’s like at the White House year-round. Imagine your CEO driving online popularity in this way. As mentioned upfront, consumers and your target audience wants to get to know your CEO. This is an effective way of doing so.

If creating brand awareness were easy, everyone would have higher search engine rankings and more traffic. It takes proper planning and measured execution. Starting with these three online marketing tactics and sticking to them will help you and your organization get there and stay there for more sustained traffic and qualified leads.