Does your business take full advantage of the internet to achieve your marketing goals? Are your competitors stealing your online traffic? And is your website serving its purpose?
These are all questions you should be asking if your digital marketing efforts are to stand a chance of success. Let’s explore why...
You can’t afford to ignore digital strategy
Revealing research by RIBA looks at how architects and designers choose products and what they want from manufacturers, finding that 85% of those surveyed prefer to find product information online. This goes to show how important it is to have a digital strategy in place that connects your customers with your brand online.
Research by Regalix highlights the growing importance of digital marketing to B2B marketers and the need to quantify spend. It shows that more and more B2B marketers are investing in digital marketing, with 82% saying that they plan to increase their digital marketing spend for 2015. However, such investment is a wasted opportunity without a strategy in place for how that spend can best be used to your advantage.
What B2B marketers are struggling with
Unfortunately, there’s a bit more to digital than simply setting up a Facebook profile and Twitter account and blindly hoping for the best. Having worked with B2B marketers in the construction industry for many years, I’ve seen the same issues time and again. Some of the most common ones are:
- Lack of a defined strategy: many companies have no long-term digital marketing strategy in place, meaning that their efforts lack direction.
- Dated websites: these make it hard for customers to find products. Websites are often the first port of call for customers, and first impressions count.
- Neglecting SEO: your website isn’t pulling its weight if your potential customers can’t actually find it in search engines.
- Neglecting customer needs: many construction companies concentrate on shouting about how great they are, rather than meeting customer needs.
- Not measuring what matters: many companies fail to realise the full potential of Analytics to understand the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts. Indeed, Research shows that only 23% measure leads - most simply measure website traffic.
So what does a good digital strategy look like?
A good digital strategy thinks years ahead, mapping out your plan of action and objectives for the long-term while being flexible enough to account for unexpected changes in the online space (such as a Google algorithm change). It has an underlying confidence in who you are as a brand, as well as an understanding of how your customers interact with print and digital, and seamlessly blends online activities with traditional offline marketing.
The construction companies doing digital well are using a mix of approaches with one thing in common: they’re focused on the customer’s needs and concerns. A good digital marketing strategy implicitly positions you as an expert, helping you prove your expertise - far more powerful than simply telling the customer that you’re an expert. Your strategy outlines how you’ll provide valuable information to your customers in the form of online content such as whitepapers, blog posts, videos, webinars, infographics, presentations and so on.
Most importantly, a good digital strategy outlines a series of goals to work towards - whether it’s raising brand awareness, generating more leads, driving more traffic to your website or communicating with customers. Progress towards these goals can then be measured using tools such as Google Analytics.
Design your own digital strategy - with a bit of help from me...
If all that sounds a bit out of your depth, you’re not alone. According to that research I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest barriers to digital marketing success is expertise and skills. But help is at hand in the form of my digital marketing strategy workshop, in which I’ll help you put together a 12-month plan for your business to get your strategy started. Among other things, I’ll also explain what makes a good website, how each digital marketing channel works and how to set and measure your own goals. Sign up to confirm your place and kickstart your strategy today.
Pritesh Patel
Pritesh Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant specialising in Digital Strategy, Website Planning and Analytics. He works with building product manufacturers and helps marketers to get the most out of their online investments by planning effectively, setting clear goals and objectives and then measuring the impact and performance to evaluate ROI.
