What are the best practices for establishing a digital presence?

In order to help Sam we want to come up with the best ideas about how to establish a digital presence.  The best companies in the world that have a problem to solve or a goal to accomplish look for something called "best practices".  In other words, in a specific industry, such as the CPG industry, a company will try to see what are some standard or common ways of doing things that maximize efficiency and minimize cost that stand out above other methods.

Digital Marketing best practices vary widely depending on who you ask.

For the top 10 areas to aid digital presence that we picked as part of our effort to help Sam we want to look at best practices in each area.  However, we also want to keep in mind that technology best practices may change rapidly.  Below are the first 5 areas and some of the best practices that we found.  Next week our blog will cover the remaining 5 areas.

1. Website design for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The best way to understand SEO would be to be an insider at each search engine company.  However, even though we aren't we've still found an upcoming best practice for SEO.  Currently Google is not claiming to use social media as part of their algorithm to determine SEO.  However, we think that Google and other search engines will begin to start counting social media mentions as part of their calculations to come up with a list of search engine results.  Sam's should take advantage of posting to as many social media platforms as she can handle to take advantage of it as an upcoming part of SEO.

2. Blogs

Sam should have a website that also has a blog.  A blog is a unique opportunity to publish content that might not fit elsewhere on Sam's webpage.  A fundamental blogging best practices is to keep your blog in line with the company or brand that is associated with the blog.  This includes having the voice and tones of the blog match the company or brand.  Another best practice is to leverage collaborations and guest blogs.  By having industry experts contribute to Sam's blog she could gain advice for her company and she could also help influencers in her industry take notice of her and her company.

3. Mobile optimization and mobile marketing

One of the most useful best practices of the future will be to optimize Sam's website for mobile user intent and for mobile search engine optimization.  Mobile is becoming increasingly important and Sam will want to make sure that any mobile marketing campaigns will have content that is clearly seen by mobile screens.

Tips for web design on the iPhone 6

4. Paid search vs. organic search

It is common in the CPG industry to use paid search. For the purpose of this blog post were going to assume that Sam will use paid search because she wants to work with the CPG industry. AdWords is a paid search service owned by Google and we recommend that Sam consider using it instead of only using organic search.

The best practices for using AdWords relate to the set up of the account structure. The first level of Adwords account structure is campaigns. It is best practice to set up your campaigns based on your budget for each campaign.  Under campaigns are Ad Groups where you will target your campaign message. Under Ad Groups are keywords which are terms you hope people will enter into the search engine in order to find your campaign.  It is best practice to use the keywords planner tool to help you find the best keywords for you. Ad Text also falls under Ad Groups and it's best practice to follow AdWords guidelines or your ad could be rejected. And last, but not least, are Landing Pages.  It is best practice to have landing pages with original and useful content that are easy to read and to navigate.

AdWords account structure

 

5. Interacting with potential consumers - posting to online networks like Facebook

The first and possibly most important best practice for interacting with potential customers and posting to online networks is to follow your company's social media policy and any corporate customer communication strategies.  People have been fired from companies for going against company policies or for posting on social media networks without getting approval.  Sam will need to establish a digital presence that is compliant with common corporate social media policies to demonstrate that she can handle interactions with potential customers appropriately in the digital realm.

How do you establish a digital presence within 1 year?

Sam is a friend. She's trying to get a job as a Director of Digital Marketing in the Consumer Product Goods (CPG) industry. We're trying to help her establish a digital presence that will better position her for interviews and career progression. Sam has a budget of $5,000 to spend on our recommendations over the next year.

Announce your company to the digital marketplace.

How do we help establish a digital presence with a small budget of time and money?

We get creative! Sam doesn't have a lot of time or money to spend, but the good news is that online marketing doesn't have to take all of your time or be expensive.  We have narrowed the focus of her time and financial budgets down to 10 areas over the next year to help guide her in building her CPG online marketing presence.

Top 10 areas to aid digital presence:

1. Website design for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Blogs
3. Mobile optimization and mobile marketing
4. Paid search vs. organic search
5. Interacting with potential consumers - posting to online networks like Facebook
6. Analytics and Key Performance indicators (KPI's)
7. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
8. Consumer generated content
9. Security - avoiding spam, digital attacks, and other unwanted side effects of human and machine interaction
10. Original content origins and management

Social media research is never ending.

How do we research the top 10 areas to come up with the best tools?

Our fingers hit the keyboard running.  Building a digital presence is wide topic with options that are always changing and expanding.  Instead of looking solely in academic journals that might be quickly outdated, to find the best tools and methods of establishing a digital presence we execute the following steps:

Step 1: We type keywords related to one of our top 10 subjects in a search engine. We read some articles of interest in the search results.

Step 2: We visit the site of an article’s suggested tool. We view a demo.

Step 3: We read about the pros and cons of that tool and evaluations of the tool's vendor from another website to get a different, less bias perspective. We might even go back to the original site and ask questions to the tool's vendor directly.

Step 4: We think about which tool will best fit Sam’s business’ goals and budget (time and money).

Step 5: We decide on a tool for Sam to use and if the tool isn't free, we add it as a line item within her budget.

How Do I Utilize Social Media for Marketing Purposes?

When you get the marketing bug, sometimes it’s tiring to feed it alone.  For this post, I got the chance to work together with a partner to and explore marketing on Social media.  

The game of telephone can be avoided...Communicate your brand on social media instead.

What's the big deal about social media?

Social media is now the fastest growing channel for a business to communicate with its customers.  According to the magazine Fast Company, 93% of marketers use social media for business. Social media is a two way channel that helps marketers not only send messages to customers, but it also enables marketers to receive immediate feedback from customers and non-customers. A successful social media campaign can increase brand awareness among a potential consumer group and may help strengthen your brand with your current consumers.

 

Company Nike tell a story of innovation through social media on YouTube.

How can I make social media work for my business?

Get specific to you.  Identify what industry that your business is in, then try to better understand your target audience which should be the same as your target consumers.  Then use the same social platforms as your target audience. Adjust your communication style to the social media platforms that you use in order to meet or exceed your target audience’s expectations. For our marketing purposes, since my partner and I both have entrepreneurial minds (and have our own small businesses) we are choosing to explore social media from a Consumer Product Goods industry (CPG) point of view.  We have some personal knowledge of this industry and we are further researching the CPG industry in regard to social media as our starting point to build a good digital marketing portfolio.  

Do you have an example of CPG marketing on social media?

The picture of Oreo Delight is an example of a CPG product placement on the social media site Pinterest.  This recipe on Pinterest could have been pinned by Kraft the company that owns Oreo or it could have been pinned by a consumer, demonstrating that social media is capable of giving a voice to the consumer.  The consumer voice could ultimately benefit or harm your company.  In this Oreo example, it's a consumer that is helping to drive sales of the Oreo product. A lot of consumer goods companies are using social media.  There are many ways to engage your target consumer audience such as launching a #hashtag contest, using social media for social good, etc.  In order to succeed as a digital marketer at your company, you need to show that you have the ability to build a successful campaign and engage the audience within your social channel.