2018 beckons – digital marketing resolutions

Digital marketing moves quickly. If you haven’t refreshed your strategy recently, then it’s possible it may not be doing what you originally planned. It’s even possible (dare we say it) that you don’t even really feel that your strategy is connected to your business objectives in any meaningful way. Even if things are ticking over, you might be missing out on the revenue and leads you could generate by using the latest digital marketing techniques and data insights available to you. The end of a year is a great time to review your approach. Here are 5 digital marketing resolutions that will help you to improve your marketing campaigns and the results that they achieve in 2018.
These resolutions aren’t about huge shifts, fancy new pieces of software or junking what’s worked in 2017. They’re all about working smarter with the data you already have. This means constantly monitoring what you’re doing and working to improve results.

Segment your lists

According to a this report from Freely, only 47% of companies bother to use segmentation in their digital marketing campaigns. This is madness – but not uncommon. If you’re not segmenting your campaigns, then you’re not being as effective a digital marketer as you could be –  it’s that simple. Even basic analytics packages like Google Analytics or Facebook Insights will give you a wealth of information about the people who are reacting to your content, visiting your website and taking actions. You can use the usual demographics like age, gender, location and interests to tailor your digital marketing campaigns but with advanced analytics experts working with you, you can access a lot more insight into customer behaviour as well.
For example, if your Analytics data tells you that most of the visitors to your website are interested in outdoor pursuits, then work this into your blog and social media posts. If most of the people buying your products are aged 25-34 then segment your Facebook advertising campaigns to show to this audience and use geographic filters to ensure the right message is being received by the right audience. This is top level and there is plenty to drill down on here – it’ll be worth your while.
Segmentation is an act of constant fine tuning. You can never sit back and relax because something is working now. It could always be better. Conversion optimisation means you will be spending your digital marketing budget on the activity that works  best. By getting to grips with segmentation you can make your campaigns far more effective without increasing your budget.

Don’t be overwhelmed by data

Digital marketers have access to a wealth of data about what their customers and prospects do. It’s possible to be overwhelmed by this data and not use it effectively. Don’t be! Data is your friend and using it effectively will make a huge difference to your digital marketing campaigns. This can be as simple as setting your Google AdWords campaigns to only show at times when people actually buy.your products. It’s not rocket science…
By using the data you already have, but using it effectively, you can stop wasting money on the activity that doesn’t work. If you don’t interrogate the data, you won’t know what activity that is! A word of warning – data for data’s sake is nobody’s friend. Take time to really be sure you are asking the right questions…

Make UX and Heatmaps your friends

The last of our digital marketing resolutions is critical. Whether you’re planning a huge website rebuild or haven’t touched your website in years, take a step back and ask yourself a simple question. “How easy is it for someone to land on our website, to find what they need, and do what I want them to do?”.
It’s easy to be blinkered by over-familiarity with your own website. That’s why we recommend using heat maps and visitor recording to see what your visitors are actually doing. It can be eye opening to discover what’s going on! Yet again, it comes back to data. With this information, you can make informed decisions about your website and how you can improve customer experience (UX). Once you’ve made your changes, you can put the heat maps and recording back to see if they’ve made the difference you expected. It’s a process of iteration…
We work with many clients who have seen seismic improvements in lead generation simply by allowing us to tweak what they have on an existing website. It doesn’t always have to be total redesign from scratch.
Hopefully, our digital marketing suggestions will help you to make a start on improving your digital marketing campaigns in the New Year. If you’d like some more specific advice about your own website or marketing strategy, we’d love to hear from you!