Your website is important in digital marketing – but it’s just one piece of your marketing strategy
In other words – don’t put all your digital marketing eggs in one basket!
This advice might seem strange, given our last two posts have been firmly fixed on all things websites and homepages. Then, there are the posts we’ve previously shared about the importance of a good website; when it’s time to redesign your website; and even how you can simplify regular website maintenance.
You get the idea…
We unashamedly love websites and the power they have to take your small business further (more on that later). The importance of a website in any digital marketing strategy cannot be denied.
BUT
The truth remains that a website alone can’t carry the weight of your entire marketing strategy.
Why it’s vital to develop a holistic marketing strategy
The simple reason? Your website is one of approximately 1.13 BILLION sites in the world. Optimising your website will help your ideal audience find you online – but with so many other sites competing for attention, there’s no guarantee they’ll find you.
Optimising your website for search engines (SEO), adding quality content and delivering a great user experience (UX) will help people find and buy from you. But a website alone (even if it’s the best website in the world) will struggle to reach the people who need your products or services most.
That’s why a holistic marketing strategy, with your website as the centrepiece, is a better approach.
What’s included in a holistic marketing strategy?
Imagine an old-style wooden wheel – the kind they had on carriages in the 1800s. This is the perfect example of a holistic marketing strategy in 2023 (trust us on this one!).
The centre of the wheel represents your website. This is where your audience ends up once they find you. Each wooden spoke is connected to the centre, going out in a different direction online. These represent other elements of your digital marketing strategy.
Each spoke operates independently but always connects back to the middle – your website. They each contribute to your digital marketing strategy, taking some of the pressure off your website as you move along your digital journey (see, the wheel wasn’t such a bad analogy after all!).
A holistic marketing strategy will usually contain the following “spokes” to drive your marketing efforts forward:
- Content marketing
- Search engine optimisation
- Email marketing
- Paid advertising
- Social media marketing
- Mobile marketing
Harnessing each “spoke” to support your digital marketing strategy
Content Marketing
Creating valuable content is still the best way to reach new clients and customers. The idea is simple – share targeted content that informs, entertains, educates or inspires – in the hope it will be read and shared more widely. This builds your authority, creates trust, demonstrates your knowledge and develops a genuine connection with your ideal audience. Content marketing generates 3x as many leads while costing 62% less than traditional marketing. With those numbers, it makes sense to include content marketing in your overall digital strategy.
HOW: Create blog posts, ebooks, infographics, whitepapers, and how-to guides
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
In 2020, Ahrefs revealed that 90.63% of digital content doesn’t get any traffic from Google. At all. Remember the 1.13 billion websites you’re competing against? There’s a good chance at least 1 billion of those sites haven’t even looked at their SEO. Optimising your website and content for search is a powerful way to increase your online visibility and draw more traffic. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) can give you a jump start on SEO allowing you to target specific search terms so you appear higher on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
HOW: Improve your SEO by reviewing page speed, keywords, backlinks, and image alt attributes.
Email Marketing
One of the oldest forms of digital marketing, email campaigns still pack a punch (and deliver an impressive ROI). Last year, Litmus confirmed that email marketing returns $36 for every $1 spent – outperforming every other marketing approach. The real advantage of email marketing lies in your total ownership of your email list. If social media collapsed tomorrow (we’re still eyeing Twitter nervously), your email list would help you reconnect with your audience. This makes email marketing a crucial spoke of your digital marketing strategy.
HOW: Choose an email provider and create an optin offer to get people to subscribe to your list.
Paid advertising
Organic (or free) marketing makes our hearts sing but there’s no denying that paid advertising has a key role in any holistic digital marketing strategy. A quick and effective way to reach new audiences, paid advertising comes in many forms, including:
- Search/PPC ads (usually the top results on the SERP)
- Display ads (the ads you see in website sidebars)
- Social media ads (sponsored posts, story ads, in-feed advertising, etc.)
- Email sponsored ads (ads that appear at the top of your Gmail inbox)
- Google shopping ads (visual ads that appear when you search for products)
- Video ads (ads that appear before, ‘in-stream’ and after videos on YouTube)
- Native ads (ads that look less obvious and match other content on a site)
- Remarketing/retargeting ads (ads served to anyone who’s interacted with your brand)
Ads can increase brand awareness by 80% – perfect for new startups or for businesses looking to quickly raise their online profile.
HOW: Read this handy guide from VWO or partner with a trusted SEM professional.
Social Media Marketing
It’s estimated there are 4.89 billion social media users worldwide who each spend around 151 minutes on SM platforms each day (that’s roughly 2 and a half hours!). With such a captive audience at your disposal, social media marketing needs to be part of your overall strategy. But this doesn’t mean you must throw even more money at Facebook or Instagram. While it’s true that paid campaigns are prioritised on SM platforms, organic marketing still has a place – particularly when it comes to building brand awareness and cultivating relationships.
HOW: Download our free hashtag cheat sheet to get your posts in front of more people.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile devices account for almost 50% of all website visits (49.78% v 50.22%). More people are consuming content and making purchases via their smartphones than ever before. That’s why proactively marketing to an increasingly mobile audience is so important. Covering SMS messaging, push notifications, QR code scanning and in-app or in-game advertising, mobile marketing allows you to connect with prospective customers as they are making their decision. This could be triggered by their location, their behaviour or through remarketing/retargeting.
HOW: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate on a smartphone.
Stop relying on paid advertising to bring traffic back to your website.
Our handy guide contains actionable tips you can implement so that you don’t have to rely solely on paid advertising. Download the Organic Marketing Essentials Workbook and enjoy!
Make your website the centrepiece of your strategy
Each of your marketing spokes should draw people back to your website – the centrepiece or ‘hub’ of your marketing strategy. This is why we’re so passionate about helping business owners get their WordPress or Shopify website right.
While it can’t do all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to your marketing strategy, your website is still key. If your marketing strategy does its job and brings more traffic to your site, you want to ensure you can seal the deal and increase those all-important conversions.
That’s the real importance of your website in digital marketing.
How we support your digital marketing strategy
Experts in WordPress and Shopify website design and development, the team at Naked Digital is ready to set your business up for success with a beautiful, fast and functional website. With the hub of your digital marketing strategy in place, we boost your profile with effective organic marketing, specialising in blog posts, email marketing and copywriting.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR WEBSITE DESIGN SERVICES
Interested in mastering copywriting for your small business? We’re ready to help! Schedule a free 30-minute chat with Desiree from Naked Digital to see how easy it can be to level up your small business with updated website design and optimised content.
