In today’s digitally connected world it’s no longer a question of whether a business should be on the Internet. It’s more about where all should I be. Like every other marketing route, the canvas of what digital marketing can do for businesses is far too wide for business to be present in every single manner. Depending on your industry, competition and your business size, you need to choose the most appropriate ones. However no matter what business you are in, here are six digital marketing initiatives you got to have.

 

1.Company website

In a connected world, your company website is the first port of call for anyone wanting to know more about you. The big advantage that very few businesses realize is that your website can make you look like Bloomingdale on Christmas day or your local neighborhood grocery store. Unfortunately most businesses prefer to project themselves as the later. Your website look is a reflection of what you want your potential customers to think of you as. Make it look shoddy and poor with a few slapped up images and you can bet that your customers will be going to your competition. Get yourself a good designer or a decent agency to create your first impression on the net. You don’t need to spend a fortune on creating a good looking site, neither do you need to spend peanuts.

 

2.Get your own company email account

Would you like to do business with a company that still operates with a Gmail or a yahoo account? I wouldn’t. Sending mails out from a company email id is more professional and the recipient is likely to look at it with far higher trust. Today it’s dirt cheap to get your own domain from companies like Go Daddy and set up your email account. You don’t need to understand technology to do it. So why wait?

 

3.Email Marketing

If you’re intending to get the word out and keep in touch with your prospective customers, you need to be doing email marketing. It’s fast and it’s cheap. You could use email marketing to send out new product catalogues, newsletters, company announcements and invitations. Through the help of email marketing campaign software, you can track who opened your mail, who read your mail and finally who clicked on your mail to come to your website.

While initiating email marketing within your company, you would want to get hold of a few things which will make your life easier. Firstly, you need to have a good email marketing campaign software. These days everything is available on a Saas (Software as a Service) basis, which means that you pay for usage, usually based on the number of emails that you send out. Secondly, you need to have a web designer who will design and create your HTML emails for you. Lastly, you need to have an email marketing calendar specifying what you will send out and when.

 

4.Go Social

If you’re in business, you got to be on social media and active! LinkedIn is by far the best social media place to be in for business owners. If you’re in Europe, you might want to additionally be on Xing. G+, Twitter and Facebook are other social media sites you should be on. The reason you need to be active on social media is because your customers would be there.

To start with take up 1 or 2 social media sites and then gradually increase your social presence. To start with LinkedIn and Facebook are my top 2 choices. Create your personal profile on both and then create your own company pages. Make sure that your company page reflects your company effectively. Get your employees to follow your company so that anyone coming to your company page gets a feel of your company size.  Add your company brochures, videos and any other advertising material that you have on your company page.

Invite your prospects, customers and friends to like, follow and share your company pages with their network.  Make sure that you update your company page at least once a week. And do the same with your profile. Remember on social media sites, updates carrying a photo or a video work better than plain simple text. 

Join groups on LinkedIn and Facebook where your business prospects are likely to be. Use the group to network with others in the industry and use groups for prospecting.