From content to conversions: How to get your business noticed in the digital age

This is branded content.

Most small businesses are not reaching their full potential because they don't have the right tools to get noticed in a crowded market.

There's a lot of digital noise out there, and your business is going to need some help standing out from the crowd if you want it to succeed. There are a lot of businesses out there competing for attention.

If you're not using digital marketing to promote your business, you miss out on many opportunities and leave money on the table.

According to research conducted by Datareportal, 80 percent of customers now use search engines as their first source when looking for a local service or product.

If you are looking to become trained in the modern art of digital marketing, studying for a Master of Digital Marketing is recommended so that you can understand each element in greater detail.

In the meantime, this guide will help you stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace by giving you step-by-step instructions on how to create a clear strategy that works.

The first and most crucial step is to identify and establish your brand's personality. Before a brand can show its personality, it must first decide what that means.

Most companies have a hard time establishing their brand personality and stick to bland, generic marketing.

They don't know how to develop the voice of their brand and end up with boring copy that doesn't connect with consumers.

Your brand personality needs to communicate your values and goals, your products and connect with your audience.

This personality will be how your business is perceived online, so it needs to be consistent; it effectively promises your customers.

You want to concentrate your digital marketing efforts toward people who are more likely to make a purchase. This means understanding who your customers are, their habits, their personalities and their behaviours.

Importantly, it also means understanding your competition's audience so you can reach them as well.

Once you know the demographics, locations, behaviours, values and personalities of your target audience, you need to ask yourself: 'What problems or challenges does my business product or service solve?.'

This will enable you to reach the right people and present them with solutions that will make their lives easier or better.

Finally, you need to ascertain what makes your business stand out over your competition. What is your point of difference? Why should consumers choose your brand over your opposition?

Understanding all of this will enable you to put together content and digital marketing strategies far more likely to be successful.

With Content Marketing, you can improve your reputation, build a community and grow advocates of your brand.

It's a powerful approach for increasing online visibility that has been proven time and again by statistics.

Take a look at these stats assembled by marketing insights giant SEMRush. Quality content will equate to:

Developing strong content means leveraging the previous points. You need to create meaningful content for your target audience, is consistent with your brand persona and solves problems your potential customers may have.

SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in search engine results pages (SERPs) by increasing its relevance to specific keywords.

In other words, SEO is about making your site more visible and accessible to people who are searching for information on the internet. It's an investment that will pay off in time as your site becomes more popular with users and ranks higher in SERPs.

This is an organic and free process, but it requires a lot of work. You need to discover keywords and phrases your customers are using to find businesses like yours and weave them through all of your content.

Over time, this will earn favour with search engines like Google, and your business will rocket up the rankings. This is important because as many as 92 per cent of people will not click past the first page of search results.

This process ensures a site's content, design and functionality are optimised for viewing on mobile devices.

It can be done in many ways, but the most common way is by using responsive web design. This means that the website's layout will change depending on what device it's being viewed on.

For example, if someone views your site from their smartphone, they'll see a different version than viewing it from their desktop computer.

Why is this important? Over 90 per cent of the population use a mobile device to go online, an audience that cannot be ignored.

It's no secret that social media has become an integral part of the modern business world.

You have the opportunity to reach more people than ever before with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

These networks allow you to share content in real-time with your followers without having to spend money on expensive advertising campaigns.

Social media goes beyond just advertising campaigns, though. It is a way for you to create engagement with your audience and showcase your business persona.

Social Media has been proven to increase sales, reduce costs, and improve customer service. Still, it will also help you gain new customers, create stronger relationships with existing customers, and save money on advertising by building trust and credibility through engagement strategies that work.

Bringing people to your website is just one part of the customer journey; converting them into making a sale or taking another action like booking an appointment is essential for your business growth.

If you are not getting the results you want, it's probably because your website is lacking in one or more areas that can help convert those visitors into customers.

The problem is that most small business owners don't have the time or resources in-house to manage all of these marketing strategies.

By outsourcing your digital marketing, you can focus on the activities that make your business unique. You'll have more time to think about new product lines and customer service initiatives that will benefit both your customers and bottom line.

Outsourcing also allows you to tap into a pool of highly skilled professionals with expertise in SEO, PPC management, social media campaigns, email marketing etc., all at an affordable price.