Digital marketing is able to consistently generate results due to its unique recipe, but like baking a cake, you need the correct mix of ingredients to be successful. The main ingredients are:

  • Content
  • Social Media
  • Email marketing
  • Online advertisements
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Let’s briefly review each of these nutritious digital marketing ingredients.

Content. The main ingredient in our digital marketing recipe is content, which is anything created, from photos and videos to blogs and ads. Fresh content shows a user that the information is relevant to what is happening now. The best content is something that people want to share and are able to share.

Two other ingredients in our digital content mix are images and videos. They are great to accompany any text because they catch people’s interest despite everyone’s shorter attention spans.

A good medium between images and text are infographics; information can be clearly displayed in an image with a small amount of text that explains the visuals, without overloading the reader. Kiterocket has created an infographic about how to collaborate on infographics. Check it out here!

Social Media. Social network channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are an excellent place to post content. Not only will your content be seen by more people who are interested in the topic, but those same people will also be able to easily share your content easily and act as ambassadors for your brand. Social media is not only a place to share your content, but a way to get involved in virtual conversations with the people who are using or may be interested in your product or service. Feedback can be given almost instantaneously.

Email marketing. Part of the recipe for digital marketing is email campaigns. Email campaigns are great for driving new leads that most often pre-qualified through someone who expresses an interest in signing up for a newsletter or filling out a contact form for more information. Email marketing can also inspire referrals from existing or old clients, partners, or anyone who has shown interest in your company.

The great thing about email marketing is that it directly reaches your target market. The emails go right to their inbox and you’re able to display more information than a brief post on a social platform, such as Facebook.

Online ads. Our digital cake wouldn’t be fully baked without paid online advertising. Digital ads are a great way to reach a new group of targeted customers. In contrast to more traditional advertising, paid ads reach specific customers who are already searching on the internet for your product or a similar product. Digital advertisements can also be targeted to reach specific people based on a variety of demographics, such as gender, age, relationship status, interests, profession, zip code, or even spending habits.

Also, unlike traditional advertising, digital ads allow you to see metrics and know what ads are working …or not. You can even test an ad and see which call-to-action, messaging, or image is most effective and then switch to the best version.

SEO. No digital marketing mix would be complete without SEO, or search engine optimization, the process of creating a search optimized website that allows Google and other search engines to find your business in a web search before competing websites.

Ideally, you want your website to be on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing when people search for you or similar products. Moreover, you want to your website to be listed at the top of the first page so that you can gain the largest click traffic.

Search engines factor in several variables when creating their query results, including social proof, original content, content freshness, and other websites linking back to your website. Stirring in these and other SEO ingredients will deliver SEO results that help prospective customers to find you before your competitors.

That’s about it! When all of these pieces are mixed just right, an effective digital marketing strategy is created. However, unlike a cake mix in a box, your digital marketing strategy must be made from scratch for it to fully align with your specific business and goals.