If your brand is transitioning from traditional marketing strategies to digital ones, you probably implement digital marketing as a one-time project instead of a recurring one. 

However, treating digital marketing strategies as a one-time project can make your brand lag behind on trends and lose business because of low conversion rates. However, to create a practical digital marketing approach, you need to know the various digital marketing platforms available, determine the ones suitable for your business’s marketing needs, and execute and maintain them frequently. 

Suppose your brand doesn’t have a digital marketing strategy, or you haven’t updated your digital systems for some time. In that case, it’s time to consider how these four digital marketing platforms below can help you build brand awareness and improve your conversion rates.

4 Vital Digital Marketing Platforms You Should Use

1. Podcast

Social media channels are leveling off in saturation and market share. After all, many Millennials and Gen-Z have Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts, and many American adults have Facebook accounts. Similarly, other digital platforms like YouTube are becoming universal platforms for self-expression. However, these statistics show podcasts are still growing more quickly than anything else.

If you want your brand to stand out and be found in the cluttered digital arena, then you’ll be happy to know that the percentage of existing podcasts is just 0.01% of the total number of blog posts. That makes podcasting an attractive initiative for most businesses. 

Statistics also show that over 51% of Americans listen to podcasts, and people aged between 12 and 34 make up 66% of podcast listeners in America. 

However, just because a channel is trending doesn’t mean investing in it’ll boost your conversion rates and ROI. Fortunately, podcasts can help you improve your conversion rates and ROI. 

To create a successful digital marketing approach, you must consider these three things:

• First, how will you get new customers interested in your brand?
• How will you convert those customers into buyers?
• Finally, how will you build stronger relationships with your existing customers so they keep returning?

To convert prospective customers to returning customers, they need to trust your brand. Podcasts can help you build trust with your target audience. As consumers search for authentic brands, podcasts offer a way to connect directly with your target audience through long-form, authentic content. 

There are two primary ways to leverage podcasts to grow your brand. First, you can buy ads on podcasts your target audience loves or create your podcasts. 

You can build trust with your target audience by buying ads in existing podcasts. Often, listeners strongly connect with a few podcasts, building trust with the hosts. Thus, if the target audience trusts the hosts and the hosts seemingly trust your brand, it’s easier for their target audience to trust your brand. For instance, if you sell electronics, then advertising your products on electronic podcasts can result in immediate conversions. 

If you decide to start your own podcast instead, your goal should be strengthening relationships and providing relevant content to your existing audience. Your goal shouldn’t be immediately turning prospective customers into buyers. That doesn’t mean that podcasts won’t generate new customers because they’ll. But your aim should be connecting with your current audience. Podcasting can help you build trust with your existing audience and create loyal ambassadors for your brand. 

2. Video

Video is one of the fastest-growing digital marketing platforms and has the most potential to grow your business today. Video marketing can help you generate leads, improve conversion rates, boost ROI, and build a deeper emotional connection between your audience and your brand than any other digital channel.

In fact, 84% of consumers say they’ve been convinced to buy products or services after watching a brand’s video. 

Keep your videos short and supremely engaging when creating video content to cater to consumers’ short attention spans on social media while still delivering value. Research by Vinyard reports that the average retention for videos is around 52%; however, the time consumers spend watching videos largely depends on the length. Approximately 68% of consumers will watch a brand’s video all the through if it’s less than one minute long. Thus, short videos are an excellent way to market your products, improve brand awareness, and help prospective customers learn about your products or services. 

Short-form videos work perfectly on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Thus, if you’re using these channels, ensure you create many quick videos to keep your existing audience engaged and returning for more. 

However, does that mean you should ignore longer videos? Long-form videos are a fantastic way to keep your current audience excited and position yourself as an industry expert. Long-form videos are perfect if you wish to talk about your company’s journey, share in-depth expertise, and post listicles, recipes, and how-to videos. Longer videos work perfectly on platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube. 

The following suggestions can help get the most out of video marketing:

• First, create video content regularly, ensure it’s high quality, and offer value every second!
• Ensure you share a combination of promotional content alongside value-based video content to keep your audience engaged. A general rule is to follow the 80 – 20 principle, where 20% of the content is promotional, and 80% is value-based content.
• Remember to repurpose your video content across social media platforms. For example, you can create quick clips from longer videos and post them on Instagram and TikTok. Or you can break up a long-form video into a three-part series and share them on channels where shorter content works better. Then, continually tweak the content’s structure and flow instead of just posting clips you’ve cut out. 

3. Social Media

Social media is perhaps one of the most successful digital platforms you can leverage to promote your services or products today. Top social media platforms have an audience of about 5 million people, with millions visiting and interacting on these channels daily, making social media marketing one of the top sources of brand engagement.

For instance, about 200 million Instagram users visit a brand profile at least once daily, and 81% of these users learn about new products or services from businesses. Social media marketing is vital in every customer journey stage, from improving brand discovery to increasing brand awareness. Thus, having a strong social media presence is essential to your digital marketing approach. Also, social media marketing is inexpensive, making it crucial for smaller businesses and brands to find and create their niche quickly.

What makes social media so powerful is its ability to target consumers based on various categories. Social media channels leverage vast user data to help businesses connect with current and new audiences. You can choose your target audience based on their demographic, location, gender, age, and interests. 

These suggestions can help you make get the most out of your social media marketing strategy:

• Draft your offers to resonate with your target market. Some of your social media ads might be unsuccessful because of how you design them, and some will flop because the offer doesn’t resonate with your target customers. You can learn from these ads–and you may never know what works if you don’t experiment with various offers and ads. 
• Test your social media campaigns. After drafting your social media ads, test to see what works best for your target market.
• Ensure your landing pages deliver what your marketing campaigns promise. If you mislead your target audience or your landing page isn’t working, you may still get clicks on your ads–but your conversion rates will be low.
• Don’t just post ads; you also need to participate in conversations. Ads will attract new and prospective customers to your social media accounts, so ensure you remain active and position your brand as a leader in your industry. 

4. Email

Gartner reports that email is one of the most preferred brand communication channels, alongside direct mail and websites. Not only is email one of the most successful marketing mediums for communicating directly with consumers, but it also offers one of the highest ROI compared to other marketing channels. For example, email marketing has an ROI of 4400%, which means it generates $44 for every $1 spent. 

Further, over 333 billion emails are sent and received daily. That shows that consumers are already used to receiving communication through email. So, why not leverage successful email marketing tactics to grow your business?

Take advantage of these suggestions and best practices to reap maximum benefits out of your email marketing efforts:

• Segment your email lists to personalize your messages.
• Draft mobile-friendly emails. Use clear fonts and click-worthy call-to-actions, and keep your email copy and subject lines short. 
• Focus on building lasting relationships with your subscribers by sharing informative content, your company values, and stories.
• Re-engage inactive email subscribers. Leverage offers and high-quality content to capture their attention.
• Take advantage of A/B testing. Test your call-to-cations, subject lines, email layout, and copy.

It’ll take time to build a high-quality email list–so be patient! However, if you do it right, you’ll turn email into a successful marketing platform for your brand. Don’t forget that the most crucial thing is to ensure your emails are engaging and provide unique value.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of your chosen digital marketing platform, be cautious about how to use it. For example, if you market your products or services using emails, track what emails resonate with your target market. Also, monitor data and expand your marketing strategy for each digital marketing platform. Your digital marketing approach must be fluid and evolve based on what’s working and current market trends.