How to Connect Digital Marketing Efforts with Sales Effectiveness

The realm of digital marketing is continuously evolving, equipping marketers for reaching out to their target audience in a hyper-targeted and cost-effective manner. One of the major factors that has made digital marketing the sweet spot for marketers is that it allows them to reach out to their target audience, no matter their location, in a matter of clicks. After all, the heart of any good marketing strategy is to go where your customers are. It’s all about being seen at the right place and the right time.

This right time, right place analogy in this digitised world today means having an effective online presence. With digital marketing, the central aim should be to position products and services in a way that the customer desires rather than is forced fed - so that the product or service sells itself.

Implementing this syncretic approach can enable organisations to connect digital marketing efforts with sales effectiveness by deploying targeted digital marketing campaigns to stoke the interest of their target audience. After all, if not resulting in output in the form of more revenue or ROI, then what good would be those invested efforts for?

There’s something which can be done to ensure that mismatch remains at bay and the digital marketing efforts reap the desired results. Let’s take a brief look into how this can be done but not before once peeking into the stakes which are there in case if you have doubts on Digital for your business.

If you’re a naysayer, what all you may miss out!

As per a Google B2B consumer insight survey, on average, B2B researchers do 12 searches prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site and almost 57% of the buying process is done prior to engaging with Sales. When this data is compared with the size of your market, you realise that by not implementing a digital marketing strategy and aligning it with sales, you are missing out on a fairly large pool of customers.

Let’s take a look inside some of the most effective digital marketing channels you can deploy to reach out to your target audience more effectively:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Going back to the above-mentioned stat, a large majority of customers look for online reviews or information before investing in a product or service. An effective SEO strategy will allow your product-centric content rank high in the search result, every time a customer uses a keyword related to your business. This will enable them to find out more about your product and make a decision. According to a Hubspot survey, 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing activity.

Social Media Marketing - According to ComScore, in 2017 B2B decision makers spent 760 hours a week on Facebook. Social media is a ready-made platform for you to inform and engage with your target audience in a cost-effective manner. An effective social media strategy goes a long way in generating interest for your product/service among your target audience.

Content Marketing - According to HubSpot, companies that blog 15 or more times in a month get 5 times more traffic on their website than companies that don’t. An effective content marketing strategy will not only enable you to generate leads but also allow customers to interact with your product at every step of the buying journey. HubSpot reported that 53% of marketers consider blogging to be their number one inbound marketing priority. (Source - State of Inbound Report - HubSpot - 2017)

Paid Marketing - Running paid ads on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook and running PPC and banner ad campaigns on the web is an effective way to inform your target audience about your product/service even if they are scattered far and wide. According to LinkedIn, PPC campaigns remain a more effective way to generate leads than social media paid campaigns. Another report by WordStream stated that 64.4% people click on a Google ad if they are looking to buy a product online.

Email Marketing - Email marketing remains one of the best and cost-effective method of reaching out to a vast set of audience. According to Campaign Monitor, in 2016, every $1 spent on an email marketing campaign generated an average of $38 in returns.

So, when it comes to increasing sales effectiveness, digital marketing as emerged as a vital tool in nudging your target audience in the right direction. Digital marketing campaigns enable businesses to reach out to a large audience using a targeted, hyper-focused approach. When implemented right, digital marketing campaigns result in creating meaningful relationships with your target audience, along with enabling your business to generate leads in a more cost-effective manner.

Like any marketing strategy, digital marketing requires time and constant attention to achieve the desired outcome. However, in this technology led world, digital marketing can be a real asset for your business, generating substantial returns on your investments.

Snehashish Bhattacharjee
Global CEO and Co-Founder, Denave