Little over a year ago, Tribal’s digital presence was limited. Social media was sporadic, our website wasn’t mobile optimised and the blog had no strategy attached to it.
Fast forward a year and we have completely changed the way we look at digital marketing. It is now at the forefront of our integrated campaigns and we are constantly trialling and testing to find the best ways to grab attention. We have changed the way we communicate to make sure our customers get what they need and we are more than prepared to keep learning as much as we can.
Our journey is still on-going, but we would like to share with you some of the lessons we have learnt along the way. The digital world is constantly changing and adapting, so there won’t be an answer to everything, but it is up to us to embrace that and go with the times. Platforms and trends will come and go – our focus is to bring you educational news and content, keep you informed and help make your jobs easier.
Success does not come overnight
If you are starting from scratch with your digital marketing plans and you start to post a lot in one go, you will more than likely see a leap in your stats. You might notice your impressions and views going up – but your engagements and interactions staying steady.
This is okay.
When you start off, it is to be expected that your audience won’t immediately start downloading/subscribing to your content. Maintain a regular social posting schedule and build a digital content calendar, over time you will start to see your conversions grow. The first stage in the marketing funnel is always awareness – your audience needs to know who you are, build up trust with your brand and then they will start to interact and engage.
Automation is key
Not enough time?
There are so many free automation tools out there to make digital marketing fuss free. Whether it is scheduling tweets, automatically sharing blogs to social media or setting up reports – you can automate almost anything. Setting up automation not only saves time – it enables you to step back and look at the bigger picture.
Our favourites are Buffer, IFTTT and HubSpot.
Read, read and then read more
Lots of people claim to be digital marketing experts – but digital is changing at such a fast pace that nobody can know everything. However, you can make sure you are keeping as up to date as possible to ensure you are spending your time on the right things. I like to put aside half an hour every Friday to catch up on industry blogs such as Buffer, HubSpot and Moz. There will always be new platforms, new social networks, new algorithms, the list could go on – but you need to decide what is right for your business, and stick with it.
Measure only what matters
It is a blessing and a curse that digital is the easiest area of marketing to measure.
With access to analytics for nearly every aspect of digital it is easy to get caught up in numbers that bear little or no meaning. These are known as vanity metrics – numbers that look good but have no impact on your objectives. With each campaign, make sure there are clear KPI’s and an overall aim – and set metrics against them. You might be thrilled that your blog post has generated 1000s of views – but if nobody has clicked on your call to action then this is not as valuable as you may have expected.
It’s okay to curate other people’s content
It can be difficult to fill up a day’s worth of social scheduling with purely your own content. Plus, who wants to read about somebody who posts about themselves all the time? Don’t be afraid to curate other people’s content on social media – especially if it is information that would be valuable or helpful to your followers.
At Tribal, we know that our audience are interested in the education sector and so we make sure our audience are kept in the know with the main education news by curating articles. Not only does this help us stand out as thought leaders in the education sector, it means that we are constantly keeping ourselves updated on the main issues by finding the content for you! We go by the 60/40 rule – 60% Tribal content, 40% curated.
We hope these tips are helpful when it comes to looking at your own digital marketing strategy.
