Questions and Answers

Traditional marketing revolves around print (newspaper and magazine), broadcast (radio and television), mail (flyers and brochures) and telemarketing (phone).

On the other hand, digital marketing uses digital platforms (search engines, websites, social media, e-mail, video games, television, mobile phones, etc.) to make your marketing goals come true.

Digital marketing includes so much! Here are a few of the most well-known components: search engines (SEO and SEM), content marketing (e.g. blog posts), social media (e.g. posts, ads, influencer marketing), display ads, mobile phones (e.g. SMS and MMS), and much more.

No. Digital marketing includes offline platforms (e.g. mobile phones) whereas online marketing focuses on online platforms (e.g. search engines, websites, social media).

Digital marketing can be inexpensive. If you opt for organic marketing as opposed to paid advertising, you will be able to reap rewards with little to no investment depending on your time availability and skills.

In some cases, yes. If your business is an online store, you do not need traditional marketing as much as, for example, the local takeaway.

Of course you can! If you have the time and the skills to do it, it may even be best for you to take care of your online presence.

However, if you can afford to hire professionals to do it for you, you will free some of your time to focus on other areas of your business while making sure your online presence is being managed by people who know what they are doing!

Start by nailing down your marketing strategy. When you have clear goals and an idea of the path you are going to follow, take care of your branding. Be clear on what your business stands for (mission, values) and how you want to portray it online (voice, visual identity). Your brand should be consistent throughout your online channels (website, social media, email)!

Tracking methods allow you to evaluate the performance of your digital marketing activities and adapt accordingly. They are useful but not essential. When your clients’ privacy is a priority we do not recommend tracking them.

It depends on the nature of your business. Some businesses do well with just social media but most benefit from a website. In addition to increasing your chances of being found through search engines, a website is also a place for you to direct those looking for more information about your products or services.

To put it very simply: copywriting is about the information on your website that sells your business and its products and services; content writing is about creating engaging content (like blog posts) that does not directly try to sell anything!

First step: ask them! You can ask your clients what they want to know about your products or services in person, by email or even on social media. There are also technological resources out there to help you (like Answer the Public and Twitter Trends) but I recommend asking your target audience first!

The right keywords are essential for a successful SEO campaign but SEO is about more than just choosing them! You need to create compelling and thorough copy or content that gives the searcher what they are looking for. You also need to make sure your website is properly formatted with all the right elements.

You can learn SEO from a plethora of online courses and other educational resources. You may also check search engine results and try to figure out how the top results conquered those positions. Tip: study from multiple sources.

Alt text is short for alternative text and is a written description of what is on an image. It is useful for both search engines and for accessibility!

You can also set it up easily on your website and most social media channels when you click to edit an image you uploaded.

Almost everyone is on social media these days. People connect on social media, look up their favourite people and businesses on social media, and even make purchase decisions on social media. You want to be on social media with your clients every day so that when it is time to buy they remember you.

Let us split these into two categories: general and industry-specific.

You probably already know the general social media platforms out there. These are the ones most people use and are not industry-specific. Examples of general platforms are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Mastodon.

Then you have industry-specific social media platforms that may be useful for your specific business but where you will not find the general public.

We recommend you to focus on the general or industry-focused social media platform you like the most first but make sure it suits your business and your brand. For example, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B businesses but not for most B2C businesses trying to find clients.

When you are comfortable on that first social media platform and feel ready to add a second one, go ahead and do that!

Short answer is: hire a social media manager!

Otherwise, I advise you to always create a content calendar with what you will post during the following month to make it easier to manage, and to limit the amount of time spent on social media by setting a timer whenever you log into your business’s account (for example, 20 minutes every morning)!

Sure! Engage with others and create a supportive community you can rely on. There are rumours it also helps with the algorithms...

We have written a full article on how to reply to reviews, but here are some general tips.

Start by gathering the facts and understanding the whole situation.

If it is a fake review, you can ask the platform to delete it.

If it is an honest review, put yourself in their shoes, think how you can help, and give an empathetic reply. Or ask your social media manager to do it for you!