Content Marketing & Social Media remain the king and queen of digital marketing strategy. It should come as no surprise that start-ups should focus their resources on developing custom and relevant content if they want to succeed online. However if Content is king, then Social Media is definitely queen. In fact, Social is one of the most cost effective ways start-ups can build their brands voice and start engaging with their target audience. So it's a great place to start. But a few tips for newbies to remember For their Digital Marketing Strategy:

The 3 main questions consumers ask when looking at a website

content marketing is a part of Digital Marketing Strategy

When a consumer first appears on your website, whether they know it or not, they will ask themselves three questions:
Where am I?
What should I do?
How should I do it?
If the website fails to answer these 3 questions then the user is more likely to bounce from the site. Google’s new algorithm will view this as proof of a site’s unsuitability and drop it down the Google rankings.

How long it takes to engage a website user

When a user first appears on your website it takes them all of 3.8 seconds to be engaged. If they are not satisfied by your site they will leave and search for a more interesting and valuable website. One of the key features a website has to portray is trust, if people don’t trust you they won’t use your site.

Not all Social Media Are Created Equal

Identify the social media platform most frequented by your target audience. There's no point focusing your efforts on Facebook if your target market is on Twitter. Do your research. Identify leaders, start following and engaging with them.

Post Regularly & Be Consistent

Start to post regularly. Content should be valuable and informative. Don't spam. The tone should be consistent across all social platforms. Best practice is that you shouldn't exceed the following: Facebook 5-10 posts/week | Twitter 5 tweets/day | LinkedIn 1 post/day

Tips to build a better mobile site

In 2013 eBay received over $2 billion in mobile sales alone. Well-built mobile sites are now critical for users. Top tips include;

• Design from the user’s perspective – cut the clutter, make sure the mobile site is clean and simple.
• Target the most popular user devices – you can’t have a perfect site for all mobile devices so make sure it’s optimized for the main 6 (Apple, Android etc.).
• Enhance user experience with mobile specific HTML – make sure it’s easy to use and that there’s a link to your desktop site in order to provide further information.
• Put usability first – design the perfect mobile site then look at the technological solutions to bring it to life.
• Think like a consumer – make sure you understand every piece of information about your customer, how they use your mobile site and in what context.

Fake fans

Santiago Swallow, or Kevin as he was known in the real world, set up a fake account and filled it with bogus claims about himself. This was an experiment to prove how easily you can be hoodwinked on social media.
If accounts suddenly appear overnight you should be wary, the influence measurement website Kred can identify if Twitter Profiles are legitimate. If you follow one of these fake profiles, it may lead to your details being sold on to a third party.

How to market your mobile presence to Digital Marketing Strategy

Make sure you know who your customers are inside and out, once you know this you can build a mobile site that fits their demographic perfectly. It’s important to get ahead of the game before your competitors do.

2015’s content marketing insight

Whilst 2014 was the year of personalisation, 2015 is predicted to be the year when content marketing grows up. If you can’t sum up your content within a tweet then you’re going to struggle. We don’t digest information like we used to and imagery is becoming more important to convey content. Make sure that content is viewable, shareable, actionable, memorable and mobile optimized.

Social Is NOT About You–It's About Your Customer

Don't use it for promotional purposes only. Share information that your customers will find engaging and valuable. It's about opening a dialogue with people.

Engage with Your Followers

It's a great way to interact with future (& current) customers. What are they saying? Listen first. Digital Marketing Strategy should be proper planed.

Don't Shy Away from Social Confrontations

Use it as a way to show your, hopefully excellent, customer service skills.

Don't Be Afraid to Mess Up

Your customer wants to know there's a human behind the brand. Be honest and open if you mess up. Simply consider it an opportunity to improve.

Identify what your USP is

Research and formulate one before you start embarking on content creation. Remember to avoid focusing on your features only -- you MUST SELL THE BENEFITS. This is the first mistake most start-ups make. Remember your customers want to know how your product/service will benefit them, not just a list of the feature-set!

Focus on SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should also be one of your top priorities to Digital Marketing Strategy as it's the most time consuming and can have a huge impact on the volume of organic traffic your website will receive. Make sure your website designer knows the SEO basics so there are no hurdles to the search engine crawlers accessing your content. This is critical for all new websites.

Optimize your internal Pages

content marketing

Leverage your Google Analytics data to determine the type of content your audience is most interested in, to ensure you create a more user-friendly experience. Continually add more content that's of most interest to your target market.

Share your content

Another Digital Marketing Strategy is Sharing your content to social media. Promote it on your social media profiles, email industry experts, post to LinkedIn groups and industry forums. The goal is to become a thought leader in your sector.

Tips to increase your email marketing

Many companies miss out on integrating social media and email marketing to generate new leads. After an eshot campaign make sure that you follow and tweet anyone who opened your emails, then give each of them an incentive to stay in touch with you. Connecting your eshots to Facebook also means that anyone who received it will have your advert added to their personalized ads.

Building the ultimate website

If you want to build the ultimate website you need to optimize your most used pages, so find out where visitors are landing and exiting. Create a Digital Marketing Strategy and priorities your action points, know your visitors and build a journey for them that’s easy to follow. Identify which pages are used most and build on that success. Start small, get the little things right and expand upon them when you’re ready. Finally, analyze through AB testing and compare your site with your competitors, as well as sites from different sectors.