The difference is in the format that people discover you. Traditional marketing is across print and broadcast media such as magazines, newspapers, radio and television. Digital marketing refers to marketing that appears on digital media, such as social media and websites.
For many businesses, it is usually recommended that a brand strikes a balance between both traditional and digital marketing. But traditional marketing remains quite costly, and is therefore only a real option for large corporations or big brands trying to target a broad audience. Digital marketing offers flexibility and the chance to target a niche, local audience. That’s why for builders, digital marketing is essential.
The time it takes to see results from a marketing campaign is dependent on what’s called the product or service’s life cycle. For our builder clients, when a person decides to build or renovate their home it’s often one of the biggest investments they will make in their lifetime. Based on consumer research, this usually involves a six to nine-month decision-making process. Therefore, to best leverage and monetise this decision making process, we craft a marketing strategy that supports this sales funnel over a six to nine-month timeframe.
The brilliance of digital marketing is that everything is measurable, so we’re able to access specific and detailed metrics that tell us exactly what is working and what can be improved. Specific tools to monitor progress include Google Analytics, and Facebook and Instagram insights. While these tools provide instant data, a long-term approach is needed to build familiarity with your potential customers. And this is where brand marketing is designed to build brand awareness and essentially, bring you new business. The more times someone sees your brand and business, the more they get to know you and the more likely they are to build a relationship with you. And that’s how digital marketing and brand marketing partner together for the most efficient and effective results. Hence, digital marketing effectiveness can also be gleaned from an increase in social media followers, website traffic, database growth and enquiry rate.
This depends on what your objectives are, and what resource and expertise you have in-house to support your marketing strategy. There are two costs when it comes to your marketing plan. The first is the strategy and management of the campaign. The second is your media spend on a particular platform (eg. Facebook ad spend). After long-term analysis over multiple clients, we recommend a minimum spend of $2,500/month for our building clients, with some of our bigger builders spending up to $10,000/month.
A landing page refers to a standalone web page created specifically for a marketing campaign. Unlike a traditional company website, which may include information about a range of services or products on offer, a landing page focuses on a specific, frequently searched niche, and includes a clear call to action. For a building company, a landing page could be about downloading a free guide such as “Six things to consider before you renovate your home’ with the request of an email address in order to receive a free PDF brochure on the subject which helps build your database too.
An effective landing page includes:
- a single conversion goal
- a clear call to action
- a unique selling proposition
- smart and succinct language
- quality graphics and imagery.
At Sea Salt, we recommend offering free, educational brochures and PDF downloads on landing pages, to help your clients understand the building industry and what they can expect from their building experience. This is called an opt-in which is a great way to collect prospective client information while providing helpful information to foster a relationship.
When you decide to build a new website, the developer will ask you for both your domain and hosting. A domain name is your website addres and is connected to your email. So for us, our domain is www.seasaltmarketing.com.au. Hosting is an annual or monthly fee to keep your website and emails running, and we recommend using Ventra IP, an Australian based hosting services with great customer support.
This depends on who is responsible for the crash. It could be your website host or your website domain. First point of call is your web developer because they’ll be able to tell you what the issue is and direct you to the person who can assist to fix it. We recommend clients take out a monthly web maintenance package with their developer to help reduce these issues, with regular site updates and back-ups. It is worth the investment when something does go wrong.
An active presence on social media is essential to build your brand and business. It’s the best way to nurture your growing audience, keep connected with future and past clients, and provides a space where you can foster a unique personal and professional voice.
If you’re not active on social media, clients may turn elsewhere to businesses that maintain a more consistent presence. But if you post too much, audiences may feel overwhelmed and unfollow. Neither of these are good scenarios and you need to find a balance that works best for you and your audience.
As a builder, we suggest posting three times a week across all your social media accounts to keep your current and potential clients up to date and engaged with your exciting projects. People love to feel involved, and social media is a great way to share what you do with the audience you want to connect with.
Yes, a blog is an extremely versatile and effective marketing tool. A blog is a short, written piece of content intended for a digital audience. It’s usually about a specific topic with the aim to educate and nurture your online audience. At Sea Salt Marketing, we suggest our clients post one new blog a month to keep the content fresh and current.
A blog is one of the most important and versatile pieces of marketing content available to your business. Blogs can be used across your digital channels, including SEO support, social media, newsletter and email automations. Depending on the topic, your blog can also be used as a form of PR.
As with all sure things, there is no fast digital marketing solution to generate new leads. The best way to create substantial leads is by investing in a versatile and long-term marketing campaign. By building up brand awareness, you’ll generate leads through strategies that include landing pages, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, email marketing and opt-ins.
Facebook Ads and Google Ads have different benefits. Google is the biggest search engine in the world and can reach an unlimited number of people based on searches and keywords. Facebook ads, on the other hand, allows you to reach a more targeted and select audience.
When it comes to which is better, it really comes back to the marketing funnel and what your objective is. The marketing funnel is a model of the customer journey and begins with awareness and moves through the stages of consideration, conversion and loyalty. Both platforms has the ability to be optimised for each stage of the customer journey so it is best to talk to your marketing agency to see what the best mix of each of these platforms can be in your marketing strategy
In short, email marketing is incredibly effective. While it’s been around for a while, email marketing still garners excellent results. Recent studies show that for every dollar spent on crafting an effective email marketing campaign, there is a +3800% return on investment. But email marketing only works if you get it right. The components of a good quality email marketing campaign include enticing headlines, quality content, a smart schedule and using the latest in automation software.
Yes, video marketing is the best performing digital content, and can drive higher consumption and more meaningful engagement. For builders, we suggest creating video content that includes home walk-throughs, project progress and ‘how to’ vlogs. By turning your camera on the face behind the business, you create a more resonant and friendly relationship with your audience. Technology has progressed so much that a lot of the time, you can use your phone to film yourself or your projects. Our video partners are GLUE Content who work with our builders all over Australia
