8 Alternative Digital Marketing Strategies You Shouldn’t Overlook

Itamar Gero

4 years ago

Marketing strategies exist so individual brands can stand out. But in an era when many brands, including your competitors, have a strong online presence and are employing the same marketing techniques you use, standing out can be challenging.

Some tried-and-tested digital marketing techniques, such as marketing SEO services, content optimization, e-mail marketing, and outsourced web design for mobile compatibility, have proven success in brand building and recognition. Companies use them regularly to expand their reach.

The results of these techniques, however, may plateau over time, especially if your competitors are doing the same. If you want to elevate your digital marketing game and dominate the market entirely, it’s time to try these not-so-popular and often-overlooked strategies:

Developing a Buyer Persona
Investing in Original Research
Optimizing for Voice Search Technology
Launching a Native Advertising Campaign
Making Connections Through LinkedIn
Getting Traffic from Quora
Signing up for HARO
Marketing Through Videos

1. Developing a Buyer Persona

Let’s say you own a cosmetics company specializing in vegan, organic products. How will you start promoting your products? On which platform will you advertise them? What message and imagery will you use? You’ll be able to answer these questions easily if you develop your brand’s buyer persona.

In a nutshell, a buyer persona is a research-based profile of your target customers or audience. It describes their demographics, preferences, pain points, problems, and buying behavior. A buyer persona helps you get into the mindset of your customers and allows you to determine what they might want from your brand and what solutions you can provide.

With a buyer persona to back you up, you can create tailored marketing campaigns that appeal more to your target customers than just a generic marketing approach. You also save on marketing resources by spending more on people who will likely buy your products and services.

2. Investing in Original Research

When it comes to content optimization, one of the best practices is to update your content regularly. Freshness is one of Google’s ranking factors when it comes to content. So, even if your blog of two years ago talked about makeup trends at the time, it still has ranking potential if you updated it recently.

But what would you add to an already good blog post?

Experts suggest investing in your own research. You may commission a research and analytics group to conduct a survey on your behalf or do it yourself by sending your subscribers an e-mail with an easy-to-answer questionnaire. You can do it from your website before customers check out or while they’re browsing. Then, you can offer a discount code or a free item in return for answering the survey. Whatever way you want it done, you’ll be able to gather relevant data directly from the people who are interested in your products.

Going back to the cosmetics company example, you may run a survey on people’s preference for organic vs. non-organic cosmetics. Once you publish the results, you may generate links and collaborate with reputable websites and other blogs that are updating their content for link building initiatives. Not only will this lead to more traffic to your page, but it will also make your website more authoritative.

3. Optimizing for Voice Search Technology

At the Gartner Digital Marketing Conference in 2017, research leaders presented how voice search is seeing an ever-increasing share of search volume. They projected that “by 2020, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen,” thanks to voice search technology. Coupled with the fact that millions of households in the U.S. now have smart speakers, this prediction points to voice search becoming the future norm. Typing and tapping on keyboards and screens might soon be a thing of the past.

This means that as a part of your marketing efforts, you may have to optimize your content for voice search. The best practices for doing so include focusing on long-tail keywords and using natural voice instead of intellectual speak. The latter is more appropriate for written searches. Setting up a FAQ page is also an effective strategy because you’re presenting a question in the manner an internet user might ask it and providing an answer immediately.

4. Launching a Native Advertising Campaign

Have you seen the “you might also like” blog post links at the bottom of the articles you’re reading? Usually, these recommended posts are from the same website. However, you might have noticed some recommended articles that say another site sponsors them. These are native ads, and they’re a great way to drive traffic to specific blog posts without resorting to intrusive banner ads.

Native advertising is a paid method of marketing using ads that fit seamlessly into the layout of the website where they appear. Different industry insights show that:

70% of internet users prefer to discover goods or services through content than traditional ads
Native ads are more visually engaging than conventional display ads
Native ads registered 18% higher lift in purchase intent than display ads

However, only 26 percent of advertisers are spending on native advertising to reach their audience. Don’t be one of the 74 percent left behind. Start utilizing native ads by creating comprehensive campaigns that meet your goals for your business.

5. Making Connections Through LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a hub for professionals in different fields, where you can make meaningful connections. Through your LinkedIn profile, you can follow people who are relevant in your industry and publish posts sharing your expertise. Other LinkedIn users can also follow you and read your fresh and unique insights. You can raise awareness for your brand and products, generate leads, and gain visibility among people looking for what you offer through the content you post on LinkedIn.

Apart from LinkedIn, similar online communities, such as GrowthHackers and Medium, allow you to distribute your content to a broader audience, particularly those already interested in what you say.

6. Getting Traffic from Quora

Did you know that Quora has more than 300 million active users monthly? This number has made the straightforward question-and-answer website a popular marketing platform for many companies.

From users asking personal questions and answered by other users, you will now find people asking for product reviews and tips on Quora. This presents a huge marketing potential, particularly if you write engaging content that answers users’ questions concisely and insert relevant keywords that link to your site. Think of it as content marketing, except that you’re doing it on a social platform instead of your website’s blog section.

7. Signing up for HARO

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a website that “provides journalists with a robust database of sources for upcoming stories.” In turn, the sources can ‘secure valuable media coverage.” Used by some of the top media outlets, including Reuters, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal, HARO is beneficial for both marketers and reporters.

Since journalists are always looking for relevant research data and subject matter experts to interview for the stories they’re cooking up, this site is precious. Journalists—and marketers—can get as much information here as they need without combing through Google and getting blocked by paywalls. On the flip side, the site provides industry experts the chance to share their insights with a reputable media outlet, giving their brand exposure.

HARO is free. After registering on the site and establishing your expertise, you will soon start receiving source requests. When there’s a topic related to your area of expertise, write a valuable answer, send it, and wait for a journalist to reach out. If a journalist quotes you, they will likely mention your position, expertise, and brand in their story, and you may get a link back to your website.

Remember the original research we mentioned earlier? HARO can be your PR opportunity to raise awareness of the study you did. And once it gets picked up by a journalist and published online, the more likely it is that other journalists will link back to you if they cover a similar topic. In this way, HARO is similar to answering questions on Quora or sharing your insights on LinkedIn. The difference is HARO takes much less time, and you can expect more significant results. Just remember that, to make the most out of HARO for digital marketing, you need to respond often and offer something with value.

8. Marketing Through Videos

The relevance and effectiveness of video marketing cannot be overstated. Wyzowl, a company that creates explainer videos for brands, shared the following statistics based on their survey regarding video marketing:

79% of marketers report success in using videos for marketing
92% of businesses that use video say it’s an integral part of their marketing strategy
87% of companies that use video marketing say this strategy increased traffic to their website
89% of video marketers state that videos give them a good return on investment

These numbers show that using video is an effective marketing strategy. With behind-the-scenes footages, testimonials, and explainer videos, your audience learns more about your brand. As a result, they trust you better, making them more likely to purchase your products or services.

Today, 85 percent of brands are using video marketing. The ones that don’t find it expensive or too complicated. Thanks to social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube, engaging video content is easy to create and share. The popularity of video and its relevance in marketing are only going to grow further. You wouldn’t want to miss out, so now is an excellent time to get in on the action.

Keep in mind that innovation is essential to the success of a business. So although you can stick to traditional digital marketing strategies to get the results you want, you’ll find these innovative methods worth your while to try. You might even enjoy it.