Digital Marketing Skills

How to Reach Your Target Audience: 4 Simple Marketing Tips

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Two hands typing on a laptop, creating a blog post on the screen.

As Digital Marketers, one of our most important jobs is to communicate information to a wide range of audiences over various platforms. However, sending out the right message can be a challenge if we do not understand our customers and their interests enough.

The information below provides 4 easy digital marketing practices that can help you establish the ‘art of communication’ in your work and directly reach your audience!

1. Keep it simple: create a clear message

Before we begin to share content with our audience, we first need to make sure that there is a clear intention behind our business message, whether we are selling a product or encouraging people to sign up to a service. 

Mixed messages with too many ‘call to actions’ (CTAs) will leave customers confused, and in some cases contribute to a higher bounce rate from your content. You will be less likely to reach your audience without a clear, memorable sentiment.

Firstly ask yourself, am I trying to ‘Push’ my audience to act on/buy something, or do I want to ‘Pull’ my audience in to become loyal customers of the brand? This is otherwise known as Push vs. Pull Marketing. 

Next, and most importantly, define the value that you are providing customers with. How does the product/service benefit them, or solve a pain point they have? 

Remember that people don’t want to be bored by irrelevant information. The Simplicity Index tells us that 55% of consumers would pay more for an uncomplicated experience, while 64% would recommend a brand to others because of this. Therefore, ‘cut to the chase’ and focus on what people want/need from your brand.

Finally, you need to establish ‘how’ you want your audience to engage with you. Create a simple and easy Call To Action (CTA) that you want your prospective customers to follow (e.g. hyperlinked buttons such as ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’ or ‘Visit our store’). Read more about how to create CTAs here.

2. Research and refine your audience

Now that you have a direct message that you are ready to share, it is time to remind yourself of who your audience really are. The idea of conducting market research can sound intimidating, but in reality, this simply means getting to know your audience better. 

To make this as simple as possible, you can segment your audience into 4 categories: Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic, and Behavioural. Answer the questions below to do so.  

  • Geographic – Where do they live? What language do they speak? Are there any cultural implications for the way you communicate with them?
  • Demographic – What gender, age and status are they? Does this affect which media they use? (e.g. Gen Z are less likely to be reachable on Facebook; workers are more likely to use LinkedIn)
  • Psychographic – What are they interested in, and what do they believe? How does this relate to the brand/product/service you are promoting?
  • Behavioral – What is the typical online behavior for someone in your audience, and where are they most likely to buy from/engage with an online brand? Where do they sit on the Customer Lifecycle?
A chart comparing the five different stages of the customer lifecycle
The Customer Lifecycle

Having researched the answers to these questions, you can now build a ‘Consumer Persona’; an imaginary customer that represents the members of your target audience. 

When communicating to your audience, imagine that you are speaking directly to this person (or people if you create more than one); Do they prefer to use professional or colloquial language? Do they understand the terms you are using? Make sure to write in a way that is accessible, so that they can relate to and trust your brand. 

3. Set the right tone for your audience

In order to communicate effectively, we need to adapt our style and tone of voice. 

We do this all the time – think about the way you would speak with your close friend, and compare this with how you might talk to your employer. No doubt this is very different! When sending our business message to the target audience, we need to do this on a larger scale. 

Start by evaluating your method of communication, and how information is usually transmitted this way. For example, you can read our blog post which explains the best practices of communication within Email Marketing, or alternatively learn about social media interaction here. 

You can also research your competitors; look for patterns in the way they write content, including the structure and length of their campaigns. This should help to give you a better idea of what is appropriate for the platform in question. 

Different channels will generally use specific tones of voice; LinkedIn accounts tend to use professional formal language, while businesses on Tiktok will use a more casual, relaxed style of content.

In any case, following these main rules should help you reach your audience efficiently:

  • Be consistent – don’t contradict the other content posted by the brand
  • Be authentic – reflect your brand with honesty and integrity to gain trust from your audience. Show a genuine interest in them and be sensitive when doing so.
  • Stay interesting – while you may need to adapt your tone for a certain channel, don’t forget that appropriately promoting value to your customers is the most important part, not copying your competitors!

4. Get to the point with an informative headline

David Ogilvy, known as the ‘Father of Advertising’ once said this:

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

– David Ogilvy

Similarly, studies suggest that only 2 out of 10 people will actually read your content; the other 80% only read the headline. 

Evidently, your headline is the most important factor in digitally communicating with your audience, whether it is an email subject line or an article title. 

Therefore, make sure your point is clear and appeals to your target audience; in a busy digital world, your post, email, or article needs to sound worth your viewer’s time. 

Ask yourself: does my audience already know what info they would find from this headline, or does it make them want to learn more? Is this topic generic to the industry, or is it specific to my brand and my audience’s needs?

The use of long-tail keywords can help communicate the topic better to your audience, and appeal to their specific needs and wants. 

A great way to create a unique headline is to use an analyser, which can estimate how successful your headline will be in terms of readability. A personal favourite of mine is CoSchedule’s analysis tool, which breaks down your draft word by word, and offers creative solutions to improve the headline’s score. 

Screenshot of an analysis tool which suggests how to create a headline that reaches a wider audience.
CoSchedule’s Headline Studio in practice

This tool also offers an analysis on the SEO ranking of your headline, which is important in getting a high SERP position if you are writing web content – another significant way to reach your target audience! 

‘Reaching your audience’ in a nutshell

In conclusion, we have discussed 4 key points that will help you clearly communicate your message to reach your audience. If you follow these steps, you will see an improvement in the success of your campaigns and attract the right kind of customers. 

Next time you plan to send out a message to your audience, remember to:

  1. Have a clear message that directly offers value to the viewer
  2. Ensure you understand your audience well; know when and where they consume information online
  3. Use an effective and appropriate tone of voice, taking the channel and audience into consideration 
  4. Optimise your headlines to get your point across

Reach Out to us!

Over the coming weeks, make sure to check apprenticetips.com for more Digital Marketing tips, as we will be covering some of the topics mentioned in more detail!  

Otherwise, please reach out to us if you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to learn more, by filling out the form below:

Find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for regular updates, or subscribe to our newsletter!

– ApprenticeTips Team

How to use social media trends to your advantage

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Social media has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes and industries. Not only can it be used to connect with customers and promote products or services, but it can also provide valuable insights into industry trends and consumer behavior. By keeping an eye on social media trends, businesses can improve their marketing strategies, product development, and overall operations.

a mobile phone screen with various social media apps
New trends can be found across all social media

Where to start

One way that businesses can use social media trends to improve their operations is by monitoring customer sentiment. Social media platforms provide an unprecedented level of access to customer feedback, and businesses can use this data to gain insights into what their customers are saying about their products or services. By monitoring sentiment on social media platforms, businesses can identify areas where they need to improve and make changes accordingly.

Another way that businesses can use social media trends to improve their operations is by identifying new opportunities. Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and new features and functionalities are added regularly. By keeping an eye on new developments, businesses can identify new opportunities to reach their target audience or improve their products or services. For example, the rise of video content on social media platforms has led to an increase in the use of video in marketing campaigns, which can be a powerful way to reach and engage with customers.

Social media trends can also be used to improve business marketing strategies. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are all popular among younger audiences, and businesses can use these platforms to reach these audiences with targeted marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media analytics tools can be used to track the performance of marketing campaigns and identify which strategies are most effective.

Stay up to date

hand pointing with pen to social media analytics page
Social media analytics

Businesses can also use social media trends to improve their products and services. By monitoring conversations on social media platforms, businesses can identify areas where their products or services are falling short or where there is a gap in the market. This information can then be used to inform product development or to identify opportunities to expand into new markets.

Social media trends can also be used to improve customer service. Many customers now turn to social media platforms to voice their complaints or ask for help. By monitoring social media platforms, businesses can identify issues and respond to them quickly, preventing negative sentiment from spreading.

Always keep monitoring your platforms

However, it is important to keep in mind that social media trends are constantly evolving, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Businesses need to be proactive in monitoring and adapting to these trends in order to stay ahead of the curve. This requires dedicating resources to social media monitoring, such as hiring a social media specialist or investing in analytics tools.

In conclusion, social media trends can be a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve their operations, marketing strategies, products, and services. By keeping an eye on social media trends, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer sentiment, identify new opportunities, and make data-driven decisions. However, businesses need to be proactive in monitoring and adapting to these trends in order to stay ahead of the curve. With the right approach, social media can be an invaluable resource for businesses looking to improve their bottom line.

Head to ApprentceTips.com to find more useful articles, and apply to our level 3 marketing apprenticeship to kick start your career.

The Future Of Digital Marketing Technology: How To Grow With It

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Photo Of People Using Laptops

In a world where technology is constantly growing and evolving you can be at the centre of it all. Design, build and implement campaigns across a variety of platforms. Develop skills, learn new technologies and explore the Metaverse with a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship.

Digital Marketing Technologies 

Marketers who adapt to newer technologies are able to personalise, engage, and connect with their audience. Developments in system technologies help marketers become better at targeting and predicting the behaviours of their industries consumers. During your apprenticeship you will be recommended technologies to learn and understand. Applying effective secure and appropriate solutions whilst using a wide variety of platforms and user interfaces to achieve marketing objectives. Interfaces mean by which the user and computer system interact. In accordance with the occupational brief the apprentice will be able to demonstrate the use of three digital technology tools over three different platforms or user interfaces to meet objectives.

Examples technologies and tool:

  • Social Media – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc. As well as social media management tools. Examples include Sprout, Hootsuite and Later.
  • Design Tools – Creating content for advertising using platforms such as Canva, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
  • Email Marketing Tools – Using written communication skills in the form of newsletters to encourage brand engagement. Common tools include Mailchimp, Sender and Iterable.

The Importance Of Research 

Market research goes hand in hand with digital marketing. Gathering consumer preferences, identifying trends, brand research and social listening. This can help your business eliminate the risk of targeting the wrong audience. This can save your company thousands of pounds when creating paid advertisements. During your apprenticeship you will take and interpret given topics both short and long term and make recommendations and report on the summary of findings to create a strategy. Throughout you will be conducting research sometimes without even realising you are! You will develop technical understanding of the following principles:

  • Search Marketing
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
  • Metrics
  • Pay-Per-Click

Analysing Data

Digital analytics measures and evaluates the success of digital marketing activities. You will analyse digital data from various sources like websites, mobile apps, and social media to provide a vision of how customers are behaving in relation to your company. Through analytics you will obtain an insight into the areas where there may need to be improvement. In line with the occupational brief the apprentice must be able to analyse data and create reports by selecting three appropriate tools. This can include:

  • Website Data – this identifies who is coming to the company’s site and their activity while they’re there. This can be obtained through Google analytics. Google analytics lets you explore your audience such as demographics, location, retention, and the device in which the user searched on.
  • Social Media analytics – Data gathered from social channels measures the performance of actioned based decisions through social media. Companies with business accounts have access to information such as accounts reached, accounts engaged, impressions and profile activity. Tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout and Later can also be used to gather data.
A Group of People Discussing Charts

Digital Marketer Assessment

Technical knowledge and understanding are formally assessed at relevant times during your apprenticeship. The EPA (End Point Assessment) includes an assessment of all requirements of the standard. The following assessment methods are summative portfolio, synoptic project, employer reference and an interview. This displays all the knowledge, behaviours, and technical competencies you have learnt through your apprenticeship. 

Conclusion

As you can see, the Level 3 Digital Marketer apprenticeship includes various technical aspects. With technology constantly evolving it has the power to predict your consumer’s next move. I hope this blog gives you an insight into the technologies you will learn during the apprenticeship including analytics, research, and social media tools.  

My Top Tips for completing “Implementation Competency” in L3 Digital Marketing

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Digital Marketing Featured Image

Image Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/brandspot/pr-spot/the-post-pandemic-rise-of-digital-marketing-in-india-1154645.html

Have you just started your summative portfolio and/or are you struggling to process how to complete the “Implementation” Competency? Well you have come to the right place! As this blog post will cover one of the many competencies you will need to complete within your Digital Marketing (DM) Summative Portfolio.

What is the ‘Implementation’ Competency & Summative Portfolio?

The summative portfolio is a document that holds all your evidence of projects you have completed within the duration of your apprenticeship at work. It is recommended to start working on your portfolio as soon as you obtain your occupational brief in order to make your workload more manageable. You should also absorb any information and try to take part in many projects as you can to gather more evidence for your portfolio to write about, the more the merrier – from here you can choose which projects you believe are your best projects to present.

In your Summative Portfolio you are aiming to complete all competencies in order to get ready for Gateway. We will be going through one of the competencies today which is ‘Implementation’ Competency as I would like to show others how this competency is actually far more manageable and easier once you understand how to complete it to the best you can.

Why do I need to do the Implementation Competency?

In order to complete your L3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, you will need to complete main things which are:

  • Summative portfolio – You will need to aim and complete all competencies from the occupational brief. (We will be going through one of the competencies out of all to help you kick start your portfolio)
  • Exams – Complete all required examinations within the apprenticeship.
  • Synoptic Project – Choose either Project A or Project B to do (this will take place once you go through your gateway)
  • Employer Reference – A reference document that your employer completes to refer back to your portfolio work to show you have completed all competencies successfully.
  • End-Point Assessment Interview – this is where you will showcase your portfolio and synoptic project mainly and be assessed on this.  

Tips on understanding how to complete the ‘Implementation’ Competency

I was one of many apprentices who struggled to tick off the competency ‘Implementation’. You need to aim to hit the Pass criteria minimum in the occupational brief. In order to achieve the Pass criteria for this competency, “To meet this competency the apprentice will need to build and implement campaigns across at least 3 different digital media, including social media platforms.” Remember they must be all different types of Implementation so avoid doing the same extra implementation that won’t count as another since you already showcased it. For example three different pay per click platforms (e.g. Google Ads PPC, Amazon PPC, Facebook Ads) would not be three different digital media.

Out of the options below, you will choose three different ones and showcase a project about each of the three different types you chose:

  • Email – Email marketing campaign
  • Social – Organic Social Campaign
  • Affiliate – Affiliate marketing
  • Mobile Apps – Mobile app development
  • PPC – Google Ads PPC, Facebook Ads
  • Display – Google Ads, display/video
  • SEO – Off Page SEO, On Page SEO (technical)

These may come across as if they are a lot of options to take in but we will go through a few steps/tips I used for my own personal experience in ensuring I managed this workload correctly.

Tip 1 – Creating a plan

I know it is easy to say to create a plan however for each individual it differs how one may choose to plan their schedule and work out. I used a project management tool called Asana on my laptop to maintain all my work on and easily edit and add to whenever and wherever I wanted to; that too all online. Asana is a great tool to use to manage your tasks, projects, you are even able to collaborate with others on a task and are easily able to keep them updated with a simple click.

Asana Product Guide Screenshot

Image Source: https://asana.com/guide/help/projects/templates

Furthermore, it is very vital for you to plan out any project you’re doing beforehand and ensuring you are keeping both your coach and line manager up-to-date with the work you will do. This is because this will allow your coach and line manager to begin helping you with job shadowing, understanding how to portray your project, what screenshots you will need to showcase within your portfolio. Having a simple online tool or a notebook to utilise is great as it will act almost like a checklist and evidence of proof-reading your work before submitting it. Another useful tip when writing up your projects in your portfolio use the STAR framework.

Tip 2 – Aligning with the team

Understand which implementation projects you are able to have responsibility for and align this work with your line manager/colleagues who are able to provide you with a job responsibility for that specific implementation. For example for SEO, you could choose to do SEO On Page where it will require you to work with someone in your team who works in SEO and Analytics team and you are able to go through what tools (SEMRush) they use to do a free site audit check, etc. Make sure you ask for an email outline of what will be needed from your presence within the project and ensure you are aligned with required colleagues for this project such as arranging time together. This can be done with using a conference technology tool such as Google Meets.

Tip 3 – Having a back – to – back responsibility

It is required that you showcase evidence of the whole process of the project. There may be in some projects you do not have all responsibility in however you showing that you was involved throughout the process by capturing screenshots of the whole process; as you will be presenting all these screenshots with annotations within your portfolio to create a step – by – step process. Or you can place all screenshots in chronological order then come back later to write up in further detail.

Tip 4 – STAR Framework

Another useful tip when writing up your projects in your portfolio, use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

Tip 5 – Saving/Uploading your Work

Ensure all your work is organised such as using Google Drive to save/upload your work on and using folders in your drive to neatly organise everything. Like this you will easily label your work and find it much easily.

Always save your work elsewhere too as a backup. For example, I saved all my stuff on Google Drive mainly but I always also saved it on my USB stick just in case the Google servers may be down thus I can’t access my Google Drive however, I can access my personal USB stick and haven’t lost any of my work as a result.

Conclusion

I hope you found this blog post useful! If you have any questions or comments please reply below this post and I will try my utmost best to help where I can. Explore our other blogs written by apprentices here.

Learn more: LinkedIn , Twitter

Digital Marketing and Influencers

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Digital Marketing through Influencers is a form of social media marketing. Companies use influencers for product placement and endorsement. It works because of the connection and trust between the person and their followers. But where did it start, what’s the true value of it and where is it heading?

Influencers in Digital Marketing Origins

Influencers really started around 2009, with the likes of PewDiePie, Alfie Deyes and Zoella. Hobbies with engaging content attracted fans and followers, which in turn gave them status as industry leaders, and therefore, influencers.

Instagram started in 2010 which really started the influencer craze. Here, posts were image and video lead which enabled them to reach larger audiences than ever before.

By the mid-2010’s, the statistics showed the real power influencers had over opinions and buying habits.

  • 40% of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer on Instagram, Twitter, Vine, or YouTube (2016)
  • 74% of people turn to social networks for guidance on purchase decisions. (2014)
  • Twitter users report a 5.2X increase in purchase intent when exposed to promotional content from influencers. (2016)
  • Among teens, YouTube stars are perceived as 17X more engaging and 11X more extraordinary than mainstream stars. (2015)

The global pandemic saw an even bigger rise in influencer marketing as social media consumption boomed. So, with all these amazing statistics up until today, where do influencers take digital marketing in 2023?

Influencers and Digital Marketing

Trends for Influencers in Digital Marketing in 2023

With the influencer industry predicted to be worth $24.1bn by 2025, these are the trends that are likely to get us there:

  • Longer content is going to be ok! TikTok saw a trend of short content going viral, however, they have since raised the video length to 10 minutes proving that there is room for both types of content
  • Smaller creators will be given the chance to shine. For businesses, it makes sense to partner with influencers with huge followings. However, there is now a trend for micro and nano influencers to be used. These influencers engage more personally with their audience, which is a great thing.
  • Niche creators are becoming more widespread. This is great news as there’s always an option for someone to fit what you want as a business.
  • Being real is becoming more popular. You’re going to be seeing fewer filters and seeing more off-the-cuff content.
  • Live shopping has become big in China, so you can expect to be seeing more influencers taking you out shopping with them.
  • Brands are collaborating on products with influencers too. As the influencer gains name recognition, it only makes sense to use it with the products.

Conclusion

In conclusion, using influencers as a form of digital marketing has come a long way. It will continue to be a valuable tool for brands looking to reach targeted audiences and generate buzz. Furthermore, brands can drive amazing results by using authentic influencers. In partnering with influencers who have large and engaged followings, brands can reach new audiences and drive traffic to their own channels which is essential.

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3 Ways to Keep Up with Marketing Trends

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Header image reading “3 Ways to Keep Up with Marketing Trends”

Interest in the world of Digital Marketing is growing, and as a Digital Marketing Apprentice, you will be expected to interpret and follow the latest developments in technologies and trends. Staying at the forefront of the developments in your industry will be vital for your business. It will also help you to be at your creative best when contributing ideas to marketing strategies for campaigns. Not to mention, it’s one of the key skills you’ll need to be able to demonstrate as part of your apprenticeship. But, with so much information out there nowadays, where’s the best place to start?

Dedicate Time to Reading / Listening to Your Favourite Publications

How you decide to organise your time is up to you. However, as someone who has also completed a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, dedicating fifteen minutes each morning to reading an article from a marketing magazine or listening to a podcast really helped me broaden my knowledge. Some of the publications I enjoyed for staying up to date with current trends were Marketing Week, The Drum, and the Shopify Masters podcast.

If you’re specifically looking for UK-based publications, these include:

Although, if your role involves looking after territories beyond the UK, such as EMEA or the US, I highly encourage you to explore some of the publications dedicated to serving those areas.

Attend Industry Events

You might be lucky enough to have this one sorted for you by your employer. Whether it’s listening talks from industry professionals; going to workshops or seminars held by your company’s partners; or getting to attend industry festivals; there’s a wealth of opportunities out there for you to improve your marketing knowledge.

As someone who’s in the early stages of their career, you’re more likely to have time dedicated to your personal development. Therefore, you’ll have more time to explore events like these. They are a great way to get under the skin of the marketing industry as well as potentially contribute towards some of the Off-The-Job time that you need to log as a Digital Marketing Apprentice. Not to mention, it’s a great way to get networking outside of your organisation.

There is no better way to interrogate the methods of your competitors than listening to them talk about their own marketing strategies. If you don’t like the idea of going to in-person events, then Figaro Digital host some really insightful virtual seminars.

A bright office meeting room. A group of people sitting around a board room table with smiles on their faces.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Encourage Knowledge-Sharing Sessions Within Your Organisation

It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in your day-to-day work and the work of your team. In fact, sometimes we’re so focused on what we’re working on as individuals that we might not even know what other people in your team are working on.

Suggest to your Line Manager that you’d like to carve out 5 minutes of a team meeting to discuss campaigns that the team have seen and enjoyed this week; or things people have read that they found interesting. It can operate as an open forum or people can come with pre-organised topics. It’s up to you decide which format best works for your team. You might be surprised at some of the ideas sparked by simply talking about things. Bring on the brilliant campaigns of the future!

If you work in a department that does a lot of testing, why not set up a forum to share your work with the wider business. Or if you get an invite to a presentation being held by another team, go! You never know what nugget of knowledge another team might have. And it’s very likely that it could lead to the breakthrough you’ve been looking for, for your own strategy or creative brief.

These are just some of the ways that you can make staying on top of marketing trends easier for yourself as you go through your Digital Marketing apprenticeship. Give these tips a try and see what else you can find along the way.  

Digital Marketing Metrics You Should Focus On

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Digital marketing metrics are one of the most important aspects of your digital marketing strategy. It’s necessary to have a good understanding of how your digital campaigns are performing in order to improve them. This will also help you compete effectively among competitions. In this article, we’ll go over some of the key digital marketing metrics that marketers need to track. By the end, you should have a better understanding about which metrics matter most and how best to use them in order to achieve your goals!

Finding the right digital marketing metrics to track the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts is key

Tracking your digital marketing efforts helps you identify what type of content resonates with customers and highlights areas for improvement.

It’s important to understand that ‘success’ will look different depending on what type of business you have and what goals you set at the beginning of a campaign. For example, if one goal is to increase sales by 10% over a period, it’s important that you measure the results in terms of increased sales rather than just clicks, views or impressions – even though these may be useful as secondary measures.

Before starting any work on creating ads/content etc, the first step involves defining an objective or goal for each campaign. This will help you understand which metrics are important. It can also determine how much money should be spent on each channel, streamlining what needs improving during future campaigns.

Reach

Reach is the number of people who saw your content. It’s a great metric to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts because it shows you how many people viewed or interacted with your message.

Page Views

Page views are a good indicator of how many times your content has been seen. It is tracked in two ways: by unique visitors and total visits. The first includes only the number of people who see a page on your site, while the second takes into account all of their visits to any page on that site—including multiple visits by a single person.

The best way to measure page view growth is through an analytics tool like Google Analytics that allows you to compare metrics over time. This will give you insight into whether or not your content is gaining traction with users, which will help you determine whether or not more resources need to be devoted toward its production and promotion.

Unique Visitors

Unique visitors refers to the total number of people who have visited your website in a given time period. This is useful for understanding how many people have seen your content, which can be good for measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns. Long dwell time measures how long visitors stay on your website before leaving again, and it’s helpful because it shows you how engaged they are with what they see on your site.

Time Spent On Site & Pages Per Visit

Time on site and pages per visit are important metrics because they show if your audience is engaged. A high time on site and pages per visit indicates that audiences are engaging with your content and staying on your site longer – this means they’re finding your content useful and interesting.

If you see a drop in these metrics, it could mean that something’s off-kilter: visitors aren’t finding what they want on the page or they don’t like the look of it (and therefore aren’t sticking around). If this happens to be an issue with design or usability, take steps to fix it as soon as possible.

man using laptop for digital marketing metrics

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the average amount you spend to acquire a new customer. It’s important because it helps you understand how much money you are spending to acquire a customer and whether this is sustainable over the long term.

To calculate Cost per acquisition (CPA), you divide the total cost of acquiring customers by the number of customers acquired: $10,000/1000 = $10.

CPA = Total Cost of Acquiring Customers / Number of Customers Acquired

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks on a link or button divided by the number of times it was displayed. The higher your click-through rate, the more likely people are to click on your links. CTR is a measure of how enticing your content is to visitors, so it’s important that you understand what influences this number and adjust accordingly. For example, if you notice that one particular page has a low CTR compared with others, take a look at why: does it include too many ads? Is it hard to navigate? Are there technical issues preventing users from accessing it?

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits to a website. It’s a measure of how many visitors to your website leave without continuing on to another page.

Bounce rate is a good indicator of whether your content is engaging enough to keep visitors on your site and it can help you improve the conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your website).

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click (CPC), also known as the “click-through rate,” is the amount you pay for each click on your ad. It’s a great metric to track if you’re paying for clicks, but not so good if you’re not.

For example, it may be tempting to track the CPC of an ad that has a low click-through rate because it means fewer people are seeing it, but this can be deceiving: if the advertiser is paying $1 per 2 clicks, then the cost per view is really high!

Downloads

Downloads are a great way to measure the success of your content marketing efforts. If you have a website or mobile app, downloads can be downloaded from either location. The number of times your content has been accessed is measured by the download.

Downloads can help you determine if there’s interest in what you’re offering, but don’t get too caught up in this. Downloads don’t necessarily translate into sales or leads right away, and they may not translate at all! So make sure that you’re tracking other key metrics like clickthrough rate (CTR), engagement rate and bounce rate so that you know where improvements need to be made before making any changes based only on downloads alone.

Email Open Rate

Email open rate is the percentage of email subscribers who opens an email out of the total number of subscribers. They are a great indicator of how many people are seeing your email. However, they aren’t always the best metric because they can vary based on a number of factors:

  • Your list is small or large
  • The subject line and content of the email were compelling enough for people to want to open it and read more (or not)
  • Do you have a footer that encourages clickthroughs? If so, this can improve clickthrough rates as well.

Email Unsubscribes

It would be great if every customer loved your emails and read each one immediately! Unfortunately, this is not the case. There are several reasons why a customer might unsubscribe from your email list:

  • No longer interested in your offering or product
  • You send too many emails
  • Their inbox is overcrowded

Likes, Comments, Shares

Social media engagement metrics are a good way to measure the success of your social media marketing efforts. The more people who like, comment or share your posts, the more successful you’ll be at engaging with them and encouraging them to take action in the future.

People using smartphones to like, comment and share on social media

Focus on the digital marketing metrics that are most relevant to your goals and can directly impact your bottom line

It’s important to understand which digital marketing metrics are most relevant to your goals and can directly impact your bottom line. These metrics should be actionable so that you know what actions to take in order to improve the performance of you digital marketing campaigns.

It’s important that these metrics are consistent so you can compare them over time to find trends and patterns.

Remember, these are just some of the key metrics that digital marketers should be tracking. There are many more out there, but these should get you started with a solid foundation.

Are you interested in digital marketing? Find out what why you should pursue a digital marketing apprenticeship

How to start a career in digital marketing without a university degree

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Apprentice completing level 3 digital marketing course

Looking for a career in digital marketing, but university isn’t for you? Well look no further. You can apply for a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship with no previous experience.

All you need is an understanding of the digital world and its platforms to start your progressive marketing career. Keep reading for some of our top ApprenticeTips…

The primary role of a digital marketing course is to define, design, build and implement digital campaigns across a variety of online and social media platforms. Maybe this sounds like a lot of knowledge needed, but these are all things you can learn as part of your digital marketing course, whilst being paid! The benefit of a Level 3 apprenticeship is that you are able to learn about marketing, whilst you earn a full time wage, with further opportunities to progress into a career after. No university debt and all the knowledge to drive customer acquisition, engagement and retention. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

As a marketeer you usually work as part of a team, reporting to a digital marketing manager, a marketing manager or an IT Manager (all roles you could easily develop into!). However, working as a team means you need to be able to work strategically amongst your colleagues and communicate effectively when using digital channels…

A business person receiving digital marketing engagement from various marketing services

In order to produce engaging digital content and hit company goals – whether that’s earning acquisitions (sales), increasing engagements (likes, shares and comments), or gaining customer retention (a community or returning customers who buy multiple of your products) – you need an awareness of social selling. Here are some skills you might already have by using your own social media platforms and previous experience at work or school:

  • Understanding different types of audiences in relation to the company and brand you work for… What platforms does the company engage with? How can you utilise those shares, likes and comments? Maybe you’ve used Instagram to share your personal pictures. Have you ever noticed where those likes were directed from your followers’ news feeds, stories, or explore pages for example? This is similar to how customers can engage with a website from multiple sources – social media platforms, email newsletters, or search results to name a few.
  • What’s the brand’s tone? This is the overarching voice that the company uses to communicate their product and services… Maybe you’ve worked in a bank before or a high end fashion store – you communicate with those customers in a tone that you wouldn’t necessarily use with your friends or family. This applies to marketing. For example, you join as the digital marketing apprentice at an indie, jewellery company, targeting GenZ’s, therefore slang and text talk might be welcome in order for the company to relate to their younger audience.
  • Even within a company, the ‘manners’ might change depending on what platform you’re using. What might be an informative and formal brand, might become warmer and more personable via social media queries so that the customers are able to connect with a person and not an automated response, helping new and existing customers see the brand in a positive light.
  • Now the problem solving comes in… As a digital marketing apprentice you need to be able to navigate a solution in a sophisticated and strategic manner when something doesn’t go as planned. Maybe you spent a lot of your budget creating a campaign to compete against a similar company that still outsells you – how do you analyse your mistakes and bounce back? Inconsistencies can damage a brand. We all know how the digital world can scrutinise and judge us – this includes brands. One Twitter response can create a series of unfortunate events. Have you ever worked in customer service, managed a team, or led a project at school? Then identifying the strengths and weaknesses of digital and social media platforms will come easily to you if you can recognise the issue before it arises.

The actual job role of an apprentice can vary significantly from one employer to the next. However, these tips will always apply. Thus, with your skills in digital etiquette and an openness to learn you will be sure to progress in the marketing industry. So how do you apply for an apprenticeship? ApprenticeTips.com has resources to help you find the right training provider and many other blogs like our top 3 tips on how to prepare for a digital marketing course!

To stay up to date with us on all our latest ApprenticeTips, sign up to our newsletter and follow us on our socials to be a part of the apprenticeship community and chat with others looking to start their career in marketing:

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The ApprenticeTips Team

Customer Lifecycle Marketing: The 5 Stages

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Person reading book titled 'Understanding Digital Marketing'

Understanding Customer Lifecycle Marketing in Digital Marketing

Firstly, I will very briefly introduce you to the idea of digital marketing and the role of a digital marketer, before going on to explain the 5 stages of Customer Lifecycle Marketing (CLM).

Broadly speaking, digital marketing refers to promotions presented via digital channels to promote brands and connect potential customers using online platforms.

As a digital marketer, you are responsible for the conception, creation and implementation of online promotional campaigns, in order to increase customer reach, engagement and retention.

But, “what do these terms mean?” you ask, well they’re all part of CLM, and in this short blog, I’ll help you to understand why it’s such a vital part of digital marketing and ultimately business success.ted

Customer Lifecycle Marketing – What is it?

“The customer lifecycle represents the different stages that buyers will go through as they interact and build a relationship with your brand. From initial awareness through to purchase and advocacy.”

Marketo
Customer Lifecycle: 'The Journey Is On'

Understanding who your audience/customers are is absolutely vital to the success of your business. Once you have identified your target audience, and have a unique or strong offering, then it’s time to attract and build up your loyal audience.

Customer Lifecycle Marketing – The 5 Stages:

1. Reach

Customers have a need, want, issue or problem. Here is where the relationship with a customer begins, when they first become aware of the existence of your brand, product, or service. This is the stage at which Digital Marketers try to get the attention of the audience they wish to reach.

2. Acquisition

In the second stage you’ve gained the attention of a potential customer, and they’re actively considering whether or not to buy the product or service on offer. At this you must stand out and show that you’re better than your competitors. It’s vital you know who your competitors are!

3. Conversion

This is the stage where your customer converts by making a purchase or commitment. As a Digital Marketer you should make sure this is an easy and straight forward process.

4. Retention

This is the stage when you want to do everything you can to maintain a relationship with the customer and keep them buying. An existing customer is more valuable, as it’s easier and cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to try to acquire a new one.

5. Loyalty

This is the end goal you should have with all your customers. At this stage you’ve attracted a customer’s attention, made a great impression, closed the sale or/and provided excellent service. Now your client is an ambassador who spreads the word about the product and sends you referrals.

Applying this Knowledge to Your Digital Marketing Strategies

The Customer Lifecycle is an integral part of the Marketing Principles module which will form part of your apprenticeship, and you will need to show your understanding of these learnings within your work.

Now that you’ve gained an understanding of each of the customer stages, you’re ready to create a co-ordinated ‘always-on’ marketing strategy of integrated communications across multiple digital channels to cover the entire 5 stages.

You might consider using:

  • Email Marketing, welcome, nurture, personalised offers, re-engagement win backs.
  • Re-targeting with display ads.
  • On site personalised content, such as ‘ you might like’, or related content.
  • Social Media targeted ads and organic posts.

If using any of the above strategies, remember to include them in your Digital Marketing portfolio. Want to know more about how to write up a great portfolio? Then read our blog on ‘Acing the Level 3 Digital Marketing portfolio‘

Explore more top tips, blogs and standards relating to Digital Marketing, plus other apprentices’ experiences on our website.

What competencies and skills are needed to be a digital marketer?

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What competencies and skills are needed to be a digital marketer?

So, you’re looking to become a digital marketer? Now you’re probably wondering what skills and competencies are required to be successful in this role. In this article, we will run through just some of the competencies and skills you will learn along your apprenticeship to become successful.

Firstly, what are skills and competencies, and how are they different?

Skills are particular abilities that can be learned, whereas competencies relate to one’s knowledge and behaviour.

What competencies are required?

Creative Thinking

Creativity helps to establish yourself and your brand amongst the competition. It helps to keep your content fresh and original for your audience and allows you to connect with different audiences.

Ability to Work with Internal and External People Professionally

Within a business you will need to work with people from all different departments on different projects, you will also have to know how to deal with any inbound customer enquiries that comes through digital platforms.

Analytical and Problem Solving

You must be able to analyse your own work and the results of different campaigns and come up with solutions to campaigns that don’t work.

A Thorough and Organised Approach

All marketing needs to be planned in accordance with an organisations policies and procedures and to match marketing content created by other people within the team.

Ability to Work Independently

Working independently and on your own initiative is a great trait for any employee. By not having to be micromanaged, it helps you to showcase what you are really capable of whilst also freeing up time of your superiors to get work done themselves.

What skills are required?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is a crucial skill for any digital marketer, SEO focuses on making your website more visible on google, which in turn attracts more traffic through to the website and creates more leads for customers/clients. A good SEO score can set the difference between your organisation getting business versus a competitor.

Understanding Digital Etiquette

Digital etiquette is the rules you have to follow whilst online which are in place to prevent any complaints or controversy, this includes social media posts, how to reply to customer enquiries and more.

Principles of Coding

During your apprenticeship, you will complete a short course based on the principles of coding. This will provide you with the base knowledge of what you need to know.

An Understanding of Basic Marketing Principles

Another module you complete in your apprenticeship will look at the basic marketing principles. This will include the 7 p’s, the customer lifecycle, marketing segmentation and more.

Conclusion

Digital marketing can be an excellent career choice for a creative individual who enjoys getting their head down and cracking on with their work. An apprenticeship can be an excellent way into this field, providing you with an excellent starting set of skills required to become a digital marketer.

Good marketing is essential for organisations in any industry, meaning it can be a pathway into organisations from any industry. Digital marketing takes traditional marketing into the 21st century and beyond. In a world where everyone has a smartphone capable of finding anything they need, it is important for an organisation to be there, and visible to these customers and clients.

There is no right or wrong way to do marketing. Different organisations will find different ways that will work for them, because of this it is all about finding what works for you and gives you a chance to have fun with the content you create and interact with an audience and loyal customers.

Take the first step today and apply now!