Taking the Mystery Out of the Digital Marketing World

By Karen Twomey

As we make our way towards the final stretch of 2022, we’re still slowly emerging from the Covid cloud and into our ‘new norm’. For most of us, this thankfully means ‘back to business’, although for many, it’s business in a new way – a more hybrid model of online and offline.

Every business we engaged with over the last 2 years increased their online presence in some way during covid. Many started to focus on improving their social media marketing, some set up websites or added e-commerce elements to existing platforms, while others took the leap into digital marketing for the first time. Whatever digital strategies those businesses undertook, I’ve yet to come across one who hasn’t reaped the benefits – and continue to do so.

While we might be eager to move on from it, we can’t underestimate the impact of covid. Not just on life, of course, but also on business and marketing. There have been some huge shifts in the approach to sales, communications and connectivity over the last few years, the impact of which will surely be carried forward for both business and customer into the future. As they say about the past, ‘it’s never where you think you left it…’. According to the Central Statistics Office (2021) 99% of the Irish population now use the Internet in some way, with 79% of us active social media users. Facebook remains the most popular social media platform in Ireland, with Instagram coming in a close second. Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn are also popular and can be very beneficial platforms for business.

And while we may all agree social media is now an important marketing tool for businesses, the key to growing and managing an online presence is knowing which platforms will give you the best return for your time and energy. In marketing, we call this ‘The Who, the What and the Where’! Who is your audience, what type of content do they want, and where online are they hanging out. These are the first and most important steps in putting together any digital marketing plan.

The next is knowing your keywords (search terms your customers may use to find you) and creating a good online presence around these. We call this search engine optimisation and it’s an important element in driving customers to your business, both online and offline.

Given that so many of us now use the internet to research goods and services, whatever the social or digital platform of choice may be for your business, one thing is certain – having both a presence and an understanding of online marketing is vital for business. Communications Hub is delighted to be delivering a number of digital marketing courses and workshops in conjunction with Duhallow Skillnet including a 6 week online Digital Marketing for Beginners course, and a series of one-off workshops for more advanced learners covering LinkedIn, Canva and Instagram.

For more information see www.irdduhallow.com