Sometimes it feels like it’s hard to get noticed online.  There are a lot of voices out there.  We live and breathe digital marketing and we know; we see the thousands of voices that are all talking at once online.  An overload of messages and brands sending those messages is the new normal in our digital culture.  How do you get noticed and ultimately grow your company with the aggressive competition that there is online?  It can be done and we’ve seen it done successfully with a few changes in perspective: 
 
•  Be Ready.  In order to build your business online, you must start with the foundations to get your company set firmly before moving to the next level. Setting the foundations first will ensure that when battling it out with your competitors, you're going to have the punch it takes to come out on top. If you don’t have your foundations of branding, a solid website, and social media profiles, you’re not ready to make a dent online.


•  Be Consistent.  Consistency is key when it comes to how often you post, where you post, and what you say.  Whether you blog, post on social media, or advertise once a month, once a week, or once an hour, stay consistent.  It takes time to build authority and rapport with your audience and search engines; consistency helps you build that rapport.  You also want to be consistent with where you post.  Focusing on a few main digital channels like email, social media, and blogging might be all you focus on.  Then, when you are consistent on those, you can add other digital advertising channels.


•  Be Listening.  So many brands are yelling their message online as loudly as they can.  They plaster their message on every pop-up add and social media profile that they can. However, they aren’t listening to the audience to know if that message is welcome in the first place.  They also aren’t listening to the response that initial message gets.  Many brands publish their message on social media, but never look back to see what comments and chatter that message prompted.  When brands engage back, they stick out from the crowd.  Data is also a key player here because you can listen to the audience before you ever say anything and learn what different demographics are ready to hear.


•   Be Changing.  One thing you can count on in digital marketing is change.  New technologies, new generations, and new behavior trends force digital marketers to adapt or get left behind.  You have to be willing to change if you are going to succeed in today’s digital world!


•  Be Proactive.  In a digital world that is constantly changing, marketers need to be proactive to find the latest and greatest opportunities.  Those who embrace new digital channels often build stronger, more visible presences because they were there first.  You can obviously wait until it’s a tried and true digital channel, but you risk getting lost in the sea of marketers who have also decided to embrace this new channel.  For example, brands that embraced video with YouTube from the start didn’t get lost in the crowd of businesses that are now trying to use video marketing in their digital strategy.
 
The digital marketing landscape makes it very easy for marketers to broadcast their message and be quite proactive in their marketing to consumers. Unfortunately, this means that the marketing landscape is very competitive and oftentimes, aggressive.    Embracing a few key perspectives is essential for any brand to grow their business with online channels today!
 
About the expert
Kevin Layton is CEO of Data-Dynamix, a premier source of demographic data, a go-to partner for delivering digital marketing campaigns and experts in advertising sales training that was ranked 1,226 on the 2015 Inc. 5000. The company partners with a litany of top-tier ad agencies and media groups across newspaper, radio and television. Layton, author of the upcoming book, “Building Your Digital Marketing Machine,” is also a revered inspirational speaker on digital marketing, international business and business strategy. Reach him online at www.data-dynamix.comor via Twitter @DataDynamix1.