3 Digital Strategies to Incorporate Now

Simple, Smart Moves to Grow Your Business Online

In today’s ever-changing online marketplace, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the countless ways to grow your business. From social media platforms to search engine optimization, it can feel like you need to be everywhere all at once. But the truth is, you don’t need a million tools — you just need the right ones.

Here are three digital strategies that work — and if you haven’t already, now is the time to incorporate them.

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

1. Launch a Newsletter

Newsletters are one of the most powerful tools you can use to build trust, provide value, and maintain direct communication with your audience. While social media can be helpful, algorithms often dictate who sees your content. A newsletter cuts through that noise, landing right in your customer’s inbox.

Done well, newsletters can:

• Share time-sensitive promotions or new products

• Deliver educational content that positions your brand as a trusted expert

• Strengthen relationships with customers and prospects

• Introduce new subscribers to your services through automated welcome sequences

In short, newsletters are a reliable way to show up consistently for your audience — and they create a clear path toward conversion.

Email Marketing

Here’s a stat that might surprise you: 61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands via email. That’s more than any other communication channel.

And it gets better — email marketing delivers an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most cost-effective strategies available.

If you’re relying solely on social media to communicate with your customers, you’re missing out. An email system allows you to:

• Automate outreach

• Personalize messages based on behavior

• Segment your list for targeted campaigns

• Track performance in real-time

And because emails are permission-based (meaning the recipient chose to hear from you), your audience is already warm and more likely to engage.

3. Build an Email Marketing Funnel

Once you’ve got a newsletter and email system in place, it’s time to get strategic. Enter: the email marketing funnel.

This is where you guide subscribers through a journey — from awareness to decision — using content tailored to where they are in the process.

Here’s what that might look like:

• Welcome Email
  Set the tone, introduce your brand, and let them know what to expect.

• Educational Content
  Share blog posts, how-to guides, video tutorials, and case studies that help solve your audience’s problems.

• Social Proof
  Customer reviews and testimonials help build trust and credibility.

• Product Info
  Clear, concise descriptions help prospects understand exactly what they’re getting.

• Conversion-Focused Content (BOFU)
  Bottom-of-the-funnel content like comparison guides or limited-time offers can help close the deal.

With the right tools, you can automate much of this funnel, using segmentation and behavioral triggers to deliver the right message at the right time. The result? A more intentional, scalable, and profitable way to market your business. We’ll take a look at some of those tools next.

4 Ways Partnerships Can Increase Your Google Rank and Brand Awareness

In a previous post, we talked about a number of ways to optimize your website for search engines organically. While this should be a priority for you, it’s also important to know how you can increase your ranking aside from keywords, tagging, and all the other daunting ways it takes to get your site optimized organically. The secret is in partnerships. The more others talk about you online, the more likely you are to boost your rankings in the search engines. So how do you get that to happen? Here are three tried-and-true methods for getting your ranking up there without minimal work on your end.

Google Reviews

It’s ok to have your customers do a little work for you. If you know someone has had a positive experience with your business, always ask for a Google review. Better yet, write your own review for them, send them the Google link, and let them know its as simple as copy and paste. Make it as easy as possible for them and tell them you’ve paraphrased a sample review for them so they know what keywords should be used.

Here are some best practices about asking for reviews, from the Google experts themselves:

Verify your Business Profile: This makes your business information show up on Maps, Search, and other Google services. To respond to a review, you must have a verified business.

• Remind customers to leave reviews: Let them know it’s quick and easy to leave reviews. Google advises against offering incentives to customers to leave reviews, but you an make it easier for them if you create and share a link. To do so, log in with the account you used to sign up for your Business Profile. Search on Google for your exact business name. Select Customers Reviews -> Get more reviews. Share the link with your customers directly or use the sharing options provided.

• Reply to reviews to build customer trust: Your customers will notice your business values their input if you read and reply to their reviews.

• Value all reviews: Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn't follow our posting guidelines, you can request its removal.

Media Relations

Having a PR background is definitely a perk when it comes to media placement for your business, but really any sort of media mention - whether it’s a blog post, an online article, or social media shout-out, only helps increase your ranks in the search engines. Be sure you add any media mentions you have to your website, which also helps.

Social Media / Influencer Partnerships

Remember that whole social media thing and how you’ve tried to avoid it for the past 20 years? Well, unfortunately for those who have a love/ hate relationship with social media, the truth is, it’s not going away anytime soon. When it comes to marketing, social media is king these days and any partnerships you’re able to build through social channels are great ways to not just boost your rankings, but also increase brand awareness.

Email Marketing

Despite what some may say, email is not dead….yet. In fact, most people I speak with tell me something comes from every email campaign they send - whether it be a sale, question, or some other type of engagement. And if there’s anything you can take away from this blog post, it’s just that - engagement. You want people to remember you’re still alive even when it seems like there are crickets on the opposite end of the email chain. When you do reach out to influencers about potential partnerships, ask for an email mention in their newsletter - it will only increase your exposure online.

#EmbraceAmbition: 6 Sessions You Don't Want to Miss

2022 has been one of the biggest years for my business thus far. I started this little agency in 2019, having no clue what I was doing but armed with 15 years of corporate marketing experience, a strong instinct, resources, and determination, I kept things going here. Despite the twists and turns that all business owners went through during COVID, SW Creative is still thriving today.

A few months ago, I applied to Tory Burch Foundation’s 2022 Embrace Ambition Summit: Confronting Stereotypes and Creating New Norms, and couldn’t believe I was accepted to attend among the thousands of others who applied.

There are so many reasons I’m excited about this event—too many to list, but with the Summit taking place in a week I thought I’d highlight a few of the sessions I’m probably most excited about as they hit home in some shape or form for me.

This year, the Summit returns as a live and virtual experience—a full day of conversations and performances from leaders in business, entertainment, science, social justice and sports. You can still get your virtual ticket here.

ADVOCATING FOR GUN CONTROL, SESSION 3, 11:50-1PM

Julianne Moore, Actor, Activist, Mother and Founding Chair of the Everytown for Gun Safety Creative Council and Monisha Henley, Director of State Affairs, Everytown for Gun Safety. I don’t think there’s much more I need to say about this session and my passion for gun advocacy. You can read more about my thoughts on Uvalde here.

WOMEN AND SCIENCE: SESSION 6, 5-6PM

Aside from Tory, I don’t know that there’s anyone else I’m more excited to hear speak than Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer who earned a bachelor’s degree electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, (also my alma mater) in 1988 and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., while working full-time at MCI Communications.

She is the CEO of XPRIZE, an Astronaut, a High-tech serial entrepreneur and a Global Change Maker. Entrepreneur Magazine says of her, “Ansari's journey to space in 2006 has led her to being immortalized in history, with the Iranian American entrepreneur also forever going to be remembered as the first Muslim woman in the world to travel to space.”

As someone who was raised by a Persian single mother and my entire life, pushed to succeed, go to college, and be a change maker, I am not only humbled by Anoush’s accomplishments but feel as though her story resonates so much with my upbringing. I can’t wait to hear her in person.

WE MUST TALK ABOUT MISCARRIAGE: A CONVERSATION WITH MARY KEEGAN, SESSION 3, 11:50-1PM

Mary Keegan is a Talent Brand Communications Manager and an advocate for parents and women in the workforce. She will be speaking about the bereavement leave policy after miscarriage that she created at her place of employment.

RECLAIMING OUR ICONS IN HISTORY: AN INTERVIEW WITH DOLORES HUERTES, SESSION 2, 10:25-11:30

Dolores Huerta has been a labor organizer and activist for over 50 years. She co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) union in 1962, an organization that played a key role in securing rights for agricultural laborers–but her co-founder and then-partner Cesar Chavez became the face of the movement, insisting only one of them could be its leader. At age 92, Ms. Huerta still has plenty to teach us all about what we can accomplish when we stand up for the most marginalized in our communities.

THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS WITH DR. SAMANTHA BOARDMAN, SESSION 3, 11:50-1PM

Dr. Samantha Boardman is a positive psychiatrist, founder of Positive Prescription, and author of Everyday Vitality. After beginning her practice, she had a client come to her that said, “Dr. Boardman, I hate coming to our weekly sessions,” she confessed. “All we do is talk about the bad stuff in my life. Even if I am having a good day, coming here makes me think about all the negative things. I’m done.”

That’s when Dr. Boardman decided to go back to school and focus on treating patients through a positive mindset, teaching resilience, optimism, and post-traumatic growth. She says, “I explored the role of lifestyle and psychosocial factors that impact mental health and learned about evidence-based interventions that promote well-being. I have been practicing Positive Psychiatry ever since.”

NO ROADBLOCKS, SESSION IV, 2:15-3:20PM

Aisha Khan is a brain tumor survivor and also a disability awareness advocate. Her story is especially intriguing - after undergoing a surgical procedure to remove a benign brain tumor on May 13th, 2014, Khan initially developed complete paralysis of her right/ dominant side hence, "The Right Side of Perfect".

As she began her recovery, she started documenting her journey with the hopes that perhaps she’s learned some things that can help others. Topics include living with a disability (right-sided hemiparesis) and adapting to a “new normal”, especially at work.