Often when speaking about digital I get asked the question “Do I really need a website? Can’t I just use Google listings and Facebook?” My answer is always the same and almost always unpopular.

Social media can be an emotive subject for business owners. Getting new customers to your business from social media isn’t easy - it isn’t just a case of setting up your Facebook account and the cash pours in… so that isn’t the dream that we are going to sell! Some business owners we speak to are utterly frustrated by social, however, it really isn’t optional anymore. Your business needs social media.

Content has become one of those buzz wordy sounding things that it is trendy to bash, marketers can be very quick to channel their inner hipster in this way. Content marketing could be cast as crusty and old fashioned in the light of more technical, data driven ‘new age’ marketing techniques, but maybe all it needs is a bit of a polish.

Even if you don’t realise it, you have come across display advertising. You have seen it on web pages, in newspapers and in magazines. It’s everywhere, once you start to look, and there are plenty of companies out there who are already doing it well. So how do you get display advertising to work for your business?

Over the last few weeks this column has looked at the various stages of a marketing strategy from building awareness with your prospects to being found at the research or comparison stages through to the actual point of all this marketing effort the conversion… or sale. We have looked briefly at some really big subjects and mentioned products in passing that really do need explaining more thoroughly.