You’ve probably heard or seen countless times references to the term “10 hour job,” referring to tasks that take less than 10 hours to complete. Well, let me tell you, there is no such thing as a quick or easy job when it comes to marketing. Especially when you consider the fact that digital marketing is constantly evolving and changing to fit new business models and marketing trends.
Creating an online marketing strategy is challenging, especially since it’s a never-ending exercise that requires constant reevaluation and adjustment. You’re basically building a blueprint for your digital marketing efforts, which is why it’s so important to develop a comprehensive strategy in the first place. You don’t want to rush into whatever marketing activity comes your way without having a plan in place first. It’ll make things a lot more difficult later on when you’re trying to figure out what’s worked and what needs to be modified or changed.
Thankfully, developing an online marketing strategy isn’t as difficult as you’d think. Thanks to the rise of digital marketing tools like HubSpot and Marketo, which are designed to make developing an online marketing strategy a lot easier. These tools can be a little pricey, but it’s definitely worth it. Especially if you plan on doing any sort of sizable marketing campaign. You can also find free alternatives, like Hootsuite, which let you manage all your social media accounts from one place.
The Traditional Approach
While it’s always nice to have the most up-to-date digital tools at your disposal, you shouldn’t neglect the tried and true methods of getting your message out there. In a perfect world, we’d all use every digital marketing tool available to us, but that isn’t the case. Not everyone is savvy enough to know how to use the different platforms, or they may not have the time to learn quickly enough to be competitive. For those individuals, there are still plenty of offline strategies that can be used to effectively market a business.
Obviously, traditional marketing methods like SEO, PPC, and social media are still relevant today, and they will always have a place in your marketing strategy. In fact, you should be using all of these platforms to their full capacity and optimizing them for the best possible results.
The Importance of Testing
One of the things that makes developing an online marketing strategy so difficult is that you never know what will work and what won’t. Just because something doesn’t work now doesn’t mean that it will never work. Especially with digital marketing, where the algorithms and the constant changes make it difficult to predict how exactly your hard work will pay off. You should be testing as much as possible to see how different approaches and tactics contribute to a successful strategy.
This is especially important if you’re new to marketing or this is your first time developing an online marketing strategy. You don’t want to waste your time and effort pursuing ineffective tactics that don’t work. Instead, you want to ensure that you’re always using the best possible strategies and that your tactics are efficient and effective. This way, you can be sure that you’re building the right foundation for your business.
What Are The Main Goals of an Online Marketing Strategy?
Now that you have a general idea of how to build an online marketing strategy, it’s time to get specific. What are your main goals and objectives? The most basic of which would be to increase revenue and traffic. To put it bluntly, you want to grow your business. To achieve this, you need to focus on growing your customer base, which in turn will increase your sales.
At the same time, you want to increase the amount of people who visit your site. That way, when they are shopping for a product or service related to your niche, they’ll be more likely to find you. You can use various strategies to accomplish this, such as SEO, social media, and PPC.
An online marketing strategy should have clear goals and objectives. If not, then it’s difficult to figure out exactly what worked and what didn’t. Without specific metrics to measure your progress, it’s difficult to determine whether you’re on the right track or need to make a significant shift in direction.
Where Do I Start?
As a new business owner or entrepreneur, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there. Trying to figure out which marketing method to use can be difficult, especially since there are so many options available. While it’s important to understand the basics, it may be overwhelming to know where to begin. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, take it one step at a time.
The first step is to create a strategy. Nowadays, this isn’t as complex as it might seem. There are plenty of tools available to help you craft a comprehensive marketing plan in no time. Whether you decide to use a free version of Marketo, which is what I use, or you want to spend a little more money and get the full version, there’s a tool out there to help you.
Once you have your strategy, you can start to set your marketing goals and objectives. Just because you have a strategy in place doesn’t mean that the work is done. In order to achieve your business goals, you’ll need to continually evaluate your progress and modify your strategy as needed.
The Importance Of Building A Brand
While you might be tempted to just dive in and start marketing your product or service without much thought, doing so is a mistake. Unless you’re an experienced marketer, it’s unwise to simply rush out and start marketing without building a solid foundation first. This is especially important if you want your marketing to be effective.
If your brand identity isn’t defined, it’s difficult to know exactly what tone of voice to use when communicating with customers and what images to use when advertising on social media. Without a clear brand identity, it’s hard to get the most out of your marketing.
The Three Main Digital Marketing Platforms
As you might expect, there are three main platforms that you’ll want to focus on when developing an online marketing strategy: SEO, PPC, and social media.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of enhancing your website’s content to make it more relevant for search engines like Google. One of the most effective ways to optimize your site is to make sure that all your web pages have quality content, including headers, footers, and bold emphasis on key words. This way, when someone types in a key word, your website will pop up on the first page of search results.
PPC, or Pay-per-Click, is a type of advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. This can be an inexpensive way to advertise on social media platforms like Google and Twitter. You can also target a specific audience when using this method.
Last but not least, social media. Every business owner and marketer should have a presence on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Having a sizable audience there is a great opportunity to connect with customers and potential customers. If you use social media to spread the word about your business, it is important to be consistent and engage with your audience regularly.
Just remember, none of these platforms are free. The more you put in the more you get out. Organic SEO takes time to work and requires a substantial amount of content to rank high in the search results. As you might imagine, PPC can be somewhat expensive and demands a consistent budget. Finally, the cost of having a social media account with no posts can be quite expensive. Even if you have a free profile, the cost of maintaining a presence on social media is considerable.
If your goal is to get your business out there and you don’t have the money to pay for all of this, then you might want to consider alternative options. Paid advertising, such as pay per click and sponsored posts, can be a great way to get your business out there without needing to spend a lot of money. You just have to find the right niche.
Now that you have a general idea of how to develop an online marketing strategy, it’s time to get specific. What are your main goals and objectives? The most basic of which would be to increase revenue and traffic. To put it bluntly, you want to grow your business. To achieve this, you need to focus on growing your customer base, which in turn will increase your sales.