Welcome to the world of digital marketing. When we think about traditional marketing methods, we usually think about radio ads, billboards, magazine spreads, and so on. While these remain valuable tools in the 2020 marketplace, the way we reach, engage, and convert customers has completely shifted. Now more than ever, we need to be thinking about online marketing and how to use digital marketing to grow our business.
If you’re new to this world, it can be a little overwhelming figuring out where to start. Luckily, we have you covered. Here are seven steps to help you succeed in the digital marketing world:
1. Set A Clear Marketing Objective
It’s important to set a clear objective in mind when developing a digital marketing strategy. Are you looking to gain visibility in a certain marketplace? Are you looking to grow your email list? Are you looking to reduce your advertising costs or increase your conversions? The type of traffic you gain from online marketing will guide the strategy you put in place. You don’t want to sacrifice quality just to gain a few extra sales. So, think about what you want your strategy to achieve and set out clear SMART goals to help you reach your objective.
2. Create A Marketing Plan
Marketing plans are important because they provide a roadmap for your marketing strategy. They can help you decide what channels to use (e.g., SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media), the objectives you hope to achieve, and the resources you plan to utilize (e.g., money, time, people).
A good plan can help you decide what to do and what not to do. For example, if you plan to focus on SEO for the purpose of gaining more organic traffic to your site and you don’t currently have a social media presence, you may decide not to invest in a social media strategy. Or, you may decide to take the time to build a solid foundation in SEO before moving to social media. You can’t make this decision based on one tactic or on the intuition of a single person. You need to be able to prove your strategy with data.
3. Measure Your Success
Marketing plans are only useful if you know how to measure their effectiveness. The first step in this process is to set up clear and measurable goals for your marketing activities. For example, if you’re looking to increase the amount of leads generated by your website, the first step is to set up a goal and then track it regularly. The second step is to take a critical look at the various components of your plan and decide which ones contributed the most to your success in reaching your goal.
This is especially important if you’re looking to improve your plan for the next cycle. You don’t want to just throw up a blog post and expect that it will result in an increase in sales. You need to set up specific goals for each channel and track the results of your efforts. The last step in this process is to reflect on your experience and decide whether you achieved what you set out to achieve. If you did, great. If you didn’t, you have to go back and decide what needs to change.
4. Identify Your Target Audience
Once you’ve decided on your marketing objective, the next step is to identify your target audience. The person reading this article is a prime example of a target audience. She was identified as a potential customer because of her location, demographic information, and interest in your product or service. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can decide how to reach them.
You want your strategy to be effective, so you must start by thinking about who you want to reach. Once you’ve got that down, you can start to think about the type of content that will be most effective for them.
5. Research The Best Possible Channels For The Purpose You Have In Mind
One of the first things you should do before starting any digital marketing campaign is to research the best possible channels for the purpose you have in mind. In the previous example, you wanted to increase your sales, so you’d want to look at digital marketing channels that would get you the most ROI (Return On Investment).
You should always follow the Golden Rule of Digital Marketing: Always Be Curious. You should never be afraid to try something new or take a chance on a channel that maybe hasn’t yielded great results for other brands. The worst thing you can do is to blindly follow the same old channels and strategies because they worked for your competitors. You need to be able to adapt and change with the times or your business will fail. Always keep your eyes open for new marketing channels and try new methods to reach your audience. Sometimes the simple things can be the best way to go.
6. Make Sure Your Website Is User-Friendly And Has Everything A Potential Customer Needs To Know
This step is pretty self-explanatory. If your website isn’t user-friendly or has all the information a potential customer needs, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Your website should be easy to navigate and the content should be well-structured and easy to understand. Keep in mind that the person visiting your site may not be familiar with online marketing and how to use a computer, so you want to make sure everything is written in a way that a non-tech-savvy person can understand.
7. Identify Your Keywords And Matching Phrases
This final step is very similar to the first. You need to decide what words and phrases you will use in order to describe your product or service. Once you’ve got that down, you can start to build your keyword list. You should always use keywords in your content, titles, and url’s. Keep in mind that the more unique and relevant the keywords, the more opportunities there will be to find your site when someone is searching for those words. Always create content that is relevant to your target audience and uses the keywords they are searching for.
You don’t want to stuff your content with meaningless keywords. You want to add value and establish yourself as an expert in your industry. So, find the right balance between being relevant and using a large number of keywords. Once you get to that point, you can start to target specific keywords and phrases in your SEO.
These seven steps will get you on the right foot of your marketing journey. From here, all you need is a bit of experimentation and a lot of patience. You need to be willing to put in the time to see how SEO, content marketing, and other digital marketing tactics perform in your industry. What you want to avoid is taking on too much at once. Instead, focus on one area at a time and eventually, you’ll be able to integrate everything you learn into a single, cohesive strategy.