If you’re looking to create an effective marketing mix that will deliver results, you’ve come to the right place.

In this presentation, you’ll learn the best practices for online marketing including:

• setting up a simple, yet effective, email marketing campaign
• optimizing your website for SEO
• increasing your reach on social media
• building a brand voice
• deciding what platforms to use for each channel
• and much more

You’ll learn the ins and outs of each step so that you can apply these best practices to your own business.

Understand The Basics

You cannot create an effective marketing mix if you do not fully understand the basics of marketing. The first step is to understand what marketing is, how it works, and the basics of an marketing plan. This will help you decide what makes sense for your business. Are you looking for customers to come to you, or are you more interested in encouraging people to reach out to you?

Many marketers get caught up in the technology and lose focus on the person on the other end of the transaction. To put it simply, marketing is the process of getting someone to think about your product or service before they’ve even heard of you.

To build an effective marketing mix, you must take into consideration many factors including, but not limited to, your product, marketing strategy, target audience, and budget. You cannot create a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing but must tailor your plan to meet the needs of your business.

Set A Target Audience

The next step is to set your target audience. Simply put, your target audience is the group of people you want to reach with your marketing.

When deciding who you’ll target with your marketing, consider demographics like age, gender, and location. Additionally, people who have an interest in your product or service will be a part of your target audience. For example, if your product is dog food and you’re trying to sell it to people in London, you would target those living there, or anywhere in the UK, with your marketing.

Once you have your target audience, you can decide which channels to use to reach them. To start, you might want to consider email marketing, social media ads, and paid ads on Google.

Create A Marketing Plan

To create a marketing plan, you will want to consider what platforms you’ll use to reach your target audience and how you’ll reach them. For example, will you use social media ads or will you send out a direct mailer?

Your marketing plan should include the following:

• The purpose of your marketing effort
• Your target audience, goals, and metrics for measuring your success (e.g., number of leads generated, sales, etc.)
• The platforms you’ll use to reach your target audience (e.g., social media, email, etc.)
• A timeline for your plan (e.g., start date, end date)
• Your budget
• The roles of your team (e.g., sales, marketing, etc.) in your plan
• Metrics to track your progress (i.e., number of leads generated, sales, etc.)
• Other information

In addition to the above, you may want to create a marketing vision and strategy. A vision is something you can see in the future, while a strategy is a plan of action you’ll take to get there. It can help you identify strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and determine which direction to take your business.

If you’re looking for more guidance, here are some helpful links:

• http://www.marketingforfree.com/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan.html (a blog post on how to write a marketing plan)
• https://smartinsights.com/knowledge-centre/articles/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan-that-will-raise-your-sales (an in-depth blog article on how to write a marketing plan that will raise your sales)
• http://blog.smartinsights.com/knowledge-centre/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan-that-will-raise-your-sales/ (sample templates for writing a marketing plan)
• http://blog.smartinsights.com/knowledge-centre/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan-that-will-raise-your-sales/ (an in-depth blog article on how to write a marketing plan that will raise your sales)
• https://medium.com/@smartinsights/the-importance-of-a-marketing-plan-f7e6d7b9d41 (an article on the importance of a marketing plan)
• http://blog.smartinsights.com/knowledge-centre/the-importance-of-a-marketing-plan/ (a blog post on the importance of a marketing plan)
• http://web.archive.org/web/20150413212414/https://blog.smartinsights.com/knowledge-centre/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan-that-will-raise-your-sales/ (an archived version of the above mentioned blog post)

Once you have your plan in place, measure the success of your marketing effort. To do this, you’ll want to consider the following:

• The number of web pages that mention your business
• The number of social media accounts you’ve engaged with
• The engagement you get from customers on social media
• The click-through rate (CTR) on your website’s landing page
• The number of calls made to your business (i.e.,phone calls, SMS text messages, etc.)
• The amount of time spent on website analytics
• The number of enquiries you receive through email marketing
• The number of orders you get through an eCommerce platform
• Your product’s placement in the search results
• The number of blog articles that mention your product
• The number of social media accounts you’ve followed
• The tweets that mention your product
• The number of people who’ve’shared’ your product’s content
• The number of pins your product has on Pinterest
• Your revenue
• Your expenses

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Creating a marketing plan is only the first step. You also need to consider how to present yourself online. In other words, you need to put your best foot forward.

Make sure you have a brand voice and that all of your marketing materials, whether digital or print, reflect this voice.