Bonafide Marketing Genius

Online Marketing Responsibilities for Non-Marketing People

So you’ve decided to dive into the world of online marketing. Terrific! But what are your responsibilities as a non-marketer? Let’s run through some of them. It might surprise you how much – or how little – you actually need to be doing to make a big impact.

Research

The first and most important thing you need to be doing is research.

You might be surprised how much of a difference good research can make. A lot of times, marketers can get so bogged down in the minutia of a design that they forget about the end user. What is their pain point? What are their needs?

Good research can eliminate a lot of those pain points and needs. In case you’re wondering, a pain point is something that you, as a user, experience that isn’t quite right. A need is something that you, as a user, want or need to have in order to use a product or service effectively. So, if you’re wondering, eliminating those pain points and needs is what makes a product or service excellent.

Conversion Optimization & Testing

Once you’ve determined the needs of your target audience, the next step is to create a plan for how to satisfy those needs.

You’ll want to consider things like:

  • The offer (Product, service, or both)
  • The pricing for the offer
  • The marketing mix (e.g., TV ads, social media, online banners)
  • The design of your website
  • The content of your marketing messages (e.g., blogs, emails, etc.)
  • The performance of your website
  • The type of device your users are browsing on (e.g., desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones)
  • The format of your reports (e.g., pdf, word, ppt)

Now that you’ve got a plan, it’s time for testing.

You’ll want to consider things like:

  • The copy for your website
  • Your email marketing campaigns
  • The calls to action for your social media accounts
  • The performance of your social media accounts
  • How effective your ads are
  • The landing pages for your ads
  • The conversion rates for your landing pages

After you’ve had a chance to test your plan, it’s time for optimization.

You’ll want to consider things like:

  • What else can you do to increase conversion?
  • How can you make the most of your budget?
  • Are there any new technologies that can help you maximize conversion?
  • What else can you do to make your campaign stand out?

Once you’ve optimized your plan, you can build a schedule and get to work. You’ll want to consider things like:

  • When should you start (and stop) promoting the offer?
  • How often should you promote the offer?
  • For how long should you promote the offer?
  • What should you be measuring?

Tracking & Analysis

The final step in the research process is to track and analyze the results of your research.

You’ve done everything from setting up experiments to determine the best way to satisfy your users to creating a detailed plan for promoting your product. Now it’s time to see what actually worked and what didn’t work as expected. You’ll want to consider things like:

  • The conversion rates for each variation of the experiment
  • The success of your different promotions
  • The demographics that responded best to each variation
  • The factors that contributed to each variation’s success

From this data, you can determine which tactics were most and least successful. Armed with this information, you can make adjustments and try something new. Or, you can send your plan to a professional services firm, such as HubSpot, to have them analyze the performance of your plan.

Scheduling & Reporting

When you’ve got a clear plan in place and are ready to begin promoting your offer, you’ll want to consider scheduling. Just because you’ve got a plan doesn’t mean you need to follow it exactly as-is. Consider what would happen if you did follow the plan exactly as-is. Chances are, you’ll eventually get busted for not following the rules you set out yourself. Why? Because plans are meant to be flexible and can be changed as needed.

Scheduling allows you to adjust your plans as needed. For example, you might want to start slowly promoting your offer in case it doesn’t catch on right away. Or, you might want to change the timing of your ads depending on when your target audience is most likely to be performing a search online. The possibilities are endless.

Once you’ve set your start date and begun promoting your offer, you’ll want to consider scheduling updates. Just because you’ve started doesn’t mean you need to stop at once. Think of scheduling as a way to keep track of your progress and determine when you should stop promoting the offer. You can continue to update your schedule as needed.

Finally, once your campaign has ended, you’ll want to consider reporting. Just because your campaign has ended doesn’t mean you need to stop collecting data. Think of reporting as a way to prepare for a future campaign. For example, if you’re measuring the success of a TV ad campaign, you might want to consider collecting data on the effectiveness of the ads after they’ve ended.

Depending on your objectives, you can structure your reporting in a number of ways. Just remember: What you report and how you report it is completely up to you. You can make it very simple or very complex.