It’s no secret that the world of digital marketing is evolving at warp speed. New tools and technologies emerge to help marketers become more sophisticated, targeting specific groups of users and connecting with them on a personal level.
While these platforms empower marketers to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior, they come with a learning curve, and figuring out which approach to take can be challenging.
If you’re looking to develop an effective online marketing strategy, it’s imperative that you consider how to integrate digital marketing techniques into larger marketing campaigns, develop an SEO plan, and test and analyze marketing results.
Let’s examine each part of an online marketing strategy and how you can put these tools to use to develop a winning strategy.
Set SMART Goals & Measurement
The overarching goal of every marketing campaign is to drive profitable sales. Setting a goal that’s too high may lead you to overestimate your results, while setting a goal that’s too low may leave you frustrated and underperforming.
Determining how you’ll measure success is also crucial. Measuring the right thing and tracking the right results are essential to maintaining control over your overall strategy while also being able to adapt and grow as needed.
For instance, if your goal is to increase web traffic to your site, you might consider using Google Analytics to track visits to your site, which can then be mapped to marketing campaigns, content, and offers that led to the traffic.
Create a Marketing Plan
A marketing plan lays out your strategy for reaching key decision-makers and driving profitable sales. It should include goals and objectives, target audience analysis, and measurable metrics that will allow you to track your progress and determine if you’ve reached the desired results.
Your plan should be as specific as possible, laying out the materials, platforms, and tactics you’ll use to achieve your goals.
Determine the Role of Online Marketing in the Bigger Picture
There are four distinct roles that digital marketing can play in the context of a marketing plan:
- Attracting Visitors to Your Site
- Generating Interest in Your Product
- Boosting Conversion
- Retaining Visitors
- Navigating the Spectrum of Marketing Measurement
You may consider your website to be the first and foremost focus of your strategy, as it serves as the anchor for everything else that follows. Designing a compelling user experience for your visitors, however, is only the beginning; you still need to consider how to get the word out about your product or service and convert traffic into paying customers.
Create Keyword Lists & SEO Plans
To get your website to show up in search results, you’ll first need to establish a corpus of relevant keywords; these are the words and phrases used in a search engine to find your site.
Keyword lists are a great place to start when you’re developing your SEO plan, and there are many free tools that can be easily integrated into your daily workflow, such as Google Keyword Planning.
Your SEO plan should embrace a comprehensive approach, and in addition to considering your website, you should also set up a separate page for every major product or service, detailing the approach you’ll take to optimize each piece of content for local search.
Understand the Importance of Testing
Marketing is a constantly evolving field, and new tools and platforms emerge to help marketers become better at what they do, which in turn enables them to improve their strategies, increase their efficiency, and drive greater impact.
To ensure that you’re executing the right strategies and getting the most out of your digital marketing efforts, it’s essential that you put in the time to test and analyze the results of your campaigns, regularly re-evaluating your approach and upgrading your tactics as needed.
Outsource or DIY?
One of the essential differences between a large corporation and a small business is that the latter has to be actively involved in every stage of the process, from researching the market to devising marketing strategies to executing those strategies, to analyzing results and taking action based on what it learns.
If you’re the type of person who enjoys being involved in every stage of the production of a movie, you may consider outsourcing your marketing to a company that specializes in content production, distributing, and marketing.
Content creators may be able to provide you with a steady stream of engaging material, from blog posts and social media profiles to video and graphics, all of which can be used to fuel your marketing campaigns, increase brand awareness, and drive purchases.
On the other hand, if you thrive on being involved in every stage of the process and enjoy the challenge of learning new things, you may consider doing it yourself. Self-educating and continuing education are essential if you want to succeed in this field, and there are many free resources available to help you along your journey, such as blogs, forums, online classes, and more.