A strong online marketing strategy will help you boost your business.
Digital marketing is constantly changing, evolving, and adapting to meet the needs of consumers and businesses alike. As such, it's important to keep up with trends and changes in order to effectively market your products and services.
This guide aims to provide an overview of marketing strategies and tactics across multiple platforms. You'll learn tips and tricks for improving your digital presence and building a successful digital marketing strategy.
Know your ideal customer
The biggest mistake I see among entrepreneurs is assuming everyone wants what they want. This is a big mistake because there are people out there who don't know what they want. They do not know why they're doing something, or how they're going to make money off it.
This leads me to my first point which is...
Understand your customer.
If you truly get the pain points, triggers, and buying habits of your target audience, you can begin to craft your product/service around the things that matter to them. You won't just sell to anyone; you'll sell to those who really care about what you offer.
It's important to note that this information should be based upon real data whenever possible, as making assumptions about your audience can cause your online marketing strategy to move in the wrong direction.
Source: blog.hubspot.com
Once you've identified your target market, you must be crystal clear about what you're offering. If you aren't completely sure, ask yourself questions such as: Why am I building this? How will it benefit my customers? How will it help them solve their problem?
Define your digital marketing goals and business objectives
Goals are what you want to achieve, whereas strategies are the ways you plan to reach those goals. A good example of a business goal is increasing sales. You could write down a list of actions that you think will help you increase sales, like creating a better offer, improving customer service, etc. These steps are examples of a strategy.
The best way to develop an online marketing strategy is to identify your goals first. This helps you define exactly what you want to achieve and gives you a clear direction. If you don't know where to start, it might be helpful to ask yourself questions like "What do I want my customers to feel?" or "How does my product/service benefit my audience?".
Once you have defined your goals, you'll need to decide whether they're SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely). For instance, if your goal is to increase sales, your SMART goals might be:
• Increase conversion rates by 10%
• Reduce abandonment rate by 20%
• Increase average order value by $5 per transaction
• Create three new promotions within six months
You’ll use those metrics to measure success along the way and adjust your plan accordingly.
Establish metrics and KPIs
The best way to achieve goals – whether it’s increasing conversions, getting better rankings, or growing your brand awareness – is to set key performance indicators (KPI). These are benchmarks that measure how well you’re doing against your objectives, and they allow you to see where you stand and track progress over time.
A good KPI helps you understand exactly what you want to achieve, and gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. You can use KPIs to measure the effectiveness of each piece of content you produce, including blog posts, landing pages, and emails.
For example, you might decide that you want to increase conversion rates by 5% next month. If you don’t have a goal in mind, you won’t know if you’ve succeeded. A good KPI provides a benchmark, allowing you to evaluate your efforts and determine whether you’re making progress towards achieving your goal.
To develop effective KPIs, start by identifying your main objective. Is it driving leads? Increasing conversions? Raising awareness about your brand? Whatever your goal is, write down a few words describing it. Then, consider what you’d like to measure. For example, if you want to improve your site’s bounce rate, one metric could be the number of people who land on your homepage and immediately exit without viewing another page.
Once you have a list of KPIs, think about how frequently you’ll need to review them. Some companies choose to do this monthly, while others choose quarterly or yearly. The frequency depends on how quickly you want to reach your goals.
Measure and Adjust
You need to compare the outcome of your online marketing strategy against the baseline as well as the original goals. If the results are underwhelming, adjust and optimize, then measure again. Be sure to measure each individual channel so that you, the marketer, can identify which channels are performing best for your brand, and which ones might need to be dropped altogether.
Once you've identified your goals, you can move on to developing your tools. There are many different types of online marketing tools that you can use, depending on your budget and skillset.
Calculate your online marketing budget
Once you know what you want to accomplish and the tools you need, it’s time to figure out how much money you have available to invest. Your budget is determined by several factors:
Business Goals
First, let's talk about your goals. What do you hope to achieve with your online presence? Do you simply want to increase sales, or do you want to attract potential customers? Asking yourself these questions will help you decide whether investing in one form of online marketing strategy over another makes sense.
Available Resources
Next, we'll look at your available resources. How much money do you have to allocate toward your digital marketing efforts? Depending on the size of your business, you might have several different budgets to work with. Is one area of marketing costing too much? Consider cutting out less important areas of marketing to make room for others.
Type of Campaign
Finally, think about the type of campaign you'd like to run. Are you looking for immediate results? Or do you prefer to build up slowly and steadily? Think about the amount of effort required to reach your goal. Some types of campaigns require more time and energy than others.
Identify and evaluate your online marketing channels
Analyze the digital assets and platforms that you are already using—including website, blog content, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, LinkedIn updates, YouTube videos, etc.—and ask yourself: How effective were they and how could they be used next year to generate more traffic and leads?
It is okay if your future plan doesn't incorporate all of these elements. But it must include those that were most effective in the previous 12 months.
For example, if a landing web page you just developed generated lots of leads, don't forget about it. Use it again, but make improvements as much as possible. The same goes for other assets and channels. If you're still using some old tactics, consider whether they are really working anymore.
It's important to figure out where your target customer hangs out online. This is where we recommend starting. There are plenty of free tools to help you identify potential channels, like BuzzSumo, Hootsuite Insights, and SimilarWeb.
You'll want to spend some time looking over each channel and identifying what type of content resonates well with your audience. If you don't know what types of content resonate well with your market, ask yourself questions like: What topics does my ideal customer care about? How often do I post? Is my target audience active on Twitter? Are they sharing my social media posts? Do they comment on my blog?
Remember that different platforms attract different audiences.
Once you've identified the digital channels that seem to resonate best with your target audience, you'll want to make sure you're posting content across those channels regularly. Again, this is where you'll want to rely on web analytics to tell you how many people are actually seeing your content.
Boost your organic social media presence
With your online business, you’ll want to take every opportunity possible to boost your digital engagement—and one of the easiest and most impactful ways is to give a bit of extra love to your social channels. From sharing images and videos to hosting giveaways and participating in relevant conversations, there are many ways you can use social media platforms to increase visibility and organic traffic to your site.
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to do this is to start posting regularly on your social media channels. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to post multiple times per day, but it does mean you should commit to posting once or twice each week.
In addition, try to ensure that your posts align with your overall online marketing strategy. For example, if you're trying to attract more customers to your e-commerce store, you might choose to focus on promoting products rather than brand awareness.
Another way to boost your digital engagement is to work with influencers in your industry. Not only can influencer marketing help you reach a broader audience, but it can also boost your reputation within your niche.
If your social media presence needs some work, now's the time. You don't have to be everywhere. Make sure you have a presence on the channels that are appropriate for your target customer and put your energy there.
Source: bigcommerce.com
Automate your online marketing
Marketing automation is huge, and there are plenty of different tools out there that help companies manage customer relationships, track leads, and generate more revenue.
But what makes one tool better than another? What does each offer that others don't? And how do you know whether your current system works well enough to justify the investment?
The key here is to prioritize your goals and decide which tools you need to achieve them. Some things cost less than others, so you don't necessarily need to buy everything at once. As long as you have enough resources to cover one or two areas, you'll find success.
Whatever your goal is, there are numerous tools available that help businesses reach their objectives. You might already have some in place, such as Facebook ads, Twitter campaigns, and blog posts. Others, like Google Ads, are newer options that offer similar benefits.
Start Online Marketing For Your Business Today
Small businesses are often overlooked when it comes to marketing. But small business owners looking for a quick way to promote their product or service don't have to look far. Digital marketing is one of the best ways to reach potential customers and keep up with competitors.
Digital marketing includes many different components, including social media, email marketing, paid advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and much more. These tools help businesses increase their visibility, engage with consumers, and ultimately grow sales.
Every industry has unique challenges and opportunities. Before diving into digital marketing, it's important to understand what type of business you're running. Then, determine what strategies work best for your particular situation.
If you find the above tips useful and you know you're ready to build your online marketing strategy, click here to answer a few questions and get a basic digital marketing plan for your business!