For those of you that have read the “SEO Tips of the Day” and the “Reviewing your Website Tips of the Day” may see some duplication here….HINT – if you see duplication in tips, it doubles, triples the importance of that item…so give the tip/job special attention.
So now we are moving onto discussing and deciding on a digital marketing strategy.
Without understanding the tools available to you it is tough to decide and plan anything. Lets group things together so that you at least can focus on each group of options.
1. Website – your business website
2. Social Media – Facebook/Instagram/Twitter – which ones and why
3. Paid online advertising – pay per click etc
4. Blogging – article writing
5. Online networking – LinkedIn/Alignable
6. Email marketing
7. Press releases
8. Marketing collateral such is flyers/brochures
9. Events
10. Local networking groups
Within each of these groups, there are different methodologies, some free, some time consuming and some expensive. How you choose to manage these, and implement will mostly be driven by how much budget you have. I will visit each of these in the next few days.
Some of the items we will discuss over the next few days, will apply to one or all of these groups and although they are all interlinked and to some degree results are dependent on how they all interact, you can at least keep the plan simple and add to it as you move on. I am working on an application that allows me to have view-able timelines that link different messages together in a cohesive group based on subject, task and the task groups as I listed above. Will keep you posted when it becomes available..
The first thing to do is to set a goal that is attainable…dream goals like selling your company to Google for a billion dollars in the next 6 months sadly is pretty much unlikely. As a small company your main focus is your customers and your bottom line. So your goals will be wrapped around those two items.
Increased profit margin FOLLOWS a focus on customers
& bottom line!
Do you want current customers to purchase the same product more frequently or do you want to promote a different product to them. You goal could be related to either option of even related to an increase in followers on your social media as an intermediary goal before you start measuring sales.
By setting a measurable goal you will know if your efforts are starting to make a difference. Each type of task will have have a different type of goal…each campaign you have will again have a different goal than your tasks.
Climbing the ladder is hard at the best of times. Having these measurable stepping stone achievements will give you the strength to jump to the next stone.
Here is an example of a small business setting goals…
George owns a small swimming pool maintenance company. George is planning on expanding his product portfolio by adding a range of pool skimmers. George does not necessarily see his customers when he completes the regular maintenance on his clients pools so has to consider other ways to make these customers aware of the product.
Here is George’s plan:
Goal 1: 100% of my current customers should be aware of product availability.
To do this George plans to run an email marketing campaign direct to customers and also a social media promotion on his Facebook and Instagram pages. He will use promotional videos and statistics provided by the skimmer manufacturer to help with his promotion.
Goal 2: After 2 months George wants to see $X in sales of the skimmer products.
Without going into too much detail, when planning each of your campaigns and tasks you need to consider the marketing mix.
To do this you must look at the 4 P’s. Product, Price, Place, Promotion. This will help you focus on what you need to be able to provide for your products/services and therefore provide for any campaign related to that particular product/service.
The image below gives you a good idea of the key elements you need to be considering. For small local businesses the answers are generally simple and the same…PLACE will always be your own store front for example be it physical or online but you will always need to consider inventory, physical items you are selling, or enough staff available to provide the service.
If you need help or have any questions please contact alyson@webdesignshop.us. Please also share this blob with your colleagues and business friends.
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