Is Your Business Prepared to Launch a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy?

Online Marketing is fun. It can be a cheap, fast, and effective way to get your business in front of an eager audience.

Yet, if you are like many small business owners, you didn’t get into business because you love marketing. Too often, marketing can feel overwhelming on top of everything else you do to run your business.

Here’s the secret. Marketing will never feel easy or fun if you are scrambling to catch up.

A great digital marketing strategy starts with a strong foundation.

These eight steps provide the structure you need to launch your next great marketing campaign and reach your ideal audience.

1. Launch your website

Setting up your website may be the single most important step in your digital marketing strategy. If you have a strong social media following or if you’re part of an online marketplace (like Etsy), you may think you can skip this step. Don’t.

Your website is often the one place on the internet where you control your message and your branding. It gives your business legitimacy, creates a place to showcase your content, and shows off your unique selling point.

Choose your platform 

If you have tech skills, support, or some time to dig in, WordPress is the most widely used website builder. It offers great versatility as your business grows.

SquareSpace and Wix are two options for simple drag and drop website builders. You trade full-customization of your site for ease-of-use, but this may be a trade you’re happy to make. These site-builder options enable you to launch a beautiful website quickly, and are easy enough to use that you can DIY.

Grab your domain 

Your domain is part of your brand and adds credibility to your site. Domains are cheap, you can often claim one for under $20 per year.

Start with the essentials

Start with a Home page, About page, and Contact page. Other pages will depend on your product or service and why people are visiting your site.

For each page, decide on the primary goal of that page and include a clear call to action. Make your pages easy to scan by using short sentences and space between lines, instead of blocks of text.

As you’re writing, focus on the benefits you are offering to your audience. What problem are you solving for them? How will they feel after they buy from you?

Take ten minutes to outline your website. You might sketch out your design including where headlines and images will go. This will save you time later.

2. Install Website Analytics

While we’re on the subject of websites, set up your site with web analytics from Day 1. Already on day 746? Good news! It is never too late to start gathering useful information.

Google Analytics is free and easy to incorporate into your site. If you’re setting up your site yourself, you will sign up for a Google Analytics account, then copy and paste a Google tag into each page of your website. There are plugins, like MonsterInsights on WordPress that can set up analytics for you. Check out the free Google Analytics Academy for tutorial videos. If you’ve hired a web designer to set up your site, confirm they will include analytics as part of the work.

This data will be invaluable to guide your marketing strategy. Even if you’re not ready to dig into the data, take the time to set it up now. Analytics will quietly collect data in the background as you go about your business. When you’re ready to dig in, the data will tell a story about your audience and show you which of your marketing efforts are connecting with them.

3. Sign up for an Email Service Provider

Email marketing offers a great return on investment (ROI). Businesses see an average $36 ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing. Marketers (like me) who love email marketing throw around that statistic to try to convince others to love it too.

The simple truth is, email is a great way to start a conversation with your audience. It allows them the chance to get to know, like, and trust your brand. An audience that knows, likes, and trusts you is more likely to make a purchase.

Unlike social media, your email list is an asset you control. With an email list, you won’t have to start from scratch if your social account is closed or if the platform changes. You will still be able to email your audience when a social media algorithm changes.

The list of email service providers is long, each doing basically the same thing – sending your emails. Compare a few options to find one you like. Confirm it is compatible with your website provider. Free plans can be a great way to start. Be sure to scan prices and features of the paid plans to confirm they will meet your needs as your list grows.

4. Create a Lead Magnet

Now that you have a way to email, start building your email list. Quality over quantity matters. So be thoughtful about creating an offer that appeals to your ideal audience.

A lead magnet is an enticing offer that people will want to trade their email address for access to.  A lead magnet can be any type of free content, an e-book, discount code, quiz, checklist, or a piece of digital artwork. The key here is to put yourself in the place of your audience. What is a problem they need to solve and what solution can you offer?

If you own a gluten-free bakery, your audience might need delicious cupcakes for their kids’ birthday party. You can offer a coupon for their next custom order.

If you are a bookkeeper, your audience might need an easy way to organize business expenses. You can offer the financial tracking template you designed.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, and you can have more than one offer. Different lead magnets will appeal to different audiences.

5. Choose Your Social Media Platforms

Social media lets you meet your target market where they are. Too often though, businesses put a lot of energy into social media without getting a lot in return.

Instead of trying to be everywhere, find your audience and sign up for the platforms they use.

Join groups and follow hashtags where your audience is already hanging out. Engage when you have something to add, but try to avoid pushing your product at every opportunity. Instead, build some goodwill and let others get to know your business (you can drop that lead magnet too). Be a part of the conversation. This is a great way to get to know your audience better and learn about local events.

6. Claim Your Business Pages

Establish your business’ web presence by claiming your business pages. Search engines and reviews sites will lead people to your site, it’s up to you to make them look and sound good.

Start with Google Business Profile and Yelp, then look for sites unique to your business, such as Amazon, TripAdvisor, and Etsy.

Make your page look professional and inviting by adding photos and descriptions. Complete your profile by including all your relevant business information. If you have a physical address, ensure your business is linked to that address so it will appear on maps.

Review Your Reviews 

Read through any reviews about your business. Now read through your competitor’s reviews.

Your business pages may be a blank slate, you might notice a handful of mediocre or negative reviews, or your business may have glowing reviews (yay!). Depending on what you find, you can design a marketing campaign to earn positive reviews.

7. Take control of SEO 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. At its core, SEO is the process of strategically incorporating keywords, links, and fresh content to help search engines recognize your page as useful and relevant. When Google believes your page is useful and relevant, your page will appear higher on a search results page. A higher ranking means more people will find your site when searching for your keywords.

A great SEO strategy involves skill and talent, and can take up as much time as you can throw at it. At some point you may hire an expert to manage this part of your marketing. Until then, there are some content-focuses steps you can take today to direct web traffic to your site.

• Content. Keep your website current by regularly sharing engaging content. A blog is great for this.
• Keywords. Use Keyword planning tools to brainstorm content ideas, and incorporate keywords in headlines, copy, and website tags. Keep it conversational, don’t overdo it.
• Internal links. Use internal links on your site to refer to other pages on your site. Cross-linking internal pages and articles means your site is easier to map.
• Backlinks. Find opportunities to get your site featured on other reputable sites. This might look like a guest blog post, a podcast appearance, or online “best of” lists.

You can learn practical SEO strategies by following SEO experts online and signing up for free SEO training.

8. Decide to Engage Authentically 

People want to hear from you. And we all want to buy from people and businesses we like.

With every email, post, and video, you are building a relationship with your followers. You are giving them the information they need to get to know your brand.

Think about the mission, vision, and values of your company as you decide how to engage. Consider your brand’s voice – is it funny, friendly, helpful, professional, or serious? (BTW – those aren’t the only options.)

What kind of content will you produce to highlight your brand’s value and personality? How and where will your audience hear from you? How often?

Consider what goal you’re trying to accomplish. Write out a content calendar and schedule your pieces to post automatically to keep your momentum going even when business is busy. Keep the focus on your audience and how you can help them, and you’ll have a brand people love to do business with.