Is Your Digital Marketing Plan Performing Like It Should? What Online Marketing Strategies Are You Using?

Article written by Chris Yaremchuk

Developing Your Digital Marketing Plan

If you missed our first article, What Is A Digital Marketing Strategy, and you’re new to the world of online marketing strategies, it’s a great place to start. Otherwise, let’s dive deeper into the development of your digital marketing plan.

The world of internet marketing can get confusing. Which is why there are professional marketing agencies out there. You have a business to run, you don’t need to deal with the mundane day-to-day tasks that can be important to a digital marketing plan. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t educate yourself. The better you understand something the more likely you are to focus on the positives. So, let’s get started! What exactly is involved when developing your online marketing strategies?

Website

Search Engine Optimization

Content Marketing

Social Media

Email / Marketing Automation

Paid Advertising

Mobile Marketing

Analytics

So, where do we start? Ultimately, you need to start with a well thought out strategy. What industry are you in? Who is your target audience? What is your brand message?  These and other questions will help you develop your strategy. That strategy will often start with creating a hub for your entire digital marketing strategy.

Website Design & Development

Your website is the heart and core of your entire strategy. All other online marketing solutions and tools are integrated into your website. By using your website as a hub, other elements of digital marketing are able to have unique interactions that compliment each other. This helps provide a dynamic and strategic digital marketing plan.

Think about the foundation upon which your house is built. It’s solid, durable and built to hold the floors above it. This same concept holds true when it comes to your website. Your Online Marketing Plan should include a well thought out website design. What’s more, it needs to be built with strong web development. This is the foundation that your entire digital marketing plan will be built on. From the content marketing to the analytics that help me make informed changes to your online marketing strategies.

Search Engine Optimization

What is the best way for viewers to find your site naturally? First off, by optimizing your website with information and content relevant to your target audience. However, search engine optimization is so much more than keyword research, content and meta-tags. It’s about building links and keeping information consistent across all your profiles and channels.

Consistency can be difficult when search engines like Google are constantly changing their ranking algorithms. That’s why we need to be adaptive with our SEO strategies. With new content and constant updates to existing content you can stay ahead of the competition. Adaptive SEO is all about working with search ranking algorithms instead of trying to trick them.

Content Marketing

Using a strategic approach that focuses on the creation and distribution of relevant content is a great way to attract and maintain a defined target audience. Content marketing allows you to position yourself as an expert or trusted advisor long before a customer is ready to buy.  When they are ready to buy, who do you think their going to call?

By providing truly relevant information to your prospects, instead of pitching your products or services, you are helping them solve their problems. For content marketing to work, research into your target audience needs to be done in order to create your buyer personas.  By developing personas for your target audience it makes it easier develop individual relationships between your customers and your brand. You have a better idea of their interests and personalities. This will help you broadcast better content, defining your company as an expert in your industry.

Social Media

With all this content that we’re now developing, how do we syndicate it? How do we get our target audience to engage with it? Social platforms like Facebook and other social sites are a great way to increase customer engagement.  Their also a great way to syndicate that content creation and direct potential customers back to your website.

Social media marketing efforts can often work the same way as word-of-mouth.  All it can take is a fan of your service or product liking or sharing one of your posts.  Some social media channels are also a great place to gather customer reviews or deal with customer service issues. Using social media properly is a great way to boost your online reputation. When the base of your digital marketing plan has been developed, social media is one of your tools used to help spread the word.

Marketing Automation

Whether simple email campaigns or a more intricate solution. Automated marketing is a great way to nurture and further engage with those that have shown special interest in your services. Imagine your entire sales process automated right up until a purchase is made. What about nurturing that customer after the purchase to stay at the forefront of their mind for the next time?

Companies like Amazon or Wayfair use marketing automation tools very well. Have you ever noticed that once you sign up and purchase something on one of those sites that you’re now recieving personalized emails with the latest news and offers? This is what automated online marketing strategies are all about.

Paid Search & Online Advertising

We would all love to be ranked number one on google searches involving all of our offered services and products. The quickest way to do this? Paid search. Google AdWords allow you to target specific keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. Keep in mind that online marketing strategies like this end the moment you stop paying for the ads. Unlike the content that will remain on the internet forever from adaptive SEO strategies.

It’s not enough to just run an ad. You want to make sure your A/B testing to optimize for best results.  Whether paid search or other forms of online advertising, such as display ads. You also want a clear call-to-action that brings viewers to your website or landing page. Target your ads or paid search campaigns on demographics, interests, search habits, or even geographical location. You can also use these landing pages as a way to capture email lists and retarget those that have shown interest. Through both email and re-targeted advertising.

Mobile Marketing

One of the fastest growing components of a digital marketing plan, mobile marketing encompasses all the activities that connect advertisers right to consumers digital devices. Having a proper mobile strategy starts with a fully responsive website design. If you’re sending viewers to a website that isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re likely losing that potential business to competitors.

Mobile devices can do so much more when it comes to marketing.  Not only can companies implement digital rewards cards, you can now use your digital device to pay. It also helps when advertising needs to target a specific geographical location.  Mobile marketing can deliver your ads directly to people in specific areas, or re-target to those that visited a competitor location.

Analytics

Developing your online marketing strategies is one thing. Knowing how well their working is what’s really important.  When data is tracked and reported on, important insights can help you adapt your online marketing plan. Certain analytics tools can even help you research and track your competitors.

That A/B testing we talked about earlier, regarding paid search.  Your analytics are what tells you what’s working and what isn’t. You’ll be able to make tweaks to your campaigns and landing pages. In return you’ll be able to increase conversion and more easily hit your marketing goals.

So Now What? How Do I Start Developing My Digital Marketing Plan?

You’ve likely learned that there’s more involved in developing a digital marketing plan than you thought. What it really comes down to is do you know what you want? Analyse your past in order to learn from your mistakes. Remember who your target audience is and speak their language. Identify your means and stick to your planned budget. Most importantly, MAKE THE PLAN, but don’t try to stick to it! Always be adaptive with your online marketing strategies.