Not seeing the results you want from your online marketing? You need a Strategy.
In this day and age, we take it for granted that you know online marketing is essential for any business no matter the size. But wanting to market online is more than just “boosting” the occasional Facebook post.
If you really want to gain more followers, get more leads and make more sales, then you need a strategy.
What is a digital marketing strategy?
Simply put, a “digital marketing strategy” is a step-by-step process that leads potential customers in the direction you want to take them.
A simple example is if you’re selling products to a local area, but barely anyone knows your business exists. You’ll need a powerful strategy to make the local community aware of your business, what you sell and how it can help them. A two-pronged approach of building brand awareness on the one hand, and having a lead generation campaign on the other, will work for you.
Digital strategies often include using social media platforms to gain traction in the market. By serving existing and potential clients online by giving training and advice, you’ll generate trust with your audience, making them more likely to buy from you.
How to map out your digital marketing strategy
Before designing a strategy, you need to decide what outcome you want. As much as we want to do all the things for our business and have overnight success, we need to get specific.
You might want to:
- grow your social media following on 3 different platforms
- grow your email list
- grow your Facebook group
- get more leads
- make more sales
People incorrectly assume that there’s ONE strategy to implement that will magically accomplish all these things. Or that they can run one ad and expect miracles.
If that were true, we’d be out of a job!
The truth is that each one of these outcomes or business objectives should be treated as its own goal. This means you need a strategy for each one individually.
Yes, the strategies link together to support your overall business vision (which is to grow and make more profits), but logic tells us that driving people to your Facebook group will require different tactics compared to closing a $2000 online sale.
It might seem overwhelming when you look at the list, because we understand that you should actually be doing everything on the list.
If you can’t do them all at once, then our best tip is to ask yourself which objective will move the needle quickest in your business?
And then design a digital marketing strategy around that answer.
Will you make more sales because you grow your Instagram followers or do you actually need a system to get people to register for your webinar because you close more sales when you do webinars?
Take an honest look at your priorities and what matters most to your business.
Consider where you’ll have the most impact when it comes to you spending your time, energy and most importantly, your marketing budget!
Invest in the digital marketing strategy where you are likely to get the best return on investment (ROI).
Additional tips:
- Use social media
If you don’t have social media accounts dedicated to your business, then you should create some now! Social media need not consume your entire life but it does help you build credibility, trust and an audience to sell to. The overarching goal of social media should be to get prospects onto your email list, because if a platform shuts down or shuts your account down, at least you can contact your email list.
- Email your list
Speaking of email lists, another way to let people know about you and keep up-to-date with the latest news related to your company is via emails. Email marketing can help you send newsletters that provide value to your readers, inform them of new products or sales, and you can do market research by sending out occasional surveys.
- Get analytics to work for you
Analytics are vital for understanding what’s working in your marketing. When running ads, you can see how many people your ad reached, how many people bought, became a lead or whatever the ad objective was.
Analytics inform your next decision. If things are working, you could opt to increase your daily ad budget.
If performance is poor, you might need to change your image, headline or ad copy.
View your analytics to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
In addition, you can sell to existing customers if you know what they like and you can create offers directed at solving common problems. The only way to know this is to look at the numbers.
The data collected can help you to improve your business strategy and the way you serve your clients. In this way everyone is happy, and your clients will know that you are there to make a difference.
- You’ll spend less
In case you’re on the fence about investing in a digital marketing strategy, you’ll be happy to know that it doesn’t have to be expensive. Typically, spending money on paid Facebook and Instagram ads is considerably cheaper than traditional advertising mechanisms like TV, print and radio.
- Flexible marketing
A huge advantage of online marketing is that you control when you do active (paid) marketing and when you don’t. If you run a campaign that’s hitting it out of the park, and you realise your sales team has reached capacity, you can pause the ads until you have time to catch up on the demand.
When to get help
If you don’t have time to waste and you don’t want to spend hours trying to gain traction organically, then it’s time to build a strategy and put some money behind it.
If you’re ready to make quantum leaps in your business and you have a decent marketing budget to invest, then you’re probably ready to hire professional help.
At Big Domino Marketing, we are experts at building lead-generation funnels and running paid Facebook and Instagram ads. We can also do Google or YouTube ads if you need it.
We work with local clients here in South Africa, covering everything from insurance to real estate and everything in between. We also have a robust portfolio of international clients, some of whom make $ 7-figures (yes, dollars) and have truly massive marketing budgets.
Our team has a diverse set of skills and we’re here to help business owners shave years off their growth and increase their profits today.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, we’d love to hear from you.
To see if your business would be a good fit for our services, please complete this questionnaire here.
The takeaway to why you need a digital marketing strategy
In case you haven’t done so yet, take an honest look at your current marketing activities and ask yourself – is it working?
Are there some aspects of your marketing that are working well, but others that need refining?
Isn’t it time you stop “hoping” people discover how amazing your product or service is and finally get the right eyeballs on your business?
Don’t try to fool yourself into thinking you don’t need to spend money on marketing – Coca Cola is a billion-dollar company, and even they have a digital marketing strategy!
Use the tips in this blog to put aside your fear, commit to growing your business using online marketing and then take the steps you need to achieve it.
Remember, if you are ready to quantum leap your business (and you have the marketing budget for it), our help is just a few clicks away.
