Launching a Digital Marketing Strategy
One of the questions we get asked most often from new clients and prospects is, “Where do we start?”
It’s a big question, and one that deserves a straightforward and simple answer:
You start with a digital marketing plan.
So, what IS a digital marketing strategy?
How can it help my business? What does that actually mean?
The big myth about entrepreneurship is that all you have to do is set up and run a successful business. The reality, though, is that business owners typically fall into one of three categories. They’re either a technician, a manager, or an entrepreneur. The technician loves to do the work. The manager is the organizer and loves to make everything go, and the entrepreneur is the “big picture” person who loves bringing in new ideas and staying on top of business trends.
Now, within these three personality types, most business owners tend to be technicians. They’ve taken their love for what they do and turned it into a business. When it fails, though, they wonder how it all went wrong and why. They don’t realize that they need to be all three. They need to be the technician, the manager AND the entrepreneur. And a digital marketing strategy is your guidebook to making that happen.
If you’re like many business owners, you may have a website, but it’s old and rarely updated. You may have social media accounts—and you may even run ads or boost posts—but you don’t have time to monitor them and you certainly don’t have time to be super creative with them. In fact, you may not even sign into them all that often. So, let’s talk about how a digital marketing strategy can help with all of this.
How do I create a digital marketing strategy?
You may think that social media is all you need to start marketing your business, but that’s not true. Social media is not a marketing strategy, but instead one of the tools in your marketing arsenal.
Ok. So, a digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the best ones aren’t. They’re fairly simple and straightforward. They usually include:
- A set of clear and definable goals
- A focused and realistic marketing schedule
- A list of marketing duties that the entire team can buy into and execute
And that’s basically it! There’s a little more to it, of course, but this is generally what’s involved.
What’s Next?
You can’t just throw money at a digital marketing campaign and expect to get results. By setting goals and following a schedule, you can build a solid digital presence over time. Then, you can start allocating some of the marketing responsibilities to your team, so everyone is involved, and everything gets done. By following a plan, you’ll be more motivated to stick to it, and by recruiting help, you’ll make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Before you start working down the list, though, you’ll need to assess where you are and find out what’s working and what isn’t. After all, you can’t follow a roadmap if you’re not sure where you are to begin with!
If you’re looking for help getting your digital marketing strategy launched, reach out to us at Headline Consultants, or book a call. We’re here to help!
