Having marketing goals is important when you’re developing a digital marketing plan. Here are 10 tips to help you develop a plan that will meet your goals.
Do you have a digital marketing plan? If not, it’s time to create one. No matter how awesome your site or services are, nobody will know about them if you don’t get the word out.
Marketing at random can bring some level of success, but you’ll get much more traffic if you have a plan.
So what does successful marketing look like? It looks like traffic, but how do you get that traffic?
To get you started we’ve created this handy guide. Keep reading for 10 tips for developing a successful digital marketing plan.
1. Target Your Focus Audience
When creating your marketing plan, it’s important to focus on your target audience. Sure, you’d like to bring in any new traffic you possibly can. But you probably have a specific audience you’re after.
Do your services apply more to women than men? Then take that into account when creating your marketing plan.
All it takes is a little common sense. If you don’t offer services for men, don’t focus your marketing on men.
2. Use Strategic Ad Placement
You want to market in the areas that make the most sense. If you’re trying to grab the attention of young adults, you probably shouldn’t spend your marketing money to get ads on websites for elderly people.
Whether you use PPC or other ads, make sure they’re placed in places that make sense. If it’s your goal to reach a specific audience, reach out to them in places where they’re likely to be.
Visit HIVE Digital Strategy to learn more about marketing goals.
3. Research Your Audience
In order to reach your intended audience, you’ve got to know a little bit about them. You may even want to know a lot.
Research your audience to see what they tend to like and what they don’t. Pay attention to trends.
What do they search for? What do they want to learn or purchase?
The more you find out about your audience, the more you’ll be able to target directly to them.
4. Use Social Media
Ads and links are great, but social media is one of the most important marketing tools you can use. Don’t neglect this extremely viable mode of marketing when you’re creating your plan!
Stick to one social media site, or use multiple. You’ll reach a larger audience if you use more than one. But even one social media site can provide countless potential customers.
One of the best reasons to use social media is because the posts are so shareable. And let’s face it, people love to share online content. So make sure you give them something to share.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Spend
There are free ways you can market your website or services, but they won’t get you very far.
Instead, invest in paid advertising.
A share on Facebook is helpful. But it will only reach so many people. A paid advertisement on Facebook, though, will reach many more people.
6. Identify Gaps
Take a look at your existing digital content. What’s missing? Surely you haven’t covered everything you could.
Look for ways to fill out what you have to offer. Cover all your bases. Keep up to date.
New things are constantly being created and discovered. If you leave your website unattended it will quickly become out of date.
Create a schedule to regularly update your digital content. Make sure you’re not missing out on customers because you don’t have content that you should.
7. Have a Content Creation Plan
Don’t create content at random. Everything placed on any of your digital platforms or in your marketing ads should be there on purpose.
Space out your posts so you don’t hit your audience with everything at once. Give them a reason to keep coming back. Don’t intimidate them by providing too much information.
Create a content plan that makes sense for your audience and their trends.
8. Implement SEO
SEO is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing. Optimize all digital content so it’s search engine friendly.
One of the toughest things you’ll have to deal with is getting ranked in online searches. Why should someone choose your website over a different one?
People tend to choose from the first options they see come up in an online search. Using SEO will help you move up to a place where people will see your posts.
9. Encourage Interaction
Marketing shouldn’t be one-sided. Instead, draw people in with things that encourage them to act.
Start a discussion. Create an event. Invite people to share.
Whatever method you use, encourage interaction between visitors and yourself, and between visitors themselves.
10. Know Your Competitors
No matter your niche, you’ll likely have competition of some sort. In order to combat this most effectively, get to know your competitors.
Find out what keywords they rank for, how they market, when they make price cuts, what they’re selling, etc. The more you keep an eye on the competition, the better you’ll be prepared to combat what they’re doing.
Implement These Digital Marketing Plan Tips Today
Marketing can really generate a lot of traffic to your site and company. But you shouldn’t jump into it blindly. Having a digital marketing plan in place will make your marketing much more effective.
You’ll never know how much these tips can help until you try them. So choose one or two and try them out today!
Marketing is all fine and dandy, but you’ve got to have a great place to send your leads. Your website has to be top of the line. Check out our article on great web design.