Stumped by where to start in developing an online marketing plan? Or are you looking to revamp your online strategy? Here are a few tips.
Most important thing is developing your online strategy is to start simple: use a checklist of questions that ask yourself core factors that will dictate the success or failure of your marketing campaigns:
Which Channels are Most Beneficial for Your Business?
Among the most established and fundamental channels often included in an online marketing plan are search engine optimization, email marketing, and paid ads. Given the rise of relatively new fields of advertising, however, social and mobile marketing are increasingly becoming as important as SEO or email marketing. The most significant question is: what makes a certain channel more beneficial for your business in terms of return on investment? For instance:
- SEO encompasses local search - a very powerful method of search marketing for small to medium businesses, especially if they have physical locations.
- Email marketing is an effective lead nurturing tool, but without traffic that generates opt-ins you will only have a small population of subscribers.
- Social media marketing is widespread and helps greatly with branding efforts, but the sheer number of social platforms and their differences make even the simplest social media brand building efforts quite complicated. (see also our list of 50 social media sites for business)
How Much is Your Online Marketing Budget?
How much capital you can invest in an online marketing plan is a natural and practical consideration. While online marketing is relatively more affordable than traditional advertising such as via billboards and TV spots, you still need to know which marketing channels offer better prospective ROIs and which offer more efficient specific expenditure breakdowns. You'll find that the amount you could invest in a 30-second TV spot can accommodate more than one online marketing channel, but how will you be spending it? Some typical questions to brainstorm on include:
- Should you allot more to email marketing to nurture leads and drive repeat business through subscription services?
- Should you focus on discovery (as many start-ups do) and drive traffic through SEO while building up authority through blogging?
- Should you zoom in on social media marketing and go beyond free social network accounts by availing of paid social analytics and intelligence gathering?
These questions help you decide on budget allocation based on your preferred marketing channels. How much can you spend and on which areas will you be spending? Is the projected ROI per channel both attractive and realistic? You should also assess ROIs that are not financial in nature, e.g. traffic, lead generation, and brand influence.
Who are Your Target Audiences?
Choosing the channels to include in your online marketing plan and figuring out spending priorities go hand in hand, and in both fronts, you need to specify who you'll be doing it all for: your target audience. Are you a B2B or B2C company? Your approach on marketing will differ depending on your audience. The differences can be as general as choosing one marketing channel over another, or as specific as choosing one social networking platform over another.
Remember that it's best to go where your target market is - are they trying to search for goods and services using search engines? Are they always spending time on social media? Are they active on forums and blogs? Develop buyer personas that also define your target markets' most used online channels and meet them there.
When developing an online marketing plan, you need to focus on at least these three major criteria: marketing channels, budget allocation, and target market. These factors define the foundations upon which your entire online marketing efforts will be based.
We can help walk you through setting up your online marketing blueprint using our proven 6 step Relationship Marketing Strategy. If you are interested in a free online marketing assessment click below or feel free to contact our team anytime at 877-380-6698.
Comments