Do you have a marketing strategy for your business?
If you don’t, get one.
If you have, check carefully if it’s really the right marketing plan that works for you.
Maybe you did some digging around and found out about another business’ marketing strategies and considered using these, for your own.
Terrible mistake.
Marketing tactics are never a one-size-fits-all thing.
What works for one business may not work for you
In this post I will show you 5 successful marketing platforms and the framework you need to embody for long term success in your business.
Begin with Some Questions to Build a Great Online Marketing Plan
Consider your personal and business plans when deciding on the right marketing objectives to set in place.
You need to ask yourself BIG questions like...
Why all these kind of questions?
Digital marketing is SO powerful that, if you do not have these big questions answered, you can have huge financial success but hate the lifestyle that you have forced yourself into.
And you have different lifestyle dreams and goals than the other Chiropractors, Car Dealerships, Counselors, etc.
You are unique and that is why there is no such thing as a marketing plan that’s the same for all businesses.
So right from the start, you gotta know what you want, what is your marketing strategy working towards?
Business marketing strategies arise from a special unique need.
And no one should start telling you what to do without knowing where you are in your business.
Digital Marketing Strategies and Marketing Objectives Priorities
You can’t just focus on one platform and stay there forever because it used to work.
Is your Facebook Page engagement lower than what it was only 1 year ago?
You need to be on various platforms and adapt based on what is generating a profitable ROI of your money and time.
Here are Five Marketing Strategy Fundamentals a Healthy marketing plan needs to embody:
1. Email Marketing
Email marketing is number one on purpose!
Every business needs to have an email marketing strategy. That is if you want the cheapest, highest yielding, and most valuable online marketing strategy available to you.In fact, if you are currently not building your email list, and you paid someone to build your website, or you have an existing agency that you are paying monthly, BUT there’s no email marketing plan going on, get rid of these people NOW!
We are your email capture pros grow your most valuable digital asset, an effective email marketing plan.And guess what? Up to 40 percent of your website traffic will give you their email address, your best lead because they found you, if what you’re offering them is more valuable to them than holding their email address from you.
See, it works this way.
Tomorrow, the phone book is as good as ancient, Facebook ad prices might quadruple in price, you may get your Facebook account banned for some reason, or Google AdWords might make a huge shift and no longer be effective, Instagram might have a huge shift and punish business pages reach, or myspace might not be the thing anymore (wait that one already happened).
These things can fade away and lose their power, but email addresses are an asset that you OWN. It is the difference in renting a physical location for your business, and owning it. Renting is fine and good, until it is not.Once you have your customers’ or prospects’ email, you can date them on and on until they are ready to buy. The game plan is to keep them opening your email and have more confidence and trust in you… Confident enough to want to buy your stuff.And we LOVE and are GREAT at this most valuable marketing strategy.
2. A Website Marketing Strategy
Why is website marketing higher on the list than Social Media?
Same reason email marketing is more important than a website.
You own your website and not your Facebook page.
A website is the craziest of powerful tools available in an online marketing strategy.
People can find you just by searching a few words on Google, you can create landing pages to send specific ad traffic to, upsell/downsell with a sales and marketing funnel, re-target prior visitors on other websites and social media platforms, be the place to schedule appointments with you, and write super helpful stuff to share with your social media fans and email list, just to name a few!
Growing a website is a lot different than building one and that is the fundamental difference in having an effective website marketing strategy.
Most businesses build a website, leave it to collect dust for a few years, then when they think the design needs an up-do, they build a new one to repeat the process a few years later.
Wrong.
The shift you need to embace in your website strategy is what you already do with your social media pages.
You don’t stick up a few photos, posts, and an about section then 3-years later do it again on Facebook…
You build a good enough place to start from, then add posts, pictures, videos, and special offers to it every week.
This is how you need to approach your website strategy as well.
Delegate to an employee to write a post every week about something related to your business, or answering a common question you get from the majority of your clients.
Change the home page based on what you are featuring in your business, create a seasonal popup that gives tips specific to your clientle they need to implement right now to make their air conditioner better.
Build a specific landing page to send your Facebook traffic, Instagram fans, print advertising, and digital advertising campaigns to. None of this sending everybody to your homepage that is not the most relevant place to send certain traffic to for the highest results.
Or best, create a keyword plan with keyword/SEO experts and start chasing more keyword search phrases that will increase visits to your alive, not dead, website.
3. YouTube and Podcasts
Digital marketing has changed, heck marketing is a completely different animal now.
The research power that is the hands of your customers is ridiculous.
They do not see a flyer or one ad and then make a purchase anymore.
The current state is a customer needs 7-touch points with you before they will make a purchasing decision.
YouTube videos and Podcasts are a great place to get these touch points from.
And why YouTube and Podcasts are more important than social media is because they are searchable platforms.
What do you do when you need a How-To?
You search the question.
When your video answers questions your customers are asking, when your podcasts provide the inspiration your customers need and they consume that content
You are establishing a know, like, and trust in you with these points of contact (touch points).
Grow your reach, create engaged fans of you with YouTube videos and Podcasts.
Oh, and I’m not talking about, buy my product videos, or reviews of your service videos.
I’m talking about genuine, helpful, adding value to your customers day kind of content.
4. Online Advertising Strategy
Facebook ads and Google ads, which is best?
Depends…
Facebook ads power is making a very educated guess on who you are showing your ad and it costs less than Adwords most of the time.
Adwords power is you 100% know what search phrases the searcher on Google is putting in that your ad will show to.
Another place in a successful marketing strategy that you have to test, adapt, and analyze.
Run both and see which one generates more cash flow for you with the least amount of effort.
Do sales advertising campaigns but do not overlook the power of lead generation only campaigns.
Remember the 7-touch point thing?
With an effective lead generation campaign you can effortlessly get those 7-touch points through email marketing a new lead.
Additionally with a lead campaign you are giving them something for free in exchange for their email.
If this lead magnet rocks, really helps them solve a problem or enhances their life in some other way, you have already delivered an experience to your lead.
In as little as the amount of time it takes for them to read your guide or watch your video.
Study up on copy-writing, write an effective ad, generate hot leads and sales with an online advertising strategy.
5. Social Media Marketing Plan
Ahhh, social media.
Another place in society that is playing manipulation games to suck you in and spend more time on their platform, so they can show you more ads.
It is Network Television on crack.
This is a Fundamental you must know and understand when you place content on social media platforms.
The social media platforms goal is to keep “their customers” on their platform as long as they can.
And your goal is to get “their customers” off of the social media platform and onto your website, phone, or sales funnel so you can make money.
Your business goals are fundamentally in opposition to the Social Media’s business goals.
What do you do?
You don’t let this stress you out, you just take it for what it is that social media is a very powerful piece of your marketing strategy but know that yours and their interests are in opposition.
So don’t get mad at Facebook for crushing Business Pages posts reach anymore.
If your posts help the Social media platform with their goal you will be rewared and if you do not, they will be less adapt to show your stuff.
Go to the Social Platform that your best customers are and will be on in the future
Just because you prefer Pinterest better than Instagram does not mean that your customers feel the same way.
Know who your best customer is and research social media demographics to make sure that you are fishing in the right pond.
Look at Facebook trend demographic data, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and figure out which one is best for you to spend your valuable time on.
This might surprise you but there is a clear answer to which social media platform is the most valuable, take the quiz to see if you get the right answer.
The Fundamental Framework You Need to Own in Your Marketing Strategy
Speaking of marketing strategy…
We built our agency’s name on the two Fundamentels you need to ensure are permeated in your digital marketing strategy.
Fluid and Frame
Fluid, able to flow and adjust easily
Trying out new marketing strategies, testing and throwing out old ones that don’t work anymore, shifting your social media presence to a differnet platform, launching an ad and changing it based on relevance scores, lead generation, and sales.
Hold everything in your marketing plan with an open hand, no closed fists.
If your awesome idea does not resonate with your customers, throw it out.
IConversely if someone has an idea you think sucks, give it a whirl and let the market tell you if it was a good idea or bad idea. You never know!
Frame - the Why you do everything in your Marketing Strategy has to be focused on selling stuff
Don’t just write posts, put pictures on Instagram, stick videos on Facebook to fill up your pages and content.
Continually have at the forefront of your mind, What is the goal of this post? How is it helping Suzy work through the stages of prospect awareness? Does it fit in where I want my business to be 6-months from now? Or pushing away from that goal to make a buck today?
Have fun and do silly stuff on Facebook every once in a while for sure, but your overall marketing strategy needs to be intentional and directed, because if it is not
Implement A First Step In Your Marketing Strategy Today
Reading and learning about Marketing Strategies will not make you money.
You have to just start.
If you already have a website, write a post for it.
If you have a YouTube channel, make a video.
Help your best customer with your piece of content, don’t try to sell them something.
Give them something that will help their day, today.
Help them with a problem they are experiencing right now, a tip they need to implement right now, an encouragement they need to hear right now.
If you have an email list already, ABSOLUTELY do this for your email list.
Write a quick email to a friend that represents who your best customer looks like.
Open your Gmail, write your friend the email, and hit send.
Then copy that sent email, drop it in mailchimp, EXACTLY how you wrote it to a friend, and hit send.
Don’t change the ending to, we have a sale starting Friday on massages, just send them something that will help their day, like your friends day.
If you begin this writing to a friend that is a similar representation to your best customer, that is the single thing that will guide every piece of content in your marketing strategy.
Don’t be a business person, the 90’s are long gone.
Be a mentor and helpful advisor in all of your marketing strategy and sell more stuff!