As many know I have always been a big proponent of creating a comprehensive marketing strategy where the digital part, is just that apart.  So in this week’s podcast, we go through and unpack what that should look like and what you should be focusing on to set up a long-term sustainable strategy.

What Business is NOT Doing When It Comes to Digital Marketing.

So sometimes it’s good to start in a place that highlights what we are not doing. There are 10 things that business owners don’t do or overlook.

1. Really understand who your customer is first and foremost. Then think about who you want them to be. The reason I break that in two is that although imaging where you want to go is important for success; not understanding where you are can be a huge hurdle to growth
   
2. Know what your analytics say. Understand your cost of lead acquisition.
   
3. Develop an email mailing list
   
4. Create a sustainable marketing budget
   
5. Using social media as a billboard rather than a strategy.
   
6. Keep databases clean
   
7. Choosing the wrong vendor
   
8. Automate everything you can.
   
9. Stand out and be the expert
   
10. Being flexible and being willing to pivot as needed
    

Understanding the Sales Funnel on Your Website

We hear a lot about funnels and how we should build them. And in the internet marketing clinic, we talk a lot about how to gain traffic to a website but equally important is how that traffic matriculates to sales.  I think a lot of what we talk about in this the Internet Marketing Clinic the top of the funnel. How to get people into your sales process. But we are going to challenge each of our business owners to start looking at the next steps from traffic

We see a lot of inbound marketing tactics, meaning offering folks something to get them to give you their contact information. Long term we should all have that goal. Either through education (white papers, webinars) chat or social media we need to encourage our end users to tell us who they are so we can continue to reach out and interact with them. It will take 17-23 touches before someone does business with you. So, part of our funnel goals should be to create ways to do that.

We fish for clients with a big net and that is how internet marketing has been taught for many years, but we need to consider funnel and conversion actions.

Who has a plan for client acquisition?

This is something that we really overlook with our websites. Everything you do should be geared around making sure you create an environment and a marketing plan to acquire customers. Your business should have a very strong digital footprint as well as a strong traditional plan. Both work together to maximize your business. Your SEO should not be the only thing driving your business.  You should never be a one-trick pony when it comes to marketing yet so many business owners fall into a trap of when something works never expanding outside of that path.

What is your Business’ Value Proposition?

Experience says that most companies cannot define their value proposition to a prospective client. When you cannot do this, and you don’t have someone asking the right questions, you cannot drive messaging right.  The messaging is not clear to prospective clients and therefore makes it very difficult for them to start to move down the funnel and move towards doing business with you. People know what to expect when they do business with Amazon or other big brands. But how do you convey that? This is more of a thought provocation rather than something I am going to answer. As a business owner, it is imperative that you define your value proposition for your clients.

Are you Consistent with Web Site?

Both your clients and Google start to look for consistency in what they can expect from you or your business.  Feeding Google also feeds your clients and your social media properties that start to build a consistent footprint for your business. That consistency serves a few masters. One you are reinforcing your brand. You are touching potential clients multiple times and you are showing that you are a ‘real’ businesses that can be depended on.

Set Goals for Your Performance

Goals are interesting. When you set them, you tend to try to beat them. If you don’t you will find yourself walking along at a steady pace. Google also wants you to set goals or conversions. This helps you to better understand what your website is doing, plus it allows them to understand what you consider a win. Remember analytics is not statistics so it helps them to better analyze traffic and if it is meeting your goals.

Use Social Media Properly.

The great misunderstanding for business owners is what is the proper use of a social media platform in reference to your business.  This should be a priority for small business owners. Its important to put yourself in front of the right clients and prospects rather than scattershotting. Yes, build your brand and let it support you. Have a footprint in all places, but make sure that footprint is right for the medium.

Know and Understand the Content on Your Website

Familiarize yourself with the items on your website and understand how they perform. In doing this you can better monetize a page of content. If traffic is coming, make sure there is a corresponding product offer or call to action to support your efforts. If there is a page that is not working at all, revisit it to find out why or what that page is doing. And of course, repurpose all of your content thought-out all theppropriate social media channels.

There are many different things to review to be better in ’22. In our class video, we go into multiple topics that will help you build a better marketing plan for the new year.