Every business owner wants a profitable online marketing strategy. Who wouldn’t? When you have leads and sales coming from the internet your business runs smoothly and efficiently. And when you aren’t finding customers online you are at a big disadvantage to your peers and competitors.
It’s one thing to want that strategy, though, and another thing to have it in place. In our business we meet lots of owners and entrepreneurs who have stopped and started many times, often because they never achieved the kind of success they were hoping for. They don’t know what works so they end up doing lots of little things, or following the latest fads, and then getting frustrated when things don’t work out.
From a strategic point of view, online marketing isn’t all that complicated. In fact, there is a predictable blueprint you can follow to success and profitability. In today’s post we are going to break down each of the steps briefly. Let’s jump in.
Everything Starts With a Plan
Your online marketing plan shouldn’t just be a list of activities you want to try. You need a strategy that takes you from where you are now to the kind of business you are trying to build in the coming months.
From there, you can take that strategy and turn it into an actionable plan – one that involves daily habits, concrete steps, and even delegated tasks. This is a crucial part of the process that lots of business owners miss. You aren’t looking to create a wish list, but rather a roadmap that gets you from your current situation to the bottom-line outcome you need to create.
Without a plan your online marketing tactics are bound to lead to disappointment. So don’t begin changing or doing things until you know how you’re going to move forward in the weeks or months to come.
Preparation Is Key
You may not realize it, but successful online marketing is often about getting the foundations and fundamentals right. Not only do you need a plan and strategy, but you also have to have the right pieces in place to execute on your vision.
For example, if your website is outdated and has broken links or isn’t mobile-friendly, then producing lots of content isn’t going to help you with search engine optimization or social media marketing. You want to have the basic tools you need. Likewise, you could need a better email delivery system, or a piece of software that allows you to monitor your online reputation. These can be necessary to see the ROI from all the online activity you are scheduling.
Talk to your creative team about a website audit, along with any tools or upgrades you might need. Most are very inexpensive, and they can make a huge difference in the long-term profitability of your company.
Get the Ball Rolling With Focus and Execution
Once you have a plan, and the basics of online marketing are in place, then it’s time to get to work. But the key words here are focus and execution. In other words, it’s not just about activity.
Too many business owners, in their excitement to start seeing new leads or sales arrive, begin with a flurry of activity that quickly dies off. They try everything for a week or two. That’s not what we want you to do. Instead, we would advise you to be very focused on your efforts. Stick to the reasonable plan you put together with your web designer and keep it up. It’s far better to be consistent over several months than it is to do a lot for a few days and then give up.
A lot of online marketing tactics take a while to pay off. Focus on what you know you can do, and on the ideas that are likely to generate the highest return on your investment. Then just keep going.
You Can Use Numbers to Improve
If you only managed to follow the tips we have given so far you would already be far ahead of most of your peers. However, we don’t want you to stop there because the real magic comes when you begin to make smart adjustments to your plan as you go.
You can get together with your web designer to study the analytics from your site (not to mention email accounts, social profiles, etc.) and see what is or isn’t working for you over time. Even better, you can start to make small tweaks to your strategy. You might add a new campaign, stop pouring time and money into a certain type of ad, etc. Over time, these little incremental improvements can double or triple your return.
What matters most in this process is that your decisions are driven by real data and not just gut instincts. That allows you to gradually improve your business quarter after quarter.
The Best Campaigns Build Over Time
As your online marketing campaigns grow more profitable and effective you might decide to try new things. For example, you could add online video to your marketing mix, experiment with a different offer as part of your pay-per-click ads, or segment your email list into different groups.
These are just examples, but they point to a bigger notion: that you can grow over time as results and resources add up. This kind of expansion is organic and sustainable. It’s not something you’re doing in the short term as a quick fix; instead, it’s the natural extension of all the effort you put in to reach this point.
The best online marketing campaigns build and grow over time. As more information comes in, the marketer and his or her team get better insights to work with. That leads to more sales, which adds more money to the budget, and so on. Eventually, you end up in a situation where your business is growing by leaps and bounds… and your colleagues or competitors can’t catch up.
Need an Internet Marketing Plan That Fits Your Business?
You could take the plan we have outlined in this post and apply it to your business, but it gets a lot easier when you have the right expertise to work with. That’s why our team of web designers, online marketing professionals, and business growth specialists can help you unlock faster and stronger returns.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and see how we can help!