Are you struggling with online marketing? We know you want more clients, better leads and more revenue, but did you know the secret to that is starting with a plan. Your random acts of marketing won’t lead to reliable revenue. You need a roadmap to guide your efforts, and we’ve created one for you. A well-thought-out plan not only helps you grow your business but also saves you time and effort in the long run.
We’ve used our framework over and over again to get results for our clients. In today’s Tech News Tuesday episode, we’re going to talk about three foundations of this framework that are key to success.
Alignment: Your Audience, Message and Offer
The first concept is Alignment. Your ideal client has to be aligned with the messaging you create and the product or service you offer. We are bombarded with messages all day long and are really good at tuning out anything we think is not relevant to us. So, understanding the type of business you want more of and who is the ideal client for this business is the first thing you need to do.
Start by defining a profile of your ideal client. Dive deep into their world – think geography, demographics, interests, lifestyle, goals, challenges, values, and how they consume information. Understand their pain points and aspirations, ensuring that your messaging strikes a chord with them.
Pro tip: Look at your best customers right now. What are their demographics, interests, lifestyles, goals, challenges, and values? Use this insight to refine your ideal client profile.
It can be helpful to think about your best customers right now and their characteristics, or even to identify the client you don’t want. Don’t waste time trying to attract those who don’t fit your ideal client profile. You’ll get other clients, but you don’t have to spend your time trying to attract them!
Build Your List
With all the constant changes in the social media and search platforms, you can’t afford to build your entire presence on rented land like social media! When Facebook and Instagram decide to show less information from people you follow, you are at their mercy. Instead, your goal with your social media, website and outreach should be to get those people on an email list so that you can continue to build relationships with them.
Your goal with social media, your website and outreach is to get those people on your email list. Don’t build your entire presence on rented land.
Think about digital marketing as building relationships with your customers. Email is a great way to build relationships as even today email marketing has the best deliverability and ROI of all the social channels. Your contacts are valuable. Make sure that person who found you one time on social media, will continue to hear from you.
Email marketing should include consistent, snack-sized content. Don’t make it a bigger project than it needs to be. There are things you’re doing everyday that your audience will find useful, informative or entertaining. Consistency is key here.
Create a Plan
Change the way you think about your marketing channels, and treat your online marketing as a whole with an overall plan. Stop treating your different marketing channels like silos. It’s perfectly fine and even desirable that the content on your website, in your social media, your email newsletter and wherever else you are communicating with your audience is consistent across all channels.
Stop thinking of your marketing channels in silos. Treat your online marketing as a whole.
Nobody has time to treat each platform separately and here’s where a plan can help. Reuse and repurpose your content. A single video can become a podcast, a blog post, short clips for social media, and content for your newsletter. Mapping it out on a calendar will help you be strategic and to consider the seasonal aspects of your business.
The best way to implement this plan is to get it on a calendar. If this seems overwhelming, remember to take small steps – they lead to big progress. But, you have to start! One of the most important points to take away is that consistency builds traction. People buy from those they know, like, and trust, and being consistent fosters that trust.
So, make sure you are speaking directly to your ideal client with your messaging, have a way to capture their information when you get their attention, and be consistent by using a plan and calendar so you are building relationships that lead to more customers.
Links in this episode: Digital Marketing Success Drivers
Don’t Make These Costly Digital Marketing Mistakes