I talk to business owners all the time who claim “Digital Marketing doesn’t work”, they’ll also complain about Email Marketing or LinkedIn Marketing and many other flavours of digital marketing.
Here’s the funny thing though, I also know savvy business owners who are making digital marketing work for them, I mean really using it to make a phenomenal difference in their business.
(As a side note, we also have it working for us, our next event is selling out and 88% of the tickets so far were sold by Email or Facebook)
The real question is: What separates those that have it working and driving sales and those who don’t….
The secret sauce is having a digital marketing strategy, actually having a plan of how all the pieces of your digital marketing fit together. Let’s run through the ABC’s of your digital marketing strategy:
A. Know Your Stats
The business owners who have a digital marketing strategy know their stats, they know how many opt ins they get from their marketing – i.e. what percentage of people opt in from a landing page.
They also review their stats, they know whether Facebook or Twitter is a more significant source of their traffic and sales. To some it sounds boring, but it works. That which is measured, and managed, improves!
(Plus of course you don’t have to do it yourself, you can get a team member or hire an external company to do it for you)
Now that we’ve got the first, perhaps a little boring bit, out of the way (sorry about that!) let’s dig into the more interesting aspects of your digital marketing strategy.
B. Plan + Simple and Repeatable Key Tactics
The next building block is creating a written plan of your digital marketing strategy and the right tactics to make it happen.
Here is where the rubber meets the road, where will the traffic come from, what will the foreplay process look like, how will conversion happen. As you can guess this is where most individuals fail to achieve impact and here’s why:
1. There are no traffic tactics.
Whether it’s paid ads, SEO or partnering, you need solid tactics to get you traffic. Traffic is the lifeblood of your digital marketing, without it you are dead in the water.
2. There is no Foreplay
Every buyer is at a stage in their journey, the last stage of that journey is actually plonking down the cash and buying. Most businesses are saying: “Buy My Stuff”. This is not foreplay, and misses 97% of the market – they’re gone!
Of course you want to give people the ability to buy – and this does depend on your traffic tactics – but if you don’t have different options for people at different phases of the buyer’s journey you will miss the opportunity to capitalise on the majority of them.
(I could spend hours on this aspect of digital marketing, but that will wait for another day)
3. No Conversion Process
Whether it’s a well crafted email sequence, or a webinar, or [shock, horror] someone picking up the phone and calling them, there usually is little thought and no process for how a potential client will go from a Looky Lou to a Buying Bill.
Chances are you already know what they need from your experience offline, but it’s taking that process that you do in person, and putting it in a digital format that trips many business owners up.
Conversion is a key piece of the puzzle, from getting people to opt in to your database, through to getting them to invest the money in what you have to offer. Ask yourself this question honestly: how much do you know about copywriting, engaging content, and salesmanship in digital form?
C. Engaging is the Key
The final piece in the puzzle of the ABC’s of your Digital Marketing Strategy is engagement. Without engaging your audience you’re stopped dead and going nowhere.
Again this is where many people struggle, it’s hard to stand out in a saturated marketplace. But you must stand out….
With over 3000 marketing messages hitting us every day, yours has to stand out, grab them immediately and get them to go “What’s that about????”.
To do this you really have to know your target clients and what they like and don’t like. The truth is if you want to get someone’s attention, you have to know what they give a damn about – and what they don’t. This is where tapping into their emotions, telling powerful stories, and really working to make your content pop and stand out really makes the difference.
So what do you need to work on?
Which of the ABC’s of your Digital Marketing Strategy do you need to work on? Which one will make the biggest difference to your marketing and sales?
