Digital Marketing 101

A friend and I were chatting about his business and he asked for my help in clarifying how he could do a better job of using digital marketing. Now while I’m not in the business of providing free consulting services, I figured I owed him at least a quick overview since I’d eaten a lot of his food over the years (and probably even more of his wine). Besides, I’m getting a blog post out of it, right?

We spent minute clarifying his business goals – what things did he want to improve and how could he make that happen? I asked him to tell me about his typical customers – personas in marketing terms – so we could focus his efforts a bit. I asked him to think about any research he had, customer lists, analytics, or even just his own impressions. Those two steps – goals and targets – lay the foundation for the marketing plan.

Next, we went through his current assets. Not the financial kind you’d find on a balance sheet. Instead, we filled out the three buckets of media – owned, earned, and paid. The first are things that are yours: your website, your social media profiles, a blog if you have one, etc. The second – earned media – are things that have been written about you – reviews, PR, word of mouth, etc. The third bucket is pretty obvious: what you are paying for at the moment, and includes things such as Search Engine Marketing, paid ads on social, etc.

After that comes the plan itself. I know that seems obvious but only about a third of businesses have a formal digital marketing plan. We talked about his business cycles and creating a marketing calendar that coincides with his needs. We put together a quick outline of a plan that listed priorities and the best channels to reach his target at the right time. Most important, we talked about how to measure the results and the need to adjust as you go. I stressed that measurement of things irrelevant to the goals we outlined was a waste of time.

I realize I just summarized an hour’s conversation in a post that took you a few minutes to read. I don’t mean to make all of this sound simple – it’s not –  but then again, what part of your business is? I can tell you that if you follow the process outlined above you’ll be a lot further along than many of your competitors. And, of course, I’m here to help if you need it!