It’s not really that hard to create an online marketing campaign. All you need is a good website, some goals, and a checklist of activities.
However, if you want to build online marketing campaigns that are profitable and sustainable, that’s a different matter altogether. That takes a degree of intention, focus, and even targeted expertise. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of online marketing plans that were either inadequate or doomed to fail because they didn’t have the right pieces in place, or skipped crucial steps.
Whether you are interested in working with me or not, I’d like to see your company avoid these all-too-common problems. So today, I’m going to give you a quick step-by-step primer on the best way to begin a sustainable online marketing campaign…
Start With a Realistic Game Plan
Newer marketers tend to make one of two crucial mistakes when it comes to promoting their businesses on the web: either they shoot for the moon and become discouraged and they can’t reach it, or set the bar so low that it doesn’t matter whether they reach their goals or not. It’s important to have targets that are both achievable and ambitious, with a firm deadline to reach them. This is an area where a good web designer can help you figure out what to shoot for.
Assign & Budget the Right Resources
Every successful online marketing campaign requires some kind of regular care and feeding. That can come in the form of money paid to a web designer or creative team, or through time invested by the business owner or company staff. In some situations, it might be a mixture of both. What matters is that you decide what time and money you can spend in the beginning, and then figure out how you can allocate both to meet those business goals you already set. Otherwise, you could find yourself being scattered, spread too thin, or distracted along the way.
Keep Creating New Content
No matter how you hope to attract customers to your website, creating content is going to be a big part of the formula. Search engine optimization and social media marketing, for example, tend to be almost entirely content-driven. So, once you’ve set a budget for time and money, put together an editorial calendar that you can follow. This will tell you which post or updates are coming next, who will be completing them, and where they will be published or shared. Then, all you have to do is keep executing your plan.
Watch Your Online Marketing Results Closely
I’m fond of reminding business owners that the online marketing process is never really completed. There are points where you launch a website, reach a goal, or revise your approach, but you don’t ever truly stop. That’s not a bad thing. It just means you should be getting together with your web designer regularly to see what kinds of results you’re getting online and then figure out how they can be improved going forward. You can’t get sharper until you know what’s going on, so keep a close eye on the statistics you get from your website.
As I’ve noted, creating a generic online marketing plan is easy. But, I would encourage you to follow the steps and build campaigns that will endure – and yield bigger and better results – in the months and years to come. It takes a little more work up front, but the payoff is well worth it.
Need a Philadelphia-based web design and online marketing partner who can keep your sales moving in the right direction? Contact Biondo Creative today to set up a free consultation and website review!