Most businesses don’t have a clear online marketing strategy, which is why they often work on piecemeal projects in the hope that it will drive conversions. The truth is that while short-term campaigns may work for the time being, they have no long-term value, which is exactly what you need in an Internet-entitled generation where almost everything is decided off the web. If you haven’t integrated online marketing into your plans, now is the time to do so. Here are some efforts to help you build a powerful online marketing strategy:
Hone In On Your Objectives
According to the SEO Shark the Sydney agency, online marketing objectives may sometimes differ from offline marketing objectives, so it is just as important to define them before you start anything. While short-term objectives may come and go, there must be an overarching objective based on which your entire online marketing mission is set. Here are some ideas to help you hone in on your objectives:
- What is the overall goal of your online marketing efforts? What are you looking to achieve in the long run?
- How does your online objective differ from your offline objective? And how can you bring the two together for overall success? In many cases, offline and online objectives are the same – they don’t always have to differ.
- How can online marketing strategies help to achieve your objectives?
Once you’re able to determine your business objectives, you will be in a stronger position to define specific campaign strategies to help achieve them.
Identify Your Online Marketing Budget
Your online marketing budget is an important factor when it comes to exploring different strategies to reach your goals. You must take stock of your resources so that you don’t end up overextending yourself. Consider the following:
- Keep track of how many key competitors are spending and on what channels – you can benchmark your budget against these spends.
- Research data on what online marketing channels have worked best for your industry and invest more in these areas, to begin with.
- Plan on using paid promotions like AdWords, social media ads and similar strategies to reach out to a wider audience – explore the costs of each of these channels and set them into your budget.
- Redirect spends from less successful tactics toward strategies that have proven to be more successful in the past.
- Consider how many campaigns you intend to run for the whole year, and allocate money and a timeframe to measure success.
Your online marketing budget will ultimately help to determine how much you want to spend and where you want to spend it.
Establish The Best Channels For Your Business
The online marketing spectrum is vast – and will only get bigger as more and more people use the web for their daily needs. There are so many channels to choose from. But it is important to keep in mind that not all of them are ideal for your business. You need to consider what works better than others:
- Review your existing online marketing channels and explore what is working and what isn’t – let go of the lesser successful ones and focus on the ones that are bringing you more business.
- Find channels that reach out to your target audience more than others if you haven’t already done so. For example, Facebook and Instagram ads may be ideal for tourism companies, but LinkedIn ads may be a better idea for B2B companies.
- Build KPIs for each channel you decide to go ahead with so that you are able to benchmark results and determine success.
- Create a monitoring plan that incorporates the KPIs you’ve set for each channel and measure success periodically.
Some channels may prove to be more successful than others for your business. Use this research to help you redirect your resources towards them.
To make sure your online marketing strategy is packing a powerful punch, you sometimes need to take a step back and review everything you’ve been doing. Don’t be afraid to cull out the activities that have proven to be less successful than others. You want any strategy to have a positive impact on your bottom line, so make sure you consider these efforts for your long-term gain.