Spring is here and this means is time to get down-and-dirty with your spring cleaning. We’re going to make things easy for you, rather than cleaning out your closets – we want you to focus on spring cleaning your digital marketing strategy.
Just as your closets gradually become cluttered and crowded, the same thing can easily happen to your digital marketing strategy. Think of all the different online tools you had the best of intentions of using over this past year. But, somehow, you gradually lost interest in these tools and forgot that you even created accounts.
We’ll just take a guess and suggest you’ve got some (or all) of these tools in your cluttered digital marketing strategy closet:
- Instagram. You opened an account, posted a few photos, and even played around with stories. You picked up a few followers and followed all of your friends.
- Blog. You read that having a blog is a great way to establish your position as a leader in your market. You wrote a couple of blogs but realized it takes a lot of work to write interesting and engaging content.
- Newsletter. You subscribe to a lot of newsletters and they’re excellent. You learn so much from these that you decided to create your own newsletter. The problem is that writing the content, creating a good layout, and then sending the newsletter out regularly quickly became time-consuming.
- Twitter. Tweets are great, write a catchy sentence or two and press Tweet. People follow you and sometimes someone even responds to your Tweet. But it’s really difficult to think of unique and engaging things to Tweet about.
- YouTube Channel. Your teenaged kids love watching YouTube videos. In fact, they’ve even bought items based on YouTube videos and reviews. Perfect, you created a YouTube Channel and took a stab at recording your own promotional videos. But, geez video recording is not easy.
- Facebook. Ah, Facebook, it’s so easy to get sucked in to reading and commenting on status updates and clicking links. You follow your favorite brands and companies so it only makes sense that your company has a Facebook page as well. However, it’s hard to get people to like your Facebook page.
Yes, at first glance, digital marketing looks straight-forward and simple. However, as you and many other people have realized – successful digital marketing takes work – a lot of work. Suddenly you were spending your time trying to maintain your social media accounts, thinking of and writing blog content, and trying to run your business. We haven’t even mentioned the website updates you should be doing regularly.
So, now what? What is the best way to start in cleaning up your digital presence and transforming it from a jumble of wayward accounts to a proven marketing strategy? The bull in the china shop approach is not going to work here – you tried this already, instead we want you to think like a turtle and take a slow and measured approach.
What is Digital Marketing?
Before we get too deep into talking digital marketing, let’s take a step back and define digital marketing. This way, we’re on the same page and know that we’re thinking and talking about the same thing.
Digital marketing is the term us strategists use to encompass all of the digital and online components that comprise a marketing strategy. Digital marketing happens completely online, using tools and techniques such as social media, your website and blog, newsletters and email campaigns, videos and YouTube, SEO, and keyword strategy.
There is a perception that because digital marketing happens online, it must be easy to do. But, as you and so many other companies have learned, just like traditional old-school marketing, digital marketing takes real knowledge and skills.
How To Refresh Your Digital Marketing Strategy
We highlighted some of the most common digital marketing tools and approaches that many people get excited about but quickly abandon after realizing the work involved. Just like that black sweater you found in the back of your closet that is now your new favorite, we want you to do the same with your discarded digital tools.
It all comes down to having a plan and knowing how you’re going to use the tools and accounts you have ready and waiting for you.
- Instagram. The good news is you have an account, so the hard part is done. Plan to post to Instagram twice a week. Agreed, it’s not a lot but we want you to start slowly. One post should drive traffic to your website and the other can be a photo or article that resonates with your demographic. Remember to respond to comments on your Instagram posts. Don’t worry about the stories – this is an advanced tactic for later when you’ve got an established Instagram presence.
- Blog. Your blog is one of the best tools you have for establishing industry authority and building a consistent online presence. Think about your product or service and your market – now brainstorm topics that you’d like to read about. Think about questions your customers have asked in the past – these make great blog topics. We want you to blog every week. Yes, every week. Plan out your blog posts including detailed outlines, this makes it easier to sit down and write. Remember your SEO and keywords, but please don’t get into keyword stuffing.
- Newsletter. Take a step back from the newsletter. Frankly, the newsletter only works if you’ve got a good list of email addresses for your customers, suppliers, and other interested people. In order to have newsletter content, you need consistent blog posts, website updates, and social media traffic. So put the newsletter on the backburner for now – you’ll be busy enough anyway.
- Twitter. One Tweet per day please. Yes, just one. Tweet a link to your blog post. Tweet a link to your product page, about page, or any other page on your website. Tweet articles that are helpful to your customers. Please remember to respond to any Tweets sent to your account. The key to Twitter is that it’s a social platform – your customers might even use your Twitter account to ask questions about your product, refund policy, etc.
- YouTube Channel. A YouTube Channel can work – for the right product or service and right company. It takes a lot of work to produce videos that people want to watch. We suggest that if you really do want to have an active YouTube Channel, you outsource this work to a trusted company. It’s better to not have YouTube videos than to have bad videos…
- Facebook. One Facebook post per day is what you need. Good post content can come from your blogs, website updates, articles that resonate with your customers, and sharing any events (such as conferences) that you’ll be attending. Just like Twitter, Facebook is a social platform. This means you have to respond to comments and messages. Make sure your Facebook about details are up-to-date – with a correct website address, email address, etc. Most people will turn to Facebook first as their method of contacting you.
We’re not going to hide from the truth here – making your digital marketing strategy work isn’t easy. It takes a lot of heavy lifting and attention to detail. Remember you have to stay up-to-date with changing SEO and keywords, and of course any changes to Google search algorithms and how search engine results are displayed.
Now, we’re not going to just leave you alone and wish you luck! Nope, we’re here for you – contact us with your digital marketing strategy questions, read our blog to learn more about SEO and digital marketing, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date with what we’re doing and sharing.
