By now, if your business doesn’t have a digital or social media marketing strategy, you’re falling way behind the trend and most likely even hurting your business. Whether the reasoning for not having a proper strategy is a lack of time, lack of resources or dedicated effort, or lack of knowledge, it needs to change—and quickly—so your business can compete online.
If you’re new to the world of digital marketing, it can seem quite overwhelming and frankly, scary. There is no doubt there’s a lot to learn, and it requires regular effort, but once you’ve got the basics and have a general presence online, you’re already off to a great start. The first place to start is to build a good website for your business if you haven’t already. Good doesn’t mean complex – it means reliable, fast loading, and easy to navigate. Find a quality hosting service like Krystal.uk, build your site yourself with an easy web builder like Wix, and write copy that’s short and to the point.
The next step is to get some social media channels up and running based on where your target audience spends their time. Make sure to choose a branded profile picture and username and stay fairly active by posting content yourself and engaging with users and other brands.
These steps can seem complex, but when you look at it closely and break it all down, it’s actually easier than you might think, and here’s why.
There are a lot of resources out there
Gone are the days when it was absolutely necessary to go to university or a specialized school to learn a new skill. Digital marketing is no exception. With so many marketing gurus and knowledgeable voices sharing their insights and wisdom online, it’s easy to learn what you need to do to plan out a marketing strategy from top to bottom.
Look up online blogs that focus on digital marketing strategies, like Social Media Examiner and Hubspot, and read as much as you can. They break down common practices into easy-to-digest guides and give real-world examples that you can apply to your own business. Additionally, there are plenty of marketers, entrepreneurs, and agencies who are sharing their secrets, tips, and tricks on their own blogs as well.
You can break down your strategy into smaller chunks
There are seven categories of digital marketing, which at first glance may seem like a lot, but you don’t have to learn them and perfect them all at once. The main categories are:
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Search engine marketing (SEO/SEM)
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
As long as you’ve established yourself on social media in some capacity, are regularly or semi-regularly pushing out content to your audience that they want to see, and are optimizing your website with keywords your target market is using to search, you’re on track.
If you’ve got budget for ad campaigns, the easiest way to handle PPC advertising is to hire an agency or marketer to run lean campaigns for you (unless you’re willing to learn and test different strategies, which could take a lot of time and money). Everything else can be learned over time, and the more you use it, the easier it will get.
