Digital marketing has been a growing trend for well over 5 years now. Whether you advertise on Google, Facebook, or one of the other popular digital platforms, there are a few important steps you should take before clicking the "On" button!
Keep reading to learn more!
Step #1: Perform a Brand Analysis
ALL of my marketing strategies begin with this step.
Why?
Because an effective brand analysis will tell you everything you need to know about your organization in order to set realistic goals and develop truly customized strategies. A brand analysis is what shapes your messaging and the impact you have on your employees as well as your customers and prospects. Our team ALWAYS performs this step before we begin discussing the digital marketing channels we will use for advertising.
What does a brand analysis reveal?
A brand analysis will reveal many things about your brand. From the visual characteristics like colors, fonts, and logos... to the physical and emotional impact your brand has on your employees and customers. When we perform a brand analysis we also analyze past marketing campaigns, messaging, and the actions you want prospects to take when they see your ads. These are the building blocks of a great strategy!
Step #2: Have A Website Or Landing Page Funnel
It's rare for a business not to have a website nowadays... however, it's not uncommon for a business to have an outdated website. This is a problem!
Your website is your digital doorstep, it's where new leads will be funneled as they click on your ads. It's also where they will judge your trustworthiness and first impression. Much like a brick-and-mortar store, your first impression can make or break you. It takes a person less than 5 seconds to determine if your brand is right for them simply based on your website.
Some Key Elements of a Succesful Website / Landing Page
Look & Feel - Your funnel page must match your brand identity and message. When prospects click a digital ad, they expect the funnel page to speak the same language and make the same offer as the ad; this experience should be seamless.
Mobile-Friendly - The vast majority of prospects will be accessing your website or landing page via a mobile device. Make sure your page is compatible or else you will lose leads and be downgraded by search engines such as Google.
Calls To Action - Your website should include a ton of calls-to-action; make it easy for prospects to get to your contact form; utilize buttons and long-format pages.
Step #3: Prepare Your Sales Process
Our team is extremely consistent when it comes to getting results via digital marketing. However, the true measure of success for digital campaigns is how well your business is able to convert leads to sales; this is also called the conversion rate.
When we build digital marketing campaigns, we are mainly focused on converting fresh leads to sales (i.e. having a high conversion rate). There's nothing worse than having a highly-effective digital advertising campaign that gets derailed when it reaches the sales process.
Some common sales process issues are:
Bottle Necks - Too many leads and not enough resources to handle them.
Poor Follow Up - Failing to follow up on new leads.
No Measurement - Not collecting data on good/bad leads makes it difficult to optimize ad campaigns.
How do you optimize your sales process?
Everything you do should be goal-oriented, including your sales process. If your overall goal is to achieve more form fills on your website, your team should have a process to collect new leads, input their information into your CRM platform (if applicable), and follow up in a timely manner.
You should also have a process for eliminating and recording bad leads as well as tracking leads from acquisition to sale. Maintaining accurate lead data allows our team to optimize your campaigns to reach the best prospects.
Digital marketing is an exciting and powerful tool your business can use to gain more leads and make more sales. But in order to be effective, you must start by dialing in the basics. Not only will the process above lead to better leads and more sales, but it will help you get in touch with your brand on a much deeper level.
Daniel Marr is a Marketing Strategist and Director of Business Development for NWPC Marketing Solutions, a team of marketing experts dedicated to helping you achieve your goals and BOOST your brand! Our awesome team strives to build effective marketing strategies by working side-by-side with businesses as advisors and consultants.