Looking to expand your business? Are you a brand new entrant into the world of marketing or do you already have a busy schedule but want to see more of what your brand is made of?
A marketing plan is a must for any business that wants to grow. From growing your company to attracting and keeping customers, a marketing strategy is essential to helping your business grow.
If you’re just getting started with your marketing plan, that’s great. But what if you’re the kind of business owner who has a normal day job but also runs a business as a side hustle, or runs a small marketing company?
If that’s you, too, then you’re in luck. Digital marketing is for everyone who likes to get their hands on a keyboard and a computer. In this blog post, we’ll take you through the basics of digital marketing, so that you can get started on the right foot.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing that happens online. It can be on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as your website. Digital channels such as these allow you to reach your target audience, even if they’re not all online at the same time.
Why does digital marketing matter?
No matter what type of business you have, whether you sell cars or ice cream, having a digital marketing plan is essential to growing your business. Digital marketing can help you:
– Grow your business by expanding your reach and increasing the number of potential customers you reach
– Attract new customers by creating memorable and useful content that people want to read and engage with
– Keep current customers by providing valuable offers and discounts
– Grow your business’s referral business with rewarding referral links and earn more sales from your current customers
– Give your brand a boost in search engine results by creating high-quality content on a variety of topics related to your brand
– Drive more traffic to your site by encouraging click-through-rate (CTR) and improving your site’s ranking in search results
Benefits of Digital Marketing
Now that we’ve gone over what digital marketing is, and why it’s important to grow your business, let’s take a look at the benefits of digital marketing.
Should You Have a Digital Marketing Plan?
Before we talk about how to make your plan work for you, let’s get this out of the way. The answer to this question varies on your goals and needs. If you’re a brand new business owner, then you don’t need a detailed digital marketing plan. All you need to do is understand where you’re starting and take it from there.
If you’re an experienced digital marketer who wants some guidance on how to run a successful digital marketing campaign, then you can find a detailed digital marketing plan useful. But for the average business owner, a general overview of how you plan to grow your business is enough.
3 Steps to Take Right Now to Set Up Your Marketing Strategy
To get you started, here are 3 steps you can take today to set up your marketing strategy.
– Define your goals
– Create a content strategy
– Set up your social media accounts
– Create a blog
– Target your audience with ads
– Measure your results
3 Steps to Take After You’ve Set Up Your Strategy
Once you’ve defined your goals, drawn up your content strategy, and set up your social media accounts, it’s time to take care of some business. Once you have a marketing strategy, the next logical step is to test it.
Tracking Your Results: Should You Have a Digital Marketing Plan?
We mentioned earlier that digital marketing is for everyone who likes to get their hands on a keyboard and a computer. So, if you’ve just got your fingers crossed and are willing to try everything possible to make your marketing plan a success, then you don’t need a detailed digital marketing plan.
After all, you’re only going to be using a computer and a mobile device (no printed materials) most of the time, so there’s no need for a long list of metrics to track. You can simply look at your social media and email traffic, and see how your marketing strategy is working for you.
Wrapping Up: Should You Have a Digital Marketing Plan?
To be perfectly honest, the answer to this question is mostly up to you. If you’re brand new to the world of marketing and want some direction, we recommend starting with one of the free digital marketing guides we recommend below.
There are plenty of guides that cover all the bases, from setting up your social media accounts to tracking your results and making a plan for the future.
We like the ProBlogger blog post tracking tool, which allows you to track your blog’s traffic and conversions, as well as generate custom reports to track your strategy’s progress. Not only that, but the tool also lets you know who is reading your blog and how much time they’re spending on it.
Summary
Digital marketing is a powerful marketing tool that can help you grow your business. It can be used for both brick-and-mortar locations and the web.
About the Author
Sam Kimes is a digital marketing expert who helps companies grow with digital strategies. In his role as the CEO of Metrics Matter, he specializes in helping business owners create content and grow their social media presence. Follow Sam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to learn more about him and his company.