Digital Marketing Plan for Your Business
As I am writing up this digital marketing plan blog post, I find myself in the same position as a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs out there just launching their own business. I find that many such as myself, may have a great idea, a great product or service, or may have similar products and services already available in the market, but feel they can enter the market, attract attention, and then eventually grow their business and brand awareness.
I found out that after speaking to some business owners, one of the most common issues they always face is how to reach their customers. Some are unaware that most of theses customers, depending on the target market may well be in abundance online. As a marketing graduate, I was able to provide my own recommendations and advice to these business owners, and how they can tackle this main issue based on their business needs and goals.
One of my main recommendations was to do online marketing; basically, go digital. However, it is easier said than done when one is looking from the outside in. I never realised the daunting task of what it might take to work on one’s own digital marketing plan and strategy for their business. Until, I had to figure it out for my own business, the business that you are currently reading my post on. 😊
How to view digital marketing
I know and understand the challenges small business owners may face on how to design and implement a digital marketing plan. It takes a lot of effort, and some feel that they do not have the time or skills to venture into social media, SEO, email marketing, content marketing, and SEM for their marketing efforts. They would rather create and mail out a flyer, or print an ad in a magazine or newspaper, and count on the word of mouth to drive traffic to your business. But in order for any business small or large, to continue to grow and succeed, they need to always use both traditional and digital marketing efforts as part of their marketing plan.
I am currently in the beginning phase of my SEO implementation, and if you are reading this post, then my SEO implementation came to fruition, and that gives me pride and the skills that I need to work with small business in doing the same.
As mentioned, a digital marketing plan can be a daunting task, if one thinks of it as a big accolade with many levels one must pass to go to the next stage. Nothing can be further from the truth. To make it easier, think of a digital marketing plan as a picture puzzle, with all the available pieces coming together to make one big picture. You need all the pieces together to make things work, since they are all connected.
Here are some of the first steps of my Digital Marketing Plan I have planned or plan on doing:
- I installed an SEO plugin
- I installed Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- I created a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter business account, and I added my business on Google my Business, to go with my business page.
- I started researching how to implement SEO and will later provide you with tips on how to do the same.
- I started adding friends on all my social media accounts to gain initial organic brand exposure.
- I created this blog page you are on and started writing topics that I know my audience would be interested in based on their online search intent on Google.
- After creating the blog and starting from this blog post, I will begin sharing my blog posts on my different social media platforms that I signed up for, and eventually that would lead to gaining traffic towards my website, as my online audience, likes, shares, and follows my business online.
- I will also create content online separate from my blog that I can post on social media.
- I will create an email mailing list, to connect with customers who sign up for my services.
You do not have to worry and be overwhelmed about how can all that be implemented, because once the initial stages of getting your SEO running and your social media accounts set up, you can create schedule your posts, using the social media planner available on the social media platforms.
Bottom line
Digital marketing might seem complicated by itself, and complicated for non-tech savvy people, but once you look at the pieces, it will all fall into place, and you will be able to move forward with your digital marketing plan and implement it with ease as you keep moving forward. Obstacles do arise, but once the end goal is reached, it will be worthwhile.
Feel free to check out my post on how digital marketing works and the different strategies by clicking here, if you need more insight.