A digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complex and overwhelming. In fact, some of the most successful strategies are very simple. At the heart of every digital marketing strategy is a single goal — to increase brand awareness in order to drive sales and revenue.
So, we wanted to keep things simple for Newcastle businesses and create an easy and comprehensive guide to digital marketing. Let’s get into it!
Step 1: Plan
First things first: Plan. For a marketing strategy to be successful, it needs to be aligned with your business goals and objectives. So, to help you get in the planning frame of mind, we have created a worksheet to help you to start thinking about how to grow your business from a holistic perspective, whether you are just starting up or already established.
Step 2: Design a great website.
- In order to have success digitally, you need to make sure your website is:
- Aligned with your business objectives
- Informative and easy to navigate
- Mobile-friendly
- Loads quickly
- Has clear call-to-actions
- Use your website to build up your email database and set yourself up for email marketing success. Try integrating with Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor.
- If you need help getting this done, work with a local website designer or you can start by getting a free digital audit.
- For more great website tips, read 5 Questions to See if Your Website is Optimised for Generate Leads.
Step 3: Boost your SEO.
- Sign up for a free Google MyBusiness listing so you can get found on Google Maps.
- Use Google Keyword Planner to determine what keywords are right for your business.
- Then, make sure you are using these keywords throughout the content on your website.
- Start a blog. Not sure why you should do this? Read our Blog Series: Why? How? When?
- Build up links to your website. Some ways you can do this are:
- If you have strategic partners you work with, ask them to link to your website from theirs.
- Add your business to local directories such as TripAdvisor, True Local and the Newcastle Business Directory.
- Ask if you can guest blog on like-minded websites, or submit a business article to Hunter Headline.
- Still lost? We recommend reading the Nuts and Bolts of SEO.
Step 4: Create great content.
- It’s easy. Write/say what you know. You’re an expert in your field, so use content as a way to inform and educate your potential customers on how your products/services can help them. Your customers may
- Stuck on what to talk about? Think about the top frequently asked questions you get from customers and answer them!
- Don’t focus on your product or service, focus on your customer’s needs and the problems you are solving for them.
- Content could be in the form of a blog article, white paper, podcast, video or infographic.
- Infuse your personality into your content. You, your brand and your company have a personality that makes you unique and inviting to customers…. so flaunt it!
- Schedule time to create content each week/fortnight/month. If you don’t have time or don’t have confidence in your writing, work with a local content creator and send them a brief.
Step 5: Distribute your content.
- Once your content is created you should publish it on your website. Make sure to include a call-to-action or your company’s contact info on each piece of content.
- Share your content on the channels your customers use.
- This is where market research comes in, you need to know where your customers consume content. For some companies LinkedIn might be best the channel, for others, it might be Facebook, Podcasts or Youtube.
- If you don’t have great organic reach yet, you can pay to amplify your content with paid social advertising or search engine marketing. We have some great digital marketing packages to get you started with that.
- Analyse the data. Pay attention to what content your audience engages with the most. Once you get going, you’ll be able to see trends and learn more about your audience and their needs and interests.
Step 6: Communicate with your leads.
- Once you generate a lead, you need to work with your sales team to design a lead nurturing workflow that will help convert each lead into a customer. A workflow can comprise of all types of communication, including phone calls, emails and social media. This is also known as an inbound marketing approach to lead nurturing.
- Throughout this process, it’s important to personalise your content to fit each lead’s unique needs and situation. Answer their questions. Tell them how your product/service will directly benefit them and make their lives better. Solve their problems.
And there you have it! A simple 6-step digital marketing strategy you can implement for your business to start generating leads. We hope this all makes sense and is straightforward for you. If you have questions or need help, feel free to contact us.
