where to start?
What are advertisers supposed to do? Everyone is telling them they “have” to be someplace, let’s be honest most companies don’t have enough time in the day to know and do everything!
That’s where working with an agency can be useful. If you aren’t sure that working with an agency is right for you, here are the 6 top things you should think about doing before going it alone with digital advertising:
1. Target Audience / Persona
Do you really know your who your Digital Target Audience or Persona is? Identifying your target audience and their persona, the aspect of their character and habits, boils down to doing your homework and figuring out what your audience is thinking, including researching them. Really putting yourself in their shoes and getting to know who they are and what their behaviors are is imperative to effective digital advertising. It’s tough because the bottom line usually has companies focus on sales and services rather than working on getting to know their intended targets.
Spending even a few minutes considering what your digital audience looks like is very important and could increase your sales exponentially. Here’s a great article from a sales perspective, that will give you more information on Persona’s if you are interested in learning more.
2. Meet Your Audience Where They’re At
This step piggybacks off knowing who you are targeting by meeting them where they are. If you’ve done your research and have a good idea about what your targets are doing, getting to them at a time and place they’re going to be receptive is the next part. Whether it be through advertisers like Google, Facebook or Yahoo or through an organic campaign, meeting your audience in their time of need is the key.
3. Write Down Your Goals & KPI’s
Now that you know who you are talking to, and where you need to be talking to them, what do you want them to do? What is important for you to increase sales, or even better, what is the value of that customer to your business?
Once you have that information then you can take the next step by developing a plan that keeps them engaged in the process and interested in your business. Most people are guilty of not writing down goals, however, there are many tools available to help us develop and track goals. Here’s a great article from Mind Tools about SMART Goals.
4. Now, What’s Your Website Plan?
So, you’ve identified who you are talking to, where you are going to meet them, what you want them to do, now you just start creating or editing your website right? Not quite. Even a rough plan will help make sure you are on track.
In the digital era, people want things that are convenient and thought through. Even if it’s a basic outline of general things you want to do that’s better than nothing. Better yet, agencies can help you create in-depth, monthly and yearly marketing plans to help reach those goals we just talked about. They will help you make your efforts look purposeful and coordinated!
5. Organic Marketing Efforts
Not everyone has the budget for monthly Google AdWords or other paid advertising campaigns and that’s OK! There are plenty of things that you can do to help rank your website and make sure people know who you are without spending one cent on paid advertising campaigns! Examples would be conducting work such as SEO, updating your content, keywords, metadata, etc.
Paid campaigns can also help and budgeting for even one strategic campaign throughout the year would be helpful however organic efforts on their own can be extremely beneficial.
6. Automation
Automating some of your marketing tasks can be helpful to more effectively market on multiple online channels such as email, websites, social media, etc. and automate those repetitive tasks that take up time and cost money. If done well, automation can be extremely beneficial to help drive those goals we talked about in point 3. Unfortunately, it is all too often overused. Automation tactics should be purposeful and used in conjunction with some of your already existing marketing tactics.
In Conclusion:
While many companies can conduct their own digital marketing the big question is, can they be efficient and effective in doing so? If you’ve gotten this far in this article and your head is spinning don’t worry, we can help! We want to be able to guide you through the process as quickly and efficiently as possible. We have a team of individuals that are able to weed through the tough stuff and get you to the very best place possible for your business.
Give us a call today for a free consultation!
