Like most small business owners, you must be overwhelmed with endless tasks and responsibilities you must handle daily. From sales, customer service, operational management, accounting, and just regular day to day tasks to keep the business moving in the proper direction. Given the myriad of responsibilities and tasks, it is hard for small business owners to focus on the everchanging landscape of the digital world.

Here is a simple guide to help you prioritize and focus on how to create an effective digital marketing plan.

Your time is valuable. There are so much to accomplish and therefore, setting a priority is important. In order to do that, it’s important to determine what is worth investing time and money into and how best to approach your problem. Setting a specific goal helps you gauge whether or not your plan is moving in the right direction.

A clear goal also acts as a benchmark for performance evaluation and for tracking progress. Having a well-defined goal sets the foundation for creating an effective digital marketing strategy. Questions that naturally stem from this such as:

–          How can I improve my company’s online presence?

–          How can I optimize conversion rates?

–          How can I enhance engagements with clients?

With your goal set in mind, you have to determine who your target audience is and what are they like. To have the greatest success with your digital marketing plan and to best achieve your goal, you have to understand your target audience to ensure that your plan is relevant to your audience.

Things you must answer about your target audience include:

–          What is important to them?

–          What influence their buying decision?

–          What are their demographics?

–          What problem does your product or service solve?

–          What is in it for them?

There is likely competition in your industry and alternatives available for your target audience. To remain competitive, it’s necessary to be kept up-to-date and be aware of competition in the market. It’s important to be aware of both your direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are those that offer the same product or service whereas indirect competitors may offer substitutes that also satisfy your target audiences’ problem.

Things to identify when understanding your competition:

–          How do your competitors position themselves on the market?

–          What is their pricing strategy like?

–          How do their products or services compare to yours?

Corporate Website

In today’s age, a digital face to your company is mandatory. An effective website should have a user-friendly interface that encourages effective conversion in order to maximize return on your investment.

Branding

Effective design with captivating messages that speak to your target audience. Having a consistent tone and theme throughout your various offline and online channels is essential.

Content

Content marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies. Online contents should be current and accurate with new information regularly to maintain audience engagement.

SEO

Building web traffic organically should be one of the primary focus even from the onset of your digital marketing strategy. In the long run, this will help build traffic organically to your business.

Social Media

Active presence online is vital and interaction with your target audience is key in order to maintain and attract new clienteles. Having engaging contents and creative posts can improve conversion dramatically.

Influencer Marketing

Key opinion leaders (KOL) marketing is an effective method to reach target audiences. By leveraging influencer in different areas, you may efficiently bring your message across to the unique targeted audience.

Once you have your plan set up and running, it’s now time to track performance, review and further optimize in order to improve your ROI of your efforts.

Many analytics tools are available online such as Google Analytics which provides valuable information in terms of how users are interacting with your website. It’s important to review your digital marketing strategy by comparing progress with milestones based on your primary goal. This is an ongoing process that remembers that there will always be ways to improve your digital marketing plan.