4min
For many in the scaling business space online marketing is an overwhelming labyrinth of buzzwords and empty promises. Most business owners aren't equipped with the full knowledge and technical experience to develop an effective online marketing strategy. In many instances, when they do face these challenges head on, they tend to concentrate on one small element rather than establishing a sustainable strategy that will continue to deliver leads and sales.
So, lets break it down like a Carlsberg Master Brewer, in simple English, how to create an effective marketing plan so that you can get more customers. The foundation of which is your websites, social media channels, and email marketing that together constitute an extremely powerful online marketing machine which will get more powerful the more you use it.
Not all website visitors are created equal.
Website visitors arrive at your site from a wide array of sources. Many originate from Google or alternative search engines, many are sourced from social media, quite a few come from links and ads on other websites, plus don't forget word of mouth and off-line engagement.
Like the real-world outlets, various customers will walk in and head straight for the product they want, some people are simply browsing, and many walks in, take a quick look around, don't see what they want and head straight back out.
Many of your site visitors are “unqualified”. These visitors are the ones who have happened upon your site from a Google search. They don't have any relationship with your business, they probably have never seen you before, and they could be looking for a range of different things from, a product or service, for information about your business or area of expertise, or for something completely different all together.
A HubSpot report indicates as many as 96% of site visitors are unqualified visitor and least likely to buy from you yet (that’s not a typo only 4% are ready to buy). Our challenge is to attract their attention before they leave and turn them into a qualified visitor, so that eventually they may become real sales leads.
In contrast, the qualified visitor is an individual who has engaged with your business in some way formerly. They could be a person who has visited your site in the past, anyone who has connected with you on social media, individuals who are on your mailing list, or somebody that has had real world interaction with you.
The qualified visitor is likely going to make a purchase soon. They likely already view your business in a positive light because they have previously made a connection with you to some degree, and most probably found that experience favourable or they would not be coming back.
Engagement Funnels
Now that we understand that there's different kinds of visitors, we can begin to consider how we engage with them and attract more to our website and how we are going to convert those individuals into qualified visitors and subsequently into customers.
We have three main forms of engagement with our visitors online:
- Website
- Social media
- Email Marketing
Think of these like a funnel. A funnel is broad at the top and narrow at the bottom and they channel things to a specified desired destination. The same way as you would use a funnel for decanting liquid from a large container to a small one, you can use your website, social media, and email marketing to produce "marketing funnels" that will guide our unqualified into becoming marketing qualified, then into sales leads, then into customers, and ultimately into repeat customers.
Website
Using your website you will attract traffic, mostly unqualified visitors, the same as those real-world window shoppers.
Social Media
Using your social media platforms, you can connect with individuals. Your fans and followers on social media will have already connected with you. They are essentially marketing qualified visitor. Your activities on social media can enable you to develop these into sales leads.
Email Marketing
Using email marketing you can market our products and services. Your email subscribers will already be happy to receive information from you in their inbox. They are interconnected with you on a much deeper level than your social media followers. Using email marketing can nurture those sales leads into buyers.
And here's the kicker! By repeating and automating this process, you'll be building that marketing machine that continues to get more powerful.
How the magic happens - a reason to connect
Once you have visitors on your website, you need to persuade them to connect by supplying them with something which is going to be valuable to them or some useful information.
For a kitchen manufacturer the special something could be a free guide, such as “The secret guide to achieve the ideal kitchen on a budget”. An accountants may offer "The easy step by step process to making tax digital”. A caravan sales company might offer a guide such as, “The family caravan camp site top 50”. The possibilities are infinite.
So, let's put a plan in place to create and promote valuable content, which when you do this will accelerate your website traffic, grow the number of individuals connected to you on social media, cultivate an email marketing list, propel more qualified traffic to your websites, and supercharge your sales.
What resources do we need?
Before you begin, you need to ensure that you've got all the tools ready to go. The great news is that most business already have some or each tool needed, and for those that don't, obtaining them is, in general, free or low cost.
1 A website that can host blog articles.
You'll need a website that may host blog articles. Most websites possess this functionality. Certainly, if your website is developed on WordPress or HubSpot, your site has a blog function. If you're unsure about your site, ask your web team or us.
2 Branded Social Media Business Pages
You don’t have to be on all social media channels, but you need to select one that suits your business. Once you've got your page set up, make certain you brand it with your company logo and corporate colours etc. It's essential that a visitor who leaves your website and visits your Facebook page will see a clear relationship between the two.
3 Email Marketing Platform
You'll find plenty of email marketing platforms to choose from. These systems help you manage your mailing lists, send emails, and provide you comprehensive information on who received your email, who opened it and who engaged with them.
Reporting
Make certain that you have everything ready to monitor the statistics from your social media networks. Track levels of engagement, how that traffic is moving to and from your website and exactly where the touch points are.
By implementing a playbook that covers these resources, you'll have a disciplined and captured approach to listening and stimulating your community. It'll also empower you with reporting, metrics and accountability.
Next time we'll be looking at the 3 simple steps to planning your campaign
