How to make a digital marketing plan.

Let’s talk about some of the best ways to promote a business online. Best practices, digital channels and a digital marketing plan are your three major keys to success when it comes to this.

To begin, let’s get familiar with how various digital platforms work, which is best suited to you, and how to set up a clear plan or digital marketing strategy that will help you achieve your goals and assess your results.

What is your goal?

Where many of us are probably saying, “to get rich, duh”. The truth is every business has different goals, especially when it comes to their digital marketing strategy. It’s good to know exactly what you want to achieve online, as it can help you set the right priorities and put your goals into focus. Preventing feelings of burnout and being overwhelmed.

There are lots of clear ways digital platforms, in combination with a digital marketing plan, can help your business. Especially in terms of building relationships on social networks, selling products and services online, finding new customers within your target audience, and maintaining positive relationships with your existing clients.

Defining your objective

Start by asking yourself a simple question: why, exactly, do I want to be online?

Every business will have a different answer that coincides with their business goals. For instance, you own a professional cleaning service. Your ultimate goals could be: to clean more people’s home, sell more subscription services and put clients on a monthly, weekly or biweekly and sell more of the products you offer. But before anyone can book clients they have to know you exist. This is a great goal that a digital marketing plan can help with. So let’s start with that one: getting the word out in the digital world.

Take the first step

One easy win is listing your business in local online directories, or get verified. So, when people look for professional cleaning services on search engines or online maps, your business will show up.

Then you might decide to build a website to share information about your business. This could be things like your opening hours, your location, your prices and the services you offer. Maybe even photos and videos that could entice new customers to walk through your door.

You could set up a social media page on Facebook or Twitter where you could post photos of your creations, offer special deals and really connect with your customers, this is what we call content marketing.

With a developed digital marketing plan , you will start achieving these goals easily. Once more people become aware of you, your goals may naturally evolve and you might want to shift your focus toward turning visitors into paying customers.

You could add new features to your site. Things like online appointment scheduling, a “reviews” section where people can say nice things about you, or even an e-commerce store to sell your hair and beauty products online.

Now that you’re using digital to attract visitors, and turn them into customers, you could start expanding your business by investing in online advertising.

Whatever your ultimate digital goals are, or where you currently stand, your priorities will naturally change and grow with your business. Now to make sure you’re meeting your objectives, it’s really important to measure your progress along the way.

This is called “analytics”. Analytics lets you know what’s working well, and what could be tweaked.

We’ll dive into this more later, but with digital you’ve got lots of options for measuring your success. So let’s recap. Before you dive into the digital world, think about exactly what you’d like to achieve. Then, prioritise different online opportunities to help you accomplish your goals. In the next few videos, we’ll help you plan. First, by looking at different ways you can establish a digital presence.

Key learnings

Taking your business online offers a lot of opportunities, but with so many options, it's easy to spin your wheels and lose focus. Setting specific goals can help as you begin to navigate the digital world. Consider working with a digital marketing company, like Brianca Jay Designs and Multimedia to help people find and trust you as the leader in your industry