Business Growth
How to Get Started with Digital Marketing
Have you ever wanted to start a new project or take the first step toward a big goal and found yourself stuck? Have you ever felt overwhelmed, intimidated, or flustered when you have to learn how to d...
Jay Owen,CEO & Founder
25+ years in digital marketing | StoryBrand Certified Guide | HubSpot Platinum Partner | Author of 'Building a Business That Lasts'
TL;DR
Have you ever wanted to start a new project or take the first step toward a big goal and found yourself stuck? Have you ever felt overwhelmed, intimidated, or flustered when you have to learn how to d...
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Have you ever wanted to start a new project or take the first step toward a big goal and found yourself stuck? Have you ever felt overwhelmed, intimidated, or flustered when you have to learn how to do something completely new? Me too. It’s not fun, and it happens to all of us. A lot of my clients experience these feelings when it comes to their marketing. Which makes sense, because marketing can be very confusing and expensive. Platforms and tools are constantly changing. Planning and execution takes time and resources. And at the end of the day, nothing is guaranteed to pay off. But the reality is, if you want to sell, you need marketing. And the best way to get started is by approaching it in phases. There’s a reason why so many large projects are broken up into phases — it works! At Business Builders, our phases are: plan, produce, and promote.
The Planning Phase
Let’s talk about the planning phase. All of our clients go through a blueprint as part of this initial phase, and we recommend individual blueprints for different products or services sold. That’s because messages change from product-to-product and service-to-service; people don’t expect the same result from one as they do another, so it’s important to clarify that and understand what it is you’re truly selling. In the blueprint, we clarify our clients’ messaging using the StoryBrand Framework. We also produce a few key deliverables every business needs in their marketing plan, including a one-liner that sums up what your business does and how it helps others. If your message isn’t clear, then your marketing will not work. Period. So that’s why this is the very first thing we do (and you should, too)! You can get more on blueprints here. The plan phase should also include setting SMART goals (that’s goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based) around your marketing. Selling more is not a SMART goal, even if it is your main objective. Selling three more units in the next quarter from social media is a SMART goal, and will help you both plan and execute your marketing better. Once you’ve clarified your message and set your goals, it’s time to produce.The Production Phase
Content production should be done with your goals in mind. Don’t post to social media just to post, and don’t blog just to blog. While every piece of content you post shouldn’t be a sales-driven “ad,” it should be either valuable or entertaining to the end user. And be sure to always include a way to progress someone to the next step of the sales process. This is called a call-to-action, or a CTA, and often sounds something like, “Give us a call!” or “Sign up for a free demo today!” If you have the technical expertise, then websites, emails, sales collateral, social posts, and all other content will all be easy to produce once you’ve clarified your message and established your goals. If you don’t, we recommend outsourcing your production, or at least certain areas of it so you can keep moving forward.The Promotion Phase
The promotion phase comes next and basically consists of going live with what you’ve produced and tracking the results. So if you’ve invested time and/or money on an email campaign, you need to be invested in its performance as well. Google Analytics is a great place to track your marketing. If you have no idea what that is or what it means, watch this video and learn the basics. Then apply them! You’ll be really happy you did.Successfully Market Your Business and See Great Results
I’ve kept this pretty simple, but that’s on purpose. If you truly embrace a three-phase approach to your next marketing campaign, it should feel much more simple than it did before. Sure there are numerous tasks that fall under these phases, but progressing from one phase to the next will feel like an accomplishment in and of itself! As a reminder, here’s what you need to do to get started with digital marketing:- Clarify your message and set your goals. Understand who your customers are and how you can speak to them in a way that serves them well and helps grow your business. At the same time, be sure to set SMART goals that you can track as time goes on.
- Create content, like a new website, updated social media accounts, and blog posts so you can grow your authority, build your brand, and nudge your customers toward the next step.
- Promote your work and track it! You’ll never know how well your business is doing unless you have a way to track it. This is the final phase that will teach you what works, what doesn’t, and help you figure out what to do next.
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