All the fancy new tactics in the world don’t mean much if they’re not based on a solid foundation and well thought out digital marketing strategy.
This is because the number of times you post, the social media channels you use, or the content you create are all completely irrelevant if you don’t have the right market, message, and mindset in place.
Which is why in today’s blog post, we’re talking all about setting you up for success by creating an effective digital marketing strategy.
Marketing without strategy is kind of like gambling. Sure it could work, and sometimes it does, but the odds are against you, and the chances of success are slim.
This is why so many business owners and entrepreneurs complain about how marketing just plain old doesn’t work for them. But the reality is that while they may have followed a certain tactic, tip, or tool right down to the letter, if it wasn’t based on key foundational marketing concepts then they were destined to fail right from the start.
And it’s not their fault.
The industry was designed to hype up the latest, greatest, and shiniest new object and appeals directly to the entrepreneur who’s always looking for the next best thing, the next competitive advantage, or the next new tactic that will solve all their problems and answer their marketing prayers.
But here’s the reality: Almost any tool, tactic, or tip can, and does work.
This is why you see so many others getting such great results with almost every strategy out there from paid traffic, to content marketing, to social, email, SEO, funnels, and pretty much everything else under the sun.
But the reason some fail while others succeed has little to do with the tactic, but everything to do with the strategy behind it. So now that we’ve got that covered, let’s dive in to how to create a digital marketing strategy in your business.
Step 1: Mindset
The first step in creating an effective digital marketing strategy comes down to mindset and how you approach your marketing, and your business. I strongly, firmly, almost evangelically believe that your goal as a business owner or entrepreneur is to aim to be the best in your market. Now “best” can mean any number of different things including the fastest, nicest, cleanest, most polite, most beautiful, most fun, or whatever, but you should aim to dominate in at least one of these areas.
Next, you should aim to become your customers most trusted advisor, a strategy that Jay Abraham calls the Strategy of Preeminence. When you become the go-to and most trusted source for information regarding your industry, more customers, revenue, and market share are sure to follow.
Finally, you should aim to make your marketing valuable in and of itself. Which means that even if someone doesn’t do business with you today, they still walked away with a tremendous amount of value and a good feeling about you and your company.
Step 2: Market
The next step in creating a digital marketing strategy is to clearly identify your target market and ideal customer or client. The better you’re able to describe exactly who it is you’re trying to serve the more effective all of your future marketing efforts will be.
When identifying and describing your target market you should include demographic details like age, gender, occupation or job title, geographic details like where they live right down to the neighborhood if you have a local business, and psychographic variables such as their interests, likes, and behaviors.
The better you understand your market the better you’ll be able to make them feel understood, which takes us right into the next point.
Step 4: Message
As we just covered, the better you understand your target market the better you’ll be able to make them feel understood. And that’s what marketing is all about: Making your ideal customer or client feel heard, valued, and cared for.
Marketing is far less about you, and far more about how to connect with your customers by uncovering and solving their most pressing pains and problems.
If you can find a way to do this while at the same time demonstrating how your business is best positioned to solve their problems for them, you’ve got a winning combination.
Step 5: Media
Without a doubt, choosing the right media option is the area I see business owners and entrepreneurs struggle with most. And understandably too.
After all, there are an overwhelming amount of options to choose from when trying to decide how to connect with customers and effectively communicate your value online.
This is also where most people start, which explains the suboptimal results and terrible return on investments so many complain about. This is because choosing the right media for your business shouldn’t be done until after you’ve clearly identified your market and clarified your message.
Once that’s done choosing the 1, 2, or maybe even 3 tools that will have the greatest impact and provide the greatest return on investment becomes a whole lot easier and far more effective.
