Likely, you have heard the phrase, “fail to plan and you plan to fail.” But marketing pros don’t plan to fail at online marketing so let’s get right to the heart of an online marketing plan. Below is a simple outline of an online marketing plan which you can use as a template to quickly create a basic plan.
ONLINE MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE – TEMPLATE
- Online Marketing Priorities
- Prospecting
- Sales (products and/or services)
- Branding
- Networking
- Measurable Objectives
- Long-term
- Short-term
- Research and Analysis
- SWOT specific to your online presence
- Target markets, where are they concentrated online?
- SEO research, Keyword List
- Action Plans
- Content Creation Plan
- Photos and Graphics
- Marketing Calendar and Implementation Plan
- Content Delivery Tools (TIP: publish on company website first, share on social media with link back to your original website content)
- Resource Planning and Management
- Project plans
- Project managers, staffing
- Online Marketing Plan Budgets
- Human capital and/or Sub-contractors, Freelancers
- Organic SEO
- Advertising (paid)
- Reporting and Refinement
- Monthly and quarterly reviews
Online Marketing Plan Considerations
Don’t forget, online marketing is a process. Are your online marketing plan objectives in line with your available resources to implement the plan? It is important to make sure the human resources assigned to implement your plan have specific responsibilities and accountability for doing so.
Do everything you can to create your own community of connections for your marketing purposes. Building, and managing, your own community is not only the goal, it is paramount to your success. Leveraging third-party communities is a mechanism you can use to expand the reach of your direct connections. Reach out to your connections that have established communities. You have connections that excel at content marketing and social sharing tactics and they are likely willing to help you.
It is interest and not acquaintance that drives the proliferation of content marketing; in many cases the result is word-of-mouth marketing. The message within your content must provide information of interest to those in your community. When you share your content with an acquaintance, that individual will be motivated to pass it along if it is interesting to them or of interest to someone they know.
As you know, your competitors are seeking to develop relationships with your existing customers and your prospects. Do spend time with your sales team to make sure all of your existing customers and prospects are linked/connected to your social media communities. Unfortunately, often this process is neglected on a real-time basis and content marketing results suffer.
I’m often asked, what content should I create for my website and content marketing? The answer is often content that includes a response to questions prospective clients want answers to. This requires frequent communication between your marketing and sales team; one obvious source is the content residing within the sent” email box of your sales staff. They often answer questions via email (minimal exposure) verses a content post on your website shared with your target communities (significantly more exposure resulting in a much higher content marketing ROI).
It won’t surprise you that your prospective clients are visiting your website before doing business with you; in a growing number of cases they are using mobile devices to do so. Keeping your website “fresh” with compelling content that is mobile friendly (responsive) is more important today than ever before.
Greg Magnus | AIM Custom Media | Ph: 804-201-0008