Online/Offline Marketing – Foundational Work
Strategic Steps to Bottom Line Objectives
The online marketing world is in a constant state of evolution. The strategic steps outlined below are critical to online and offline sales and marketing success and, unfortunately, are often omitted in favor of jumping into the latest digital marketing tactics or “just building a new website”. These steps are outlined in the order that, as a whole, represents an effective process. They can be implemented as each case determines, either to fill in foundational gaps or based on resources.
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Review website/blog, social and other marketing channels, marketing collateral, etc., to establish a benchmark and develop specific questions for a kick-off/discovery session.
We facilitate a meeting (appx two hours) to gather background from the client’s perspective that will be used in implementing the other steps in this process. Ideally, participants include both sales and marketing leads and any other key players involved in sales/marketing strategy/customer experience/product development.
In this meeting we also assess whether there are any structural issues related to the org chart that can impede sales/marketing success.
Because digital marketing must be humanized to be successful, it’s critical that we know our key audiences to the point where we can speak through our content to address real individuals and their needs. This is the main purpose of persona work, and further, to help identify not just any customer we might attract, but the ideal customer.
Personas inform and drive marketing, product/content development and sales efforts for greater success. Detailed personas allow you to program the entire customer journey, from initial awareness to engagement to happy customer (and evangelist), by anticipating their needs, communicating in meaningful ways, providing what they need to do their jobs better, and more. Personas are also valuable for training new employees on “who the customer is.”
Ideally implemented, the process includes client insights, interviews with members of the client’s existing or potential audiences, other research, including studies of trends, issues, behaviors. Deliverables are an interview questionnaire and a document profiling key personas (generally two or three).
We provide an analysis of the client’s top two or three competitors’ online presence that assesses their general messaging, positioning, and social presence to help us establish market differentiation for the client and identify where they may have to play catch-up or where there are opportunities to leapfrog the competition. It is stunning how few companies, regardless of industry, are maximizing the effectiveness of their online marketing. We have never yet failed to find opportunities for our client.
Once we know the client’s personas/best customers and their needs and online behaviors, as well as our client’s digital/content competitive status we move on to keyword research. This not only identifies what personas type into a search field or speak into an artificial intelligence device to find products or services like our client’s, but also helps identify a variety of content topics that personas will find interesting. The evolution of Google’s search algorithm has also changed the way we search. Search has become more semantic: we all often search with full sentences and complete questions.
Marketing online once boiled down to getting found for keywords and search terms as part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While keywords still play a role, the way we implement SEO has become more of an on-page coding exercise to engage with search bots in a more general way, rather than to come up on Page One for high-volume keywords/search terms.
Google’s greater focus is now on large companies that spend significant dollars on digital advertising and don’t rely on organic search to drive traffic. Ironically, they’re the same ones who get the organic spots on Page One, as well their Page One ad spots. As a result, it has become more difficult for the average company to rank on Page One of search results. So, coming up on Page One is a lesser goal as getting there becomes a less realistic objective.
This has created a shift in the content marketing best practices and tactics that help content get found.
We identify/write key messages to be included in content, where appropriate, to both address buyer personas’ needs/pain points and to differentiate the client’s services from competitors. We deliver a key message document for future reference for content creators. We recommend reviewing key messages at least annually to determine ongoing effectiveness.
Once the foundational steps are complete, we are in an informed position to recommend a content strategy and provide related deliverables, including:
- A summary of how content can contribute to meeting your overall marketing and business objectives.
- An assessment of which existing content should be updated/rewritten/discarded.
- A distribution strategy based on where online we are most likely to find and engage with your key audiences. We have cycled past the concept of “owned” online real estate, i.e. focusing on your own website as your content hub. Today the focus is on “rented” online real estate, i.e. posting on other sites and channels your audiences frequent and trust.
- Content type and frequency recommendations, based on your personas’ appetites and your resources.
- An editorial calendar – 60 days – to launch and get your process on track.
- Recommendations for effectively promoting your content.
All recommendations are based on persona intelligence, client budget and resources. The ultimate goal is return on marketing investment and helping to reach broader bottom-line objectives. We are outlining an initial project, yet most of these foundational efforts will require periodic review and updating as necessary to assure they continue to help drive results. Identifying KPIs and measurement indicators is accomplished in a separate project.
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