Overwhelmed and confused about your digital marketing strategy? Not sure of what to do or how to maximize your time and budget? In the Online Marketing Institute’s Small Business & Start Up Digital Learning Fast Track Series, Susan Baroncini-Moe, an industry leader, dispels a few myths and points you in the right direction to focus on the most critical areas. Here are a few key takeaways:
…the truth is that you don’t have to be on all social media platforms and you don’t have to utilize every digital marketing tool in order to be successful in marketing your business.
In most cases, it makes good business sense to make sure that you have a solid website …
… Your website should look professionally designed and be easy to navigate. … You should own your own domain name (e.g., www.yourbusiness.com) and …manage your own hosting account…
… Generally, and at the most basic level, you’ll want to write content for your website that naturally includes keywords that people would use when looking for a business like yours.
…you do not have to be on every social media platform. If you’re trying to reach executives, you don’t necessarily need to spend time on Twitter. If you’re trying to reach consumers, LinkedIn might not be the right place for you.
One thing businesses must look out for is their online reputations. What most companies don’t know is that even if you don’t think you need a Facebook page, Facebook does think that, and they’ve already created one for you. If you don’t claim that page, your competitors’ information and even advertising will populate the page, giving them valuable opportunities to gain a foothold with your potential and existing customers and clients.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the abundance of opportunities and necessities in digital marketing. … Outsourcing is a comparatively inexpensive way to get your marketing activities under control and well-managed by professionals who do nothing but these tasks all day long for their clients.
A few words of caution. These excellent suggestions will be of little use if you don’t have, at the very least, a simple marketing plan that maps your journey for connecting and engaging with existing and potential customers. Just as finance, operations, management and personnel require long-term planning, so too does marketing. Now’s a good time to start.
What’s the most overwhelming component of your digital marketing strategy? Feel free to share your experience in the comments section of this post.
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