Without a solid plan, your digital marketing efforts will fall flat. Here’s what you need to know to create a successful strategy for your business.
It still blows my mind how many businesses will hire someone to manage their social media pages, and there is no strategy. There’s content – and it may even be branded and look great, but the most critical pieces are missing. Unfortunately, because of the lack of understanding on how to use social media as a marketing tool, it goes unnoticed by the business…and sometimes worse….the one who was hired!
Here’s what a social media strategy is not:
- Sharing posts from others as the majority of the content
- Randomly posting content without a clear goal in mind
- Writing content in the same manner that you speak
- Only paying attention to how many people liked or shared your piece of content
Here’s what a social media strategy is
Establishing your brand’s voice and identity
What does your brand represent? That is the single most important question you should answer when you decide to start this business. Many new business owners make the mistake of using their voice and identity as their brand voice and identity- and in some cases, it may work.
But not all.
Discovering your brand, who you serve, and what you represent is vital when creating your social media strategy.
Establishing clear goals and objectives
What’s your goal? I often hear, “Deanna, the goal is to make more money.” I get it! That is the ultimate goal for most business owners but go a little deeper. What are you trying to accomplish?
Do you want people to sign up for your course? Purchase your product? Visit your store? Attend your event?
Now how about the less apparent goals:
Subscribe to your newsletter. Follow you on a social media platform? Comment on your post to increase organic reach. Save your content? Visit your website? RE-visit your website?
Get it? Sure- all of those things lead wot more money, but sometimes there’s a step (or two) before it.
Establishing a clear goal and objective when creating your social media strategy will help keep you on track with what the focus is during that time.
Creating quality content that is relevant to your target audience
Now we get to the good stuff- creating quality content. What is “quality” content, anyhow?
Your target audience determines what quality content is. It needs to resonate with them. Quality content will entertain and educates. It pulls your target audience in. It’s transparent, without a hidden agenda. It positions your brand as the go-to source for what your ideal client is looking for and keeps them coming back.
Promoting your content through social media and other channels
Now it’s time to share what you’ve been working on! That means promoting it on the correct social media channels. Make sure you’re where your ideal client is. That means when there’s a new fad, everyone tells you that you “Have to be on (fill in the blanks).” Take a look and determine if that is where your target audience will be. If so, then heck yeah- give it a try!
Promoting your content means being consistent with the social media strategy you set up without being super salesy. Listen, there’s nothing wrong with asking for the sale. In fact- you need to ask for it! Just not in a spammy way.
Measuring the results of your marketing efforts and making adjustments as needed
If you’re creating content and not measuring the results- you are wasting your time. How do you know what is working and what isn’t? If you’re going by “likes” alone, you’re missing the rest of the puzzle! Measuring results are evaluating your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which you measure to determine how successful your campaign is. You may track how many new people your campaign reached or how many times they saw your content- if your goal is brand awareness.
You’ll know what your KPIs should be based on the goal that you set in the beginning. Once you evaluate the results, you’ll clearly understand what adjustments need to be made to improve your strategy and hit your goal.
Continuously refining and improving your strategy over time
Now, you’ve come to the end of your campaign – but you’re not done yet. Digital marketing is never finished – it’s a continuous cycle of refining your strategy, improving your content, and gaining a better, cleared understanding of your ideal target audience.
Your digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. You can create an effective and efficient plan by focusing on these six key elements. And if you need help putting it all together. Contact me today, and let’s start building your next winning strategy.
To learn more about finding your profitable niche, check out my interview with Maiko Saika!
