What’s Your Online Marketing Plan? A 4-step outline for success.
Today’s musical post has nothing to do with the marketing post. It has to do with the most beautiful week of the year – and an admitted bout of Spring fever. Everything’s bursting out in bloom. This April is particularly enjoyable as signs of economic recovery are in the air. Enjoy Sarah Vaughan’s upbeat take on I’ll Remember April. You might have to listen and read separately. I’m having trouble multi-tasking on this one!
Lately I’ve been speaking with a number of companies who have jumped into the online marketing world. They have a website, a blog, a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account. Only one problem. They don’t have a plan.
Here’s a typical scenario. The website hasn’t been updated for a Web 2.0 world. It hasn’t been optimized for search engines, there’s no clear call to action or data capture point, there’s no shareable information and the site doesn’t necessarily reflect the personality of the business or the interests of its audiences.
The blog is a bunch of commercials or just offers links to other people’s industry information – and it isn’t connected to the website. The last post was six months ago. The Facebook page has exactly the same information as the homepage of the website. The Twitter account tweets occasionally about god knows what to who knows whom.
Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” So these businesses are definitely on the right track. They just need to figure out the other 20% – the basics. Here’s an outline to start you thinking.
- Marketing communications basics still count. First, ask and answer these questions:
- Who are your audiences?
- What are your key messages?
- How are you positioned relative to the competition and the marketplace as a whole?
- Do you have a recognizable brand identity/personality and do you employ it consistently throughout your communications?
- Do you have clear marketing objectives?
- Start with your website and make it a functional hub for all of your online marketing communications.
- Redesign to reflect your company’s character and meet defined objectives.
- Identify the keywords/search terms for which you can realistically hope to rank with search engines.
- Optimize your site and the content.
- Make sure your content is updated regularly and includes your key messages, keywords and search terms.
- Use a variety of content platforms – text, video, audio, PowerPoint, etc.
- Add analytics.
- Make your site interactive.
- Add a blog or connect the one you already have.
- Add info-sharing capabilities.
- Select social media that make sense for your business by making sure that your key audiences are there.
- Integrate and leverage everything.
In future posts we’ll flesh these topics out. In the meantime — Smell the flowers!!!
New PR Words - and Music! 
As usual, lovely music! And you’re right on…The lack of planning or follow through in the execution is the ban of efficient marketing.
Bernadette
April 14, 2010