With summer vacations wrapping up and fall marketing plans looming, now is a great time to make sure your foundations are set and all the gaps are covered in your marketing strategy. So, we’re getting back to basics with a little Marketing 101 class. Keep reading to learn more about the five pillars of a great marketing strategy and how to use them for maximum impact.
The 5 Pillars of a Great Marketing Strategy
Website & SEO
Your website is so much more than just a digital marketing brochure. It’s also an online store, a hub for information and videos, a portfolio and case study platform, a scheduler, and a collection tool for crucial lead generation. And let’s not forget the importance of your website’s tracking tools for re-marketing. You can collect data on people visiting your website from social media so you can target them in future advertising.
But even if you have the best-looking website on the internet, it doesn’t do you any good if people can’t find it. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. Most businesses have at least a vague understanding that being found in search engine results is an important piece of any good digital marketing strategy. But what you may not know are all of the avenues that you need to optimize.
SEO is on more than just Google. People are now looking to make sure they are found on sites like YouTube, in-app stores, on social platforms, and even on in-home voice devices like Alexa and Google Play.
Google Business Profile
While SEO may be more than just Google, the number one search engine is still the first place your customers go when they search for a business online. One of the easiest and most effective marketing strategies you can employ immediately is claiming your Google Business Profile listing (formerly known as Google My Business).
A well-maintained Google Business Profile listing gets 5x more views than a listing which hasn’t been claimed by their owner. In fact, customers are 2.7x more likely to consider a business reputable if they see a complete listing on Google Search and Maps. Each view is a potential new customer. And you can’t afford to miss out on those opportunities.
Social Media Marketing
Monitoring and managing your social media pages, commenting, sharing posts and just being generally social on your platforms is crucial to implementing a great marketing strategy. Depending on your specific goals – whether that’s getting followers, boosting engagement, or promoting a product – there are a wide variety of options to tell your brand story with fresh content.
Run a contest, host a Q&A session, do a tutorial on a product your promoting, share videos, or even go live. Whatever you do, though, make sure that the content you’re putting out there is in line with the overall message you’re telling in other marketing avenues as well.
Digital Ads
To really drive brand awareness, sales, product downloads, etc., digital advertising is the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. Comprehensive digital campaigns, when created by an experienced professional, can help you maximize your advertising dollars so you get the best results.
A/B testing different types of digital ads for different types of audiences and campaign goals is also critical to get the most bang for your buck. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube ads, Twitter ads (and all the other ads) all have their own unique place in your marketing strategy.
Email Marketing
Email is often an overlooked and underutilized digital marketing strategy. We’ve written an in-depth best practices article on email marketing and its benefits, but here are a few key highlights to pay attention to.
If you don’t have a robust email list, use your other marketing efforts to build it. Encouraging free downloads on the website, benefits to signing up for your newsletter, or even hosting in-person and online events are great ways to build your list.
Emails are perfect for promoting product purchases, events, sales and whatever else you need to promote. Bonus: you can track your results easily in platforms like Constant Contact or Mailchimp so you can make sure you are delivering the best content for your audience and getting the best open and click-thru rates.
Pulling Your Marketing Strategy Together
The key to bringing your marketing strategy into one cohesive message is to tell your story in a smart and compelling way across each of these platforms. Know your goals. Whether it’s sales, promotions, or getting more engagement on social media, having a clear understanding of your purpose will ensure your marketing message doesn’t get lost in translation.
Create a content calendar for each month that includes the five pillars listed above. A content calendar is the most essential tool when developing and implementing your marketing strategy. Not only does it keep you organized and help maintain consistency but being able to look at the big picture allows you to clearly see any gaps that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Are you struggling to fill the gaps in your marketing strategy? The team at Fly Pages is here to save the day. Reach out for a free 30-minute consultation today!
