Welcome to the first article in our series, “The New Digital Marketing.” Over seven weeks I’m going to lead you through the steps of developing your own online marketing strategy from start to finish. Whether you’re a traditional brick and mortar business getting online for the first time – or have had your digital ducks in a row for years… the world has changed and we are adapting. Let’s do it together, starting where every business needs to start right this minute, “Realign and Get Online.”
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Humans love a good journey. A narrative that has a start, middle and planned finish. It soothes us, gives us purpose-driven meaning and assures us that we are doing the right thing.
Before you took your brand to market – you met with your stakeholders and aligned yourselves, right? You came together in a collaborative meeting of the minds to ensure that you were all focused on the same goals, united in the planned execution of deliverables and agreed upon, measurable KPIs. This is your brand’s journey.
Then, the last month happened…
So, I invite you to join me on a new journey. We are going to reboot, restart and realign. Your marketing journey has a new route (maybe even a new destination) and you and your stakeholders need to realign and pivot. Your new journey’s path is digital and you’ve got to get everyone onboard and online to get to your destination. Here’s how:
1.Meet. Get a virtual meeting scheduled for a week from now. Include department heads or stakeholders from every group, not just sales and marketing. Do you have an online meeting platform? If not, now’s the time. You are going to be using it a lot. Like, really – a lot.
2.Engage. Give your team a heads up that you are going to realign your marketing goals with a digital focus and ask for contributions from each member based on their areas of expertise and engagement. Don’t dictate to them, connect and engage them in the process. Their ownership of the outcomes are directly related to their involvement in the planning.
3.Plan. Be ready to discuss where you were headed in your journey and which parts of that map need to be adjusted and brought into the new normal. Send out brainstorming topics ahead of time to encourage big-picture and both long and short-term thinking, planning and goal setting.
During your realignment meeting:
1.Strategize. Set new or updated goals. Identify and adjust target markets. Think carefully about how you will connect with them online. Use empathy to determine what their pain points are and how you can relieve them right now. What about in a month? Six months? Bring them humanity and added value, not a sales pitch.
2.Organize. Set yourself up for digital success. Think about what needs to happen on your website and social media to reach your target audience and make your goals happen. Plan to revamp and relaunch a more robust website. Be sure you are hitting all of your demographics by diversifying your social media platforms. Add digital conferencing and an online collaboration tool for your team. Develop analytics baselines from this point to determine forward progress.
3.Develop Executables and measurable KPIs. Don’t leave without an outline for a one month digital marketing plan. Organize your social media and blog calendars by topics that reflect your goals and target audiences – and then distribute content collaboration to the appropriate team members so that everyone has executable tasks and deadlines. Determine KPIs that will mean success in meeting your goals.
4.Evaluate. Assign ownership of analytics and reporting. Once a month your team needs an executive summary of progress and potential. Outline areas of success and those that need improvement. Determine now who will make decisions about minute change in direction when you are in-between collaborative meetings.
Then, be ready to realign and pivot again. And again after that. The world is changing fast right now, and you may need to repeat this process in order to realign with changing events, priorities and opportunities. Plan the next meeting now. Depending on your strategy and workload, you may want to meet weekly or even daily as you begin to travel this new path.
Join us in the coming weeks as we accompany you on this new journey. We will continue to develop each of the points above and will delve into innovation and ideas for your new digital presence. Let’s travel this uncharted territory as a team. We’ll explore how to bring your events and conferences online while still engaging your audience. We will work on strategies for developing engaging content and virtual experiences. We will examine new ways for you to expand your digital presence and heighten your customer’s experience with your brand.
You can do this. We can help.
Wishing you love and light.
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