Are you struggling to decide how to invest your marketing dollars and where to focus your efforts? Should you invest in SEO or PPC or both? Oh, and what do SEO and PPC even mean?
Digital marketing comes with many questions, but the most important thing you should ask yourself is, “what will help my business?”
The truth is, there is no right answer, and both options serve vital purposes for marketing your company online. The best way to approach this decision is to first start by identifying your goals and then by understanding how each marketing channel can help you reach those goals. Stay with us over the course of the next 5 weeks and we will explore each in depth.
RELATED: Set Your Priorities Straight – Digital Marketing
Setting Goals
“If you don’t know where you’re going, then how do you know how to get there.”
The most critical step that is often missed is setting clear goals. Fair warning… this is the boring part. The fun part comes later! Ok, so ask yourself first – what do you want to accomplish?
- Are you trying to attract new customers? Or are you trying to retain and grow business with existing clients? Or both (if so, what’s your priority? What’s your split?).
- Are you introducing a new product? Are you entering a new market?
- Are you a new business or more established in the community?
Start with the goal. Simply put… What does winning look like?
Then, you must determine what your business goal is.
For example, increase my revenue by X, increase by profit by Y, decrease by cost by Z. Or maybe it’s to maintain profit per last year’s numbers, or only take a 10% hit in profit which will allow me to keep all employees on the payroll for this year, or something else. In any case, know what a win looks like when you get to the finish line and then figure out how you get there.
This way you can determine if you’ve actually achieved your goal and what the best way is to achieve it (and course-correct along the way).
How Do You Measure Sucess?
Are you trying to grow your business from existing clients or new clients or both? What’s your position in the market (big fish/little pond, little fish/big pond, etc.). Based on that – determine your recruitment, retention, or mixed strategy.
For example, (1) I’m going to maintain __% profit by retaining X% of my current customers, (2) I’m going to increase profit by __% acquiring X amount of business this year from new customers and (3) increase profit by __% through additional revenue from my existing customers (upgrading service, etc.)
Once you’ve set goals, and identified how to measure your efforts, choose the marketing channels that best serve your goals and strategies. This is topic will be covered thoroughly over the next few weeks, as we explore a large variety of options that will work for your business.
Lastly, brainstorm and prioritize the opportunities and determine the resource burden/feasibility in each channel.
What We’ll Learn Together
In this series of 5 blogs, exploring digital channels, setting goals, and measuring success, we’re going to provide a thorough outline that will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to make informed marketing decisions. Our first topic of conversation will be SEARCH (ORGANIC vs Paid).
We will cover basic definitions, best uses, and practices for paid ads vs SEO, and how you can make the most out of organic website traffic.
We hope you join us along the way.