How to start your own digital marketing campaign
Introduction
Now is the time, more than ever, to vamp up your marketing strategies. Having a good digital marketing campaign not only is cost-effective, but also enables you to reach your target audience easily. Best of all, digital marketing results in the best return of investment (ROI) for your business compared to any other marketing campaign.
If you are building back your business especially on a limited budget, digital marketing campaign is your answer. Even a solo plumber can market his service online using all the tools readily available for free. All he needs is a smartphone and he is good to go. So, what more to say if you have more resources than that?
Digital marketing – Why Does it Matter?
According to statista.com, as of 2021, people spend more than two hours with the internet on their mobile phones daily. That number has been increasing since. So many things can be done in two hours. So many things can be seen too! So how should we take advantage of this?
Here, we will outline what you can do for your digital marketing campaign. Read on to know more.
1. Create social media accounts
At this point, you might probably own a personal account for many of the social media platforms out there. Each of these platforms possess their own unique characteristics that caters to its own group of audience. The best thing is the fact that you can use these platforms interchangeably by posting a content from your Tik Tok to your Instagram account.
When creating a social media account, remember to start with a plan. Of course, a good business strategy always starts with a good plan. This is to ensure that your efforts are done properly to support your business goals.
To get an idea on how social media plan is done, you can go to Hootsuit.com where the steps are outlined clearly for you to follow. They also included free templates for you to use!
2. Have a schedule of content postings
There is no magic formula on posting contents on your social media, but the consensus is that you should post something every day. There are countless ideas out there for you to explore and perhaps you have got plenty already in your hands. With this, it is good to have a schedule for your content postings so that you can keep on track in your marketing campaign.
A schedule for your content postings is a helpful tool for you to manage your planned contents effectively. You will be able to save time on creating instead of still wondering on what to post on the next day. One good example is to use Facebook’s Business Suite platform which enables its user to create a planner for contents and schedule postings for future dates. Often, it is the scarcity of time and the issue of human resource that deters quality frequent postings, so having a schedule can help you to make the most of your company’s resources.
You can visit this page to learn more on scheduling content postings for your social media accounts, plus, a nice free template that you can download to kick start your content calendar!
3. Learn everything you know about your target audience
Your campaign should consider your target audience. As we know, for instance, more millennials or Gen Zs use Instagram and Pinterest is more popular among women than men. Target marketing helps you to speak to your audience directly which can attract and convert high quality leads into paying customers. Knowing your target audience also may help in improving the quality of your products or services. Understanding their preferences or needs allows you to present your business in a way that wants only the best for their customers.
To be successful in understanding your target audience, don’t use guesses. Instead, use real data to do so. You can do the following:
- Have a chat with your past or existing customers
- Engage in social media to know what people think about your business or the industry you are in.
- Find out about the latest trends or happenings by talking to the sales team
- Track data on your point of sale systems and web analytics.
Learning about your target audience enables you to create a more personalized or relatable content that can be used to reach out to more potential customers, create engagements that lead to possible high-quality leads and even establish your brand presence.
4. Maintain a relationship with your clients (or potential ones)
Never underestimate the potential of repeating business from previous clients. This can be done by having a long-term relationships with them. Aside from becoming their go-to product or service provider, satisfied customers will even recommend your company to others, which leads to new business. This goes even faster these days with the use of social media. This may happen through the sharing of your content postings or even their own. Going viral may be risky, but many businesses have benefited from it. However, not everything can go viral, but reaching 100 audience for your posting is better than none and that is definitely not far-fetched with the right strategies.
What you can do in maintaining that relationship with your clients digitally are:
- create a list of your past clients and communicate with them from time to time.
- use platforms like Whatsapp or Telegram or emails to send latest updates or personalized messages to thank them for their businesses or to have them engage with your postings by give a LIKE, COMMENT or SHARE.
- respond to their comments or leave a comment on their reviews.
- create an online community for your audience by interacting with them. You can do this by going live, ask them questions, share tips or ideas with them and the list goes on!
All in all, always remain positive as you want your clients to associate you with goodness and stay human! There’s nothing worst than being responded by automated replies to your real problems. People want to know that there are real people behind the businesses.
5. Track your performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Now that you have strategised your digital marketing campaign, remember to track your performance to see if there’s any conversion from leads to paying customers. Trends do change and what works now might not be relevant next three months. Always be ready to adjust your strategy according to the outcomes. There are a lot of resources out there to choose from for you to analyse your campaign systematically. This is also an intelligent way of managing your time and cost allocated for your digital marketing campaign.