Digital Marketing Is Hard, but That Is No Excuse

Hello LinkedIn, and welcome to Corporate Caffeine!

FYI - this is the written version of my weekly video series on LinkedIn Live. If you'd like to watch and participate in the live discussion, make sure to join on Wednesdays at 12:00 CST.

Today, we are talking about digital marketing.

My company, The Marketing Blender, specializes in working with business-to-business companies. This means we work with companies that operate in a complicated environment, and if you are reading this, I bet you know what that's like.

No matter what part of a business you are discussing… You can't get away with not having a strong digital presence.?

One of my favorite quotes is a proverb: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today. In other words, you're never too late.

I'm going to operate under the assumption that you've taken all of the advice up until now. I'm also going to assume that?you downloaded the road to revenue kit.?

There are lots of tools in there that can help you align your business properly. You have calls to action throughout the kit, and it will help set you up for success by ensuring you are saying the right thing and targeting the right people.

Let me walk you through what we're looking at today.?

Digital marketing is complex. Duh.?

There are different ways to do it, and you need to be thoughtful.

Factors for Doing Digital Marketing Right

Starting with social media: I prefer video, and most algorithms do too. Sometimes, you need to pay to play, and we'll talk about how to know when you're going to need to do that.

You need to make sure that you have high-value emails on the back end of any calls to action. This allows any nurture campaigns to teach people that you have something worthy of opening and reading.?

You have to get targeting right.?

This allows you to confirm that you're reaching the right people. Keep in mind that this is a place where people waste money.?

Also, make sure that your website is set up correctly from a messaging standpoint and from a tracking standpoint.

Content is a part of SEO as well.?SEO is short for search engine optimization. It's how people find you organically, in a non-paid fashion. It's critical because, without good SEO, no one will find you or learn from you. It culminates in what is your effective digital reach.

For your website and much of your social media, remember, you have total control over at least what's going out. You obviously don't have control over how people respond to it, but it is your platform.?

As long as the platforms are working correctly, you can share high-value content and encourage others to do the same.?

This means you need to have things that are worthy of being shared

This is almost like influencer marketing. It means you have to ensure that your content is appropriate for your industry.

Paying for advertisements on any social media channel or Google Adwords is programmatic. Remember, everything you do should be based on going where the buyer goes. If the buyer is not on Instagram, don't go on Instagram, even if that's what everybody else is going.

How Can You Make Sure That What You Do Is Effective?

First, you should always be optimizing your own owned channel.

Your website is your front door, right??

People usually don't find your website by accident. They saw it somewhere, they heard about your name, and they took some actions to get themselves to your website.?

This probably isn't the first touch that they would have seen. That means your website is intended to convert interest or curiosity into action. You are trying to make sure that they are more than just interested.?

You also need to make sure that what you're saying answers to questions that they have.?

What are these visitors asking themselves? Why did they bother visiting your website? They must have something specific in mind, and you need to make sure the user experience happening on your website totally aligns with what the site visitor is trying to achieve.?

What is the buyer trying to figure out by visiting your website??

If you can ask people for reviews, I strongly recommend that you do, and there are some really great tools that help you do this.? One is called "nice job," and it can help you request reviews from clients.?

You want to make sure that the things people come across are clean and accurate and portray the correct message about your company. This goes for social media, as well.?

Speaking specifically about social media: I mentioned earlier how to pick which social channels you should be on.?

You go where your buyers go.

If you are currently doing social media, you want to consider what has the highest engagement or what has the highest success rate. You have to think critically about this:?

Each channel is different, and each channel has different metrics of true success. This goes for every metric, and it's up to you to figure out what success means.?

Content and Engagement Matter

In terms of content, remember, it can get very overwhelming. There is so much amazing advice out there.?

Let me give you a few super basic tips.

1.????????Use the calendar as your friend. Pre-schedule things, but make sure to avoid holidays. If you have any anniversaries, or if there are any significant trends that happen in a predictable time frame, make sure that you're identifying that type of content.

2.????????Let your team share their ideas, and use social media to celebrate your team.

3.????????Give shout-outs to your clients, or ask your clients for ideas. Ask them for video testimonials, case studies, or anything like.

4.????????Create bulk content, and repurpose things into small snippets. Then people can click on a link and go engage in a longer piece of content if they want. Remember, it has to be high value and follow-worthy.?

Remember also that when it comes to comments and followers, you get what you give. If you want comments, you ought to be commenting.?

If you want followers, you need to be a follower.

Engage in the platform and be a community member. You reap what you sow on social media, in both a good and bad way.?

This can be incredibly effective if you're in sales or any sort of business development. Allow your voice to honor other people's work.?If you engage in the community, you'll be amazed at how people will reciprocate. Provide encouragement or referrals, and they will do the same.?

You can't do it just because you're trying to get something in return, but it does seem to be a kind of truth of life:?

If you have true generosity in your spirit, it comes back to you.? So, don't give in order to get, but don't expect to get if you have no intention of giving.

The Competition

Yes, you should take a peek at what your competitors are doing, but don't do something just because they are.?

You need to have your own strategy, your own thoughtfulness, your own brand voice. This will allow you to differentiate yourself and serve the market.?

When it comes to checking out the competition, don't be enemy-centered.?

Don't put them at the center of your universe. Put your customers there. You are here to serve, not just to sell. In terms of digital marketing, share things that align with your values. Curate content:?

If you see something on Forbes or a peer's blog, share it. This is a much easier way of establishing a voice than constantly creating content. If you do that for others, you'll be amazed at what comes back to you.?

This means you need to be follow-worthy. Put out things you think are interesting or would stop you in your tracks, things that would create an emotional reaction in you.?

How Do We Know if We Need To Pay To Play?

This really depends on the situation. If you have ginormous competitors with so much content, you will need to pay to play.

Make sure you are using tools or get an audit by a digital agency.?

This can help you find out the competitive landscape and how well your competitors rank for organic content. Some of this you can do for free. You can also get a sense of how much they are spending per month if you need to be looking at that.

Whether it is money, time, or attention, there is that trifecta you've got to figure out. Now, spending more money doesn't let you off the hook for time and attention. However, it does give you a lot more reach and a little bit more forgiveness.

You also need to understand your customers.?

If your buyers are not Googling questions about your type of product or service, you don't necessarily need to spend on Google AdWords.?You may still need to if you have a digital expert validating the type of keywords that will help you reach your market, however.?

This is absolutely the case if those keywords are very important. If you do pay for Google AdWords, pay really close attention to the bottom-of-the-funnel lead generation.

You can often make the assumption that you're going to get more quality and more immediate needs from Google AdWords, but you have to be vigilant.?You have to be validating the sales coming from the leads that you generated online.

In social media, you need to have a strategy for making sure that you're building brand awareness.

That’s not lead generation.?

This is more middle of the funnel: areas where people are curious but not ready to buy. You want to engage them and give them free advice that will help them make the right decision from a company perspective.?

Remember, if you do that well, they will follow you, or they will opt-in to your emails.

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You absolutely can get quality leads from social media, but you need to be strategic about it.?

You need to make sure that you have enough brand awareness and brand equity so that people are willing to click through that. This can be challenging, especially if you're on the business-to-business side. You've got to be really thoughtful about your messaging.?

The Systems Must Be in Place

Keep in mind that where your ads send people should rarely be just to the home page of your website.?

You ought to be driving people into a landing page or something extremely specific. This gives you a better way to look at the traffic and see what's working and where people came from.?

This will allow you to make better decisions about whether an ad is worth it or not.?

Make sure to keep an eye on the tracking so that you know what's working and what isn't.

In a previous entry, I talked about championing your message, about getting it out there.?

That's what this is. If you are shooting your message from the mountaintops, you have to track the data to be successful. You have to track the landing pages, the messaging, and even your nurture systems before you spend money.

If you want to capture leads, but they are not going to be immediate leads, you need to make sure that you're nurturing them.?So, do you have email campaigns set up? Do you have automation systems set up? Text messaging? Anything that helps you maintain contact with your prospects?

Don't spam people, but make sure you can guide someone through your sales process.

This hits the big topics that I wanted to talk with you about today, and I hope you take away one or two action items from this.?If not, or if you have specific questions, reach out! Let me know.?

We've got endless amounts of resources for you. Come talk to us about the articles or things we have that can serve you or about how we can help you with one of those free audits that can give you insight into the competitive landscape inside of your specific digital ecosystem.

Thank you so much for spending time with me! I appreciate you so much.?Have an absolutely amazing finish to your week. I wish you massive prosperity this week.?

Onward and upward!