How to write an onlinedigital internet

marketing plan 2018

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Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Are you a student looking for how towrite a digital marketing plan? Or maybeyou’re a small business owner trying tofigure out what does an onlinemarketing plan look like?

This article shows how to write anonline internet digital marketingonline internet digital marketingplan in 2018plan in 2018. It’s right up to date withnew developments in the form ofleaked Google search qualityguidelines and the latest voice searchquality guidelines and includes a digitaldigitalmarketing plan templatemarketing plan template & advice onhow to develop an digital marketing digital marketingstrategystrategy. [Updated January 2018][Updated January 2018]

Writing your digitalWriting your digitalmarketing planmarketing planWhere to start? If you have ever tackleda business plan you know what I mean.But…hello, it’s your lucky day thanks to aclear simple framework calledthe SOSTAC® planning model. In plainEnglish this simply means breaking yourplan down into six elements: ––

S S stands for Situation Analysis Situation Analysis –which means where are we now?OO stands for ObjectivesObjectives which meanswhere do we want to go?S S stands for StrategyStrategy whichsummarises how we are going to getthere.T T stands for TacticsTactics which are thedetails of strategy.AA is for ActionAction or implementation –putting the plan to work.CC is for ControlControl which meansmeasurement, monitoring, reviewing,updating and modifying.

Visually it looks like this…

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

If you want to find out more aboutdigital marketing strategy or get hold ofa FREE Digital Marketing Plan Templatevisit Smart Insights website and followthem on twitter @SmartInsights. Moreinformation about the SOSTAC®Planning System is at PR Smith’sSOSTAC® webpage or follow ontwitter @PR_Smith.

Xtensio have a range of documenttemplates for startups, consultanciesand marketing agencies to help map outa digital marketing plan. These includetemplates for CompetitiveAnalysis, SWOT Analysis, ContentStrategy Planner, User PersonaCreator, Brand Positioning Canvas andmany more.

DigitalMarketingTrends in 2018In 2018 there are key high-level digitaltrends that you need to aware of so youare not wasting your time, energy ande ort doing things that are not soimportant. We’ve researched the weband have identi ed 8 key trends thathave a major impact on writing a futureproof digital marketing strategy in 2018.These are:-

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Mobile First – the growth in mobileand smart phone usage, theimportance of voice search,responsive website design andgood user experience Voice search, SEO, contentmarketing and micro-moments The surge in the use of socialmessaging apps and chatbots Machine learning, artificialintelligence and marketingautomation Digital transformation and usingdata to inform marketing strategies Integrating marketing activities intothe customer lifecycle at differenttouch points and the importance ofpersonalisation in marketing Having a robust customerengagement strategy The future of augmented reality inmarketing

If you want to find out more about thesetrends see the latest research in trendsto shape your digital marketing plansfor 2018 from Smart Insights.Understand the most important SEOtactics to focus on in 2018 in this guidefrom Backlinko. Find out predictions ofhow marketing on Facebook, Instagram,Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest willchange in the coming year at SocialMedia Examiner.

7 Simple Steps ForCreating a DigitalMarketing Plan in 2018The following steps show how you cancreate a simple, but e ective digitaldigitalinternet marketing planinternet marketing plan to buildawareness & get going online. We’vetried to cover everything in plain Englishwithout bamboozling you with the morein-depth intellectual debates aboutdigital strategy, big data and advancedmarketing jargon.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Digital Marketing trends change fast soit’s important to know what are the mostimportant things you need toconcentrate on in 2018 to make yourmarketing a success. Yes, it takes timeto plan but in the long run its so worthit. Smart Insights have reported thatshockingly 50% of UK businesses don’thave an integrated Digital MarketingStrategy. There’s so much informationavailable online its a challenge to knowwhere to begin….

Step 1: Know thyTarget AudienceintimatelyWho are they? Where do they hang out?What do newspapers or trade journalsthey read? One way to define your targetaudience is to create buyer personasbuyer personas.A persona is a description of a speci cperson who might want to buy yourservices or products. The personausually includes a ctitious buyer’sdemographic information, day in the lifeof, needs, motivations, preferences,biographical information, and a photo/image to make it real. Take Catarina forexample….

An introduction to personas andhow to create them

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Step 2: Spy on yourCompetitors (nicely)Put together a spreadsheet of your topcompetitors and research them to seehow they are using digital marketingchannels to reach customers. Do aquick competitive analysis by checkingout how your competitors (three is agood number) are performing on theSERPs and social media, as well astaking a good look at their websites.

Be a private detective, do a bit ofmystery shopping, impersonate yourcustomer to nd your (and yourcompetitor’s) products or servicesonline. Did you nd theirs rst, oryours? If you nd theirs rst, try touncover what they are doing within thedigital channel to make a connectiononline. Write down each connectionyou make in the spreadsheet.

The rst tool in my competitor researchtoolbox is always Screaming Frog Spiderfrom Dan Sharp the enigmatic founder& Director of Screaming Frog, a UKsearch marketing agency. ScreamingFrog is as essential, well worth the smallannual fee for limitless SEO audits.

I’d also check out SEMrush wonderfulfor Competitor Research, site audits anda whole lot more. I personally useSEMrush weekly. As a small businesstool I now cannot do without it andcustomer service is always exceptional.SEO keyword rankings and websitecontent marketing made easy and theSEMrush blog is one of the go-tosources for the latest SEO insights.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

If you haven’t come across theamazeballs Rival IQ it saves so muchtime and hours of research. Socialmedia analytics, meta descriptions andoverall competitor landscapes give youa birds-eye feel for where you t in yourcompetitor landscape. This research willbe used to prioritise your tactics in thenext step. You can use premium SEOtools like Raven Tools and the ultimateSEO Moz tools to get to the nitty-grittywith your competitor’s keywords &backlinks.

Looking at your strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats is a goodstarting point for your marketingstrategy.You might want to carry out asimple SWOT or situational analysis ofthe internal and external factorsa ecting your business. Gatherinformation about your product,customers, price points and marketshare

Step 3: Prioritise YourDigital Tactics &ChannelsLook at each digital channel and thinkabout how valuable or important thechannel is to your organisation. e.g Doemail campaigns drive web tra c or isit referrals (links) from directories ornews sites. Hint: check your referralHint: check your referraltraffic in Google Analytics.traffic in Google Analytics.

email marketing referral traffic directory listings press social media like Twitter, YouTube,Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest fore-commerce or a combination.

Value can be de ned as existingreferrals, % of new visitors, no of newleads etc use your Google analytics datato see trends. Then, look at the e ortrequired to implement your plan acrosseach digital marketing channel. Thevalue-e ort score will show you whichchannels represent “quick wins”. Thinkabout the following options to narrowdown the list:

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Company GoalsCompany Goals – What are thetop priorities for the business toachieve? Brand Awareness,Education, Raw Traffic or Sales? Budget Budget – How much do you haveto spend on your marketingeffort(s)? Available resourcesAvailable resources – Whatpersonnel or outsourced people doyou have available to create orremarket content? Available contentAvailable content – What contentdo you have already, carry out acontent audit to nd out topperforming content Your websiteYour website – Check if it’scontent rich, responsive anddesigned for conversionoptimisation. Does your site follow theGoogle webmaster guidelines?Google webmaster guidelines?Find out here.

Step 4: Quick winsA variety of digital channels & tacticswill be ‘right’ for your businessdepending on your business objectives& customers. For example, if you wantto raise brand awareness & improvecustomer services social mediamarketing tactics will t the bill. If youwant to generate sales & web tra c acombination of Search EngineMarketing, Google+ & email marketingmay be your best t. In reality, mostbusinesses have a variety of businessobjectives & audiences so take a ‘pick ‘n’mix approach, test e ectiveness &monitor results.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Display AdvertisingDisplay Advertising Email MarketingEmail Marketing Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) Online Public RelationsOnline Public Relations Search Engine OptimisationSearch Engine Optimisation(SEO)(SEO) Affil iate MarketingAffil iate Marketing Social Media MarketingSocial Media Marketing Viral Content CampaignsViral Content Campaigns Conversion Rate OptimisationConversion Rate Optimisation(CRO)(CRO) BloggingBlogging Twitter advertisingTwitter advertising Facebook advertisingFacebook advertising Influencer/Blogger outreachInfluencer/Blogger outreach Video marketingVideo marketing Local search marketingLocal search marketing Mobile marketingMobile marketing Groupon/offer sitesGroupon/offer sites Corporate websiteCorporate website Free content (eBooks, whiteFree content (eBooks, whitepapers, tools)papers, tools) Online communities/forumsOnline communities/forums WebinarsWebinars PodcastsPodcasts Crowdfunding campaignsCrowdfunding campaigns

Also, see SEOmoz – which digitalchannels are right for my business? andConvince and Converts How to Choosethe Right Social Channels to Reach YourCustomers.

Step 5: MeasuringresultsCreate SMART performance indicatorsthat are quanti able and measurable.Examples include:-

Increase online sales by 20% from xto y Increase natural search tra c by20% Increase social media engagementon Facebook by 25% quarterly

Have a read of Avanish Kaushik’s DigitalMarketing and Measurement Model.Digital marketing goes hand in glovewith digital analytics. Ask yourself whyare we undertaking this digital initiative?As Avinash says “pick super awesomekey performance indicators that trulyreveal success or failure. Hint: ThinkHint: Thinkconversion rates, task completionconversion rates, task completionrate.rate.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Step 6: Is it working?You can test whether your marketingcampaigns are working by tracking yourtra c, goals and conversions in GoogleAnalytics and other metrics likeFacebook Insights. You can alsouse Clicktale or Crazyegg to see wherepotential customers are exiting yoursites.

Heatmaps are visual representations ofwhere people are clicking on your siteso its worth evaluating this to draw outinsights. Monitoring & reporting enablesyou to see how well your digitalmarketing is performing and gives greatinsight into next actions. AB or splittesting is essential, see Google ContentExperiments and Customer Journeys forinsights into customer buying journeysin your sector.

Step 7: Monthly reviewTake time out to review where yourmarketing tactics are driving resultsregularly and adapt your campaigns totake advantage of new opportunities.You can use a variety of tools for thissee this cool list of seo and social mediatools and pick a free or paid one to getgoing!

Your essential tools are Google SearchConsole previously known (like Prince)as Webmaster Tools and GoogleAnalytics.There are so many SEO toolsout there to use but don’t get boggeddown by them. Choose one or twoChoose one or two. I’dchoose the above plus SEMrush andpropriety analytics tools like FacebookInsights, Pinterest Analytics and sayIconosquare for Instagram. Otherdashboards include Hootsuite, Bu er,Hubspot and Sproutsocial if you havethe budget.

Take a holistic overview of metrics, forexample in some cases directoryreferrals are huge tra c drivers,likewise an authority link from theGuardian, Money Saving Expert or LifeHacker can make or break a campaign.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

*New*New – Check out 44 Social Media ToolsRecommended by the Pros from SocialMedia Examiner and the magni centmarketer toolbox.

I’d recommend creating a simple two-page report that highlights key trends,wins and losses and next actions (tip: behonest if there are any issues, yourclient will respect your guidance ifthings are explained clearly and youhave an effective solution)

Digital marketing plantemplate

Smartinsights have shared a free to useDigital marketing strategy and planningword template. You can check out themarketing planning template on theSmartinsights site. If you join SmartInsights as a Basic member (highlyrecommended) you can download thePDF!

Also highly recommended by Webyogiis the ultimate seo tools checklist fromAnnie Cushing’s. Simply measured havesome groovy free social media reporttemplates but these may blow yourclient’s minds as they are very detailed.

I’d also highly recommend a copy of e-marketing excellence by PR Smith &Dave Cha ey – my digital marketingbible. I was lucky enough to attend aconference where Dave shared insightsinto using Google Analytics to improvebusiness results – very useful, so makesure you check this out as well. Finally,it’s worth noting that a digitaldigitalmarketing plan needs integratingmarketing plan needs integratinginto your existing business andinto your existing business andoverall marketing planoverall marketing plan and not beseen as a separate effort.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

Looking for someone to help you createy o u r digital marketing plandigital marketing plan? Wedeliver bespoke SEO focused marketingt r a i n i n g to small businesses,Universities, higher education colleges,creative industries and health and well-being businesses. View our full listo f training courses here or contact usfor a free mini digital marketingfree mini digital marketingauditaudit.

Creating yourCreating yourContent MarketingContent MarketingPlanPlanThe buzz term content marketing hasbecome ‘in vogue’ and there’s noshortage of guides like therecent Content Marketing BeginnersGuide from Moz and QuickSproutsawesome evergreen Advanced guide tocontent marketing. But… back to basics,hasn’t the web always been aboutquality content and dare i say it Contentis Queen? No digital marketing plan in2018 would complete without a contentmarketing strategy, content plan andeditorial calendar. Check out theContent Marketing Strategychecklist from Velocity.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018

Write an online digital internet marketingplan 2018

The Content Marketing Institutehas compiled a range DIY tool kit ofchecklists, templates, and resources thatcan help make running your contentmarketing program more manageable.Bu er have a guide on “How to Write aContent Marketing Strategy Step-by-Step” with a strategy template! Youmight be interested to check out Ahrefs“noob” guide to link building.

New to SEO?New to SEO?SEO for beginners begins with readingthe o cial Google Search Engine StarterGuide which explains onsite searchengine optimisation, signing up toGoogle’s O cial Webmaster Blog andcompulsory bedtime reading Google’sWebmaster Guidelines. Hands up – haveyou actually read these golden nuggets?

Photo credit : Tim Gouw

Be sure to take a look at theimpressive Noob guide to onlinemarketing from Unbounce and thecompanion piece the Noob guide toLink Building. Still beautiful clear guideson how to get authority backlinks ormore importantly earn them from adiverse range of resources. Finally checkout Link Building: The Definitive Guidefrom Brian Dean at Backlinko the mostcomprehensive guide on the web.

Write an online digital internet marketing plan 2018