We see lots of companies try advertising online and after a few setbacks decide that it doesn’t work because it’s too expensive or too complicated! Going online allows companies to access international markets at a fraction of the cost.
The use of digital media has catapulted companies like Uber to operate in 58 countries and worth over $60 billion. Airbnb is another massive success story and by January 2018 the company had over 3 million listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries.
The massive growth experienced by these companies was because they understood how to build highly successful online marketing strategies.
Step 1: Identify Target Market
This is one of the most overlooked yet important steps when you begin online advertising. It seems so obvious – target your potential clients but when you are advertising online you want to target your most receptive clients.
You may have a product or service where customers age range is between 15 and 70 but if 50% of your clients range from 25 to 38 you should start there.
The more specific you are the easier it is to measure your results.
In the early days of online marketing you are learning what content, colors, and value statements trigger action. If your initial focus is too broad, it will be nearly impossible to build a strong online marketing campaign.
Once you have successful target your largest group of clients begin branching out. Hint: You may need to try different strategies.
If, on the other hand, you are a ‘walk-in’ service you may limit your online marketing strategy to a specific geography like a city or region.
Summary: A new online marketing campaign needs to identify a ‘test’ market or specific clientele to accurately measure response rates.
Step 2: Choose the Social Media Channel
As digital media continues to grow at alarming rates so do the number of new marketing channel opportunities to advertise for clients.
The online marketing professional has more options than ever but a new marketing campaigns should never to ‘tested’ on untested social media platforms.
Any social media platform you choose should have a proven system for targeting consumers. For this reason, we have selected the most important platforms for discussion:
Online Search Engines – Proven platforms are Google and Bing. It is estimated that Google has about 92% of the search engine market share world wide with Bing at almost 3%.
If you are trying to target your potential clients between Google and Bing you have captured over 95% of the current search engine industry!
1. Hint: If you use Google AdWords you can also target YouTube.
2. Facebook – This is considered the largest social media platform in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users. It is estimated that over 72% of North America is registered on Facebook so the potential market size is over 263 million users.
Hint: Facebook will also allow you to target Instagram. Summary: In most cases you will need to pick one platform and focus your energies on learning how to build lead generation.
Hint: Online Search Engines and Facebook are very different marketing platforms that require different strategies.
Step 3: Design the Campaign
The design of any campaign needs to contain a number of key components in order for it to be successful.
Hint: The design of your campaign needs to walk them through every step of the buying process.
1. Marketing Ads – You need to design several graphical and word ads that result in your potential client taking action. It is estimated that over 90% of human decisions are emotional so consider how you can create emotional triggers in the words and images you use to describe your product or service. Hint: If the consumer takes no action there will be no sale. Consider what can you offer as an incentive to take action now that can include; limited time offers, discounted pricing, bonus products or free shipping.
2. Landing Pages – Once they have clicked on your images or word ads where do you plan to send them? What do they see next? In many cases the development of a landing page is meant to provide all the information they need to decide if this is the right produce or service for them?
3. Content – At every step of the buying process the content within your marketing platform needs to build on the previous content while moving them one step closer to making a purchase or using your service.
The reality is that today’s buying process is made up of many steps that must eventually lead to a purchase.
Hint: At every step your potential customer is evaluating your business to see if it fits with what they are looking for.
4. Strong Call To Action – Remember, nothing happens unless your potential client takes action! Make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step forward and make sure they know what the next step is. Use contrast, action words and create a positive experience.
Hint: Remember that if your marketing campaign is in English plan out the elements of the pages the way we scan pages – Top to Bottom, Left to Right.
5. Test, Test & Test – This is one of the most overlooked but important steps of any campaign design. As you make changes to your ads, landing pages, and content you always need to keep testing.
You get one chance to leave a positive impression so make sure there is at least 1 other person responsible for reviewing and testing the changes.
Hint: Whenever possible have others who may not be part of the business review your platform goes live.
Step 4: Marketing Budget
A marketing budget needs to reflect the size of your test target market. As your setup your online marketing campaign make sure everything as a ‘cap’ or set amount for each ad spend period. Remember, this is the world wide web and you don’t want to have an open ad spend or the next time you check your campaign you might have spent $10,000!
Step 5: Start Slow
In a new online marketing campaign there are so many ‘moving parts’ that it takes time to refine your targeting, messaging and campaign results. Until you have consistent ongoing leads being generated with a set budget from your initial test target market don’t spend more than you have too.
The worst thing you can do is over spend with unproven campaign results. When it comes to online advertising success is defined by obtaining the highest quality leads for the lowest price.
Hint: Start slow, be systematic and make small incremental changes to your ad campaigns until you can consistently produce results.
Step 6: Monitor Results
Every measurable aspect of your online campaign needs to be monitored. It’s what makes digital media advertising so valuable. As you continue to advertise make small incremental improvements allowing your results to improve over time.
At a bare minimum you should be monitoring the following:
1. Ad spend
2. Number of impressions (how many times people have seen it)
3. Average cost/Impression
4. Ad click through rates
5. Keyword click through rate
6. Landing page visits
7. Average length of time on landing page (shows how much they read the content)
8. Landing page bounce rates
9. Number of leads filling out your forms (how many took action)
10. Keyword by lead who filled out the form
11. Number of new clients
12. Keyword trigger by clients
13. Revenue generated by these new clients
Step 7: Be Patient
As the saying goes…Rome wasn’t built in a day – and neither will your online marketing campaign. This is where all online marketing professionals take a deep breath to celebrate the wins no matter how small and learn from their mistakes. Advertising online is not as easy as it looks but who said competing for the attention of consumers would be?
Final Thoughts….
If you ever feel you need a few pointers or want to talk to a professional – always feel free to reach out to Gravity Bounce. We know how hard it can be to create a compelling - ongoing successful marketing campaign.
Happy marketing!
Aaron Johnston Google Expert & Marketing Guru
Email: aaronj@gbma.ca Website: www.gbma.ca
About the Author:
Aaron Johnston grew up in rural Ontario and has run multiple companies in varies industries over the years. After attempting to hire “the wrong guys” to try online marketing he decided he could do a better job! After 11 years of online marketing experience he shares his experience with others from Taiwan where he now lives with his two daughters.