No Strategy, No Sales

It’s a harsh title, but I think that it says it all. If you don’t strategize your posts, they aren’t worth the pixels that make them up.

It’s autumn, so let’s use a football analogy today to explain things.

Bill Belichick may have said, “I don’t Twitter, I don’t MyFace, I don’t Yearbook” but we can relate digital marketing strategy right back to the game of football.

Imagine you’re a head coach (like Belichick) in the NFL and it’s your first game of the season. You have a big binder full of plays and 53 guys that you can call on to make those plays for you. These are the tools that you have to win this week’s game.

However, you still need to be strategic about which plays you run, what players are going to play which position and when you’re going to pull out all the stops. You still have to have a strategy in place that decides which plays work in what situation. Otherwise, you won’t be able to score a field goal let alone a touchdown.

Then, even if you secure a win in your first week of playing, you still need to make sure that you have an overarching strategy for the entire season so that you can go on to win the Super Bowl.

See what I mean?

You could have the best players and plays in your big binder full of marketing ideas, but if you don’t have a strategy in place they’re almost worthless.

 

So who are your players?

Who will be posting for you? Who decides what goes up on your page? Do you have a full-fledged branding guideline, or is the person posting using their own discretion to build your business?

This is one of the first steps when deciding your digital marketing strategy. You need to figure out who your players are and how they fit into your system. Best case scenario is that someone in your company has an in-depth understanding of your brand, vision, business, and product. This is the ideal person in charge of posting. Bad news is that’s probably you and you’re already short on time.

You could create branding guidelines for the point person or people in charge of your strategy, trying to encapsulate what your business is and how it should appear. If you see your business growing and needing an entire marketing department in the near future, this is probably your best bet. If it isn’t, consider hiring a consultant who can help you determine your strategy and then execute your campaigns.

 

What are your plays and when do you use them?

So now that you know your players, what will you be posting? What kind of colours, fonts, and videos will you use when you post online? Will this differ on each profile?

It’s important that you create a stockpile of content so that you always have something to share and you never seem inactive online. While posting daily isn’t a full-fledged strategy, almost every digital marketing campaign requires consistent activity. You don’t need to post everyday, but you need to be online on a consistent basis.

You can use analytics on every major social media platform to determine the most ideal posting times. You can find out when they’re online everyday down to the hour. If you program your posts for these times, you’ll be more likely to catch them when they’re already waiting for your content.

 

How do you play in each stadium?

One of the most important questions you have to ask when you start outlining your digital marketing strategy is how you will utilize every social media platform. You won’t be reaching a consistent audience across all of your profiles, so how will you determine which content will work and where?

Consider a Surf Shop in Port Dover. Their target demographic is probably between 13-24, technologically savvy and active outdoors. They’re a younger person who is up-to-date on trends and not worried about standing out. They aren’t going to be worried about how much your product costs, as long as it’s cool.

However, their target demographic doesn’t actually have a lot of buying power yet. It’s likely a parent or guardian who makes the final decision on a purchase. So, how would they use social media to target both audiences?

Analytics and a communication strategy that touches on both of their needs.

Their younger audience is likely on Instagram. This means that they don’t have to focus on pricing or advertising sales on Instagram. They need to make sure that their shop looks like experts in the community about what’s on trend and what equipment is needed to be the best skimboarder in Lake Erie. It’s more about the product and brands they carry than the prices they offer.

Their older audience is probably on Facebook and Twitter. They will want to know first and foremost about pricing. They will want to know that this shop knows what they’re talking about and that they are priced competitively with other shops. Their strategy on Facebook should be more about sharing sales and discount codes. They should showcase new stock they have coming in, but also provide buying guides for first-time purchasers or even share where novice athletes can get lessons in the area.

Knowing your audience and what they want in each arena is a very important part of strategizing. If you don’t know who is watching you on each profile, you might be missing out on opportunities to speak to their needs directly. You wouldn’t tell every customer who walks into your store the same thing, so why do it online?

Analytics are a great place to start. Figure out what is engaging in each place and use that as a template. Consider automating these templated posts and using everything else as filler to keep your page active. This takes some of the guesswork out of your content creation and allows you to run your campaign in the background.

 

Who is coaching you?

Social media is constantly changing, how will you make sure that you’re up-to-date on every trend?

I’m guessing that if you’re reading this blog, digital marketing likely isn’t your trade. That’s perfectly ok, because there are plenty of resources online for you to access that will help you maximize your reach across every social platform.

Need additional advice? There are a ton of webinars across the internet that you can access, or you can always reach out to a digital marketing agency. Here at Grizzly are always checking our emails and DMs for questions from entrepreneurs wondering how they can optimize their posts.

 

What next?

Take some time tonight and draw out a game plan. Take stock of what you already use and the ways you use it. Do you post videos on Facebook and advertise events on Instagram? Write that down and be honest with yourself about your engagement rates. Pull up your analytics and see what’s working and when. See who you’re speaking to on each of these platforms and determine whether or not that’s the audience you need to reach.

From there, start to make adjustments and see where you can grow. The nice thing about digital marketing is nothing is ever set in stone.

If you pull it all up and it still seems foreign to you, give us a call. We would be happy to do a no-pressure consultation with you and put together the beginnings of a strategy that will have you winning your very own business Super Bowl. 


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