Your online presence is how people will see your business, be it a website or campaign. Now, you want to make a good first impression, but how? You design your site, you plan your campaign, you make sure the right people see your ads, and like what they see. But, is it enough? 

The world has changed a lot in the last 5 years, these days websites are regularly checked to make sure they are optimized with the right assets. Campaigns are tracked daily to monitor performance. But what do experts check for? What do businesses need when they go digital? This is where digital marketing experts, like Xiklab, come in. Let’s start.

1. Clear Objectives 

Your objectives are why you brought your business online in the first place. It can be anything from boosting sales, connecting better to your market, or even growing globally. It’s important to have your objective figured out. That way we can build the best strategy to achieve that goal.

Your objectives can be broad like the following:
– Increase company revenue

– Streamline the business process

– Create a better customer experience

– Establish the brand as trustworthy

However, to hit those objectives we have to be more specific.

2. Metrics to Monitor

This is where we break down your objectives to smaller, but more concrete goals. Let’s say your main objective is to increase your revenue. How will you know you’re on the right track to reaching that?

Well here are some example of smaller goals for that:
– Increase the amount qualified leads by 10% per month

– Increase your ads conversion rate by 8% per month

– Grow online sales by 25 % per quarter

Notice how these goals are specific, measurable, and time sensitive. These are just some of the factors you need to make a good goal. Although this principle can be applied to any objective, it gets trickier when you have to deal in specifics.

Let’s look at digital ads for example, did you know Google Ads prioritizes how useful and relevant your landing page is to a user, when arranging ranks? The rank determines how easy people will see your site. This is the benefit of working with a digital marketing agency. You don’t need to be an expert to move your business forward. You just need to be working with them.

3. Brand Persona or Profile

Just like how objectives and goals direct what you do. Your brand’s persona will help direct the way you sound, look, and feel. Basically it’s the template for how your company presents itself. 

For example Red Bull, the energy drink pioneer. The brand funds extreme sports events and similar activities. On their social media they post about skateboarding events, race cars, even skydiving. That is all part of their persona, they are all about thrills. On the other hand, Cobra Energy Drink is more about pushing forward and powering through tough times.

The persona is helpful for potential buyers, as they make a connection based on how they see the brand behind the drink. If you want the energy to go on an adventure, you think Red Bull. If you want the energy to do your work, you get a Cobra energy drink.

4. Buyer Persona

Just like your brand should establish what it wants to be. You should also have an idea of who your buyers or customers are. This will help your overall business as this better directs where your ads are going, who it is made for, and where it can be seen.

Now, building a customer or buyer persona is not easy. You will need to do a lot of research. That is to identify who your customer is, where they are on the internet, the issues they face, and other relevant data. Knowing these things about your target market is not only smart, it can also save your business time and money.

5. Strategy

   Once you know your objectives, your goals, who you are, and who you are talking to, you then plan how you give the message. For example you are just about to launch a website for your online shoe store. Do you just launch it and expect people to see it, what if they don’t?
   
   The better idea would be to let your target market know that you are about to launch a website. You share posts building up to the day and hopefully, with the right ads in the right places, your website launch will be a success.

Your strategy is how you make the most of what you have. It keeps you efficient no matter the project, be it a campaign, an announcement, even a rebranding.

6. Proper Social Media Presence

Now, let’s talk about social media. Some people opt not to have a website and choose to go with a Facebook or Instagram page. That’s a valid idea. However, does it align with their goals and your brand?

Let’s look at when Tiktok became more popular and had a surge in users last year. A lot of brands thought that they would jump on the bandwagon. However, it might not be the best idea considering Tiktok’s core demographic. Just because a platform is popular, doesn’t mean your business should be on it.

That’s why your objectives matter, and why your goals have to be specific. Because you can spend time and energy building your presence on Tiktok, only to find out your target market uses Instagram more.

It might also be better to have a website, it gives you more control over how you present your products and the overall user experience. As an online shopper, going through a store’s catalog on Facebook can be so frustrating as the interface is not that smooth. So before creating all those social media accounts, take the time to figure out what platform best serves your business.

7. The Media Assets

    

Whether you build a website or a bunch of social media pages, you will need to fill that space with content. Making your content will be easier once you have a better idea of what you want to say, who you want to hear it, and the results you’re looking for. The question now is, what content will you need?

That really depends, in general, most businesses will post images and videos. But in 2021, live streaming has become one of the most popular and effective content types to engage with your target market. Some businesses swear by email marketing, others stick to blogging and articles, while some people prefer working with influencers. Again it depends on what you need.

However, it should also be noted that your business should have a way to generate this content. Freelancers are one way to go about it. Others would choose to have an In-house marketing team. Another efficient option is to work with a digital marketing agency.

8. SEO Optimization

    

As you are moving online, that means your content has to be adjusted for Search Engine Optimization or SEO, but what does that mean?  Simply put, being adjusted for SEO means your content is made to have the best chance of being seen by people on the internet, without paying for ads. By doing this to your content, be it pictures, videos, or articles, get more people to see what you have to offer.

Now there are a lot of factors to this, but keywords are a major one. Keywords are what help search engines (Bing, Google, etc.) categorize your content, so they can direct it to the right users. The problem is that the algorithm of these search engines are always changing to better suit consumer needs. That means you need a constant stream of content, adjusting to changes in the algorithm as you go.

9. Customer Experience

Now this includes customer service. When we say customer experience that includes all the interactions a person has with your brand or business. When a facebook user sees your brand’s funny post, that is part of  the customer experience. Now, this matters because small things add up. Do you notice how cable companies always seem to have a bad reputation among customers?

The common answer is that they have bad customer service, which is basically bad customer experience. The more bad experiences people have with a brand, the more negativity they attach to it. But, it goes beyond how you handle customers.

Let’s say you have a website. The landing page, the speed, and the overall experience can be impactful to your business. Studies show that 1 in 4 site visitors are likely to abandon a website if it doesn’t load in 4 seconds. That is a quarter of potential business lost because a website is not fast enough.

Conversely, good user experience can drive your business up. For example, the web browser FireFox made a 2.2 second increase in page speed leading to over 15% more downloads. That is about 10 million downloads per year. From quick responding chatbots to user-friendly interfaces, the digital movement is transforming the customer experience, and it is a growing focus for businesses.

10. Quality Product or Service

     

Finally, your product or service has to be good. Afterall, your digital efforts are in service of selling what you offer. You can have the best user experience in the world, but if your customers are consistently returning your products at high volumes, then that is bad. 

That isn’t to say they always have to be perfect. But, your customers should at least be satisfied. From there you can improve by listening to what they have to say. This is how you further develop trust and loyalty in your customers.

The digital space is getting more competitive these days. There are a lot of new things to consider, and a lot of new things to learn. It may be intimidating but it’s not impossible. Especially if you have someone who can help.

Xiklab Digital is one of the leading digital marketing agencies in the country. And we want to help you go digital the right way. You can access our FREE audit tool here, and see how your business can grow further online. And if you are interested in working with top-notch digital marketing experts, you can send Xiklab Digital an email today.

Sources: 

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/the-ultimate-digital-marketing-campaign

https://www.reliablesoft.net/digital-marketing-checklist/

https://www.yodelpop.com/marketing-collateral-checklist-brand-assets-built-around-an-effective-marketing-strategy 

http://loadstorm.com/2014/04/infographic-web-performance-impacts-conversion-rates/

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722122?hl=en

https://kinsta.com/learn/page-speed/

https://www.globaldots.com/resources/blog/how-website-speed-affects-conversion-rates/ 

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/irrelevant-keywords
https://www.dummies.com/business/start-a-business/small-business-marketing/setting-goals-for-your-online-business-presence/ 

https://designpowers.com/blog/website-goals-and-objectives-for-your-small-business 

https://www.yodelpop.com/marketing-collateral-checklist-brand-assets-built-around-an-effective-marketing-strategy