When it comes to building a strong digital presence, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to look at all of the different channels that need to be considered in a digital marketing plan. Businesses should consider the benefits of paid ads, SEO and content marketing, social media marketing, guest posts, influencers, and more.
Rather than trying to take advantage of every opportunity available, brands need to prioritize the channels that work best for them and focus their efforts on the areas that will give them the best ROI. Consider these suggestions as you begin to narrow down your list of targeted platforms.
- Know your audience
- Monitor the competition
- Carefully track your success on different channels
1. Know your audience. To begin identifying the topic channels, carefully analyze your audience. You need to know where your customers live online and what matters the most to them as they work towards a buying decision. Consider which platforms they use the most within social media and the channels that they use at the different phases of the buyer's journey.
Speaking with your existing customers can be helpful for this step, as they can help you better understand what they wanted to see from companies as they got closer to making a purchaseand what encouraged them to go with your business.
As you improve your audience insight, begin outliningthe important channels at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
2. Monitor the competition. You also want to make sure you keep a close on the competition. Running competitive analysis on their websites can give you insight into the channels and strategies where they focus their efforts to gain success. This can help you gain additional information about the channels and platforms that mean the most to prospective customers as they get closer to making a purchase.
You can also use your competitor analysis to see if there are any gaps within your strategy that you need to close. Monitor your site for shortcomings, such as keyword gaps or a lack of particular types of content including imageswhich can be corrected to build an improved website.
3. Carefully track your success on different channels. You also want to carefully track the success of your different marketing channels. Understanding how customers interact with you throughout their buyer’s journey will help you see which channels and platforms had the most influence over the customer as they prepared to make a purchase.
A quality site report, such as the one offered through our BrightEdge platform, can also enhance your ability to see your conversions and traffic by channel. You can see how customers and visitors land on your site, empowering you to make better decisions about the channels that matter the most to your target customers.
As you collect a variety of data and information, use it to begin to prioritize your marketing channels. Direct your efforts to your most important areas, continuing to monitor and measure your progress throughout your campaigns. Prioritizing your marketing areas will help you build your organization and get the best possible ROI from your marketing resources.
