The 4 Pillars
To create a successful
digital marketing plan, you need to be strong in the following 4 areas:
- Website
Traffic: Getting prospects to your website
- Website
Conversion: Converting website visitors into paying customers
- Customer
Value: Increasing the lifetime value of your customers
- Tracking:
Tracking your marketing channels so you know what’s working and
what needs to be improved
You might want to write
those down on a notepad. I call these the 4 Pillars of digital
marketing success because they establish the foundation for your
marketing. If you’re weak in any one of those areas, then you’ll
struggle to create profitable marketing campaigns. There’s no way
around it, you need to focus on all 4.
In this article, I’m
going to address the first Pillar, website traffic. More specifically,
how to determine your best traffic opportunities.
And there are 2
questions you need to answer…
Question #1.
Dude, Where’s My Prospect?
The first question is
where are your ideal prospects hanging out online? Are they searching
in Google and Bing? Are they watching videos on YouTube? Do they spend
a lot of time on Facebook or are they more active on LinkedIn? Are they
reading articles on news sites?
Put yourself in your
ideal prospect’s shoes. What would you do if you were in need of your
particular product or service?
This is important
because not every source of traffic is a good opportunity for your
business. For example, I worked with a medical device company that sold
a product that most people do not know exists. Since few people know it
exists, very few people go to Google to search for it. Logically, that
means search engine optimization (SEO) and search advertising are not
good options for that business. They are simply not going to drive any
sales.
It’s obvious once you
ask this first question, but that’s not often where we start. I catch
myself doing this all the time. I listen to the media and get caught up
in all the hype about a certain tactic and instantly believe it’s where
I need to be focused. Fight that urge! Always ask first where your
ideal prospects are, and make sure the tactic will, in fact, reach
them.
Here’s the other
question you need to answer…
Question #2. Are
You Offering Catnip or Cat Food?
Have you ever seen a
cat go crazy after just a few licks of catnip? It’s hilarious. Reminds
me of scenes from Dazed
and Confused. :)
What’s most interesting
about catnip is that it only affects cats. If you have both dogs and
cats and you open up a container of catnip, then your cats will come
scurrying from all corners of your house. Your dogs may look up
curiously, but then they’ll go right back to whatever they were doing.
In other words, catnip
is the absolute perfect bait if all you want to do is attract nearby
cats. If you compare that to cat food, then you clearly see the
difference. When you open up a can of cat food, then any hungry animals
nearby (cats, dogs, and even rodents) will come to check it out.
What does this have to
do with marketing? A lot actually. When you’re considering a source of
website traffic, then you need to ask this question: how can you create
a bait like catnip that only attracts your ideal customer, rather than
cat food that could attract a flurry of unqualified prospects?
For example, I recently
talked to a business owner that caters to parents of children about to
go to college. Her prospects are going to Google searching for
information so search advertising makes sense. However, there’s a big
problem. There is no guarantee the person searching is the parent — so
a lot of the ad budget could be wasted on children clicking on the ads.
Does that mean search
ads are a bad idea?
Not necessarily. Sure,
advertising a general “cat food” type ad that would attract both
parents and children would be a mistake. But you could also create a
“catnip” ad that speaks directly to parents (and even repels children)
so that you do not waste money on irrelevant clicks.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment