Digital marketing is an essential part of any business’s growth plan. Even the most traditional of businesses and industries can benefit from a strong online presence. However, most companies we speak to don’t have a clearly defined roadmap they are working towards.
Competition is Growing in 2022
According to the Census Bureau, over 4.3 million new businesses were created just in 2020 and that number is expected to increase to over 5 million for 2021. That is nearly a 17% increase year over year and there is no reason we don’t expect that to stay consistent into 2022. With all that new competition, online marketing is becoming increasingly difficult and planning a clear roadmap can make sure you are not only budgeting appropriately but effectively putting your marketing efforts into the right channel.
But, what goes into building a strong roadmap? Critically understanding your past to map the most efficient strategies for the future. By applying your efforts to the right marketing lifecycle stage, you ensure that you are developing a balanced strategy between growth and optimization. Once you decide on the focus metrics, the next step is deciding on the proper channels. While it is always central to keep your foundation strong, understanding how the whole campaign plays together ensures you don’t miss any gaps. Finally, when it comes to financial investment, setting yourself to comparable benchmarks makes sure you are in the conversations and search results you need to be.
We have put together a simplified and comprehensive guide that includes those four steps:
Executing your Yearly Marketing Audit
Before building your next strategy, it is important to learn from the past. Be sure to analyze all available channels and the entire marketing process. Stepping back far enough to examine your brand’s marketing success and failures can ensure you are not hyper-focused on channels that don’t bring your business to the next level.
Drive – Optimize – Expand
Nearly all marketing projects can be segmented into one of these three lifecycle stages. Quality digital marketing strategies look far beyond search engine rankings and focus on supporting the complete sales cycle. Dedicating your yearly strategy to these concepts ensures your efforts are not lost due to a weak link in your marketing.
Setting your Channel Priorities
With so many inbound and outbound marketing techniques, it is essential to build a comprehensive marketing strategy. Immediate Projects help build your foundation and give you a great starting point to build from. Once your basics are mastered, Projects With Planning and Long-term On-going Projects will continue to drive new business and support your sales team for valuable returns.
Benchmarks, KPIs, and ROI
Ultimately, marketing is building awareness, driving new leads, supporting the sales process, and being an intricate part of the yearly growth of your business. When establishing a budget, understanding your crucial business KPIs such as CPA (cost per acquisition) can be helpful in calculating the investment you need.
The Right Marketing Playbook Recipe
It is important to understand that there are hundreds of recipes out there for Digital Marketing success. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to get you to those ideal results. Having the proper tracking in place will help dial in the right adjustments for the campaign and your target audience.
Looking for the all-encompassing approach?
Be sure to focus on the technical issues first, as it is hard to bake bread with a broken oven. Then blend short-term strategies with long-term organic authority. The important part is that each business is different and requires a unique approach.
The BUHV Digital Marketing Approach
We get that planning a marketing strategy and annual budget is a lot, but you don’t have to do it alone. It’s best to consult and plan your attack with a team of trusted digital marketers who can set you up for success. BUHV Designs can be this team.
With over a decade of experience in the design and digital marketing world, our team will use a comprehensive agency approach to learn more about your business and help you design a customized marketing strategy and budget. So contact us today, and we’ll get you started with a free audit and consultation.
