The Dilemma of Online Strategy

The Dilemma of Online Strategy

Online or Digital Marketing Strategy can feel overwhelming with multiple options to match with perpetual corporate goals.  There is also a lot of information available with the ‘answers’ to the perfect Digital Marketing Strategy that can add to the where-do-I-start feeling around this subject.

My colleagues know that I love and apply some of the lessons learned through my children’s education.  When learning to read, there was a phrase my daughter brought home in kindergarten, “Chunk-It-Out”.  A Chunking activity simply means breaking the text down into smaller parts  The reading strategy breaks words into manageable ‘chunks’ to sound out, rather than having to tackle sounding out each individual letter.

Chunk-It-Out as a life strategy helps identify key steps and makes it easier to organize and synthesize information.   It is a great place to start with anything that overwhelms professionally or personally.   So when it comes to having to develop an online strategy (or write an article blog on it, for that matter), I say Chunk-It-Out.

First, digital strategy is different from digital campaigns.

• digital strategy is a plan for maximizing technology-focused initiatives
• digital campaign is an online marketing effort to drive engagement, conversions, traffic, or revenue.

DIGITAL STRATEGY

Here are a few steps chunked out and organized to creating a successful Online Marketing Strategy:

Website

In addition to being the first impression of your company for many, website design and navigation impacts overall branding.  Approach your website as if it is the first time you have ever seen it and do not know what is there.  Note your experience.  Key points to think about during that experiment:

• Does the design feel professional?
• Are the colors and graphics distracting or helpful?
• Is the message clear?
• Is the navigation intuitive?
• Are the offerings as expected?  
• What is your overall feeling about the company based only on the website and no other factors or information?

Content

Content with inclusion of keywords will increase your SEO.  Blogs that provide customers with useful, relevant information will begin the pattern of increased online visitors and strengthen the brand.

Quick checklist to follow with set up of content:

• Plan blog topics based on the areas that you need to create thought leadership
• Create a marketing calendar with the publish dates for blogs and associated topics
• Design easy to access area for content to be found
• Commit to sharing content posts to database and through social media.
• Encourage engagement through comment options on posts.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Many potential customers start at search to see their options. SEO will determine if you are found or not found.  Be sure you research and understand where you need to be and how you rank there.  Here are some topics to research to help with SEO strategy:

• Confirm you are optimized on all browsers and mobile
• Research what keywords are most commonly searched for in your industry
• Incorporate those keywords in all digital marketing and pages
• Make a schedule to be checking what keywords are ranking well on search engines
• Read articles on the latest SEO strategies quarterly. It changes quickly.

Push Marketing

Because you can’t always keep your website on people’s minds just because you are exquisite, email marketing is a great way to stay in front of your customers.  Pay attention to:

• Create a design for your template that is consistent with your website. (strengthen your branding)
• Provide useful, relevant information through email on a regular basis as a resource in place of asking for sales.

Engagement through Social Media 

In addition to increasing SEO rankings and traffic to your website, social media provides an appropriate forum for conversation, personality and relationship building.  With those goals in mind, consider these tasks:

• Have a corporate account on:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Google+

• Create a community through planned, frequent activity on each of these (above).
• Post company status updates, news, content posts, information and personal happenings around the office.
• Connect, tag, share, comment, and follow others in the industry and build a brand of community and inclusion.

DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS

Keeping in mind that a campaign is an actual effort to drive engagement, conversions, traffic, or revenue, choosing the right campaigns is an art.

Refer to our blog, Marketing Objectives vs. Actions: Identifying Where the Discrepancies Occur, for the eight step process of

• Understand
• Identify
• Ask
• Know
• Match
• Plan
• Execute
• Evaluate

Some additional tips for campaign building can be found in our blog, Branding Matters, with information on:

• Branding
• Preparation
• Audience Identification and Development
• Relationship Building
• Communication Impact on Branding

Fiber Optic Center, Inc. (FOC) has developed effective ways to engage daily with our target markets, experience growth of audience, and effectively push and pull technical content.   As we continue to strengthen our best practices & strategy resources, we will share with our loyal following.

Follow Fiber Optic Center @FiberOpticCntr

Additional resources from the FOC team include:

• View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
• Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com

Here are the links to this full Marketing Blog Series:

• Branding Matters
• Building Relationships through Solution and Consultative Selling
• Marketing Objectives vs. Actions: Identifying Where the Discrepancies Occur
• The Dilemma of Online Strategy
• Promotion Best Practices
• SOP Development
• Global Strategy Conversation
• The Roles of a Marketing Team
• Trade Show Strategy Revisited
• Product Inventory Management and a quick snapshot….
• Business Development: An Honest Conversation
• Social Media Navigation