During these uncertain times for business, we have had to change our message, even our proposition. One this is for certain, online marketing has never been more important.
No doubt you have spent the last month furiously pivoting at the customer-facing end but what digital marketing jobs should we be doing in the background to strengthen our strategy for the months ahead? These are four essential steps to prepare for online marketing plus some free tools to get you started.
Dive into your content trends
What do you really know about the way your audience consumes your content? And do you know which types of content engage your target customers best? These are your content trends and there will be patterns from before the global pandemic, during the crisis and the recovery.
Now is the time to take a thorough look at these insights and adapt your content strategy to get more effective results. Having a snapshot of Google Analytics and social media in one place gives you a full story on how your content is being consumed and what actions are taken. It’s easy to set ourselves targets and pat ourselves on the back when they are hit but is it truly translating into solid leads and building a strong, long-lasting digital presence?
These insights also help us understand the customer journey and touchpoints, so we can build more effective funnels. Get started by using our free simple insights dashboard.
Do you know your customer?
71% of companies with documented customer personas exceed revenue and goals [Source: Cintell B2B Benchmark Report]. While it’s difficult to imagine what post-pandemic life may be like, is it time to start building a picture? I’ve noticed that savvy marketers are already reaching out to their customers to learn more about their needs and concerns right now with surveys, for example. This also helps you understand their thought processes plus starts to create a valuable connection by showing you care about their business and future. Use our free customer persona template to capture your insights.
Get found “organically” in search
Have you really tested your search terms and their authority in your field? We know that even in a B2B setting, professionals still use Google as a starting point for their research. There are generally two key challenges here for business. Firstly, the market and industry is too broad to be organically found on page 1. Take for example a business whose primary vertical is “petrochemicals” the initial results will be general results, Wikipedia and articles on the sector. Clearly you’d need to invest in paid search to keep on the top of those listings. But the second challenge is matching your content and keywords to how people are really going to find you. What kinds of resources are they looking for? What kinds of questions do they need answers? And then how can you strengthen your static webpages and newsfeeds to answer those questions? Let our keyword builder template help you document your learnings.
Challenge your funnel
Does your current sales lead generation activity work? And will it in the future? Using the learnings from your customer personas, insights and Google search overhaul, perform a test on your sales funnel. Take a look at the typical flow of your customer’s journey and overlay the digital touchpoints you have designed for them to take. Or why not physically click through every step in a test environment? Are they matching what you believe or what you actually know? How can you measure the efficacy of the funnel more effectively?
Use our free funnel test checklist to perform your tests. Try different scenarios for each customer persona.
We are happy to have an informal chat about any of these areas to help you re-strategise content and recovery. Contact our team!
