Digital marketing is constantly changing, no question about it. And the world we currently live in is changing at a rapid pace as well. Now more than ever is when you need to activate your marketing essentials. But where should your focus go in this ever-changing digital world?
Every time you google Marketing you feel overwhelmed by all the things you should be doing. If you soon don’t figure out where to put your focus and energy you feel like you will never be able to master this mysterious marketing magic which seems to be working so well for everyone else! You’re afraid you might never have a well-oiled marketing machine working for you.
I assure you, your helplessness can be conquered. Feeling confident and happy about your marketing may feel like a frustrating, faraway dream but you’re closer than you think. Let me take you through the 3 marketing essentials you should focus on.
Sleepy Marketing Essentials
You’ve got a website *check*. But you cringe every time someone says they checked it out. You haven’t updated your website since your first enthusiastically set it up.
You’ve got a Facebook page *check*. But your last post was from last decade. Now and then you’re good at posting but you run out of content and enthusiasm. Besides, only family and friends like the page anyway!
You have an email marketing platform *check*. But it’s collecting dust with zero subscribers. Or 10 subscribers and they’re all family members - even your friends didn’t make it over from your Facebook page into your email list!
Time To Activate Your Marketing
Most small business owners set up the top 3 marketing essentials with the best intentions. But then quickly feel a little bit (or a lot) our of depth. Often crucial steps in the setup process are missed which leads to missing out on incremental gains which all add up to marketing success. And marketing success means business success and business success means life success.
Marketing Essentials You Need to Get Right
Three things you need to get right before you start trying to do deeper level marketing are, your website, your Facebook Page and your Email Marketing.
Website Essentials
The key pages most Websites need are:
- Home - think of the Home page as prime real estate and develop your content and layout accordingly.
- About - use the About page to let people discover your story and help them understand your WHY.
- Services - the Services page should serve to educate people as to how you can solve their problems
- Contact - at a bare minimum, the Contact page needs a working form people can submit to send you their query.
I’ll give you bonus points for a Testimonials page. A Testimonial page acts as an impressive sales page. People want to know they can trust you and if you’ve got a page full of genuine testimonials, which speak to their pain points, this builds your credibility. Be sure to also place Testimonials across other pages throughout your website.
All websites should be mobile-friendly, no excuses. Data as recent as the 4th quarter of 2019 indicates web traffic via mobile data is sitting consistently at the 50% mark. Most website themes are optimised for mobile devices however often minor tweaks are still required. Use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test to analyse if your website is mobile-friendly.
Facebook Page Essentials
Love it or hate it, Facebook is HUGE! At last count (January 2020) Facebook had 2.449 billion active users. People searching for your business on Facebook can be expected, just like they would search using Google. You could think of your Facebook Page as your second website! Some things you need to get right on your Facebook Page are:
- Customised Cover Photo - just like your website Home page, the cover photo is your prime real estate. Ensure this is branded and gives people an idea about you and your business.
- About Info - complete as much information as possible. Your contact details include your web address, your story and consider using the option to include information about your products.
- Call to Action Button - underneath the cover photo, you can select the type of button you would like to to have as your call to action. You can link these buttons to any web page such as your Home page, a booking link, a product page, etc.
- A unique URL - by default, Facebook will give you a random URL. Setting your unique URL is often an overlooked feature, however, once done, this allows for easy sharing and also gives people a better chance of remembering the URL.
TIP: Add a caption to your cover photo such as your tagline or elevator pitch and a link to your website.
Email Marketing Essentials
I’m probably not the first one to tell you this… you need to get your audience into your list. The money is in the list. As much as we might strive for a zero inbox, emails aren’t going anyway! As you dive deeper into your marketing strategies, a database of email subscribers will play an integral role. Emails are a direct and personal way to engage your audience.
OptinMonster has done the maths and found Email Marketing has a 6.05% conversion rate vs Social Media with a 1.9% conversion rate.
Activate Your Marketing Essentials
Before implementing your next big marketing campaign, be sure you’ve activated your website, Facebook Page and Email Marketing. These are the bridges connecting your business with your audience. If you don’t consider yourself extremely tech-savvy or if they thought of logging in WordPress has your squirming, my advice would be to hire experts who specialise in these fields.
Having only 1 of these 3 marketing essentials is inadequate. For websites, search engines can change their algorithms (possible). Facebook popularity could collapse overnight (improbable). For Email Marketing, Governments could crack down further on data protection regulations (who knows the probability of this?)
In Closing
Remember the enthusiasm you had when you first set up your website and Facebook Page? Full of hope your audience would stand up and take notice? Achieving marketing success is possible and is easier than you think. A great deal of clarity can be gained by doing, so it’s time to get reacquainted with your website, get social on Facebook and start drafting your next email!