Are you wanting to get your feet wet with digital marketing but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you are a new brand that needs some digital marketing power?

Wherever you find yourself on your digital marketing journey, it’s always a good idea to “check-in” and see where your efforts are lacking. 

Building an online presence for your products or services isn’t just “nice to have” it’s now “make or break.” In reality, digital marketing should bring in more money than you put into it. You just need a solid plan.

In this post, we will go over everything you need to know about optimizing your online presence to bring in a ton of sales from your digital marketing efforts.

Build the Right Team

It’s no secret that digital marketing takes time and talent. You can create an in-house team or some brands prefer hiring a marketing team like Rossman Media to entrust their digital marketing efforts. 

Whether you contract an agency or run digital marketing in-house, be sure that you have the dedicated time and manpower to cover every area of your digital marketing plan.

Speaking of a a  digital marketing plan, let’s dive into what yours should look like!

It All Starts with Your Website

Your website is your digital storefront and is the first impression consumers have of your brand. 

Don’t cut corners with your website as a polished website builds trust and makes consumers more likely to buy from your brand.

It may be tempting to create your website yourself using a template but trust us when we say it needs to be customized by a professional or team of professionals.

Create Buyer Personas

Before marketing to your audience, don’t you think you need to define your audience?

Buyer personas are the backbone of your digital marketing. They are simply profiles of your target audience so that you know where to engage with them and what messaging will resonate the best.

Here is a free template to create your buyer personas.

Once created, your buyer personas should be consulted whenever making a digital marketing decision. 

Audit Competitors 

Reverse engineer what your competitors are doing. They have the same audience as you do and likely have a functioning digital marketing strategy. Seeing what they’re doing is a great place to start.

Check out their website, social media channels, sign up for their emails, etc. 

Take note of what you like and what you don’t like about their marketing efforts. It’s so much better than starting from scratch…

Social Media

Getting your social channels set up is crucial when it comes to optimizing your brand’s digital presence. 

Many consumers vet brands by checking out their social media accounts so be sure that yours are professional.

In terms of which channels to have a presence on–consult your buyer personas. Right now, we are fans of Instagram and TikTok.

Post actively on your social channels. A good rule of thumb is 3 times per week.

Experiment with organic social and paid social.

Something else to keep in mind is that consumers now largely expect customer service to take place on social. So be sure to dedicate the time to actively engage with your audience.

We live and breathe social media here at Rossman Media so check out our blog if you are jonesing for more social media tips.

A Branded Blog

Blogs are great for thought leadership and SEO.

Google algorithms love consistent content on a website so a blog is a great way to please search platforms.

We’ve seen a lot of brands “house” their blogs on a third-party platform and we don’t advise it. House it on your website for maximum brand lift.

A few other things to keep in mind are to spruce up your blog with:

• A subscribe button
• Social share icons
• CTAs at the end of each post
• Sidebar ads for your brand on the right-hand side of the blog

A CRM Platform

A CRM platform keeps all of your contacts/leads organized.

Salesforce is the most commonly recognized CRMs but it’s a little pricey. If you’re not ready for a heavy-hitter like Salesforce, there are other options.

The main thing to keep in mind is that you need a way to track where your contacts come from originally, which strategies make them convert and how long your buyer's cycle is.

A CRM platform keeps your brand engaged with your current and ideal consumers.

Email Marketing

When done right, email marketing brings in $42 for every $1 spent.

There are two components to a well-oiled email marketing strategy.

The first is gathering email addresses. This can be done through a downloadable piece of content with a lead capture form.

The second is creating 2-3 engaging emails per week. Emails should be thought leadership with a CTA to purchase for a non-salesy approach to your audience's inbox.

SEO

SEO is constantly changing. To rank organically in search, your website copy needs to be strategic.

Do your keyword research and implement your keywords into your page titles and headers.

Blogs help a ton with SEO.

When setting up your site, it’s not a bad idea to work with an SEO expert who can optimize your website. We like UpWork for this purpose.

Linkbacks also help with SEO efforts and you can earn these links by working with influencers and by guest posting on other blogs linking back to your brand.

Consistency and Engagement 

When you are crafting your digital presence, prioritize consistency and engagement.

Your audience needs to be able to rely on content from your brand so create an editorial calendar for your social, email and blog posts.

If a current or potential consumer wants to engage with your brand digitally–have the process in place to do this consistently. 

At the end of the day, your goal is to make your audience feel like a part of your brand through consistent content updates and prompt replies to their messages.

Reviews

Consumers love hearing what people like themselves think of a product or service.

Whether it’s on your site, on social or on a third-party review site, you need to maximize your reviews. 

Incentivize consumers to leave you a review.

When you earn reviews, use them! Incorporate them into your social media content, email content and website content.

Do you have any tips for brands starting out with digital marketing and how they can optimize their online reputation? We’d love to read your insights in the comments below!