Digital Marketing Plans for New Businesses

Marketing for the new business owner is overwhelming. You have a limited budget and limited time. Where do you start? Email, snail mail (does that still work?) Facebook, Angie’s List, Directories, SEO, SEM, PPC, TSW?? (That last acronym isn’t real, it just stands for “throw spaghetti at the wall” to see what sticks.) Which ones are the right activities for a new business? How often should you do them? Establishing your business’s goals, determining how much time and money you have and then creating a marketing plan to meet those goals will answer these questions. If you’re a new business and new to digital marketing, take a look at the digital marketing plans below.

Related [free] eBook: Marketing Without a Budget

Which Digital Marketing Plan is Right for You?

Just as every business is different, its marketing should be unique as well. These digital marketing plans are simply a starting point, for you to adapt to your own needs, constraints, and goals. The three plans below are designed for three different scenarios that a new business owner may find him or herself in:

• New business with significant time but no budget
• New business with some time and some budget
• New business with significant time and budget

Choose the one that best fits your business and adapt it to your specific goals.

Digital Marketing Plan for New Business With Significant Time and Zero Budget

Goal: Launch and grow with minimal spend

Top 3 To-Dos

•  Establish digital foundation
•  Setup tracking
•  Initiate engagement

Digital Marketing Foundation

Establish an online presence

•  Launch a website
•  Submit online directory listings (Be sure to provide accurate, complete, and consistent information for Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Local, etc.)
•  Start a blog
•  Create accounts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn eliminate public facing email addresses

Tracking

Prepare to measure

•  Set up tracked links for all of your marketing activities.
•  Eliminate public facing email addresses, and replace with contact forms on your website

Social Media Marketing

Build an audience and perform market research

•  Observe target audience and industry leaders on social media to familiarize and learn
•  Post twice daily, engage with followers, join and participate in local and industry groups
•  Use local and industry hashtags to increase your reach

Search Engine Optimization

Optimize website to improve organic search rankings

•  Identify keywords for relevancy and traffic
•  Add keywords to site content, headings, image tags, and metadata
•  Post to blog twice a week for site traffic

Business Promotion

Drive traffic and awareness to generate new leads

•  Start an email newsletter with updates, products, and tips.
•  Identify and establish relationships with partners and complementary businesses with whom you can cross promote
•  Host an open house where interested people can stop in, learn about your business, and sign up for your email list
•  Attend 3 community events per month (This isn’t exactly “digital” marketing, but most events are found online, and some take place online).

Digital Marketing Plan For A New Business Some Time and Some Budget

Goal: Launch and Grow with Small Spend

Top 3 To-Dos:

•  Enhance tracking
•  Increase online presence
•  Generate leads

Tracking

•  Use tracking of new and existing marketing to determine what is and is not effective
•  Eliminate public facing email addresses, and replace with contact forms on your website
•  Eliminate direct phone lines, and replace with tracked lines, to see where callers are seeing your number

Digital Marketing Foundation

Increase and enhance your online presence

•  Submit online directory listings
•  Launch a website
•  Start a blog
•  Create a Facebook business page, and Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Social Media Marketing

Target your engagement and build brand awareness

• Post 1x daily to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Offer discounts and coupons for customers who like your page or follow your accounts.
• Create and start using a custom company hashtag.
• Post pictures of company culture.

Search Engine Optimization

Optimize website to improve organic search rankings

• Put keywords into site content, headings photo tags, meta data.
• Post to blog twice a month.

Lead Generation Strategy

Generate prospective customers, online and off

•  Reach out to partners or complementary businesses with whom you can cross promote (2 per month).
•  Start using AdWords with a modest budget to drive targeted traffic to your site.
•  Host a local event, promote social media accounts and collect email sign-ups. use your company culture to increase brand awareness

Digital Marketing Plan for A New Business With Significant Time and Budget

Goal: Launch and grow aggressively with significant spend

Top 3 To-Dos

• Setup tracking
• Drive website traffic
• Convert leads

Tracking

Enhance the tracking of existing marketing to better determine what is and is not effective

•  Begin using tracked links and tracked phone numbers to monitor the performance of your marketing
•  Replace public facing email addresses with contact forms

Digital Marketing Foundation

Establish a comprehensive online presence, become an online resource

• Submit online directory listings (see above)
• Start a blog
• Create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Snapchat
• Add a promotional video to your homepage, upload it to YouTube, and promote on social media channels.

Social Media Marketing

Establish regular communication to maximize repeat and referral business

•  Post twice daily, engage with followers
•  Promote offers, products, and blog posts
•  Run a social media contest/giveaway
•  Start engaging with micro-influencers
•  Use hashtags to expand your reach

Search Engine Optimization

Use on-page and off-page tactics to improve organic search rankings

• Add relevant keywords to site content, headings, tags, meta data (on-page SEO)
• Post to blog twice a week
• Obtain high-quality backlinks to your website (one per week).

Conversions

Increase the number of leads who become customers

• Run a Google AdWords campaign with significant budget to increase the number of relevant visitors to your site
• Include a prominent call to action (CTA) on every page of your website (i.e. “Click Here to Schedule a Free Consultation”, or Click here to receive a free 20% off coupon”)
• Offer free trials, discounts for initial signups, and time-limited sales
• Create unique landing pages for products and promotions

Promotions

Target ideal audience members via multiple digital channels

• Run a targeted and tracked email campaign
• Run a direct mail campaign with promotional postcards
• Partner with local or complimentary business to run a promotion or sale
• Host an event, promoted online via social media, hand out branded swag in exchange for signing up for your email list

Remember, marketing is an investment in your company and takes consistent hard work, but if you stick to a plan you will see the results you want. Your marketing plan will evolve as your goals change and your business grows. You should update it periodically as you start engaging in more marketing activities and measuring your results.