Digital marketing is a huge, messy world that can confuse many business owners. The ones who figure out their digital marketing campaign out are the ones who get the most customers and make the most money in the end.

But those who don’t figure it out? They’ll waste money on random marketing strategies and digital ads here and there, never really finding consistent ways to generate new customers.

Does that sound like you? Want to stop wasting money on random tactics that don’t work?

Then you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture when it comes to your marketing strategy. You need to think through the entire process from start to end. Only then can you implement a proper digital strategy.

Keep reading to discover seven important tips for planning a digital marketing strategy from start to end.

1. Your Website is Your Foundation

If you don’t yet have a website, or if it’s outdated, ugly, or lacking in function and aesthetic, there’s no point in marketing your business. Digital marketing revolves around sending leads to your website in order to turn them into your customers.

If leads are greeted by a bad website, they’ll leave immediately. In order to initiate an effective marketing strategy, you need a quality website that looks good and captures the attention of potential customers.

You’ll also need landing pages to send leads to from your different advertising channels. Never send people to your home page, unless you hate getting new customers. 

2. Consider Your Main Traffic Source

Once you have a functional website to send leads to, you need to figure out where you are going to find those leads. Every company will have a primary traffic generation strategy, depending on your industry, the type of business you own, and the type of customers you are looking for.

Some businesses rely on Google search ads, while others rely on social media advertising. Some focus on SEO while others invest heavily in PPC. While trying multiple strategies is a good idea, you should be able to find one that works much better at driving traffic.

Get more info. on the different marketing strategies here. 

3. Turning Traffic Into Leads

With more and more people visiting your snazzy new website thanks to a traffic-generating advertising campaign, you need to start converting that traffic into leads.

In general, you’ll want to offer something of value in exchange for contact information. This might mean offering a free downloadable e-book in exchange for their name and email address.

Or you can offer a discount code if they sign up for text message alerts or follow you on social media. Once a user takes an action on your website, they become a lead, which is extremely valuable to you.

4. Nurturing Leads

So you are convincing people to take action on your website and provide you with some type of contact information. What do you do next?

Nurture those leads. You want to provide them with value on an ongoing basis to build trust, educate, and grow awareness of your products and services.

This can be done through email newsletters and autoresponders, text messages, YouTube videos, social media updates, and in many there ways. 

5. Converting Leads Into Customers

Once you’ve figured out how to communicate with leads and offer them valuable information, you need to figure out how to convert them into paying customers. Obviously, this is the magic question. 

Everything you’ve done up until this point has prepared you for this moment. There is no single answer or solution. Successful businesses are those that are constantly testing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to conversion and increasing conversion rates.

It might be limited-time deals or sales. It might mean offering bonuses to customers who make a purchase during a certain window of time. It might mean getting access to exclusive content, discounts, offers, or other goodies when they join the buy the club.

Whatever it is, plan to spend lots of time and effort on this question, as it’s something that requires constant tweaking and experimenting. 

6. Keeping Customer for Dear Life

When you do finally figure out how to convert leads into customers, you can start to grow your business. But if you really want to take your business to the next level, you need to learn how to keep your customers.

Marketing to existing customers and getting repeat sales is much more cost-effective for businesses than trying to entice brand-new customers. There are many ways to keep customers.

Excellent customer service is one of the best ways. Customers should be able to reach you (or your customer service team) quickly. You can also build out a loyalty or rewards program or build a community around your products and services that make customers feel like they are part of a family.

7. Incentivizing Customers to Market Your Business for You

So what separates companies that make a lot of money from those that don’t? Many things, probably. But one of those factors is the fact that successful companies will find ways to incentivize customers to market their business for them.

Sure, incentivizing your customers will cost you some money. But, word of mouth marketing from real people, IE your customers, is far more powerful than any digital marketing strategy or tactic that you could implement.

People trust other, real people. If your customers tell their friends and family about a product or service they love, others will try it out for themselves. It’s that simple.

Once you’ve figured out how to get customers, you need to test ways to incentivize them to spread the word. That could be a referral program, where they earn cash or store credit by sharing their referral link. It could be an affiliate marketing program.

Or it could be even simpler than that.

A Digital Marketing Campaign that Works

So what is a digital marketing campaign? When it comes down to it, it’s like a funnel. You need to build out each step of the marketing funnel, testing and tweaking on a regular basis.

Then, your goal is to drive as much traffic as possible into that funnel, knowing that a percentage of those people will become customers, and eventually, raving fans.

Looking for more marketing tips and tricks? Head over to our blog today to keep reading.