Online marketing strategy: Achieving your goal in 6 steps

The development of an online marketing strategy requires a lot of preparation and decisive thought processes, which play an important role not only for online marketing, but also for the company itself.

It's a huge pressure, of course, but it's hard to get started. That's why we're giving you an online marketing strategy template here! In 6 easy steps, learn how to position your company so that you can beat all your competitors and reach the top of the rankings. In addition to this online marketing plan, we also have other industry-specific digital marketing strategies, such as law firm marketing or practice marketing for you.

In this article, you'll learn how important online marketing is for your success and which online marketing strategies can help you go through the roof! Find out more tips & tricks for creating an online marketing strategy or marketing plan in this article!

What is an online marketing strategy?

Online marketing is all necessary steps to be seen online by your target group. In real life, you could hang up a sign with your company logo, with your benefits in your city. That would probably also work great offline.

Online, the rules of the game are a bit different: In order to achieve your business goals through a digital marketing strategy, you must define your market players in relation to your target group. With the help of an SEO consultant, you can then develop a strategy for how your market competitors are displayed under your website on Google and how your target group finds you directly.

In short: A digital marketing strategy describes which steps you plan and develop online in order to remain relevant in the long term and be immediately found by your target group.

Online marketing strategy example: We all know the feeling

I'll tell you a short story about this: Imagine sitting on the sports bench at school and waiting eagerly with your classmates to be elected to one of the two teams. Dodgeball is finally being played again today.

You're already singing your heartfelt prayer, because there is nothing worse than being the last person to be elected. With a racing heartbeat, you watch as the favorites are chosen first in the hierarchy. They ask themselves, “Why wasn't I elected?” and the feeling of sadness and frustration is spreading within you.

So does everyone need digital marketing?

Online marketing means having an image, being noticed by people and being the coolest and most competent in your market area. If you don't have a website, if your location cannot be found online, this means that you will only be the solution for someone by chance or a recommendation. You don't communicate with the crowd — you deny your service or product and the price of this offense is high, because your market players are robbing you of valuable customers and selling significantly better than you are.

tip: The right branding is the be-all and end-all of your online marketing strategy. You should not use the same tactic as the remaining 32 market players. That would mean that you will find yourself in this place and no one has looked at 32 pages before.

Choose the path of least resistance — in other words: find a niche, don't stick the same sticker on your forehead as your competitors, differentiate yourself.

Getting started is difficult: This is how you start with online marketing

It's child's play for some companies, but other industries are racking their brains over the question of how best to successfully implement the online marketing plan project. After all, online marketing strategies can be found online like sand by the sea — but finding the right one that still brings success to your own company is a real art.

Online marketing in companies: What are your goals?

Actually, getting started is not that difficult at all, there are simply too many online areas that you would like to cover all at the same time, such as content marketing, various online marketing channels and email marketing. The latter in particular is one of the last steps when it comes to online marketing. In other words: Surely you're not on the red track in Skysport even if you're just starting out and haven't ridden yet? Do email marketing even though your site does not add value to your target group and, in theory, still “naked“Is, you can expect with a high probability that your bounce rate will be fairly high.

Start online marketing: You should ask yourself this question

Start thinking about your target audience and ask yourself why someone is looking for your product or service. These should be the first questions and thoughts if you want to start online marketing and find a good strategy:

• Why would anyone care about that?
• Why should someone order from you right now?
• What advantage does the target group have if they order from me?

In order to push your business as much as possible, you should imagine all scenarios that your target group could possibly experience and live through in order to become aware of your company.

1. Online marketing strategy: Start competitor analysis

Before fighting a new area, the first step is to find out what the competition is doing. Even in real life, you would never have the idea of opening a doner kebab, with more expensive prices, next to the kebab shop you trust? Without a clear benefit, stores only differ in price — and you are clearly the loser. With Ahrefs For example, you can see how you currently rank on Google and how your competition is doing in comparison.

Competitive analysis:

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A look at Google can provide clarity to find out what competition you're up against if you SEO and want to operate SEA. Identify your competitors: Which keywords do you actually rank for with your website? Which websites still rank for these keywords?

Here's everything you need to know about running Google Ads that work.

Competitive analysis:

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Compare your competitors' offerings and positioning with your branding. Here's the advice: Look for the least amount of resistance to get the best possible chance of success with your online marketing. The fewer horses join the race, the higher your horse's success rate!

Branding & differentiation:

You know your competition, you now know exactly what your competition looks like. Now it is time to tell the world what sets you apart from your competitors and why you are clearly the better choice. Define your own USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and set yourself apart from your competition.

tip: If you only stand out from your competitors because of your lower price, that's a shame, because that's the easiest way. Take a closer look at your USP and give your target group THE unique reason for sellingthat makes you stand out.

2. Develop the right marketing strategy by setting the right goals

At this point, you already know what makes you special and what online marketing presence you want to have. Now it's just a matter of defining your right goals. Think more carefully about the following topics:

• How can I increase my profile?
• Which steps do I take to increase my sales?
• What are my SMART goals? (More about that in a moment)

In addition to these considerations, you should think about how you trust and radiate authority to your target audience. Take a look at your specific buying behavior. Would you buy from a company that no one has reported online? Would you invest in a new cryptocurrency without an approximate forecast of success?

You see — testimonials, customer stories and experiences from past customers are the linchpin of your online marketing strategy. The more people report a positive experience with your company, the lower the inhibition for new customers to walk away from them!

SMART: What do you want to achieve through online marketing?

Many companies only think about their digital presence when the topic of marketing comes into the house. We also notice this time and again when working with SMEs. For questions such as: “Generate Leads” We often get the same reaction — shaking our heads.

Therefore, many marketing consultants follow the goal of the SMART formula in marketing. SMART is an abbreviation of initial letters and stands for:

• Specific: Your goals should be set specifically

• Measurable: Your goals should be measurable

• Attainable: They should be achievable and realistic

• Rrelevant: they should be relevant

• Time-bound: They should have a clear deadline.

This formula is not only perfectly applicable to online marketing, but also to all upcoming decisions and goals. So be sure to get to grips with this strategy and try to define your goals as well as possible.

Reminder: You'll get a good online marketing strategy if you invest at least 80% in proper preparation.

tip: If you want to pursue the most perfect online marketing strategy possible, you should spend 80% of your time preparing and 20% implementing it. The more precisely you define your goals, the easier and faster you can achieve your goal.

In other words, if you're racing in the wrong direction at full speed, you can be sure you'll never get to your destination.

3. Marketing measures tailored to your target groups

During competition and competition analysis, you also learn a lot about your own target group. In the third step, however, we now go a few dimensions deeper into the matter. You must become critical, let all the reasons for selling go through your head and mentally put yourself in the shoes of your buyers.

In this way, you can record an entire profile of your target group, for whom you will build your brand in the next steps.

Checklist: Your online marketing plan:

1. Create yours Buyer Personas: Through past sales, reviews and direct surveys, you can draw an approximate outline of your target group.

Define buyer persona checklist:

• What are the pain points?
• What are the expectations of your target group?
• What buying impulse is your target group guided by?
• What are his backgrounds?
• Which decision criteria are important to him?
• What benefits do you offer him?

2. Collect qualitative and, of course, demographic data: What does my target group look like? What age are you?

3. Look at the behavior of your target audience and try to collect psychographic data. Psychographic characteristics are about the needs, hobbies, usual spending, and values of your target group. What is his buying motivation?

tip: The better you know your target group, the more successful yours will be online marketing strategy. Because this is the only way you can create a type-appropriate content marketing strategy. You should therefore take a close look at this step. In addition, you will continue to use the finished sketch of your target group for many other projects for your company, such as your social media presence and other public relations projects.

4. Online marketing goals: Get your website up and running

You know what your target group wants to see from you and now have a detailed overview of them. Now all you have to do is position your website in the field of vision of your target group. But if your website doesn't make a good impression, your website visitors are gone faster than you can say lead generation.

The law applies here: Online marketing strategies = positive Customer journey

Make sure that your website is modern, that your benefits are clearly positioned and that the CTA is not hidden in the footer. The secret is that hardly anyone will scroll that far on your page. Find out here Everything you absolutely need to do better to create a positive customer and scrolling journey

5. SEA marketing strategies: Understanding the needs of your target group through Google Ads

We've all arrived in 2022 by now, we're all using the latest smartphones and googling everything possible every day. With such a beautiful device, you don't go to a website that literally”I'm from another time” screams? Surely you're not buying a new Porsche to drive over a dirt road with hundreds of potholes?

There is no excuse for this anymore — and even your target group has zero tolerance for such an achievement. So make sure that your website shines in new splendor in advance and, in the next step, run Google Ads to get the first Leads to capture.

6. Social media marketing and more: Implement your online marketing strategy perfectly!

Once you've arrived here, you'll be amazed by your beautiful website, which is similar to Adonis and is perfectly tailored to your target group. Your message is clearly understandable to your target group and your target group will find you right away through your ads without having to search for you for a long time. It all sounds wonderful!

In order to continue to sail on course for success, we must now ensure that we also use organic search queries (SEO) achieve success.

Content marketing plan:

Why do successful sites like Hubspot have a blog? Exactly — because there are important keywords here that can be perfectly included in the blog! But not only that, lead magnets can also be positioned excellently under a blog post.

So you're in demand: Take a look at the key terms (keywords) that your target group finds you on the Internet and create an editorial plan with content to be created.

In-house vs. external:

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Do you need an online marketing manager, a complete team of experts or your in-house team to implement your online marketing plan?

Sure — in-house assistants are more accessible, they usually have their full attention up to 40 hours a week. However, external assistants who bring new and proven experience to the company are also worthwhile. In this way, goals can be generated much faster and more effectively.

Strengthen social media presence:

Many people identify with brands they buy from. So ensure a positive social media presence and stay in the memory of your target group every day. Social media marketing helps companies build a familiar instance with the community (their target group). Due to the daily appearance of posts, advertising on social media is no longer regarded as annoying advertising at all, but much more as daily feed content. The advertising is therefore indirect and no longer as aggressive as with e-mail marketing campaigns. The more intensive your customer loyalty, the more likely the engagement between you and your target group works.

email marketing campaigns:

Of course, there are other measures that must be taken outside of the usual online marketing channels. How about affiliate marketing on your website, for example, or what about all the leads you've been able to collect through ads so far?

Once the email address is landed, the lead must always be reminded that you exist. An email marketing campaign will help you send the necessary impulses to your target group that conjure up the final move — buy now.

Conclusion — Start your own online marketing strategy!

In this article, you have learned the important things you need to think about before you start with the big topic of online marketing. In 6 steps, you can use these considerations to find a perfectly functioning strategy for your company. In addition to these helpful tips, however, you must note that technical aspects are of course also decisive for good marketing, such as:

• Improving your CTA for AdWords ad copy
• Building backlinks
• Improving the interaction rate for social media posts
• Improving conversion through content and keyword expansion

In addition to these digital marketing to-dos, this category includes many more, which vary from sector to sector. Therefore, feel free to ask us without obligation and get advice from our team of experts.

Take now Get in touch with us to get the best online marketing strategy and achieve long-term success!
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