We all know that there are two types of attention one attracts – positive and negative. Many of us have experienced both kinds throughout our lives, especially if you’ve ever been in the dating game. When it comes to driving traffic to your business website, though, you’ll want to ensure that you are attracting the right kind of attention including qualified leads who turn into customers and give you a positive return on your investment.
Who is your customer?
Firstly, do you know the persona or profile of your ideal customer? Before you spend time and money targeting customers online, make sure you develop a strategy for reaching your key target audience. When contemplating your ideal customer, think about a few of the following key attributes:
- What’s your customer’s age?
- Is your customer male or female?
- Where is does he or she live (geographically)?
- Is he or she single or married?
- What is your customers’ daily responsibilities?
- What type of job does he/she hold (socio-economic status)?
- What are the pain points or challenges he or she faces?
You can dig even deeper than this and continuously refine your customer persona, but these questions will formulate a good foundation for understanding your ideal customers and how to market to them.
Developing Your Marketing Message
Once you have a good idea of what makes your ideal customer tick, you’ll need to develop strategic messaging to appeal to your customer, breaking through all the “noise” online. You’ll primarily want to focus on your customers’ pain point(s) and offer a solution to their challenges.
If you’ve already done some digital marketing in the past, reassess your data to see what worked well and what fell flat. This will give you a baseline for developing and augmenting your messaging moving forward.
If this is your first foray into digital marketing, use the information you know about your customer to tailor your messaging. When just dipping your toe in the water, you’ll need to do some testing; just ensure that you are tracking your efforts so you can refine your messaging along the way. With any new digital marketing tactic, you must start somewhere. Don’t be afraid to try and fail – if you’re tracking, you’ll always know what works and what doesn’t!
Your Digital Marketing Mix
First and foremost, establish a budget for your digital marketing efforts. It’s always best to understand what your budget allows and how much different efforts cost. This may drive your strategy at the beginning and that’s okay; you need to feel comfortable with your spend while still driving traffic to your site. There are certainly some activities that are more cost-effective than others.
If you’re not sure where to start or what the options are, here are a few suggestions;
- Email Marketing (to database)
- Search Engine Optimization (organic – blogging)
- Search Engine Marketing (paid – Pay-Per-Click)
- Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
It’s important to understand what comes first for your business (it’s definitely a chicken/egg discussion!) and how you can reach your customers and maximize your marketing dollars. It’s okay to start slowly and track your efforts; you can always easily build upon a solid foundation. Make sure you know your baseline and review reporting frequently to refine your strategy and reinvest your marketing dollars wisely for each campaign.
Remember, you want to attract the most qualified – or right kind – of potential buyer to your site.
When it comes to digital marketing, make sure you are not just attracting attention (traffic), but attracting the RIGHT kind attention (target audience). Let Two Cents Consulting, LLC help you develop a strategy and spend your digital marketing dollars wisely. Contact keara@twocentsconsulting.com for a free consultation!
