Start Your Online Marketing Strategy with the Right Questions

Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyYour marketing plans may have experienced a lot of disruption lately. it's time to reinvigorate your online marketing. Whether you are just starting or refreshing your plan, begin by asking yourself questions.

Question 1: What’s my goal?

What do you want to accomplish online? Do you want more leads? Do you want to make direct purchases? Or, it is awareness you are going for?Defining your goal will help you set up your online strategy. Your goal will guide where you need to be and what you need to do.Question 2: Who is my target audience?Get beyond thinking you are trying to reach everyone everywhere. Take time to define your target audience in a meaningful what.Go beyond sex, age and hobbies. Understand what your target audience cares about. Know what motivates them to act. Define their current and desired relationship with you. Learn about the competitors they follow and what publications and websites they’re into.The more you know about who your audience is, the easier it will be to create content that connects them to your brand or business and adding value to their lives.Question 3: What’s working now?Anything you do needs to fit into or replace what you are already doing. Take an inventory of all of your current marketing activities, online and offline.

• What is working and what is not?
• What lessons can be learned?
• What resources are needed?

With a clear picture of where you are you’ll have a better idea of what gaps you need to fill, or where you want to go. Pay attention to current levels of engagement, the quality of your content, and how consistent you are.Question 4: What content can I offer?What kind of content will you need to provide online to reach your goal? How much do you have now? What resources do you have to create what you need?Question 5: What resources do I have?Committing to any online effort without resources sets you up for failure. Don’t commit to blogging daily if it takes you a week to come up with a topic and get something written. That sounds so obvious, but I see that happen again and again.Consider all the resources you have – time, money, online tools, etc. What do you have and what can you reasonably acquire?Question 6: What does success look like?Understand how you will know if your effort is worthwhile. You can’t determine if your effort is a success if you don’t know what success looks like. Take time to determine how you will measure your online efforts.