Building a Foundation For Your Marketing Program

Being a Greater Marketer isn’t about doing all the fancy cool things that you read about. It is important to understand your own marketing goals, and building the foundation that works for your business. I often speak to business owners who are excited about new technologies and tactics, but when I learn more about their current state, my number one finding is that their marketing is lacking a number of foundational items.

I get it – with the amount of content on the internet today, it’s easy to get caught up. But building foundation is always step one. No matter what marketing channel we are talking about, there are foundational pieces that must be put in place prior to “doing more.”

Foundation Definition: an underlying base or support. If you build a building without “foundation” or support, the building will fall over. Well, it’s the same for your marketing program. Foundation doesn’t mean entry level or beginner. Its about building a solid base that you can build off of, try new things, and drive real results from your efforts.

A website, email marketing strategy, social media plan, and SEO strategy are all key to a business’ success online. Below I outline what I feel is foundation vs. “doing more” for each.

WEBSITE

Nothing upsets me more than seeing brands spend money on pay per click ads for me to click to a website that isn’t optimized, doesn’t have clear call to actions, or forms for me to get in touch.

Foundation

• direct and accurate messaging
• clear call to actions
• clear ways to contact your business
• up to date content
• option to subscribe to newsletter
• Google analytics setup

Doing More

• Pop-up modals
• Exit intent
• Chat
• Web tracking and triggers

EMAIL MARKETING

With the average email program yielding over $40 for every $1 spent, it is crucial that brands stay connected to their audience through email.

Foundation

• Make sure you are CAN-SPAM compliant
• Set expectations for subscribers (types of content, email frequency etc)
• Prepare email templates
• Clear call to actions in emails
• A/B test (subject lines, content)
• Reporting (engagement stats)
• Marketing Automation (welcome, re-engagement, post purchase, cart abandonment, etc)

Doing More

• Segmentation (send personalized email to segments)
• Preference Centre with multiple subscription options
• Web tracking / triggers
• Web search triggers
• Predictive AI
• Inbox Reporting

SOCIAL MEDIA

Having a social strategy is important for brand perception, staying connected and interacting with your audience, and also an opportunity to convert your followers to buy.

Foundation

• Determine your content strategy (identify what types of posts yield the best results)
• Determine posting frequency
• Engage and respond to your followers
• Join in on social conversation
• Ensure posts are consistent with your branding and content guidelines
• Post content that links to your site
• Use hashtags related to content you are posting about so it can be found

Doing More

• Paid Sponsored Content (once you determine types of posts that get the best response)
• Social Advertising (Advertise on social to grow your following or drive traffic elsewhere)
• Live-streaming
• Contests & Giveaways
• Video
• Listening tools – Use a listening tool to identify when topics or your brand are mentioned

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SEO is an important area of focus, because this is what determines if your brand will be found via search engines like Google and Bing.

Foundation

• Understanding your audience and their search habits
• Ensuring site architecture complies with Google standards
• User experience (easy to navigate and find content)
• Including basic content on your site (about your service or offering)

Doing More

• Keyword research on topics related to your brand
• Naming and organization of images for image search
• Considering semantic phrases
• Advanced content (written with short and long-tail keywords in mind)
• Q&A (directly answer questions related to your topic)

As you can see, building a foundation for your marketing program is no small job. There is A LOT involved in implementing what I consider the base of a good program. Building a successful foundation is what will make your marketing program sore sky high in the future.