Where To Start With Digital Marketing Content in 2022
Your 2022 Guide: Where To Start With Digital Marketing Content
I’ve been taking an online digital marketing class through the University of California, Berkeley to brush up on some new tactics and gain some insight into what’s working today. During our first meeting, one of the business owners asked “So where do you start with digital marketing?” This question inspired the blog post.
The first answer that came to my mind was defining your minimum viable product or MVP, the milestone that really kicks off the marketing action. But then again, there’s quite a bit of assessment and research that happens first. You may be starting a new business and building your first marketing strategy at the same time or breaking into a new phase of growth with an existing business and rebuilding your strategy. You may have a wealth of information, or you may be starting from scratch.
So where do you really start with digital marketing? Here are the first steps we take each Light Vision Group client through, no matter what stage their business is in:
1. What are your skills, strengths, and expertise?
With this question, we are beginning with the end in mind: thinking ahead to what implementation might realistically look like. Especially in the small business world, entrepreneurs need to stay within their strengths and delegate the rest. So getting a clear idea of what you like to do and what you’re good at is how we begin to assess the assets that will form the foundation of your marketing and operations strategies.
2. What product or service do you offer and what value is it bringing to the market?
This is not the same thing as the MVP I mentioned earlier! It’s more like the raw materials we’ll use to build it. Some important details to consider here are how and why you started pursuing this business idea as well as your customers’ reasons for buying your product or service. Have you found your differentiator, or are there still some unknowns?
3. Assess exactly where the business is at this point in time
This question goes back to the day-to-day reality of your business or the goals you’ve set for it. It’s critical to understand exactly where you’re going, and important dates on your calendar may have a huge effect on the timing of our strategy. The information we gather at this step will also serve as a “before” picture to compare with our results.
There’s some room for creativity at this point in the process: you create your reality, and with our team’s help, we may be able to optimize some things for better outcomes. Most marketing agencies don’t offer much support with internal operations beyond your actual marketing activity, but our software experts can put systems in place to put you one step ahead!
4. Define your ideal client and where they are
Once again, we’re calling back to the clients we mentioned in step 2. This time, we’re zooming in on what they have in common and where they like to hang out. What do they care about and how do they make decisions? We have to make sure your message will reach the right people and inspire them to take action.
5. Keyword research
At this point, we put on our SEO hat to take a look at what people are searching for in your industry and what keywords your competitors are ranking for. If you’ve been in business for a while, we’ll also determine what keywords are drawing your website traffic right now. All of the research we’ve done up to this point informs our approach to SEO strategy.
6. Competitor research
We already have an idea of how you stand out from your competitors, but we take another look at their online footprints to see where they are concentrating their efforts, what topics they’re talking about, and, if possible, what’s getting attention. It’s important to identify what your competitors have in common and determine if there are industry standards we should be following or if there are more opportunities to differentiate.
7. Build MVP
At last, we can start on the first solid piece of your marketing strategy! The minimum viable product is our best estimation of your signature offer: what can you promote that will create sustainable growth and meet the needs we’ve identified in your market? This is the solution that will shape both your sales process and your marketing messages.
Once you’ve defined your MVP, you likely won’t need to change it unless there’s a major change in one of the areas we explored in this blog. However, the marketing tools and tactics at our disposal are always changing too. And now that you understand how much research and assessment goes into an initial marketing strategy, you can see why my classmate’s question seems so impossible on the surface. The cycle of assessment, strategy, and implementation will keep repeating itself until the steps blur together in one fluid process—but even experts have to step back and “start over” from time to time.
Stay tuned for more insights from my class and the next steps for creating and implementing a marketing strategy. Learn more about the services we offer here and book a consultation if you’re ready to begin exploring these questions for your business.
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