You have certainly read a million articles online detailing all the platforms and presences you need to have to be successful at digitally marketing your brand. Once many businesses set up these digital presences, they treat them as separate marketing entities instead of one cohesive brand presentation for people looking at their business online. Success in your digital marketing efforts only comes when you integrate all platforms under one umbrella strategy.
Think about it this way. Let’s say you have multiple physical store locations. You would not treat each store as a separate business in the eyes of marketing. It would be confusing to run a discount on shoes at one store and shirts on another. People will see an advertisement, believe they can go to any store to get the deal, and be disappointed when that store is not selling the deal.
The same kind of concept goes for your digital marketing. You don’t want to have Facebook talking about all of your shirt products while your eblasts only talk about your shoe selection. Throwing out different messages on each digital marketing platform without a streamlined strategy will confuse your audience. Everything you put on digital will tell people something about your brand. You want to give off a consistent impression by integrating all digital marketing efforts and here is how.
Write Down All Digital Platforms Your Brand is On
Sometimes all your platforms can get lost in the shuffle, especially when one platform is doing better for you than the others. Start by writing down a list of all the digital spaces your brand is present on. Don’t forget to include your website, email marketing and review site listings. From there, you can define an umbrella strategy.
Prioritize Your Platforms
You will be exhausted if you spend an equal amount of effort on each digital platform for your brand. Instead, prioritize the platforms based on what customers expect to see and what has done well for you in the past. Your #1 priority should always be your website. It is your digital storefront and the home for all your digital content and messaging campaigns. Everything you put on other digital platforms should redirect back to the website.
After that, you need to view your analytics to see which other platforms have been most beneficial in the past in terms of high interaction and click through rates. This will change and it is a good idea to go through this process quarterly or every six months to see which platforms have taken the lead.
Create a Strategy That Hits All Platforms
Every month, create a strategy or editorial calendar with a new focus area that all platforms will look at. You can even break down the types of content you will be creating for each as long as they are all talking about the same general thing. Once you have that, focus heavily on creating content or running ads on the platforms that give you the best interaction with more posts and better visuals. Then you can reduce the number of posts and visuals for platforms that do less for your brand.
Cross Promote Your Presence
Sometimes people will find you on Facebook and not know you are on other platforms, even if they use them as well. It is important to, once every few weeks, advertise the other places people can find you online.
- Share each social platform you are on with a link to follow your brand.
- Add these social buttons to your email marketing, review sites, and website.
- Consider putting social streams on your blog and website.
- Share links to your website and blog as often as possible.
- Incentivize people to sign up for your email list on your website and social platforms.
- Share the review sites you are on and ask for reviews.
- Send follow-up marketing emails to your customers, asking them to review their experience on review sites and to follow you on social.
The key to integrating is to have a cohesive strategy and then constantly tell your customers and prospects where they can find you and the benefit of following you on each platform. This will help your brand grow with an integrated digital marketing strategy.