What unique value do you bring to the market?

• What do you love most about your products or services? 
• What special skills or knowledge do you have? 
• Do you have a unique product that meets your customer’s needs? 
• What benefits do your customers receive when working with you over your competitors?

The first step in any marketing endeavor, knowing the value you bring to the table is essential. 

Your unique value is the pivotal point on which all your marketing is based.  It is the unique reason customers choose to do business with you and not your competitors. 

The value you provide is usually specific knowledge, skills, location or process.

What is the demand for your product or service?

• Is there a need in your market for the commodity you’re selling? 
• Is your entry price-point enough to make it worth your while? 
• Is there a niche in the market that you may be able to fill? 

Understanding the demand for your product or service will help you determine your marketing direction. 

An important factor in your research is acknowledging your competitors and the effect they may have on your business’s growth.

Who is your target audience?

• What are the demographics? 
• What age groups are you trying to reach? 
• Where does your audience live? 
• Are you trying to reach men, women, both? 
• What needs do they have? 
• How can you help them meet their needs?

Knowing your target audience is a fundamental part of creating your website and digital marketing platform. 

The more you know about your customer base, the easier it will be to provide a solution to the problems they face.  This, in turn, will help you to achieve the purpose you previously identified.

What goals have you set for your business marketing?

• How much website traffic can you generate? 
• How many email sign-ups can you bring in? 
• How many subscriptions can you sell? 
• What products will you sell? 
• How many leads would you like to receive?

Write it down and make it real.  Too often we create a plan in our heads, but fail to write it down.  But writing it down makes it real. 

We like to use SMART goals (Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Relevant - Time-bound), which make it easy to track and measure the goals you set.

What are you trying to accomplish?

• Are you trying to sell a product or service? 
• Do you want to reach a new audience and generate leads? 
• Is your intent to increase traffic and grow advertising revenues? 
• Are you hoping to attract subscribers or build a new community?

To develop an effective website, your focus should be clearly defined. 

Whether it’s generating leads or selling products, a clearly defined focus will help you stay on track, keep your vision aligned and provide you with a clear pathway to your end goal.

What will your website look like?

• What colors will you use?  Fonts? Typefaces? 
• Will your design be fresh and friendly?  Rustic?  Professional?
• Does your design align with your brand?
• Do you have brand elements to use in your design?

Logo, colors, fonts, white space and more, your website design should portray your brand, connect with your target audience and serve as base for all of your marketing endeavors. 

Knowing what not to include is almost as important as knowing what should be included.  Good design rules are universal and should be adhered to with your website as well, ensuring you maximize its effectiveness.

Is your navigation user-friendly?

• Does your navigation plan make it easy for site visitors to find what they need? 
• How many links will it include? 
• What will your calls-to-action be? 
• Do you have consistent calls-to-action?
• Is a visual menu provided for mobile users?

Your navigation menus are essential parts of your website.  They allow site visitors to quickly and easily find the information they're looking for. 

Your navigation should include CTAs (Calls-to-Action) which will also help visitors find important information that they didn’t know they needed - pricing plans, email sign-ups or contact information. 

A well thought-out navigation system improves the chances of site visitors taking action on your website.  
 

Can website visitors easily find what they need?

• Does your layout coordinate with your brand? 
• Is your main navigation clear and concise? 
• Have you provided a secondary navigation menu? 

Layout can be one of the easiest or one of the trickiest facets of web design. Sometimes an amazing layout can take minutes and sometimes it’s a struggle to get it just right. 

Layout includes the common header and footer.  General page layouts will vary dependent on your business and marketing goals. 

Keeping in mind your site visitor's journey as they travel through your website is the key to helping you decide how you will lay out your website.

How will your customers search for you?

• Will customers search by product?  Service? 
• How many ways could a visitor search for your offerings?
• Are there key phrases that should be considered? 
• What keywords are my competitors using? 
• Is a keyword research tool needed?

Understanding the ideas and phrases that your potential customers will use when searching for your products and services should be one of the first things considered when developing your content. 

Along with your goals and brand elements, knowing how your site visitors will be looking for you will help shape your copy, as well as your optimized images and videos. 

Learning how to think like your customer will help you choose your search terms.

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How will you develop your copy?

• Will you create your copy yourself? 
• Will you hire a professional copywriter? 
• Do you have keywords to incorporate into the copy? 
• Will you need to update the copy regularly?

Your website copy can be created originally or compiled from one or more sources.  It should be written with the keywords and phrases previously identified in mind. 

You can write your copy yourself or have it professionally written. It should support and promote your brand, goals and website needs. 

Your copy should be clear, concise and informative, without being wordy.  Headings, bullet points and other formatting should be used a search-optimized, user-friendly way.

Photos, graphics and videos are a great addition to any site, providing visuals for your text and supporting your brand mission.  Imagery should be relevant and original, adding authenticity, building trust and providing a great opportunity for you to connect and engage with your website visitors.  Most importantly, and often neglected, all imagery should be sized and optimized to best facilitate your page loads and search engine rankings.

What imagery will you use?
Have you prepared your photos correctly?  Do you plan to use icons or graphics?  Are the graphics optimized for fast download? Do you videos load quickly?  Are you using a streaming service for your videos?

What steps will you take to optimize your website?

• Is your website mobile-friendly? 
• Is it tested regularly? 
• How will you track and maintain your SEO ranking? 
• What tools will you use keep up with the SEO elements of your website? 

Having a mobile-friendly, secure website is the #1 factor in ranking highly with the search engines. 

Page content and layout are different for mobile, tablet and desktop, so making sure it's optimized for all views is important.  Relevant links, meta-tags, html tags and page-load-speeds are other SEO tactics that should be monitored. 

Use the proper tools to keep track of these and other SEO elements to be sure your website remains high-ranking.

What social media platforms will you use?

• What goals are you trying to meet?
• Do you want to connect to a specific audience?
• Are you trying to reach businesses or consumers?
• What type of posts will you create?
• Will you use pay-per-click advertising?

Today's digital world offers many social media opportunities.  Choosing your social media platforms can be a daunting task. 

Reviewing your goals, knowing your audience and understanding the different social media platforms and their purpose will help you choose the best platforms to use in marketing your business.

How will you use your content calendar?

• Are you promoting business sales?
• Do you need to raise brand awareness?
• Will you be advertising a special or promotion?
• Have you created specific marketing categories?
• Who will manage your posts and ads?

Content calendars serve as the framework for your online promotions across all of your marketing channels.

A well thought-out social media calendar can help to define your content categories and posts, making it easier to prepare and schedule your marketing for each of your social platforms. 

Content calendars will save time, keeping all your marketing ideas in one place and ensuring your marketing posts and ads are frequent and consistent.

How will you drive traffic to your website?

• Who will create your posts and ads?
• How often will you post or advertise?
• What content will you use in your posts and ads?
• Have you maximized your search engine optimization?
• What tools will you use to manage your marketing?

Consistency and frequency are the most important factors in successfully driving traffic to your website.  Search marketing provides the opportunity to capture site visitors who are already looking for the products and services you provide. 

Social media offers a way to reach a targeted audience with a specific message.  Email marketing is a great direct marketing option if you have a current consumer list to use.  Using a variety of platforms is most often the best avenue to take.

How do you measure your results?

• Do you regularly check your Google Analytics?
• Are you monitoring your social media insights?
• How do you measure your e-news letters?
• Have you considered pay-per-click advertising to boost sales?
• Do you update your website and digital marketing based on your analytics and insights?

Measuring your marketing efforts is a necessary step in finding sustainable success and moving your business. 

Understanding marketing analytics allows your marketing efforts to be more efficient and effective.

Getting familiar with your data and learning how to use those measurements will keep you in tune with your audience and will help you continue to produce effective results.