20-Point Digital Marketing Checklist For New Businesses
Starting digital marketing for a new business is exciting but can be overwhelming.
Imagine a 20-step digital marketing checklist covering all the important things you need to do. This includes making sure your website is easy for people to find on Google, planning how to use social media, creating good content, and setting up tools to track how well your efforts are working.
This complete digital marketing checklist covers everything you must do to build a successful online promotion plan.
The Ultimate Digital Marketing Checklist For Brands
- Define the target market, consider existing products, and identify common characteristics.
- Utilize tools for competitor analysis and gather insights for strategy improvement.
- Optimize design, functionality, loading times, mobile responsiveness, and content.
- Set clear goals, understand target audience preferences, and choose effective platforms.
- Align content with search intent, optimize title tags, internal links, and URLs, and enhance page speed.
- Identify high-performing content, research prospects, craft linkbait, and execute effective outreach.
- Utilize Search Engine Advertising for fast implementation, detailed targeting, and cost-effective practices.
- Develop campaigns on platforms like Google Ads or Bing Ads, focusing on relevant keywords and compelling ad copy.
- Build targeted email lists, set clear goals, leverage data, and utilize technology for effective email marketing.
- Select products strategically, determine competitive commission rates, provide support, and employ effective marketing strategies.
- Automate lead tracking using tools like Zapier for seamless integration, organization, and analysis.
- Measure success in Google Ads by monitoring key metrics like ROI and CPC; refine strategies for optimal results.
- Craft content aligned with audience emotions, emphasizing the 'why' of your business to create a profound impact.
- Leverage marketing automation tools like HubSpot and MailChimp for streamlined workflows and enhanced efficiency.
- Design compelling calls to action using action-oriented language, personalization, and mobile optimization.
- Establish a Google Search Console account for insights into website performance on Google Search.
- Create a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property alongside your Universal Analytics (UA) property for enhanced insights.
Also See: Top Digital Marketing Trends To Follow
What is a Digital Marketing Checklist?
A digital marketing checklist lists tasks to do when promoting something on the internet.
It involves determining your target online audience, establishing an ad budget, and generating content that resonates with users on social media platforms or websites.
Some of the essential elements of marketing checklists are:
- Target Audience: Understand your audience.
- Measurable Goals: Clearly state what you want to achieve.
- Budget Allocation: Plan to spend for each activity.
- Channel Selection: Choose effective platforms.
- Compelling Content: Create engaging material.
- Brand Consistency: Ensure a consistent brand image.
- SEO Optimization: Boost online visibility.
- Analytics Tools: Track and measure performance.
- Campaign Timeline: Set a clear schedule.
- Testing and QA: Ensure error-free content.
- Legal Compliance: Follow guidelines and regulations.
- Feedback Utilization: Act on customer feedback.
- Agile Adaptation: Be ready to adjust strategies.
Why Is a Digital Marketing Checklist Essential?
Here are the top reasons why having a complete marketing checklist is important:
- Organization: A checklist helps keep things in order, like a to-do list for marketing tasks.
- Coverage: It ensures that all important parts of marketing (like social media, emails, SEO) are included.
- Goals: The checklist aligns tasks with specific goals so everyone knows what they're working towards.
- Risk Control: It includes plans for handling problems, like technical issues or changes on social media.
- Team Communication: This acts like a team plan, so everyone knows who's doing what and when.
- Responsibility: Shows who's in charge of what, so everyone does their part.
Complete Digital Marketing Checklist For 2024
Know Your Audience
To know your audience, conduct surveys, analyze social media insights, and study your website analytics.
Understand their demographics, such as age, location, and gender. Pay attention to their online behaviors, the platforms they visit, and the content they like.
Tools like GWI can help you perform on-demand audience research.
Create Customer Profiles
Creating your ideal customer profile involves understanding your target market by defining the destination market, considering existing products, and identifying common characteristics.
Develop or review a customer journey map to understand touchpoints and preferences, allowing
for the evolution of the map with the campaign.
Here is a simplified buyer journey map for the cough suppressant, Delsym, as explained by Moz.
Additionally, determine target demographics, exploring factors such as age, affordability, gender, and common interests to refine the eventual customer profile.
Check Out Competitors
Competitor analysis is crucial for business intelligence, and various tools are available to streamline the process.
Social media management tools like Sprout Social provide comprehensive competitive reports, enabling businesses to assess and optimize their social strategies.
AI-powered tools like Contify automatically compile competitor updates, offering insights into website changes, reviews, social media activity, ads, and more.
Tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs help track competitors' backlinks, organic keywords, and traffic sources for SEO analysis.
Content-focused tools like BuzzSumo assist in identifying top-performing content and traffic origins.
Make Your Website Better
Enhancing your website involves optimizing its design and functionality for a more user-friendly experience.
Start by evaluating the general design, ensuring it reflects your brand and provides user-friendly navigation.
Optimize loading times by compressing images and minimizing unnecessary elements. Prioritize mobile responsiveness to cater to users on various devices.
Conduct a thorough review of content, ensuring it aligns with your brand message and is presented clearly and engagingly. Implement SEO best practices to improve visibility on search engines.
Utilize tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and rectify performance issues.
Select Your Marketing Channels
Selecting the appropriate marketing channels is a crucial step once you have established your goals, identified your target audience, and developed a visually appealing website.
Here is a great explanation of the different online marketing channels, classified as paid media, owned media, and earned media (credit: Dave Chaffey, Smart Insights):
Finally, implement your online promotion strategy and continuously analyze results using analytics tools, adapting your approach for optimal outcomes.
Also See: The Complete Guide to Data-Driven Marketing
Perform On-Page Optimization
On-page SEO, or on-site SEO, involves optimizing web pages and content to enhance search engine visibility and user experience.
It is crucial in ranking pages higher on Google and attracting organic traffic.
To perform on-page SEO effectively, consider writing unique, high-quality content, strategically placing target keywords, creating keyword-rich title tags and click-worthy meta descriptions, structuring pages with headings and subheadings, optimizing URLs, adding internal and external links, and including and optimizing images.
Advanced tactics involve optimizing page speed, targeting featured snippets, and implementing schema markup to provide more context to search engines.
Utilizing tools like Semrush's On-Page SEO Checker can provide actionable insights and recommendations for optimization.
Also See: How to Create a Winning Local SEO Strategy
Build Backlinks
You must identify high-performing content through tools like SEO for Firefox, examining link profiles, and exporting relevant data.
This sets the stage for prospect research, delving into who links to the identified content.
Understanding the linkworthiness of content comes next, unraveling the common threads that make certain pieces attractive.
Subsequently, crafting linkbait involves creating content of similar value, aligning with themes that resonate with the target audience.
Finally, effective outreach strategies, including personalized emails to potential link prospects, are crucial in securing quality backlinks.
Run Search Engine Ads
Run Google Ads to acquire more customers.
Create action-oriented ad copies that highlights your unique selling propositions and encourages user engagement. You can follow this ad creatives best practices guide to craft user-focused ad copies.
Set a budget and bid strategy to control costs and maximize the visibility of your ads.
Design high-converting landing pages that match your target user’s needs. You can take the help of a Google Ads agency to design these pages for you.
Additionally, measure cost-per-acquisition (CPA), cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-view (CPV), and cost-per-thousand (CPT), to learn how your Google Ads are performing.
Also See: What Are Custom Affinity Audiences (Audience Segments) in Google Ads?
Create PPC Campaigns
Develop PPC campaigns (like on Facebook or LinkedIn) to promote your business online. Select the appropriate PPC platform based on your target buyers and business objectives.
Conduct PPC keyword research to identify relevant search terms for your ads. Create powerful ad copies that communicate your unique selling propositions.
Set a budget and bid strategy to control costs and maximize ad visibility. Design effective landing pages that align with your ad content and encourage conversions. Regularly monitor and analyze campaign performance, adjusting keywords, ad creatives, and targeting parameters for optimal results.
Implement conversion tracking to learn when any visitor clicks on your ads. PPC campaigns can drive targeted traffic to your website and generate valuable leads.
Run Email Campaigns
Email marketing is an excellent tactic for businesses to engage and convert their audience effectively.
Build a targeted email list through engaging opt-in forms to embark on a successful email marketing campaign.
Clearly define your goals, whether they involve welcoming new subscribers, boosting engagement, nurturing existing subscribers, or re-engaging inactive ones.
Understand the nature of your promotional, relational, or transactional campaign and tailor your calls to action accordingly.
Know your audience by leveraging data from sources like Google Analytics and social media profiles.
Utilize technology wisely with user-friendly email service providers, incorporating automation, templates, and audience segmentation features.
Plan your emails and follow-ups strategically, ensuring they are relevant and valuable to your subscribers.
Craft compelling subject lines and concise copy that speaks directly to your audience, keeping a casual and friendly tone.
Prioritize responsive email design to accommodate various devices and conduct A/B testing to optimize layout, copy, and timing.
Finally, track and analyze key metrics like opens, clicks, and conversions to refine and improve your email marketing campaigns over time.
Create Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Planning and executing your campaigns is essential to succeed in social media marketing.
Begin by setting goals tailored to your business objectives, ensuring they adhere to the SMART criteria for effective measurement.
Develop comprehensive buyer personas, incorporating demographic details and preferences, to precisely target your audience with tailored messages.
Select the most relevant social media channels based on audience insights and past performance analytics. Utilize a social media calendar tool to schedule and organize content, ensuring timely and consistent communication.
Employ specialized content creation, curation, and management tools to enhance productivity.
Conduct thorough competitive analysis to learn from industry trends and identify potential opportunities. Lastly, establish a robust system to track and analyze campaign performance, allowing for real-time adjustments and continuous optimization.
Run Social Ads
Select suitable social media platforms according to your target audience. Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are popular choices.
Leverage the advantages of social media advertising, such as its extensive reach, precise targeting options, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to build brand identity.
Tailor your content to be visually appealing, utilize strong calls to action, and optimize your landing page. Implement A/B testing to refine your ads and maximize their effectiveness.
Regularly monitor analytics to track performance and make data-driven optimizations.
Explore additional resources like Google Analytics and Unsplash for high-quality images and industry-specific case studies for inspiration.
Overall, a well-planned and executed social media advertising campaign can provide significant returns for small businesses.
Also See: Ad Creative Best Practices: Guide To Create Mind-Blowing Ads
Create Affiliate Campaigns
Establishing a successful affiliate program involves a strategic five-step process. Begin by selecting specific products for inclusion, focusing on those with broad appeal.
Determine competitive commission rates, starting in the 10–15% range, and scale as the program expands. Utilize efficient affiliate management tools available in the market or opt for integrated solutions.
Provide comprehensive support to affiliates through high-quality content, including graphics and email templates.
Finally, employ effective marketing strategies, leveraging social media and email campaigns to attract quality affiliates who align with your brand vision.
Also See: Best Practices For Healthcare Digital Marketing
Keep Track of Leads
Automating lead tracking is an essential component of a digital marketing checklist. As your lead volume increases, manual tracking becomes impractical.
Automation, facilitated by tools like Zapier, ensures that leads are seamlessly integrated into your CRM, email marketing platform or databases. This enhances organization and efficiency and provides a centralized repository for analyzing lead data.
By automating processes such as tracking leads from emails, forms, or ads, businesses can maintain accuracy, eliminate manual errors, and be well-prepared for comprehensive lead analysis when needed.
Also See: Maximizing Conversion Rates: The Ultimate Guide to CRO
See How Ads Are Performing
Measuring success in Google Ads for small businesses involves monitoring key metrics like Return on Investment (ROI) and Cost per Click (CPC). A positive ROI signifies profitability, indicating that ads generate more revenue than expenses. Tracking these metrics over time is essential, with a general expectation that ROI should increase as ad performance improves.
While an increase in CPC may be acceptable if accompanied by rising ROI, optimizing ads involves:
- Refining keyword themes.
- Targeting locations strategically.
- Adjusting ad schedules.
- Enhancing ad content.
- Ensuring that the website is user-friendly and up-to-date.
Collectively, these efforts contribute to a more effective and successful online advertising strategy.
Create Useful Content
Crafting compelling online content is an art that begins with understanding your audience and the emotional connection they seek.
Customers don't just buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Align your content with the emotional needs of your audience, recognizing that decisions are often driven by emotions and backed by logic.
Whether you're a small business or a seasoned marketer, the key is to delve into the core of your business – what feelings and experiences are you offering your customers?
Once this emotional connection is identified, you can begin a content creation journey that informs, influences, educates, or entertains and resonates profoundly with your audience, making your online presence truly impactful.
Use Automation Tools
Automation is a game-changer in digital marketing, streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency.
To leverage automation effectively, start by identifying repetitive tasks in your marketing workflow, such as email campaigns, social media posting, and lead tracking.
Choose suitable automation tools like HubSpot, MailChimp, or ActiveCampaign based on your business needs. These tools offer features like workflow automation, AI-powered capabilities, and CRM integration.
Implement automation for tasks like scheduling posts, segmenting email lists, and tracking leads from various sources.
Set up triggers and workflows to automate responses, follow-ups, and other routine actions.
Also See: Best LinkedIn Automation Tools
Create Effective CTAs
A compelling Call to Action (CTA) is characterized by its ability to create a sense of urgency and stand out on a webpage. It should use action-oriented language, employing verbs that prompt immediate engagement.
For example, Starbucks uses the CTA ‘open the app’ to persuade the visitors to install their app and place an order.
Effective CTAs also consider design elements, ensuring they visually distinguish themselves from other content on the page. Personalization is crucial, tailoring CTAs to different audience segments for maximum relevance.
Moreover, optimizing CTAs for mobile viewing is crucial, considering the substantial web traffic from mobile devices.
By integrating these strategies, a successful CTA prompts users to take desired actions, significantly impacting conversion rates and overall website success.
Set Up Google Search Console
To set up Google Search Console:
- Visit the Google Search Console website, click "Add Property," and enter your website's URL.
- Choose a verification method, such as adding an HTML file, inserting an HTML tag, or using Google Analytics.
- Now, complete the verification process. Once verified, you'll gain access to valuable insights about your website's performance on Google Search, helping you enhance its visibility and address any issues that may arise.
Also See: 16 Powerful Ecommerce Marketing Automation Tools
Set Up GA4 Tracking
You should always consider GA4 tracking in your digital marketing checklist.
To set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) alongside your existing Universal Analytics (UA) property, navigate to the Admin section in Google Analytics, select the desired account and UA property, then click on GA4 Setup Assistant in the Property column.
Choose your migration preference, either creating a new GA4 property or aligning it with existing UA property settings.
Follow the instructions to finish the GA4 tracking setup, and note that the GA4 property won't be backfilled with historical data.
Once done, access both properties using the property selector or Admin page, and data collection for the new GA4 property begins shortly.
Looking To Give A Jumpstart To Your Digital Marketing Campaign? Join Hands With Brenton Way
With a combination of in-house technology and a world-class marketing team, Brenton Way offers services in Paid Media, SEO, CRO, Social Media, Email Marketing, Creative Branding, and more. Trusted by companies big and small, our agency is dedicated to ensuring your brand's success. Consult with our digital marketing experts to take your business to the next level.
Joydeep
Content Writer