Five Ways to Make Successful Digital Marketing Plan | Aaron Flatt
In an hard work to remain ahead of the curve, we believe it’s significant to increase the use of a digital marketing plan in event promotion.web marketing is going to be crucial for organizations that would like to obtain the members and contacts that they had in their list that they are no longer able to reach. With the objective of taking these contacts and renovating them — whether they are members, participants, or sponsors — targets need to be met, and as a business running an event, a digital marketing plan can help you obtain those objectives.
BUILD A CONTENT STRATEGY | Aaron Flatt
Behind every great plan, there is content. But the mantra, “build it and they will come” does not apply here. In fact, creating content and just waiting for visitors to show up and engage with you will simply not happen… unless you’re a super cute kitten playing with a turtle on YouTube. A content strategy comes with planning and includes an editorial calendar, a social plan, engagement efforts, optimization, measuring conversions and more. If you want to ensure that your content gets seen by your target audience, then a content strategy is your best bet. So before you sit in front of your computer and start belting out article after article, you need to figure out who you’re addressing and what you plan to achieve. What are goals and KPIs? How will you measure success: Is it by gaining visibility? Increased registration at your events? Every marketing effort has to be measured. It is an essential element of any successful digital marketing plan.
IMPLEMENT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) | Aaron Flatt
In keeping with content, a solid digital marketing plan includes SEO and ensures that your content is not only reader friendly, but also search engine friendly as well. If Google can’t find your message, you can bet that no one else will, either.
What makes an SEO plan a great SEO plan?
A- Keyword research: Search terms of phrases that people would type into a search engine that are relevant to your event. You can use these search terms to create content or for paid advertising on search engines like Google and Bing. Where do you go for keyword research? Google Ad words, Bing Ads and Word tracker, to name a few.
B- Link building: Getting other quality websites whose content relates to yours to link to a page on your website with specific keywords highlighted. For example, if your event centers on urology, then you would want a well-known urological website to link back to your event and the hyperlink would contain keywords like “2014 Urological Association Event” and not “Click here.”
C- Social networking: Interact with others by sharing and creating create content through online communities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even forums that relate to your subject matter. It can be used to promote your brand or event, tell participants and audiences at large about your product or event, gauge what others think about your event, attract new participants, and build relationships with your existing participants. You have to make everything you do shareable. And if you want them to share it, you need to make sure they can find it with a simple search and that your content is valuable for your intended audience.
USE INBOUND MARKETING, NOT INTERRUPTION MARKETING | Aaron Flatt
Interruption marketing is paid ads that are found on the right-hand side at Facebook, the paid ads at the top and on the right-hand side of Google results and the sponsored hash tags (#) and accounts on the right-hand side and updates at Twitter. Ask most web users and the majority of them will tell you that they simply ignore these ads.
CREATE SOLID LANDING PAGES | Aaron Flatt
Optimization is not strictly for content; it’s important that you optimize your website as well. Your landing pages need to be user-friendly and straight to the point. If you want to ensure the most signups or registrations for your event, for example, you need to make sure that your landing page drives the right message home. This is where you’re unique selling proposition, a video or slideshow of images, the benefits of attending your meeting, client testimonials, and a solid call to action.
FOCUS ON YOUR WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE | Aaron Flatt
The beauty of a great digital marketing plan is a great website. And what makes a great website? It’s when a visitor intuitively knows where everything can be found. I can’t tell you how often I end up on a website and have no idea where to find what I’m looking for. There needs to be a method to the madness and you always need to keep the end user in mind when putting together your website. After all, this is the face that people see before they opt to sign up for your event or register for your services, so you want to make sure that what they see responds to their needs and interest (e.g., professional development).
