For me, one thing matters most.
It goes beyond how much advertising budget you have, or what story you have to tell — whether you are an entrepreneur, engineer, or marketer — no matter what you do, you need a blueprint for guidance.
The principles is not going to change. The methods, illustrations, and presentations can evolve. The way to build your business and the way you scale is by discipline.
This is EXTREMELY important.
After years of building in-house marketing teams, I realize that without a blueprint of sorts, organizations tend to get stuck — finding it challenging to scale effectively.
Understanding what you have to do step-by-step provides a structure that, when followed, can be capitalized for long-term growth.
One of the biggest problem right now, I see consistently, is that majority of businesses and brands across the board are rushing to gain higher audience share and increase visibility. It’s a short-term mindset. I am obsessed about this mindset shift.
How To Build a Blueprint
As marketing and advertising technology increases innovates the way businesses do things, it’s apparent that we’re constantly chasing and competing to be the FIRST — however everybody is short on TIME and RESOURCE.
The notion of blueprints is nothing new. Since the 19th century, we have been using this principle for planning. With the growth of marketing channels and social media, you now have exponentially more ways of reaching and engaging your audience than ever before.
I’m constantly thinking of ways to simplify how businesses create and execute marketing strategies. I am obsessed with the idea of a easy-to-follow process for businesses to define, execute, and track their audiences’ attention. That’s the online game you have to focus your energy on.
If you’re in rush, and want to skip this article, the click on the link to download your free internet marketing blueprint right now.
>>> DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PDF NOW <<<
Your Customers Engage Across Multiple Channels
Your audience don’t sit around on Facebook all day or search on Google every hour.
They are not bound by a single channel. Whether you like it or not, we live in a world with an abundance of information accessible from unlimited outlets. And it’s not slowing down.
We live in a world of on-demand culture with consumer impatience growing quickly.
What I often see businesses do is launch campaigns across as many marketing channels as they can. That spray-and-pray mindset causes businesses to waste a lot of money — inefficient ad management and media spend is a sure way towards a slow-death.
The requirements for internet marketing has changed. 5 years ago, your business could get away with advertising on Google Ads alone and drive great ROI. But not anymore.
If you are a single-channel advertiser, you are missing out on the entire life cycle of your customer.
And so, to create a sustainable internet strategy, the number one thing you have to do is have a blueprint. The end.
If you’re planning is done right, your audience will seamlessly flow from being aware of your brand all the way through making a purchase. Think about brands that have earned your attention or captivated your imagination and aspiration…so many people have bought a Tesla car. Tom’s shoes continues to draw upon the goodness of humans as they expand social goodness.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the coolest gadget you are selling, or the fancy videos you are putting out on social media. Those won’t earn the attention of your audience. It’s about whether you have a blueprint to help you systematically craft your market strategy.
What’s In a Internet Marketing Blueprint?
In a nutshell, a blueprint consists of elements that collectively guides your marketing strategy so you follow a path.
A few months ago, I started working with a new client. They were launching a brand new product. The client’s initial reaction was to push their new product to the same audience. But after some discussion, with the usage of a marketing blueprint, we were set on a completely different path, a better one. Had we blindly targeted the same audience, the campaign wouldn’t have been as effective and wouldn’t evoke the right emotions for the relevant person. It’s all about uncovering relevance, and meeting people’s expectations.
This article will go over every aspect of your strategy and planning process including…
- Goal Setting
- Messaging
- Content Marketing
- Paid Traffic
- Developing Audience Personas
… and that’s just scratching the surface. Any part of your audience touch points will dramatically improve your sales when you create a clear outline of your go-to-market strategy.
If you don’t understand your strategy, how would you expect your audience and future customers to buy from you? By getting clarity on the value you create and problem you solve, you can begin to create a message that moves your audience to take action.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
YOUR BRAND VS EVERYONE ELSE.
In the market place, brands are fiercely competing for the same attention your business is going after. No matter what marketing channel you are showing up on, the environment in which your content will be consumed — you should consider the impact your brand has.
If you look at the current digital landscape, you will see that there are countless marketing technologies, advertising software, and brands that are spending tens of millions to put their message in front of customers.
It’s the brands that invests their effort in standing out from the crowd that are earning attention from their audience.
I think we should be authentic about how we tell our brand story. It’s just a much better way to share why your brand exists and enable you to set yourself apart.
If you create a brand story that captivates the imagination, evoke emotions of your audience, and earn the attention of customers — you have won! It’s one great story that resonates today, tomorrow, next month, year and beyond. It creates loyalty but more importantly reach new prospects who may not have known you before.
At the end of the day it’s your storytelling about your brand’s purpose and why you exist that will lay the foundation for your brand. Too many brands rush into making the quick sale relying on promotions, sales, and offers — that is not sustainable if there is no story to anchor your core.
Basically, when it comes to awareness, it’s all about authentic storytelling of brand’s uniqueness and purpose of existence.
My personal strategy is anchored by stories.
SET UP YOUR REVENUE GOALS. NOBODY LIKES FLYING BLIND.
I am constantly thinking of ways to reach sales goals for my clients. It’s the reality of building and scaling a business. I spend a lot of time reviewing sales targets because it affects every aspect of the game. Revenue goals set the tone for your entire team. Obviously, if you set unattainable numbers, then you defeat the entire purpose of this exercise.
When you have revenue goals set up, you start to steer your team in the same direction. Marketing campaigns that do not directly or indirectly affect revenue targets should be dismissed so you can go all-in on marketing campaigns that can take your brand where you want to be.
Forecasting revenue is challenging. There are many factors to take into account — with so many marketing channels, platforms, tools, and advertising networks, budgets must be accounted for.
The reason why I am effective in delivering sales growth for clients is because of the high level of accountability revenue goals set for everyone. If we were flying blind, it’s more likely to crash. If we set our destination, we are more likely to arrive.
It’s easy to go into a meeting and make assumptions of sales. It’s entirely more productive if we brought actual numbers into a meeting.
It’s a good idea to establish a high level target. You have to remember…whether your performance metrics are cost per lead, cost per customer acquisition, or cost per install, it rolls up to the revenue you generate.
It’s why part of the internet marketing blueprint requires you to set up your revenue goals.
And here’s what you’ll do after calibrating your destination.
KNOW THY CUSTOMERS.
If you adopt the philosophy of customer-first, you will have to know exactly who you are talking to, writing for, selling to. It’s worth investing your time to create personas.
Every brand I talk to understand the need for personas and agree with its benefits. But 80% of them have not spent the time on this exercise. Whether it’s due to resources, time, or know-how…the reasons are plenty.
Creating personas is not as complicated as it’s made out to be. Confusing jargon and fancy words are used widely…but a persona is simply defining who your product and service is created for. Who’s problems are you solving, who’s life are you improving, or how will it improve someone’s life.
Persona development is a vital part as it influences your marketing message and positioning.
What’s not subjective is the more your test your marketing message against your persona, you increase your chances of being heard by the right person.
Pro tip: Campaign personas is not the same as your high level business (corporate) personas. These personas are more micro-targeted for specific campaigns objectives.
WHAT ARE YOUR CUSTOMER’S CHALLENGES & PAIN POINTS?
You are in the business of problem solving, improving lives, and creating value. I am obsessed with the idea of making sure the brands we work with stand for something.
If we’re only going after the quick sale, there will be no long-term objective to work towards — therefore not cultivating a long-lasting partnership.
It’s possible for you to launch a product and service by guessing what your customers need. But that’s the spray-and-pray- throw-spaghetti-on-the-wall technique — and that’s super inefficient.
A better way is to understand your customers’ needs, desires, and problems.
With information in hand, you can align your marketing message, creatives, and ad copy with what you’re offering.
I believe mass marketing; sending the same message to everyone is dead. And even years ago, it was ineffective to say the last compared to what can be accomplished today with micro-audience targeting.
Customers react to and engage with messaging that is personalized to them.
That means you’ll end up creating more videos, images, and ad copy then ever before. But you’ll also see positive ROI you deserve.
YOUR BRAND PERCEPTION IS THE HOLY GRAIL.
If you still believe in “Build it and they will come,” you need to change your mindset immediately.
What your customers think about your brand in the past, present, and how you want them to perceive your brand in the future is the key to staying relevant, and quite frankly grow.
The ability for anyone to talk about your brand online have just gotten exponentially easier with social media. And it only takes seconds for someone to share their experience with your brand.
It’s not something to take lightly.
We use this simple document to gather details of brand perception with our clients.
Pro tip: print out several copies and let other team members or departments fill it out.
The responses you get can surprise you — and it’s usually very different depending if you’re gathering insights from customer teams, marketing, product, or even engineering.
Information you gather about the past and present can uncover opportunities to improve your brand and articulate what your brand aspire to be.
CRAFT YOUR MESSAGE
Your marketing message is what the world will see, react to, engage with, and respond to.
The Messaging Architecture
These are the 4 elements within your message architecture. Start by defining these for your brand.
- Positioning – how are you positioning your brand in the marketplace, in your category, and the benefit you bring to the table.
- Value Proposition – what value do you create for your customers so they can do [X] better.
- Tagline – ours is “We Help Businesses Make More Money.”
- Stories – talking points that reinforce your value proposition that’s unique to your brand.
Don’t be afraid to create a few versions. Don’t attempt to come up with the perfect one — in any case, I don’t believe in perfect, just excellence for the record.
In fact, you will most likely come up with a few marketing messages for each of the persona that you are targeting.
Reminder: this is not your overarching brand message. This is for your marketing campaign.
TARGETING CUSTOMER MICRO-MOMENTS
I talked about the death of mass-messaging a lot. I truly believe it’s the end of the road for brands that are still holding on that that mindset.
Micro-moments is becoming more important for brands to create conversations with customers.
In general, there are 5 micro-moments in your customer’s journey:
- Which Is The Best,
- Is It Right,
- Can I Afford,
- Where to Buy,
- Am I Getting a Deal?
It’s rare for customers to buy on their first touch with your brand. The marketplace is fragmented and new players enter the game all the time.
To win, your marketing message must be aligned with your customers profile.
For example, if you are targeting the Gen Z audience, then your images and videos should have relevant age group representation.
Can you imagine an ad for a baby stroller without a baby???
There’s so much more in the marketing blueprint PDF
I’ve put all this information, details and more marketing tips into a downloadable PDF.
This PDF can costs you $10,000 or more if you hired an agency to produce it for you. Since not every business can afford or want to pay for this much, I decided to level the playing field.
Truth is, a blueprint is a template document with some customization — therefore it’s a high profit margin product for agencies.
Here’s what else you’ll find in this PDF:
- Digital advertising strategy and framework
- Content marketing ideas the pros use
- Social media scheduling strategies
- BONUS marketing tips and resources
- and much more.
Click the link below to download your FREE online marketing blueprint.
