2013: blur guide to your marketing checklist

  With each New Year, comes an assessment of last year’s endeavors and a hefty to-do list on ways to develop existing strategies and projects. So, in order to help you prioritize how you would like to move forward with your marketing plan in Q1, here’s our handy guide to hitting the ground running in 2013.     Online Marketing Plan

• Does your online marketing plan incorporate both earned and paid media?
  • What’s your spending mix between PPC (pay-per-click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) ads, do these conversions add the same value to your business?
  • Are you utilizing multi-channel marketing communications to deliver your message across channels? These include email, social media, PR, advertising, and content marketing which tend to work more cohesively when the messaging is streamlined, turning any buzz into a qualified, and trackable lead.
• Have you included (where relevant) mobile search, text messages, and mobile-friendly email and e-Newsletters in your strategy?
• Have you designed your online marketing plan to deliver a clear call to action (CTA)? Note: there’s no need to bombard your Facebook fans with CTAs, but be sure to work some form of marketing message into the majority of posts.

• How well do you rank on the major search engines, such as Google and Bing. If you’re not appearing in a prominent position on the first page, you should consider working on your SEO strategy. Sites like Social Mention are also a useful, free barometer for measuring brand effectiveness.

• Is your site delivering conversions – converting casual users into content consumers who subscribe to your blog or newsletter, download your materials/white papers, and opt-in to your email lists?
• Is your website mobile-friendly, or have you deployed a mobile website?
• Do you regularly upload new content, and do you have a content marketing calendar in place for Q1 2013? Fresh, dynamic content is imperative in drawing repeat visitors to your site.

• Company Blog
  • What keywords will you select for optimizing blog copy?
  • What’s your link-building strategy for converting blog visitors into visitors or subscribers to your website?
  • Do you have an editorial calendar set out?
  • How many new posts are you planning per week?
  • Key measurement criteria for blog:  Google Analytics page views and bounce rates, clicks on links embedded in blog posts, referrals to blog from other blogs and social networks, mentions within other blogs/media, comments, and likes.
• Facebook Fan Page
  • Do you have a content plan in place to share a mix of relevant links, engaging content, videos, and polls?
  • How many new posts will you make daily/weekly/bi-weekly?
  • What’s your plan to engage with advocates and customers through comments, likes, and following their posts?
  • Key measurement criteria for Facebook: Google Analytics statistics on referred traffic from Facebook to company website, Facebook fan growth and likes, clicks on links embedded in Facebook posts, mentions or links to Facebook fan page shared by others (ie. virality).
• LinkedIn
  • Is your LinkedIn company page up to date?
  • How often will you post new content to the LinkedIn company page via status update?
  • What LinkedIn groups does your company follow and participate in?
  • Is your company actively monitoring and participating in LinkedIn Q&A?
  • Key measurement criteria for LinkedIn:  LinkedIn first hand connections, discussions, and click-through on links shared in Groups or status updates.
• Google+
  • Is your Google+ profile keyword- optimized for SEO?
  • Do you have a workflow established to share engaging content, videos, images, and relevant links from across the company’s digital media to Google+?
  • Who is assigned to comment on relevant posts in other Google+ circles?
  • What’s the plan to utilize Google Hangouts, and how will you create buzz around your activities there?
  • Key measurement criteria for Google+: SEO and page rank, CTR on links shared in Google+, referred traffic to other company sites/links, Google+ Circle adds/followers, Google+ mentions.
• Pinterest
  • Do you have a plan to create ‘personality-driven’ boards for target audiences by demographic, and promote products, trends, tips, etc.?
  • Follow other businesses, thought leaders, customers, vendors, and partners.
  • Key measurement criteria for Pinterest: Pinterest followers, Pinterest pins and follows, Pinterest as a referral site to other company sites via link click-through.
• Twitter
  • Use a social CRM app to schedule and manage multiple daily Twitter posts for company messages to promote content (Blog, Facebook, press release, other) through Twitter
  • Segment influencers and create lists
  • Test promoted Tweets, and if successful expand their use
  • Listen to relevant conversations
  • Build reputation and thought leadership by following other businesses, thought leaders, customers, vendors/designers and partners, and interacting with them regularly via retweets, replies, and direct messages.
  • Key measurement criteria for Twitter: Increase in followers, mentions, retweets and reach, replies reach, number of lists that include the company, social capital (influence) of Twitter followers, PeerIndex/Klout score for our Twitter account