Are you a small business owner looking to maximize your time and budget with digital and social media marketing? Creating a plan that allows your marketing to reach a broader audience while showcasing your expertise is one the top ways small businesses today are succeeding. An integrated digital and social media marketing plan means that you are regularly producing online content for your target audience while utilizing social media reach and to engage with them. In this article we will provide simple ways you can integrate each part of your digital and social media marketing to grow your business online.
Creating an Integrated Digital and Social Media Marketing Plan
Having an integrated digital and social media marketing plan for your small business starts with first having a well-defined marketing plan. You need to make sure that within your marketing plan, you have a true understanding of your target audience and their buyer’s journey. In order to have a successful integrated marketing plan, you need to unify all your marketing channels in a way that ensures a seamless experience for our ideal client. Your top small business marketing channels may include:
- Paid Media and Advertising: This is any of your online marketing and advertising that you pay for including Google Adwords and/or Paid Social Media Ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest.
- Search Traffic: Your marketing through your website pages, landing pages and blog.
- Email Database: Your email list of subscribers, leads, customers, etc.
- Social Pages: Your social media pages (organic posts)
Now that we have an understanding of what your digital and social media marketing channels are, let’s talk about how to integrate everything into a concise marketing plan that will help you broaden your business’ brand awareness and increase lead generation.
Use Social Media to Build Your Website Traffic & Email List
Here’s how you can use social media to increase your website’s visitors as well as grow your email database:
- Post your blog content on all your social pages as it’s published.
- Share a blurb about the blog and a link on your Facebook and LinkedIn page
- Share an image that relates to the blog content, with a blurb in the caption, and relevant hashtags to Instagram. Add a “link in bio” note and add your blog url to your Instagram profile.
- **Pro Tip** – “Boost” your post on your social pages by clicking boost or promote and choose your target audience. This will expand the reach of your post to social media users that are not currently following your page. This is a great way to get more traffic to your blog as well as more likes on your social pages.
- Share new landing pages for your services on your pages.
- Share new offers and promotions that are only accessible through your email marketing in order to encourage new list subscribers.
- Share blurbs or screenshots from your email newsletter, with “sign up” calls to actions.
Use Your Email Database to Build Your Social Media Following and Engagement
- Add your social media profile links into your email template using icons.
- Ask your subscribers to follow you on social media and provide incentives using giveaways or promotions on your page.
- Share social posts in your email marketing with links back to your page, asking for comments, likes and shares!
Use Your Website to Build Your Social Media Presence
- Add social media icons on your top navigation to your website, with links to each of your profiles. Make sure these are visible on all pages and easily clickable.
- Each website and landing page on your website should be easily shareable to social media. Include social sharing links on the pages that are “click to share” where the post will automatically show up ready to go when clicked! [Here’s a great article on how to set this up]
Integrate Your Digital and Social Media Marketing for Success
At the end of the day, the point of your small business marketing plan is to get results. You want to create a plan that will not only help you stay organized and keep you focused on your goals, but also help you hit and exceed those goals! Integrating your digital marketing with your social media marketing creates an opportunity for you to scale your efforts and grow your reach. Having everything set up but not utilizing your tools wisely causes wasted time, effort and money. By using social media to grow your website traffic and email database, while simultaneously using your website and email to grow your social, ensures that you are leveraging what you already have to boost your reach and success!