Online Marketing Strategy: not an option but an imperative!

Why implementing an online marketing strategy is critical for businesses?

If you do not invest in your Online Marketing strategy, your Competitors will gain new Market share, jeopardizing the future of your Company.

A few months ago, after giving my talk during the Conference Work Smarter, organized by TeamLeader, during which I spoke about the strategic importance of implementing Web & Social Media Marketing activities, an entrepreneur approached me and said:

“Cremonesi but what good are the Web and Social? In my opinion they are of no use. To me, advertising is all wasted money.”

Wow I answered him, certainly an extremely clear point of view his.

Unfortunately, my answer was as clear as it was direct:

Did you tell your colleagues and employees to start looking for a job because you are closing soon?
Well yes because that is what will happen to your Company. Not because I am giving it the evil eye, simply because today it is impossible to be pro-actively in the Market without implementing a proper Marketing, Communication and Social Media strategy.

Such a direct response had the sole purpose of attracting his attention.

Now I want to ask you a question — I continued. If you had the certainty that by investing 1% of your turnover you would increase the same by 20%, obviously without compressing margins, would you do that?

Of course I would Cremonesi, I’m not stupid!!!

Good. Being Entrepreneurs means having the ability to look ahead, foresee the Market, put in place all those policies that enable us to grow our businesses.

Being an Entrepreneur also means taking the risk of making investments.

Marketing strategy: what is it?

A marketing strategy is a document that companies compile to define marketing goals and actions over a given period of time.

So he works on a rather broad field from production to distribution, from pricing to communication.

Since the Web has become an essential part of companies’ sales and branding processes, the concepts of marketing strategy and digital strategy have overlapped.

The truth, however, is that digital marketing strategy is only one part of corporate marketing strategy.

In turn, digital strategy includes social strategy, seo strategy, advertising strategy, etc. A multifaceted and multifaceted world that is only one part of a larger planning effort.

What we would like to emphasize in this first point is that for a strategy to be such, it must define goals.

These goals must be SMART and that is, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. We discussed this extensively in a previous article that you can read on Factory’s blog.

Online Marketing Strategy: what should the Entrepreneur do?

What the Entrepreneur today can no longer afford is to stand still and watch how the market evolves.

This we can no longer afford because the Internet and social media have accelerated everything tremendously.

Today there are companies, very small ones, that conquer the market extremely quickly.

They do not do this through aggressive trade policies; in fact far from it.

But they do so by increasing pre/post sales service to the Customer.

Improving what is referred to in the jargon as the customer experience.

Creating customer support platforms via website and social media that, thanks to the chatbots, give immediate first-level assistance.

Chatbots are based onartificial intelligence.

When properly set up, they help the Client solve up to 70/80 % of problems.

All in autonomy 24/24, 365 days a year.

Not only that. These companies, thanks to the website and social media, create stronger relationships with their possible Customers.

They give so much information about the products and services provided.

They create loyalty and trust towards the user even before the user has decided to buy.

Online Marketing Strategy: who are your Competitors?

Essentially those we did not consider competitors could become competitors very quickly.

Let’s take a practical example.

I am deciding to buy my new lawn mower, my old one is failing me.

Until 10 years ago I would have gone into a couple of shopping malls to ask for information.

If I was lucky, I would have met a kind and knowledgeable attendant who would give me all the information.

Otherwise I would have had to make do by reading the little data on the boxes.

What’s going on today?

The user goes to Google and begins to make gradually more and more specific searches.

It probably starts by typing “lawn mower.”

Then since there are so many answers improve the search by writing “electric grass cutter”….

Then start finding comparison sites of the various grass cutters, those that convey discounts to you etc.

He thus arrives at a site that provides all the information in detail. Compare models with each other.

He explains the pros and cons of each model in an extremely transparent way, taking you step by step to choose the grass trimmer model that matches your real needs. How do you think it ends?

That site generated a relationship of trust.

The user does not feel mocked by the salesman who, in order to sell a product, will do anything.

He has the utmost respect for his interlocutor: he builds trust.

Trust is immediately repaid because, that user, when he or she decides to buy his or her new lawnmower, will do so on that very site, or in a store of that chain.

Now all this…. what I described to you above is called Marketing, with a good dose and integration of Communication.

It is called designing and implementing a strategy to create the right trust in the Client that leads to a relationship of respect on both sides.

It is crucial to remember that the price factor is only one of many that leads to the decision to purchase a product or service.

Online Marketing Strategy: the case of Airbnb

Airbnb has totally disrupted the hospitality industry.

For the past two months, Factory Communication, theStrategic Marketing and Communication Agency which I founded, has been contacted by several accommodation facilities: hotels and residences.

The problem in one line: “Since airbnb arrived, bookings have dropped by almost 20 percent.”

A phenomenon that is difficult to counter, especially since there are no clear laws and provisions for it.

Another element in favor of hosts, the micro properties that post their listings on airbnb, is that the portal is intuitive and well-organized.

The user experience when searching and selecting a location to spend a night, weekend, or one’s vacation is truly engaging.

In just a few clicks you have found exactly what you were looking for. And the price is, on average, lower than any lodging facility.

Over the past few days I have been using airbnb to look for a location in Nice where I could spend New Year’s Eve with my friends.

Well, 4 nights for 10 people, including cleaning, resort fees etc…. 1,395 euros.

Basically 35 euros per night per person, to have a dream villa at our total disposal.

Unbeatable.

If you have a hotel or a residence, how can you win on airbnb?

As I always say, the only way to win over the competition is to offer an incredible customerexperience (customer experience).

Basically raising the bar.

An accommodation facility can, or rather, must, make a rich range of services available to its guests.

Basically pampering the customer.

What I do not recommend doing is winning over new customers by simply leveraging price.

Since an accommodation facility has significantly higher operating costs than a private one, it can never win against the latter.

So it simply has to organize itself. Offer more services. Accommodate it in its facility by giving more.

One element that could strengthen an accommodation establishment’s online visibility is to focus on a particular niche market.

Essentially specializing in “something,” or rather, in “someone.” In fact, our goal should always be to focus on our target Buyer Persona, and act strategically toward that direction.

Taking a practical example, if you have a hospitality business, you might identify a particular type of clientele.
Analyze what they are, what keywords they use to search online, and use those keywords to improve the visibility of your website on search engines.

This summer I saw a report in one of the many magazines on the television networks about a Hotel reserved only for cyclists.

The condition for staying in this hotel, was to arrive there with one’s bicycle, which, of course, was then placed in one’s bedroom.

An idea born to a bicycle enthusiast aimed, exclusively, at other pedal two-wheel enthusiasts.

Here, this is an effective example of focus.

How to Build Your Online Marketing Strategy

There are five steps to follow:

Setting goals
Understanding your target audience
Getting to know your company
Study the competitors
Measuring results

Setting marketing goals

As we have already said, every strategy is born to achieve goals, and these goals must be SMART .

There is no point in giving yourself goals that you cannot measure or that you already know you cannot achieve. Set “sustainable” goals for the quarter, semester and year.

Understanding your target audience

Your product or service can be really crazy, but if you don’t find your niche market they will remain unsold.

This is the hard law of marketing. The first thing to do, then, is to figure out who you want to target and who you can really help with what you propose.

You can either identify a target audience (a group of people with similar characteristics that makes them particularly in line with your offer) or you can build buyer personas (ideal fictitious customers, with detailed details, to be enriched as you get interactions and information with real people who interact with your company. To learn more, read our page on Buyer Personas).

Getting to know your company

You won’t believe how much you don’t know about your company! Sit down, grab a pen and paper, get the departments together, and listen to their point of view, because it’s time to do what in technical jargon is called a “SWOT analysis.”

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In fact, SWOT analysis is used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business, opportunities to be seized, and risks to be mitigated.

Study the competitors

It’s not spying; it’s benchmarking. To build a solid marketing strategy, there is no harm in ‘ observing what your competitors are doing and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace .

Again you have to use a critical approach. Don’t copy everything, but identify what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Then, do better than them.

Measuring results

If you have given yourself* SMART goals then they are measurable. Identify KPIs that allow you to assess as objectively as possible whether you have achieved your goals.

There are quantitative KPIs, which you can measure mathematically (e.g., increased revenue, new leads, etc.) and others that are qualitative and generally relate to brand reputation.

The fact that they are not arithmetic values does not make these parameters any less significant.

Example of online marketing strategy

Let us finally bring an example and all the actions you can take online to achieve the macro-goals of the marketing strategy.

Specific goals

Increase traffic to the site by 40% in the quarter;
Increase e-commerce sales by 10% in three months, etc.

Target and buyer personas

Knowing your target audience or buyer personas will give you insight:

Which media and which platforms to use (for example, if you want to reach Generation Z, namely those born between the 1990s and 2010, you won’t find them on Facebook, but on Tik Tok);
What content they value most, both in terms of format and usefulness;
How to address your audience(Tone Of Voice).

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis also remains indispensable for moving online.

It could be a strength to have a website that has been up and running for years and is well indexed.

Instead, an example of weakness might be the lack of specific digital skills among internal resources.

You could run the risk of spending unnecessary budget on unsuccessful campaigns, but also seize the opportunity to outperform competitors in reaching a particular target audience.

Competitor benchmarking

In this regard, do benchmarking. How are other companies in your industry doing? What social media are they using? Do they do e-mail marketing? Do they have an SEO strategy? What kind of content are they publishing?

KPIs and results

Finally, remember to identify KPIs and measure them to see if you have achieved your online goals.

If you succeeded, then it’s time to set new goals. If you didn’t make it, don’t despair: use this data to figure out what you did well and where you need to course-correct.

Marketing is not an exact science, and mistakes are a source of continuous inspiration and learning.

Generally, price is never the main element.

If you are still convinced that Marketing and Communication are not useful for the growth of your Company…. sorry, because it means that I have not been able to give you the picture of the new world in which we live.

Nothing is the same as before–before the advent of the Internet and Social.

If you are looking for a partner to build your marketing strategy, take a look at what Factory Communication does for its clients.

Do you want to find out how to improve the online marketing strategy of your Company or Business?

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Learn why online marketing strategy is not an option but an imperative