Marketing | Why You Need A Marketing Strategy (and how to create one)

I've talked a little before about marketing being all about putting yourself out there. The problem is finding ways to do it that don't leave you (or your readers) feeling icky or like you've sold yourself out. It isn't always easy to find avenues for marketing that both work and keep your integrity in place.

My 'golden rule' when considering marketing avenues is this: If it feels shady, it probably is. Steer clear of anything that feels like it may be spam or scam and always be alert.

Once you've weeded out all those icky emails for marketing help, it's probably time to create your marketing strategy. And that's where you're going to want to go ahead and click click so we can get to the goods :)

What is A Marketing Strategy?

Well, to put it simply, a marketing strategy is your plan of action for how you're going to get eyes on your website, shop, blog or business. A good strategy should be pretty lengthy because there's a lot of things you want to list and detail before you really jump in. The good news is your marketing strategy will work hand in hand with your business plan so it won't be hard to get the strategic ball bouncing.

Why is A Marketing Plan Important?

As I mentioned, your marketing strategy is how you'll generate traffic and/or sales. If this isn't important enough, add to it that a well built and implemented strategy will act as your battle plan and, more importantly, your guide to how you will make your money. You want to make money, riiiiight? 

How To Create A Good Marketing Strategy:

The first thing you're going to want to do is pull out and look over your business plan. It's probably been awhile since you took a look at it and you may need to take some time to refine it if your goals, needs or focus has changed. 

Don't have a business plan? Now is as good a time as any to create one. 

Once you've completed that, it's time to draft a new document. There's no right or wrong way to go about this as you have numerous options. Me, I have mine in word docs and then copied into Evernote in a folder simply called "EAE - Business docs" (hint: it's where all my legal stuff goes from the copyright legal papers on my stuff to my LLC info)

So now you have your fresh document or piece of paper and your business plan has been updated. The first thing you want to do in your clean and fresh documents is decide what you're comfortable with doing to spread the word.

Examples:

• Are you comfortable paying for ads on social media?
• Are you ok with doing a pay per click?
• Have you considered sponsoring any other blogs in your niche?
• Are you willing to ask friends or family to give your blog or posts shout outs?

There's more questions these questions will lead to more questions so be sure you really take the time to go over your answers, look up other questions and do your research. Above all, never do anything you are not 100% comfortable doing. Chances are if it makes you feel "icky" to do, it will make your readers feel icky too.

Next up, you'll need to take your answers and decide how to start implementing them:

Examples:

• If you are ok with paying for social media ads, you will want to choose your platforms and set a budget. 
• If you would like to sponsor a blog in your niche, do some research and then decide on who you'll sponsor, again, set a budget.
• If you plan to go with AdSense, keep track of how many ads and keep a copy of each ad code. 

I guess I should mention that you should be writing this all down :)

Writing things down, or even typing them out into a Word doc can start helping you focus your marketing intentions.

The most important thing to remember when you sit down to create your marketing strategy is to stay consistent but that is ok to re-evaluate your plan of attack every so often.

What's Working?

When you decide to evaluate your marketing strategy the first question should always be "what is working for me?" If you are sponsoring a blog, note how much traffic you are actually getting from that person. Would it be better to consider sponsoring someone new? If you're going the AdSense route, maybe it's time to choose a new location for your ads. There' a lot to consider here.

In the end, having a marketing strategy will save you a lot of time each week or month. You'll know right away how to plan your ads or how to promote yourself and still feel good about doing it.

Happy Marketing!