The Method
Web Marketing Method is all about the process of taking your current web marketing efforts to the next level and beyond. It can be a very complicated process overall and while it’s not easy to simplify, I’m a huge advocate for the art of executive summaries and getting straight to the point.
The web marketing method can be described in as few as four words: plan, build, review, repeat
I’ll be building out the detail of this process in this website over time but here’s an overview to get started.
Plan
The quickest and most direct path from your current situation to future excellence involves a well considered plan. This should include putting some thought into the following points and documenting them for ongoing reference, then review at least annually.
- Objectives
What are the key objectives of your web marketing activities? These should be derived from business and marketing objectives and usually include sales, lead generation, brand building, feedback, or all of the above. - Audience
Who is the target audience of your web marketing activities? These should be consistent with the market for your product or service and are best split into primary and secondary target audiences. - Competitors
What are our competitors doing? Has anyone gained or lost competitive advantage through their digital marketing activities? - Examples
What’s happening in web marketing overall? Is there anything we can learn from case studies and succes stories? - Opportunities
What are the opportunities for us? What activities could we undertake to make the most of these opportunities? - Priorities
Which of the possible activities are the highest priority? What key performance indicators can we use to measure the success of these activities? - Flexibility
No matter how much you plan you can never account for what you don’t yet know, so make sure your plan is flexible enough to take in new information and adapt. Some of the greatest failures are projects which are out of date on launch day. - Communication
How can we best communicate the strategic plan to the relevant stakeholders? How can we create a supportive environment for these activities?
Build
The build phase is the execution of your planned activities and, provided enough time has been allowed for the planning process, all should run smoothly and bring about some great results. Your planned activities should be divided up into a set of projects and to make sure the plan become reality you should now consider how to deliver.
- Channels
What channels are best to communicate with the target audience? It may be useful to seek outside advice to unravel the multitude of opportunities in the digital age. - Technology
What technologies are required to communicate through these channels? What exists and what new capabilities are required? - Skills
What skills are required to deliver the project? In what quantities? And when are they needed in the development cycle? - Budget
How much will it all cost, including mandatories and wishlist items? Be sure to cover all bases here and consider how this can be funded – money doesn’t always come easy. - Obstacles
How much will it all cost, including mandatories and wishlist items? Be sure to cover all bases here and consider how this can be funded – money doesn’t always come easy. - Risks
What risks are involved and what can we do to limit these? Are contingency plans required? - Content
What are the key messages we need to communicate to the audience? What is the best way to deliver these messages? - Schedule
Is there an ideal launch date for each project? How long will each project take, and each task within each project? What are the key milestones and the critical path? - Tracking
How do we track these projects to get the data required to measure their performance? Is there anything extra we need to do or is the data already there? Do we need to benchmark in advance? How regularly do we need to monitor and report against set targets? - Communication
Who are the primary and secondary stakeholders for each project? What do they need to know and how often do we need to communicate with them during the build process? Are there any messages for our target audiences?
Review
Data, feedback, usability, interpretation, review/document
Repeat
Back to the start