Digital Marketing Toolkit
Now more than ever it is important to review and optimize your website and digital marketing efforts. For some businesses, your website and digital presence is your new front door. For others, your online presence has heightened awareness and traffic. Focusing on improving your digital presence is an important step to take, especially with the COVID pandemic, where the use of digital tools is increasing every day. But don't worry, we are here to guide you!
Take a look at our Digital Marketing Toolkit to keep your business on track.
Using Your Website
Your website is the front door to your business
Now more than ever, it is important to have your website up to date with the latest and accurate information.
- Review your website and add new info, update hours, information and how you are doing business now.
- Do you need to change how you deliver your products and services? Is that reflected on your website?
- If in-person business is not an option, think about what the best way is to deliver your product or services online. Use a shopping cart to sell your products or services, set up delivery or pick-up options, add how-to videos and more.
Add a page or news post with your response to COVID-19
Creating a news post with your business's response to COVID-19 is essential for communicating critical information with your customers. Include any item of importance, see some examples below.
- Notify customers of any changes in hours or operation. Let them know if your business is drive-up or delivery only, or if your storefront is closed but you are available by phone.
- Explain how your business is addressing clients' safety. What are your cleaning procedures, are you limiting the number of customers inside at one time.
- Tell your customers what options you are offering instead. Are you now offering online ordering, can they shop your products online or take a virtual tour.
- Remind customers about how important they are to your business during this time.
Check out these 12 steps to create a new page or post on your website.
Add a message to your notification bar
The notification bar displays across the top of every page on your website. It grabs customers' attention and makes your COVID-19 information easy to find. Create a short message and then link it to the news post for more information.
Watch this video on how to add and update a Notification Bar.
Create a how-to / tips post with a video or resource
Your customers are online now more than ever. Use that opportunity to provide a useful resource to them. Here are a few ideas. Be creative based on your business!
- Write a news post about how your product or service can be useful to them right now. Include a video showing exactly how. Maybe you are a hair salon and you shoot a short video showing clients how to touch up their roots or trim their bangs. Provide value!
- Provide a resource that they can print and use. Then add it to a news post with more information. Maybe you run an IT business and you create a printable PDF on how to properly disinfect a laptop. Provide a useful resource!
Sell your products online using eCommerce
Sell your products right on your WordPress website using eCommerce. There are several capabilities that are available. You are able to add a product photo, description, organize them in categories and so much more.
Customers will appreciate being able to shop online with the convenience of being able to pay online as well. They will be able to stay home and still get the items that they need.
- Be creative with shipping, delivery, and pickup options to best serve your customers.
- Use your online store to offer pick-up or delivery of their products - let the customer choose!
- Turn your brick and motor store, retail store, restaurant, or service business into an online store to keep customers coming back.
Tip: Check out our How to Shoot Professional Quality Product Photos for Your eCommerce Store article.
Create a FAQs page and answer your customers questions
A frequently asked questions (FAQs) page is essential to any website. It is a platform where you can add all the questions that you receive on a daily basis. If customers can find the answers to their questions on your website, they will be pleasantly surprised.
It's especially useful if you have limited access to your business phone or are short on staff because it cuts down on calls. It is also a great place to host COVID-19 question during this time.
Tip: Use expandable text (like on this page) with your Page Builder Tool to make it easy for your visitors to find the answer to their questions.
Build up your SEO
Create relevant, useful content on your website through your web pages or posts to build up your SEO (Search Engine Rankings).
Optimize your pages and posts to get found for the keyword phrases you need to be found for!
Tip: Create a Cornerstone Content page and build posts to support it (like this page ;).
Create a Lead Generation System
Use a lead generation system to automatically nurture and educate your prospects, while you sleep! Create a complete marketing lead generation system using your brand message and your website.
Use your website to create a landing page, email campaign, lead generation tool to educate your audience, and use a process to gather customer feedback and testimonials.
A lead generation system will help build relationships, generate leads and watch your sales grow.
Email Marketing
Communicate with customers via eNews
Use a free email marketing platform like MailChimp to communicate news with your customers.
- Email marketing is a great way to keep your customers informed on any changes in your business, hours of operation, ways to contact you, and more.
- You can also set up automations using email services like ActiveCampaign to stay connected with clients through automatically sending emails.
Remind your customers of your products, services and offers via email
Email is a great way to put your products, services and offers in front of your clients, right in their inbox.
- Create an email that links to your products or services pages on your website.
- Use your email marketing to link to an online schedule tool to book a meeting / call with you.
- Announce a new offer and explain its benefits. Maybe it's free delivery on orders which can help keep your family healthy.
- Explain what your customers can do to help your business. Please are great and are looking for ways to help during this time. Offer it to them! Maybe it's buying a gift card or scheduling a future service date.
Provide resources & helpful tips in your newsletter
Email marketing is the perfect avenue to provide resources, tips and more. Help your customers, show them that you care, and remind them that you are their go-to resource in our field.
Useful resources can include, downloadable PDs, how-to videos, infographic, step-by-step directions and more. You can also link to pages and posts on your website that provide these resources.
Google My Business
Update your business hours
First and foremost customers want to know if you are open. If so, they look to a Google search for your business hours. As you can see, it is very important to update your hours if they have changed.
You will need to visit Google My Business to do so. Follow these steps if you are unsure of how to do this.
Ensure that all of your contact information is up to date
Clients will Google your business, so it is important that your GMB is up-to-date. You do NOT want them to find old information making them unable to reach your business.
You will need to visit Google My Business to do so. Follow these steps if you are unsure of how to do this.
Use Google My Business to post important notices & updates
Google Posts allows you to share content to your Google My Business Listing. This is yet another feature to use to optimize your business listing by deepening your customers' knowledge about your business and get the word out about events, offers, news or blog posts, whitepaper downloads, new products for sale, and more.
Watch this video on how to update your Google My Business page with a COVID-19 post.
Marketing & Campaigns
Create videos to connect with your clients
Videos encourage engagement and people love them. Here are some video marketing tips.
- Provide helpful, useful tips and important information. Be a go-to resource.
- Keep the video short and information-packed. If the video is too long, they will not watch it.
- If you have lots of information to share, consider doing a video series and dividing the information throughout several videos.
- Use screen view videos to show customers how to find something on your website or how to perform a task.
- Make sure that your expressions show through in your video. Show concern during a serious video, smile during a "connect with us" video, and such.
You can record videos with your mobile device or your computer's web cam. Use streaming services like YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook Live. To host your videos.
You can embed your videos into your web pages as well!
If you want to get creative with your video creation, a few of our favorite tools to create marketing videos include Wave, Ripl App, and Animoto.
Livestream to your audience in real-time
Create a live stream video to share valuable, timely information in real-time!
- You can use your mobile device, a web cam or other camera to create video to use as a live stream for your audience. Use tools like YouTube Live, Facebook Live and others to share your message via video.
- Embed your live stream into your website and share on your social networks to reach your target audience.
Check out our Live Stream Setup for tips on equipment, software, tools and more!
Build landing pages for your campaigns
To execute a successful campaign, you must create a landing page! It’s crucial to meeting your lead generating goals.
A landing page for your campaign complements your website and provides a clear, direct path through the marketing funnel. Landing pages have specific benefits that set them apart from a page on your business website and make them an effective lead generating and marketing tool.
Because landing pages are simple and have one goal, they’re relatively easy to design. Use the Page Builder Tool to start making yours. Create a new page, add your content, create a web form or add a button for your call to action, and you’ll have a powerful digital marketing tool in just minutes.
Use a web form to collect information
Forms are a great way to collect information. They are certainly successful for lead collecting and should be used on any landing page, but they can be used for so much more! You could use forms to:
- Ask customers how they would like to receive important COVID-19 updates.
- Get visitors to join your email list.
- Schedule a call or online meeting.
- Gather ideas from clients. What would they like to see on your website? What social media sites are they actively using?
- Collect job applications. This is a safer option vs. paper applications that need to be dropped off.
Here are some tips for creating web forms with optimal layouts.
Operations
Use online meeting software to host team or client meetings
Think outside the boardroom! Meet with team members or clients using reliable online meeting software such as Zoom. Invites to the meeting are sent via email. At the time of the meeting, there are a few different meeting options. Choose an option based on your business needs.
- Call in meetings with voice only. This type of meeting is simple for all but offers no visuals.
- Screen share meetings. During this meeting, the administrator can share their screen with the attendees.
- Video conference call. All attendees can join using the camera on their computer. This is the best way to replicate an in-person meeting and provides a great way to connect with customers and employees.
Use project management tools to say on task
Tools like Trello, Basecamp or Teamwork can help your team stay organized while working from various locations. Here are some of the useful services that they offer.
- Message boards
- Group chat
- Document collaboration
- Task tracking
- Schedule with date assignments
- Project collaboration
- Progress Tracking
- Document collection
Each team member can be assigned to the specific projects that they are working on. Team member receives email alerts when messages and sent or tasks are assigned.
Start sharing file via the cloud
With many team members working remotely, it is important to put a plan in place regarding file sharing. Using cloud-based options is a great way to share documents, photos and more! Dropbox is a great site to use, but it does have a limit for the free option. Google Drive is easy to use especially for those who are familiar with the Google Suite.
Be sure to check with your IT department about secured sharing especially if you are sharing documents with confidential or sensitive information.
Social Media Marketing
Post important notices on your social media pages
Post any and all notices on social medial regarding COVID-19. Your customers will appreciate being in the know. Here are a few ideas of what to post. Use a variety of media.
- Post a graphic with additional information. Maybe you are a clinic/hospital and you have a new procedure for those coming into the clinic, or you are not allowing visitors at the hospital. These are great things to post about.
- Post a video to explain something. Maybe you are a grocery store and you do a quick video highlighting what steps you are taking to ensure the safety of your shoppers.
For video tools, simply use the social network to share a video from your mobile phone. You can also create videos with a video editor tool. A few of our favorites include Wave, Ripl App, and Animoto. - Post an infographic as a resource. This is great for any business. Maybe you want to post an infographic showing proper handwashing techniques. This is something that is top of mind for your customers.
Canva is an easy to use graphic creator that includes templates to get you started.
Tip: Pin posts to the top of your page that need to be top of mind for a longer period of time.
Need help with graphics and video creation? Reach out to our team - we're here to help!
Answer customer questions or FAQ
Likely customers will have a lot of questions during this because so many changes are happening. Encourage them in your posts to ask questions. Be sure that you are available to answer and respond to them in a timely manner.
You can also offer that they send a private message using tools like Facebook Messenger. Again be available to respond as needed.
Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) in your posts. This will not only answer the question for one person, but it also answers it for many. This is especially useful if you have limited access to your business phone.
Check that information is up-to-date
Visit all your social media pages and make sure that the information is up-to-date. This includes contact information, business hours, and more.
Change your cover photo to make the most out of that space. Maybe it includes your new hours, maybe it simply includes a message of encouragement. Use this prime space!
Create a Facebook group for your customers or target audience
Creating a Facebook group for your customers or target audience is the perfect platform to provide value and stay closely connected. Within the group you are able to:
- Post content that is useful to that specific group of people.
- Create discussion questions that group members can participate in.
- Allow group members to post questions and ask others to offer advice and tips.
- Advertise events that the croup might be interested in.
- And much more depending on your industry.
Use a social media content calendar
Using a social media content calendar like Aritable can be very valuable to your digital marketing success. Watch this quick video on how to use Airtabe.
Here are some of the advantages:
- Easy to collaborate with marketing team members.
- Content and media can be added, modified and approved.
- Layout a schedule by the week, month or quarter. It's east to look at as a whole.
- Social media planning done ahead of time is less stressful.
- You can add post types and categories so that you can easily see if you are sharing a variety of different posts that are complimenting your social media goals and campaigns.
We'd be happy to share our social media content template with you, just send us a message.
Use a scheduling tool to post to your pages
Using a scheduling tool like Buffer, Hootsuite or Sprout Social can SAVE YOU TIME!
Scheduling platforms allow you to schedule posts ahead of time to post on a certain date and time. You are also able to post across all networks. AND you can still add the text, videos, photos and other items that make your posts unique.
Use this checklist to make sure your digital marketing is on point!
It's important to be prepared now more than ever. We are here to help!
-
Review the Checklist
-
Make a Marketing Action Plan
-
Connect with our Team for Guidance