Objectives
A hive doesn’t get built nilly-willy; it’s orderly and a result of planning and research, placed close to the plants that bear much fruit. Your marketing strategy is no different. Before we get started on building your digital strategy out, we will partner with you to identify the business objectives and define the online audience that matter the most you. We do this through:
- market research
- analysis of current marketing tactics, both online and offline
- research brief and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) action plan
Positioning
While explaining your features and benefits is relatively easy to do, defining your value proposition to your target audience, and then determining how to effectively communicate to them online, is a whole different ball of wax. We will walk alongside you to craft the appropriate positioning and messaging so that your buzz rings louder and sharper than the rest.
Strategy
Then, with your objectives in mind, and with all the online tools at our disposal, we will lay out the appropriate comprehensive digital strategies to achieve those goals and to connect with the audience. This includes creating a chronological roadmap for reaching your marketing objectives, establishing and then agreeing upon specific metrics for success, based on both impressions, as well as connections, correlated with your marketing and sales metrics.
Tactics and Execution
We don’t just help you plan, we make sure that you can execute the strategy with a repeatable, consistent process. To that end, we will customize specific online tactics, such as website usability, SEO (onsite and offsite), and social media channels, that will be the most efficient and effective for your particular situation. We can then execute that strategy with a seamless communication stream. Our hive of services include:
- Website design and usability (form AND function)
- Social Media Channels (including video)
- Paid Search Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (on-page and off-page)
- Blogger Relations and Community Management
- Web Optimized PR
- Email Marketing
- Link Building
- Content Marketing
- Mobile Applications
You can find out more about our services HERE.
Monitoring and Feedback Loop
For any consistent, long term marketing plan to work, you need to know, well, whether it’s working or not. Our monitoring process ensures that you attract, retain, and grow your online impressions and connections, and that they lead to correlations in your sales and marketing goals. As your hive grows, your sales should grow. And when your sales grow, that makes everything sweeter.
Summary
Another way to view our strategic process is Forrester’s POST methodology:
P is
People. We don’t start a social strategy until we know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, we use social networks. If you’re reaching out business travelers, we consider ratings and reviews. You won’t ever hit your target goals if you don’t know where (or who) you are aiming for.
O is objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? We will partner with you to decide on your objective before we decide on a technology together. Then we establish metrics for success related to your business goals.
S is Strategy. Strategy here means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterwards? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.
T is Technology. A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.
(Thanks to Jeff Bernoff of Forrester’s Groundswell Blog)
