There's no doubt about it -- keeping up with your
marketing tasks can be overwhelming, whether you choose to market via
networking, print advertising, or through a strategic set of online techniques.
As I have a virtual company and can work with clients from around the globe, I
don't like to limit my marketing to local efforts. Having a viable presence
online is more important to me and seems to work best for my company. Therefore,
I primarily concentrate on things I can do to bring visitors to my website and
demonstrate my expertise to them while they are on the site.
Recently
inspired by a blog post that I had read, I decided to create a regular daily,
weekly, month, and quarterly marketing to-do list. First, I brainstormed a list
of ideas of marketing tasks that I perform regularly, and others that have
remained on my to-do list for awhile, as I've never gotten around to them. Then
I categorized them into either a quarterly, monthly, weekly, or daily task. On
the third examination of these tasks, I went through and culled all but those to
which I thought I could realistically commit on a regular basis.
Below
are the tasks that comprise my online marketing action plan. Add them to your
own online marketing to-do list as appropriate, or substitute other tasks that
are a better fit for your business.
Quarterly
Tasks
1. Send out post card campaign to targeted
national media list promoting myself as an expert. Prior to mailing, have VA
call contacts to update list.
2. Request testimonials from new coaching
clients, membership site members, product purchasers, and speaking gig hosts and
update appropriate pages on my sites.
Monthly
Tasks
1. Update my
blog with new reading lists, recommended resources, products, etc.
2.
Update the media
page on my site with links to new press coverage I've received, press
releases I've submitted, and story ideas I can offer to the media.
3. Write
promotional copy for free list building teleclass and have VA submit teleclass
to major event promotion sites
4. Create handout for free teleclass and
conduct teleclass.
5. Send out at least three feelers for potential online
collaborations/strategic alliances or joint ventures with other sites, speakers,
etc.
6. Create one new information product and upload it to my sites for
sale.
7. Check click-through and conversions with ezine and banner ads and
determine whether to renew for another month.
8. Research and find one new
online advertising resource to try.
9. Write a press release based on one of
my articles and submit through PRWeb.com.
Weekly Tasks
1. Check on my Google, MSN, and
ClickRiver PPC ad campaigns to ensure they are still current and relevant and
update any bids for any keywords on my list where I have been outbid.
2.
Write an article for my email newsletter.
3. Find a great resource to
recommend in my
newsletter and write a personal article for email newsletter.
4. Send
out the email newsletter to list.
5. Publish the article on my
website.
6. Archive the ezine to my site.
7. Have VA publish the ezine
content on my business blog and on my social networking blogs at MySpace,
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Ning.
8. Have VA submit the main newsletter article to articles
banks and distribution lists.
9. Create a podcast from my article and
distribute to podcast sites.
10. Answer a reader-submitted
question and post response in blog.
11. Create one additional blog
post on Monday and set it up to publish on Tuesday.
12. Review my Google
Alerts and find a new blog with a respectable Google Page Rank and comment
on a post.
13. Do a Google search for keywords that best describe my
business and see where my site shows up in organic search. As needed, conduct
SEO tweaks on my sites for better rankings
Daily
Tasks
1. Read the blogs to which I subscribe and post comments
as appropriate.
2. Review the emails from the discussion lists/forums to
which I belong and post comments/questions as appropriate.
3. Log into my
social networking profiles at Facebook,
Linked In,
SelfGrowth.com,
Twitter, and
Ning and approve friend requests.
4. Spend about 15 minutes each at Facebook
and SelfGrowth.com
making friend requests, commenting on pictures or videos, or responding to
emails.
5. Send 1-2 updates to Twitter
and
Facebook profiles about what I'm doing at the moment.
When you have
your Internet marketing action plan outlined with quarterly, monthly, weekly,
and daily tasks, your prospecting well never runs dry. Many online business
owners are so wrapped up in working on their business that they don't make time
to work in the business, like performing regular marketing tasks. Consequently,
they often experience slow times in their business because they begin to market
themselves only when the prospect pool has dried up. If you create and follow
an Internet marketing action plan, you'll never be hungry for clients
again!
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.
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