Sales and marketing

How do you
get your
business known on
the web (and
obtain concrete
results)?

The author of this article, Pierre-Luc Girard, is president of PLG numérique, a web marketing agency specializing in publicity and digital performance. Consultant, teacher and speaker, he helps businesses secure a prime position on the web and develop their market.

Having people see your business on the web is rather easy. The real challenge is getting the right people to see your site while paying a fair price and generating sales.

Here are four basic steps to accomplish this and to succeed in always doing better.

To reach your destination, you have to start by knowing where you’re starting from. That's why the first step in succeeding your digital marketing campaign is to make a good audit of the situation.

What is an audit? It's kind of like a health check and a review of your digital marketing history.

Here are the main questions to ask:

• What went good and bad in the past (to avoid repeating the same mistakes)?
• What are your business’s main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? It’s somewhat like knowing where your business is on the game board.
• What resources are available, both financial and human?
• Is your digital environment adequate? Check if your site is up-to-date (price, products, logo, etc.) and if there is good consistency on your platforms (Facebook, website, LinkedIn, etc.).
• What is your current clientele, how much do they spend and how often?
• Who are your competitors and what do they do?

You don’t have the answers to all these questions? You may not yet have the necessary measurement tools or you simply haven’t had access to them. To loop the loop, you have to use various tools to observe your results. Make sure you have them before starting: as a basic tool, Google Analytics will be your best ally; Facebook Pixel and HotJar are also very good sources of data.

Once the right tools have been implemented and a clear picture of your business’s position has been developed, it’s time to determine the destination. After all, if you don’t know where to go, how do you take concerted actions and reach the right port? Write down your goals in 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. They should be simple, measurable, realistic and time-specific. For example:

• Increase the number of quotation requests per month by 15% by May 1, 2019 compared to 2018.
• Reach 5% growth month after month in visits on my website to enhance awareness of my business.

Next, you are going to determine what to measure to improve your results in order to reach your objective. These will be your performance indicators. If you only measure the number of quotations, how do you improve things when the number is below your expectations? In a manner of speaking, you have to take the water temperature in each step of the conversion process.

You are therefore going to measure the number of visits on your site, their duration, sources of access to your site (Facebook, Google, etc.) and, obviously, the conversion rate of your objective, such as quotation requests.

You can therefore determine why Internet users contact you and where they come from to focus your efforts where it pays.

Speaking of Internet users, who are you going to target? You have determined who your current customers are, but are these the ones you have to reach? Maybe you should target another age group or expand your geographic area. There are many targeting options. Not defining your target public before creating your publicities is somewhat like shopping for groceries without a list: You buy things haphazardly, it takes a long time and it ends up costing more.

Therefore, you should define your ideal target public. Age, gender, interests, occupations, level of education, available income, shopping time and more will help you know who to target. Because in the end, when you try to reach everyone, you don’t reach anyone.

The next thing to do is create a publicity calendar. You don't have to plan your next year in detail. To be effective, a good three-month plan is ideal, but always keep in mind your vision for the entire year. Three months is just long enough to measure results and short enough to be flexible and be able to react effectively.

You are now ready to launch your campaigns. For ads, always plan for several creations and drafts. If you have only one ad, how do you know if it is performing well? Go back to step 1, find the list of strengths and make an ad for each one. You will then know which one succeeds in convincing your audience.

Do the same thing with visuals if you work with platforms like Facebook. Different styles, colours or images will certainly make a difference. And avoid saying “Personally, I don't like that.” It's the best way to make a mistake. The statistics will tell you if it's good or not.

When your campaigns are in full swing that is when the optimization work to improve performance starts. The goal in this step is to face your initial assumptions. Therefore, determining your actions based on your personal impressions is not an option. You must make decisions based on facts, on information that you are going to find and interpret in your tools.

You can prove or disprove your premises and revise your action plan. Have you targeted the right people? Which arguments engage people the most? Are certain times of day better than others? These are excellent questions to ask which will help you optimize your online presence and get the most from your budget.

About PLG numérique

PLG numérique is web marketing expert which specializes in publicity and digital performance. Visit plgnumerique.com to learn more.