So you want to start marketing your website. Great! You’re on your way to gathering more online leads and growing your business. 

But, understandably, you may not know where to start. Between all the different digital advertising platforms and strategies to choose from, a website marketing plan can be difficult to strategize. 

In this guide, we’ll map out the steps to take when creating a website marketing plan that works for your unique business. 

1.) Customer research

Your marketing efforts depend greatly on how well you know your customers. Who are they? Where are they located? What do they look for in the buying process? Spend some time getting to know your existing customers through online surveys or in-person interviews. While this step may feel tedious, it provides valuable insights that can help drive your website marketing efforts. 

2.) Keyword research

Then comes the fun part: Keyword Research. The goal of keyword research is to find search terms that people often use to find your type of business/products/services online. Then, you can take these keywords to optimize your website, create new content and drive your paid marketing strategy. 

Here’s a guide that goes over the basics of keyword research, and a step-by-step guide on how to do it yourself!

Finally, the last part of your research: competitor research. Using tools like SpyFu, you’re able to see what kinds of keywords and online marketing efforts your competitors are investing in. While you shouldn’t try to mimic their strategy exactly, competitor research can help you see what platforms your competition is on, and where you should be competing for online customers. 

4.) Design your website

Then comes your website design. Before you think about putting any time, effort or money into online marketing tactics, you need to create a conversion-friendly website. The success of all your other marketing efforts depends on it!

When designing your website, think about the following questions: 

• What action do I want website visitors to take? Ex. place an order, contact my business, fill out a free demo form, etc. 
• What is my Value Proposition? You’ll want to make sure your value proposition is effectively communicated through your website content. 
• What content do I need to support my customers’ journey? Think of your website as a 24/7 salesperson. What content do you need to promote your business, answer potential customer questions and show that your business is credible? 

5.) Choose your advertising platforms and strategies

Now that you have a conversion-ready website and insight into what keywords, platforms and audience to target, it’s time to choose what strategies and platforms you’ll use to market your business. For example: 

Strategies

• Social ads
• Organic content
• Influencer advertising
• Video ads 
• Email marketing
• Reputation management
• Local SEO

Platforms

• Google
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Bing
• LinkedIn
• Yelp
• YouTube

6.) Testing and re-strategizing

Regardless of what strategies and platform you choose, you’ll want to make sure you set up conversion tracking so that you can decide what’s working, and what’s not. Realistically, it will take a combination of strategies and channels to find the marketing plan that brings more customers to your website. 

Let Marketing 360® create a website marketing plan for you

Our ad, content and website design experts are ready to help you create a website marketing plan that works. Learn more about our marketing team and view our plans and pricing today!