The idiot’s guide to planning your online marketing

Just kidding, you’re not an idiot. But this is a very simple guide to planning your online marketing.

Planning doesn’t come easy to everyone. Left to my own devices, I tend to take a ready, fire, aim approach. I have to work hard to actually plan!

And with online marketing, it’s worth the effort to plan because you really save a lot of time and energy by prescheduling it. It’s super efficient, and it means you don’t have to think about your online marketing constantly.

It’s worth stretching your planning muscle a bit to make that happen. Here are three steps to creating an online marketing plan, and a simple acronym to remember them by:

S.B.G.T.O.M.B.O.T.

What? That doesn’t sound simple to you? Well, here’s what it stands for.

S.B.G. – Set a Business Goal

Your online marketing goals shouldn’t be independent of your business goals. Instead, think about your online marketing as a tool to reach your business goals.

So instead of setting up a website just because you’re “supposed to,” think about your business goals and how a website could help you accomplish them. Lead generation? Establishing a consistent brand? Some other goal entirely? It’s up to you.

T.O.M. – Track Online Milestones

Online milestones should tie back into your business goal. Let’s say you wanted your website to help you generate more leads. That’s what you’d track, then—leads generated by your website. But you would also track how much traffic various pages on your website get, the ones related to generating leads. You would also track “conversions,” meaning what percentage of the visitors to those pages actually turn into a lead.

Of course, that’s just one example. All your milestones should be SMART, like SMART goals. That’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. If you’re working with a web developer you trust, they can help you determine what milestones would make sense based on your business goal.

B.O.T. – Block Out Time

As with anything, it’s important to put it on your calendar if you want to make sure it happens—even more so if it’s something that’s a bit out of your wheelhouse.

Especially if online marketing is only a part of your day-to-day responsibilities, it can be easy to skip it when things come up that may be more urgent. But make it a priority to keep those appointments you’ve set for yourself. That’s how you move forward toward your business goal!

Even if you’re not naturally a planner, these three steps can help you create a high-level plan to grow your business through your online marketing.