If you are in business and you have some modicum of success it is probably due to the fact you have a good understanding of time and patience.

The one question I get asked more than any when consulting with a business regarding their online brand is:

How long before we can make sales?

How quickly people will buy from me?

Phrase it how you like but is always tainted with some desperation, and we are okay that you have tried all the other avenues first and we are the last resort <sob>

I consult with a fair few people who have resisted social media for as long as they could, and now with some great excuse to protect their ego as to why they have not embraced online marketing as yet, but they are now ready to listen and learn.

“A wise old owl lived in an Oak, the more he heard the less he spoke”

“When we talk , we are merely repeating what we know, but if you listen you will learn something new”

“Okay so you are telling me a website can be set up and a shop added to the site with a cart and checkout in a couple of days, great, then how many people will come to the site?”

Same question again!

My answer:

“Ke sara sara whatever will be will be, now that’s 10,000 U.S.D. thanks”

No seriously, just kidding that’s my bill for expenses!

OK OK….3 months is the answer that I usually give to a novice.

3 months is the minimum time you will see any serious branding results from a zero budget digital marketing campaign, or just a few days if you have the average 5000 U.S.D. spend for social media like the big corporate businesses spend each month!

Oh sure you might get lucky on your first blog and get a Million dollar order, but it’s highly unlikely.

For a complete startup to online marketing you will need as a minimum:

Website Optimisation

Your website needs to be built and search engine optimised with content, because everything an internet marketing consultant will do is to drive traffic back to your business website, its the last stop.

If you have a site already we can then research the top keywords and key-phrases in your industry then add them to the onsite S.E.O. and add you to some directories for  relevant back-links.

Social Media Accounts

We need to build all your social media accounts and optemise them completely from your personal profile, this is a security for you you don’t want an employee disappearing with your profitable Facebook page when he leaves the company.

Content marketing

Then you will need content, and lots of it, mainly blog posts and lots of them at least one a week for three months, two a week if you can.

Needless to say there are blogs and they are blogs, how you write, and how you endear yourself to your target audience, is down to you, or us if you contract us to do your content.

We can write for you but you have to sign off every single blog post we write and change anything before it goes live, which argues the point; why not write them yourself?

How to piss a digital marketing manager off:

After you adamantly told him you have no time to write anything and you trust him to do it, then when you read his post you say stuff like:

“Not how I would have put it” or:

“Who is this intended to reach?” B2B always come with this one!

Few things piss him off more than this! Unless we are in the exact same industry and have equal experience, then expect something different than you, the boss, would write.

Many companies have a boss dictate about why they are so good at what they do and the social media manager scribbles down what he’s rabbiting on about and converts it into a blog, that is one method to make sure the content comes from the top and it does work in many of the companies I have suggested this to.

You will need online press releases; company news and reports syndicated to news sites all over the world. Most digital marketing companies like us can interview you and convert it into a press release and share on social media as well.

Video marketing

You will need a company video which does not have to cost much I remember when videos where like 10,000 bucks and only the top companies could afford one, now you can start your You Tube channel get a phone with decent microphone and be yourself, or have a company make a simple animated explainer video.

Power Points

Power points are massive online now, if you have ever done a presentation for a company and added your power point to slideshare.net before hand so people can view on a phone as you talk is quite professional and forward thinking and side share is as good as anyone for S.E.O. they are owned by LinkedIn so you can share it on your LinkedIn profile.

Email marketing

Your sites and blogs need to start picking up people who want more of what you are telling them as subscribers to your list, it will take a lot longer than 3 months to build your list to a level where every email newsletter results in a sale,  but three months will tell you if it’s working or not and ask any successful online marketer how important their list is for sales.

Quantity uber alles

You will need to have a decent social media marketing reach for any of this to be successful, or a budget to pay for ads, failing all that we can share to our 500,000 real followers on our accounts as part of the service.

So now you know 3 months is the bare minimum most good digital Media companies will quote you for as it takes a lot of time to set it all up and to get people visiting your website, reading your content feeling they know and trust your knowledge of how you can help them and eventually the money shot…the sales!

To get more from your online marketing strategy call Netmedia

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