A digital marketing system has nine parts, from the website to the CRM. Check each part once a year, because one weak part can stop the leads that the other parts bring in.
Learn this skill in the course Digital Marketing (MC-DM).
In business, a “rainmaker” is a person who brings in new business. A good digital system does the same: it opens new sales channels and new cash flow, online and offline (online to offline, O2O).
Signs of a weak system
- You have a website, but buyers cannot find it in search.
- Your website gets visitors, but few of them contact you.
- Leads come in, but nobody follows them up in time.
- You cannot say which channel brought your last ten customers.
The nine parts, and one question for each
- Domain and website: Does the site load fast and look correct on phones, tablets and computers?
- SEO: Do your pages show on the first page of results for the words your buyers use?
- Online ads: Do your ads reach your target market, and do you know the cost per lead?
- Social media: Do your pages and posts get your target audience to respond?
- Email marketing: Do you send useful email to subscribers, and track their responses and follow up?
- Analytics: Do your reports show which marketing activities give results?
- CRM: Does each lead go into your CRM, with its source and its stage in the sales pipeline?
- Team skills: Can your team run digital marketing, O2O marketing and social media without outside help?
- Office software and cloud services: Do your email, files and apps (for example Microsoft 365) work together with your marketing tools?
How to use the check
Give each part a score from 1 (weak) to 4 (strong). Start with the weakest part that is nearest to the sale. For example, fix the CRM before you spend more on ads. More leads give no value if nobody follows them up.
What to do this week
- Score the nine parts with your team, from 1 to 4.
- Select the weakest part that is nearest to the sale.
- Write one action for that part, with an owner and a date.
