How time-consuming is a successful marketing plan?
How time-consuming is a successful marketing plan?
If you’ve stumbled across this article, you are probably researching digital marketing companies and perhaps wondering how you can improve your own marketing strategy. Or, maybe you are a superfan of iqwerty and must read everything we write. We hope for the latter. However, whatever the reason for opening up this article, we are happy that you are here!
So, how time-consuming is a successful marketing plan? Running a business is hard work, and a lot of the time can consume every waking hour of your day. Whether you’re checking inventory, meeting with new clients, or perhaps hiring new staff – there is always a never-ending to-do list. Running your own marketing campaign on top of a company is asking for disaster. Not only will you feel completely burnt out, you probably will not see the results you would like because you simply do not have the time. Unless you have a marketing background, you might not understand how many working hours go into a successful marketing plan. In this article, we will break down how time-consuming a successful marketing plan is so that you know how much you need to delegate for each task.
Search Engine Optimisation
Arguably the most critical part of any marketing plan is to get your website to the top of Google! Social media is a great way to find new clients and leads; however, in the early stages of your business, it is best to focus on Search Engine Optimisation. It can take years to grow a big social media following that your business can rely on for enough work and a lot of upkeep to keep yourself relevant. However, securing a spot on page one of Google makes you visible to all the traffic for that search term. So, how time-consuming is Search Engine Optimisation? And how long will it take for my website to be number one on Google?
You first need to remember that Search Engine Optimisation is not a single task but a continual process. Like posting on social media, S.E.O. requires constant monitoring and regular work. The initial S.E.O. work completed on your website before it launches will only get your website so far. The rest of the hard work involves posting regular articles related to your niche and gaining relevant backlinks from reputable websites. Let’s first talk about the articles posted on a website and the real reason we run a blog. That’s right; our blog is not just for your benefit – we are working on our S.E.O. strategy.
The average blog post/article you submit to your website should be a minimum of 1000 words; however, if you are looking for your blog posts to rank independently, you need to exceed 2500 words. A few years ago, S.E.O. was a lot easier; however, Google constantly makes the search engine more beneficial to the user, which in most cases, makes it more difficult for a website to rank. So, if you want to write your blog posts, it is a question of how fast you work. A 2,500-word article will take the average S.E.O. specialist 6 hours to research, plan, write, edit and post online (including editing pictures).
Getting backlinks to your website from other reputable websites is all very much dependent on your industry. Have you considered joining an online business directory? On directory websites, you can pay for good backlinks. This method of retrieving backlinks takes no time; however, it is not always that easy. Sometimes you can strike a deal with bloggers and influencers where they will put a link to your website on one of their posts for a fee. Often this task becomes time-consuming because you need to find a good website and then spend time negotiating with the website owner. Ultimately, you can get creative with how to find your backlinks – think of it like business networking for your website.
Now, it is a question of how many blog posts you need to post a week and how quickly you would like to retrieve external backlinks to your website. There is no answer about how much work you should do on S.E.O. each week because it depends on how much time you would like to commit. However, if you are only willing to dedicate a couple of hours a week to S.E.O. and you’re in a very crowded industry, it could take a very long time to see any results. The more work you do each week, the quicker your website will climb on Google. Our S.E.O. specialists can estimate how long it will take you to get results by looking at your competition and how competitive the search term you are trying to rank for is.
Facebook & Instagram Marketing
Like anything in life, hard work pays off. You must be consistent with your content to succeed on any social media platform. At iQwerty, we get a lot of clients who come to us disheartened by their social media growth because they’ve spent two weeks posting every day and engaging with other accounts and seen no new engagement themselves. But, before then, they would post sporadically and often quick and easy content. Instead of taking the time to take professional-looking photographs, they would use some quick infographics they constructed on Canva, forgetting their brand’s colour pallet and font choice. All your graphics should follow the same visual aesthetic for consistency. If you struggle to create smart images yourself, it is better that you outsource it.
You need to ask yourself: why should someone follow my account? People follow accounts that they are interested in and can track their process. No one wants to have promotional content appear in their feed daily that provides no knowledge, humour or purpose. Before you spam your profile with posts advertising your service, create a reason for someone to follow you. Are you providing educational content about your niche? Or perhaps you would like to post comical videos about your niche to keep your following entertained? Then, when you have scheduled a good selection of purposeful content, you can insert your promotional pieces. Be careful not to overdo it, as your audience will get bored and unfollow.
So, how long should you spend on your weekly Facebook and Instagram marketing? Again, how time-consuming this is depends on your business and how easy it is to get visual content. For example, if you have an e-commerce business, you should have products readily available to photograph. However, creating the perfect backdrop for product photography can also take time, depending on your creativity. Alternatively, for some businesses finding visual content is problematic because it does not come hand-in-hand with their niche. In these instances, creating infographics might be your best bet which could take a long time to perfect.
Instagram Reels & Tiktoks
Modern media has evolved so quickly over the last century. Video content originated as silent picture movies, and now 7-second videos on Instagram are favourable. Our human brains thrive on quick information, and most people will now scroll past even 1-minute long videos. If you manage your social media marketing and have not been creating Tiktok videos and Instagram reels, you are missing out on huge potential engagement.
Instagram reels and Tiktok videos require videography and editing skills. Although the two platforms are user-based friendly, and you can pretty much make any edits you want in the app, it can take a bit of practice to perfect. There are three parts to Tiktok videos and Instagram reels:
- You must actively use Instagram to research new and upcoming trends that you could potentially apply to your business.
- You need to record any content you can think of related to your business. Whether speaking into the camera or showcasing some of your work, you must think creatively.
- You will need to edit your video together and quality-check it before posting.
Most people assume that editing your video together is the most time-consuming part of making a video for social media; however, it is not. Researching upcoming trends is the most time-consuming because you spend hours and hours scrolling through other business content to develop ideas. For this reason, social media marketers are much better at reaching a bigger audience because they are constantly aware of new tricks and techniques in the trade. After all, they scroll through social media every day for a living. The most significant advantage of outsourcing social media to an expert is that you will immediately see greater engagement on your channels.
Pinterest Marketing
Pinterest is a social media channel that is often forgotten and neglected by many businesses. Our question is, why? We understand that Pinterest can initially seem confusing as it differs from all the other social media channels. However, we like to describe Pinterest as a ‘visual Google’; therefore, you must do well on it to develop a successful marketing plan.
The first thing you need to understand about Pinterest is how people use it. Pinterest is a search engine; therefore, people use the channel to save, search and store information that they find helpful. Your job as a business is to promote your content so that you appear in their searches. To do this, you need to please the Pinterest algorithm. Pinterest is a visual platform, so it requires you to upload images with a title and a bio that will link back to either another social media platform – or your website.
Truthfully, to get your content out there on Pinterest, you need to please other users who will ultimately share your content. The more boards your pins get added to – the larger your reach on Pinterest will be. Ultimately, Pinterest requires you to be active daily, sharing other people’s content, for the algorithm to push your content to others. It is probably the social media channel that favours engagement with others the most.
In terms of how time-consuming Pinterest marketing is depends on whether or not you want to commit to it. The rewards from a successful Pinterest marketing plan are huge – however, with Pinterest, it is either go big or go home! There is no point in committing one hour a week to Pinterest, as you’ll barely see any results, and you will ultimately waste your time. Instead, one hour a day is a reasonable amount of time to spend on Pinterest for a successful marketing plan.
Traditional Marketing
So you’ve reached the end of this article, and you’re probably blown away by how time-consuming digital marketing is. Perhaps you’re considering reverting to traditional marketing methods such as leafleting or renting a billboard. Although a successful digital marketing plan can be highly time-consuming, the rewards greatly outweigh traditional marketing methods when you get it right. Around the world, teenagers are becoming millionaires simply because they know how to market themselves and any products they sell.
This article was written to help business professionals establish how long they should be spending on a successful marketing plan. From creating video content for social media to writing articles for Search Engine Optimisation, you could spend over 12 hours a day working on your marketing plan. However, we understand that running a business is time-consuming, and most entrepreneurs also do not have the time to be meticulous about their marketing. Unfortunately, potential new clients/customers do not care about whether you have the time to promote yourself or not. If you are not posting regularly and of high quality, you will struggle to grow your business exponentially.
Outsourcing your marketing is essential to a successful marketing plan if you do not have the time to give it your best. Any money you put into your marketing budget is an investment. The old saying goes, “you have to speculate to accumulate”. However, you do not have to outsource your entire marketing workload immediately if you do not have the funds. Instead, start by outsourcing one aspect of your digital marketing, such as your S.E.O. strategy. Then as your marketing brings you more leads and more money, continue to invest in a marketing agency until, eventually, you can outsource your entire marketing burden and focus on what you love to do!
Iqwerty is a digital marketing agency based in Blackpool that works with small businesses across the whole of the U.K. We specialise in SEO, social media management and web development. If you have any enquiries about our packages, do not hesitate to contact us.