Here's a guide on how to get started building each component of your online marketing system. Click here to learn what an online marketing system is and why your business needs one.

Your Website: Your business and brand online

1. Buy your domain name: Examples of domain names are toyota.co.nz, google.com and muritai.com. Choose a domain name that reflects your brand and secure hosting for your website.
2. Build your website: Create an engaging and user-friendly website using platforms like WordPress or Squarespace. If you are wanting to sell products and services directly from your website, consider an ecommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce.
3. Write your web copy: Fill your site with informative and engaging copy that aligns with your brand, tells your story, and connects with the desires and wants of your ideal customers. You can’t sell a secret so be bold and shine. Also ensure your web copy includes your important keywords (see point 3).

Content Marketing: Tell Your Story

1. Develop your content plan: Develop a plan outlining the topics and formats your content will have and where you will use and share them.
2. Create your content: Start producing engaging content such as blogs, articles, videos, infographics etc, that your audience will love.
3. Schedule your content calendar: Set up a publishing calendar that outlines the dates you will use your content and stick to it!

SEO: Get Found Online

1. Do keyword research: Identify relevant keywords for your industry and audience using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush. If you don’t know how to do keyword research, read our beginners guide to keyword research.
2. Set-up your on-page SEO: Optimise your website's meta titles, descriptions, headers, and content with the chosen keywords.
3. Create keyword optimised content: Craft valuable, informative content that naturally uses those keywords.

Social Media: Build Relationships & Brand Awareness

1. Select your social media platforms: Choose the relevant social media that your ideal customers spend time on and use to find content and information about your industry and category of products and services. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and TikTok.
2. Plan your social content: Plan a range of posts that are aligned with your brand. Include this in your content plan for content marketing.

Try to have a diverse yet manageable range of content types like images, videos, and articles for better engagement. You need different content types because your ideal customers like to consume content in different ways. Some prefer to read; others like to listen or watch.  

3. Post consistently: Schedule regular posts and actively engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages.

Reviews: Build Trust

1. Review platforms: Identify platforms relevant to your industry where customers often leave reviews like Google, Yelp, or Trustpilot.
2. Ask for reviews: Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews through follow-up emails or direct requests post-purchase.
3. Respond to Reviews: Engage with reviews promptly, addressing any concerns and thanking customers for positive feedback.

Email Marketing: Stay in Touch

1. Choose your Email Service Provider (ESP): Choose an ESP to manage your email list and campaigns. Popular ESPs are Mailchimp and Hubspot. These ESPs offer free subscriptions to help you get underway.
2. Build your list: Create opportunities for your followers to subscribe to your emails on your website and prompt subscribers to share your emails with their friends and colleagues.
3. Personalise your emails: Send personalised emails, using the contact’s first name. If you have a large email list, segment your list by interests so the content of your emails focuses on what matters to your contacts.

PPC Advertising: Capture the Attention of Buyers

1. Select an ad platform: Pick a platform that suits your audience and goals like Google Ads or Meta (Facebook) Ads.
2. Set-up your ad campaign: Create ad campaigns with targeted keywords, compelling ad copy, and clear call-to-actions.
3. Monitor your ads: Keep an eye on your ad's performance and make tweaks to ad budgets, messaging, and audience targeting to improve results. Online ad platforms provide insight data so you can see how your ad campaign is performing.

Implementing these foundational steps for each channel is a solid starting point to build your online marketing system. From here you can slowly and surely build your presence and engagement across these platforms.

If you need help or have questions, please contact us at Muritai Group. As expert online marketers, we help businesses and brands develop their online marketing systems, with services that cover marketing strategy to website design, content development, SEO, social media management, email marketing and online advertising.