The Research Playbook

GPS systems first locate where you are and then help you find how to get to where you want to go. Creating an Internet Marketing and Social Media strategy works in a similar way. The first step is to understand where you are!

When working with a new business owner or executive it’s best to start with a full evaluation of the company’s website [assuming they have one] and then explore the other internet marketing and social media assets they have in place. The result is a “Web Presence Report” and obviously, it is important to comment on what is not set up as well as the status of what is working out there. The reasoning is simple, you cannot know the direction to take or what to do next if you have not established a clear picture of where you are.

We use an assessment tool to gauge a company’s positioning, that is, how owners or other managers describe their unique value proposition (UVP) and their Internet Asset Inventory.” Checklists are great tools, assessment instruments take this to the next level, and a full marketing evaluation for a business completes the pre-strategy process.

These and other tools help small and midsize businesses (SMB) understand the marketing process and provide a sense of what they can hope to achieve. Once you and the business leaders have a handle on the company’s needs, it becomes much easier to develop a strategy and to phase-in various marketing assets, tasks, campaigns, and other work to achieve a set of defined business objectives.

We recommend you take the GPS approach too. Learn where you are and how your marketing efforts are performing. Then think critically about the steps you need and want to take.

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