Digital Strategy - including SEO, SEM and Social Media Marketing - to launch a new venture. Presented to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. October 12, 2015

1. ‹#›
Digital Tools for
New Venture Launches
Digital Strategy

2. ‹#›
Intro to Kelly
Kelly Cutler is the CEO of Kona Company a Digital
Strategy firm.
Beginning her career in 1997 with companies
including AOL and Classified Ventures, Kelly’s
achievements include helping clients including Rush
University Medical Center, Hub International and
NorthShore develop their digital marketing strategy.
Kelly is an adjunct professor at DePaul University
and serves on the board of EO Chicago, recently as
the first ever woman President.
Also zip lining!
Connect with Kelly :
linkedin.com/in/kellyc
utler
@kfcutler
1

3. ‹#›3
Kona Company
Kona Company is a digital strategy
firm, delivering integrated solutions.
Our team will work to define your
business goals, align those with the
proper platforms & execute engaging
campaigns and platforms.
2

4. ‹#›4
Our Clients
3

5. ‹#›
My Profiles
4

6. ‹#›
Overview
Digital  New Venture Launch
 Digital Channels
 Digital Strategy
 Roadmap
 Search
 Content
 Social Overview
 More on Social
 Think Outside the Fishbowl
 Measurement
 Free Tools
 Social Media Wins
5

7. ‹#›
Channels
6

8. ‹#›
Digital Strategy
Just because you built it, doesn’t mean they will come
Develop a Digital Plan ("Roadmap")
 Define your Purpose and Audience
 Goals: Sales, leads, downloads – be specific
 Primary Goal
 Secondary Goal
 Timing, Tone, and Tools
 Research: develop personas and where they spend time online
 Budget: consider ads, organic posts don’t cut it
 Tracking and Measurement
 Transparency
Implement the “rule of thirds” for posted organic content
1/3 promotes your business, 1/3 shares inspiring content, 1/3 is personal
interactions and customer service
Test different channels, creative, messaging and audience targeting
Track, Measure, Optimize
7

9. ‹#›
Roadmap
Getting Started: Checklist
Determine business goals driving social media
marketing and prioritize. These should be clearly
defined and measurable actions associated with goals
Resources available to commit to social media – both
human and financial
Content: volume and quality
Social channels that our target audience uses
Website: ready for engagement with users and tracking
is enabled
Social will integrate with entire business process and all
marketing efforts
Business
Goal
Measurable Action
Sales Ecommerce revenue
Leads Forms filled out
Email list Enewsletter sign ups
Engagement Fans & Followers
Recruiting Candidate tracking
8

10. ‹#›
Search
SEO
 Keyword research
 Natural and/or paid linking strategy
 Mobile friendly
 Site speed
 User friendly & content rich
SEM
 Keyword research
 Use targeting options and settings
 Advanced features like site links, ad extensions
and event tracking
 Start with Google, look to add Bing
 Track conversions not clicks
9

11. ‹#›
Content is King
Tips to write better content
 Create a shared editorial calendar (free
templates on Hubspot)
 Find your voice – have fun
 Play off current events / headlines / industry
news – be timely
 Leverage one piece of content in many ways:
podcast, slideshare, blog post, eBook etc.
 Use stats, checklists, tips, survey results
 Integrate keywords and SEO best practices
(Wordpress has free plugins
 Comment on other blogs
 Share articles and syndicate content on sites like
Reddit, Medium, Tmblr, StumbleUpon
 eBooks deliver high value, can be gated
 Never “keyword stuff”
 Increased links -> increased authority
10

12. ‹#›
Social Overview
Golden Rules of Social Marketing
1. Don’t take yourself too seriously
2. Inbound won’t cut it
3. Good content / Strong offers
4. Call to Action
5. Add Value
6. Social is a 2-way street
7. Peer-to-peer sharing
*Content Marketing Institute
11

13. ‹#›
Day in the Life
Posts:
Twitter
 1-2 per hour
 4 retweets
Facebook
 3-5 posts per day
Google+
 3-5 posts per day
LinkedIn
 1-2 posts per day
Pinterest
 4-5 pins per week
Monitor:
 Daily/Weekly mentions
 Respond to comments, issues,
questions
Promote:
 Promote content, events,
products
 Use images, posts, stats,
questions, infographics
Blog:
 Create blog posts
 Insert images
 Format properly
 Post
Measure:
 Utilize free tools such as
GA, Facebook Insights
 Explore additional tools
as needed
12

14. ‹#›
What to say on social
Pixlr Editor
13

15. ‹#›
Think Outside the FishBowl
Free Tools
Canva
Pixlr EditorPixlr Editor
 Visual posts get higher engagement
 Tell a story without text
 Images more likely to be shared
14

16. ‹#›
Keep Thinking…
Quickly made, visual, and includes a call to action.
Most isn’t content that’s meant to be put up in a
gallery, but rather the flashy visual that’s meant to
attract people to a post, and then travel down the
feed. Think: snackable, shareable posts
15

17. ‹#›
Measurement
What to track?
 Traffic sources – where are people coming from?
 Goals – define and track who is converting
16

18. ‹#›
Free Tools
The Basics:
 Twitter, Google+ and Facebook Search
 Google Analytics
 Google Alerts
 Google Search Console (GWT)
Publishing Platforms:
 Hootsuite
 Tweetdeck
 Buffer App
17

19. ‹#›
Social Media Wins
The Gap uses
Vine to show the
evolution of jeans
over the past 40
years
Sharpie’s Instagram account
features fan-submitted “Doodles”
created using the companies pens
and markers
Pinterest was the leading
social referrer for Container
Store even before creating a
profile. It has organized
boards to reach different
audiences. They use email to
draw people to the boards.
18

20. ‹#›
Thank you!
Kelly Cutler, CEO & Founder
kelly@konacompany.com