This document provides a marketing plan for a digital marketing consultant. It begins with an analysis of the consultant's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It then defines four target personas within large corporations that the consultant aims to reach. The document outlines an integrated content marketing strategy using search, websites, social media, word-of-mouth, and mobile tactics. It proposes content types and channels to engage each persona. The goal is to position the consultant as an expert, gain new clients, and grow their digital marketing business.

1. Capstone Project
Rutgers mini-MBA
Digital Marketing
Nov. 29, 2016
Margo Dwight
Digital Marketing Communications Consultant
1

2. BUSINESS SITUATION
2
Strengths
•I’ve been a consultant since April 2004. I provide marketing
and communications strategy services. I have a B.A. in
English.
•My marketing and communications clients include General
Mills and TextMinded.
•As a volunteer, I have provided digital marketing services for
Twin Cities PEN/Minneapolis PEN for one year.
•Since I started this class, I’m billing myself as a digital
marketing strategist and communications strategist. My
background is in internal, corporate and marketing
communications, and I’m promoting myself as valuable
because I have all three areas of expertise.
•I have had more professional opportunities as a consultant.
If I was still working in my fulltime job as the lead editor for a
catalog, I would be doing the same thing, 12 years later.
•I have a background in design and can make design
decisions.
•Now I’m a marketing strategist, and I use my skills in
marketing strategy, communications strategy, content
creation, marketing plan development, social media
management and project management to work on a variety
of projects, including xx, xx, xx with clients.
•When I Google “digital marketing strategist,” I get 730,000
results. Compared to “marketing strategist” at 2,650,000
results, my profession has less competition.
•I get and give referrals from/to members of
@MinneapolisPEN, the professional association I do
volunteer work for.
Weaknesses
•Competition is
global now.
Fifteen years ago I
was competing
against others in
the
Minneapolis/St.
Paul area. Now I’m
competing against
the world.
•My background in
design confuses
potential clients;
they always ask,
are you more
interested in
writing or design?
I’m not sure why I
have to choose,
but yes, writing is
my strength and
design is less
important.
Opportunities
•International growth
•My goal is to persuade companies that my
unique combination of internal, corporate
and marketing communications and strategy
experience is not only relevant but crucial to
today’s marketplace, where employee
engagement, innovation and marketing
coalesce into a multi-pronged strategy in
order to increase sales, employee
engagement, and innovation as well as to
bring companies into the next phase of our
high-tech, highly automated, but creative and
engaged, world.
•I need to learn how to present new ideas
about digital marketing to clients so they
don’t feel threatened/afraid of new things
and/or “risks” of change; Corporate clients
are resistant to change, including digital
marketing, content marketing, and employee
engagement as well as just doing things
differently than they have done for the last
10/20/30 years.
•If a client is looking for a new vendor, it
trusts other companies more than individual
consultants, however, my prices are cheaper
than a company’s.
•My background in design isn’t up-to-date, so I
don’t want to actually work as a designer, but
I would like to use my design skills in a
management capacity.
Threats
•Clients balk at my
“high” hourly rate.
•I’ve worked for large
corporations, but I’m
required to sign
confidentiality
agreements, so I can’t
use work samples to
promote my
experience to get new
clients, i.e., potential
clients can’t judge my
qualifications based on
samples of my work.
Some potential clients
understand that issue,
but inexperienced
clients indicate they’ve
never heard of that
before, so I assume
they think I’m being
evasive. Solution: Only
work with large
corporations.
•Competition:
•If a client is looking
for a new vendor, it
trusts other
companies more
than individual
consultants like me.
Desired Results
•Get more high-
paying work.
•Get digital
marketing, not just
marketing, clients.
•Do interesting work.
•Use all of my skills.
•Grow my business
by x%.
•Be recognized as an
entrepreneur and
strategist who
writes and
strategizes yet also
utilizes design
knowledge, instead
of being asked: Are
you more
interested in writing
or graphics?
•Find my niche: Is it
digital marketing
strategy or
communications
strategy or both?
SWOT Plus Desired Results

3. Hiring methods conflicts:
What Jessica, Matthew, Laura and Kevin are impressed with is
different from Robert, the Baby Boomer boss; however, I need to
appeal to Jessica, Matthew, Laura and Kevin to be recommended
by them, but I also need to appeal to Robert to be hired because:
He may have the final say, or
He have undue influence, and Jessica, Matthew, Laura and Kevin
are careful to do what they think Robert would want.
Why do companies need my services?
One of several reasons:
They need an influx of new ideas;
employees don’t have marketing experience;
not enough hours for a fulltime employee;
overflow work that they don’t expect to be permanent so don’t
want to hire an employee;
fill in for employees on maternity leave or vacation.
How have they found or heard about my services?
They don’t use ads, because they don’t want to have to read
through hundreds of resumes. They prefer Word of Mouth
marketing; they want to learn about someone and then contact
them and then hire them. The fewer the applicants, the better.
What’s stopping them from choosing the service?
They focus on rates and choose the cheapest consultant rather
than looking at rates and competence. “High” rates annoy them
and seem to make or break the deal.
3
TARGET
MARKETS
All three
personas work
for the same
corporation.
The content on
this page applies
to all three
personas.
Please note:
I’m using the term
“corporation” as a
customer’s perception of a
corporation, as opposed to
their perception of a small
business. In fact, a small
business is defined by the
SBA as up to 500
employees, but the
perception of a small
business is that it has one
or maybe two employees.
My personas are part of our
perception of
“corporations.”
Robert
Laura
Matthew
Kevin
Persona 1
Persona 2
Persona 3
Jessica
Target Markets continued on page 4

4. 4
TARGET MARKETS
Robert
Persona
Name: Robert
Age: Baby Boomer:
52-70 years old
Job Title:
Vice president /director/middle
manager of group in larger corporation
or CEO in smaller corporation
Mostly men and very few women, who
conform to traditional methods of hiring
and expect consultants to submit a
resume, maybe a thank you note, and
wait for their call.
Didn’t grow up with social media and is
not comfortable with digital.
Not willing to learn digital and rejects
help from others to learn.
Doesn’t see the need for corporation to
do digital marketing, so hires employees
who are afraid to speak up/make
changes, because of actual and potential
layoffs.
I would argue layoffs are a result of the
corporation’s inability to change course,
including doing digital marketing and
also product and service changes, but
this persona doesn’t see the connection.
Feels he doesn’t actually need to
understand digital or social media; he
has entire departments to do those
things for him! This is not a
contradiction to previous points,
because basically he is conflicted.
He may have the final say in a decision,
or
He has undue influence, and personas
Jessica, Matthew, Laura and Kevin are
careful to do what they think Robert
wants.
Fast or slow decision-maker: fast
Analytical or emotional decision-maker:
emotional
Willing to hire men or women who are
younger.
Target Markets continued on page 5

5. 5
Jessica or Matthew
Persona
Target Markets continued on page 6
Name: Jessica or Matthew Age: Millennial: 21-36 years old
Job Title: Assistant manager of
department in large corporation
Grew up with social media, and is
comfortable with digital.
Jessica and Matthew are heavily
influenced by male executives of company
who may or may not recommend hiring
her choice, but she will be communicating
with hired consultant on a regular basis,
so wants to pick someone she feels she
can get along with and understands what
needs to be done.
Fast or slow decision-maker: fast
Analytical or emotional decision-maker:
emotional?
Sees their current position as relatively
temporary and wants to get good
recommendations in order to move on.
Expects almost daily email contact from
applicants who use persuasive skills to
hire them.
TARGET MARKETS
The only difference between
Jessica and Matthew:
Matthew wants to hire men
or women who are his age.
Jessica is willing to hire
women who are younger or
somewhat older than her
but doesn’t want to hire
Baby Boomer men.

6. 6
Laura or Kevin
Persona
Age: Generation X: 37-51 years old
Job Title: Manager of department
in large corporation
Didn’t grow up with social media,
and are not comfortable with
digital, so they don’t really know
what to look for in an employee
who will handle the digital work in
the corporation
Same as Jessica/Matthew, except
they don’t see their current
positions as relatively temporary;
they think that they don’t need to
learn digital as long as they keep
their jobs at this corporation.
Fast or slow decision-maker: slow
Analytical or emotional decision-
maker: analytical
TARGET MARKETS
The differences between Laura
and Kevin:
Digital knowledge:
Laura doesn’t admit she doesn’t
understand it; if someone sat down
with her, she would learn it, but
otherwise avoids it.
Kevin is not willing to learn digital and
rejects any help from others to learn.
Hiring:
Laura is willing to hire women who are
younger or same age as her but
doesn’t want to hire older man.
Kevin is willing to hire men or women
who are younger or older.

7. STRATEGY
7
Target B2B, because my
previous experience is
primarily B2B.
Target large corporations,
because my previous
experience is primarily with
large corporations.
Educational and Thought
Leadership marketing:
Market my expertise.
Connect on social media with middle managers
and presidents and vice presidents of groups in
companies, so they recommend that their
subordinate managers hire me and/or consider
my application for a position.
Expect to get more leads
from LinkedIn, as opposed
to Twitter.
Type of content: Promote my trustworthiness.
Market my expertise.
Market my sources’ expertise.
Market my association with sources’ expertise.
Use an integrated
content strategy
Explain why it’s worth my higher rates for my
clients to work with me rather than choose a
competitor that may create a dysfunctional
strategy and unsuccessful campaign for clients’
product or service.
Improve my customer
service skills.
Incorporate omnichannel
sales strategy.
Use Google Analytics, my KPI
Scorecard and other apps to test
throughout the process. Measure
the quality and quantity of the
leads.
Establish quarterly goals to
check entire strategy.
Limited use of paid search,
because I don’t have a budget.
Have different kinds of content for
different stages of the buyer journey,
including videos, infographics posts, etc.,
and including original and curated
content.
Leverage the fact that if a client is looking
for a new vendor, it trusts other
companies more than individual
consultants, however, my prices are
cheaper than a company’s.
Monitor competitor and
customer conversations.
Use account-based marketing to
target companies, not personas,
because I market to multiple people
at the same company.
Find the
unsaturated niche.

8. PLAN AND TACTICS
8
Director/vice president/
middle manager of group in
larger corporation or CEO in
smaller corporation
Website, social media, word of
mouth, omnichannels sales
strategy, video
Millennial assistant
manager or manager
Organic search marketing,
social media, omnichannel
sales strategy, video
Gen X
assistant manager or
manager
Organic search marketing,
website, drip marketing,
social media, infographics
Integrated content marketing
Search marketing
Website
Social media
Word of mouth
Mobile
Omnichannel sales tactics
Inbound marketing
Personas work at the
same corporation
Key Tactics
Plan and Tactics continued on page 9

9. Channels
PLAN AND TACTICS
9
•Channels
•LinkedIn
•YouTube
•Twitter
•SnapApp
Integrated
content
marketing
•Channel
•Google Search
Search
marketing
•Channels
•SimplyBook.me
•SnapApp
Website
•Channels
•LinkedIn
•YouTube
•Twitter
•SnapApp
Social media
•No channels
Word of mouth
•Channels
•YouTube
•LinkedIn
•Twitter
•SnapApp
Mobile
•Channels
•YouTube
•LinkedIn
•Twitter
•SnapApp
Inbound
Plan and Tactics continued on page 10

10. Tactics
PLAN AND TACTICS
10
•Videos, infographics and content using
an integrated content strategy, i.e.,
every piece of content is integrated
with every other piece of content in all
channels
Integrated
content
marketing
•Organic, paid, images and videos
search results;
•keywords;
•landing pages correlate to keywords;
•content targeting;
•behavioral;
•personalization
Search
marketing
•Blog;
•SimplyBook.me for potential clients to
schedule phone call;
•landing pages that correlate to specific
keywords
•mobile-friendly;
•get links by mentioning other digital
marketing pros and, hopefully, they
will return the favor, in order to
increase positive search marketing
results
Website
•Videos (Powtoons), infographics
(Piktochart) and content about
marketing and communications to
show my expertise;
•use Klout to schedule posts;
•Listen to online conversations to learn
if I’m having a positive or negative
effect
Social media
•Get more recommendations on
LinkedIn from previous clients by
staying in contact with them, i.e., at
least every six months;
•track social engagement via likes,
shares, followers;
•Listen to my previous and current
clients to see if I’m having a positive or
negative effect;
•Improve my customer service skills
Word of mouth
•Interactive content, including videos
and infographics, with YouTube and
SnapApp;
•videos on YouTube, LinkedIn and
Twitter;
•Infographics on Piktochart;
•retool and reduce text, images,
infographics and videos into new
formats that are mobile-friendly
(shorter content, formatted images)
Mobile
•“Creating compelling and valuable
content and distributing that content
through a variety of online channels, as
well as getting active in online
communities”
Inbound
Plan and Tactics continued on page 11

11. Content
PLAN AND TACTICS
11
• Market my expertise: Explain marketing
terms, so that potential clients know that I
am an expert;
• Also use curated content to gain goodwill
from other strategists (so they post my links
and retweet/share my content).
Integrated
content
marketing
• keywords
Search
marketing
• Market my expertise: Explain marketing
terms, so that potential clients know that I
am an expert;
• Post videos about why clients should hire
me
• videos and infographics that help my clients
•Employee engagement
•How to write a business plan
•Other how-to videos and infographics
Website
• Market my expertise: Explain marketing
terms, so that potential clients know that I
am an expert.
• Post videos about why clients should hire
me
• Post my @MinneapolisPEN videos and how I
create different styles of videos
• Post my infographics about topics that help
my clients
•Employee engagement
•How to write a business plan
•Other how-to videos and infographics
Social media
• Contact several connections per day via like,
share and comment on others’ LinkedIn and
Twitter posts;
• contact connections every six months via
LinkedIn DM without advertising my
services, i.e., talk about an issue that will
help them.
• Ask previous clients for LinkedIn
recommendations
Word of mouth
• Employee engagement videos
• Videos about my services
• why clients should hire me;
• info about my services;
• Also post my @MinneapolisPEN videos and
how I create different styles of videos
• how-to videos;
• Create more videos and infographics for
different stages of the buyer’s journey;
• reimagine text, infographics and videos that
speak directly to readers in a mobile
environment
Mobile
• “Creating compelling and valuable content
and distributing that content through a
variety of online channels, as well as getting
active in online communities”
Inbound
Plan and Tactics continued on page 12

12. PLAN AND TACTICS
12
CEOs accept my
invitation to
connect on
LinkedIn
Like and/or share
my LinkedIn post
Reply/Comment
to my LinkedIn
post
Reply to my
direct message
Have a
conversation,
i.e., various
posts, via DM
Set up a phone
call
They describe a
particular project
They ask about
my services
I offer my
services, and I
send them my
materials
LinkedIn
Conversions
Target market
accepts my
invitations to
connect on
LinkedIn, Twitter
and YouTube
Like my posts
Share or retweet
my posts with
their networks
Reply or Comment
to my posts
Invite me to join a
Twitter Chat
Reply to my direct
message with a
genuine message,
not marketing
slogans
Ask for my email
address
Set up a phone call
They describe a
particular project
They ask about my
services
I offer my services,
and I send them
my materials
Social Media and
Content Marketing
Conversions
Target Market/
Persona: Robert
Target Market/Personas:
Laura/Kevin,
Jessica/Matthew
Plan and Tactics continued on page 13

13. PLAN AND TACTICS
13
Find my website
from my links on
LinkedIn, Twitter
or YouTube.
Stay on my
website for more
than 90 seconds.
Stay on my
website for 2-3
minutes.
Download my e-
newsletter.
Sign up for my e-
newsletter.
Schedule a phone
call with me on
SimplyBook.me.
Contact me via
email or a contact
app.
Set up a phone call
They describe a
particular project
They ask about my
services
I offer my services,
and I send them
my materials
Website Conversions
Find my LinkedIn,
Twitter or YouTube
links on Google.
Click on one of those
links.
Then watch one of
my other videos or
go to one of my
other social media
sites or website.
Set up a phone call
They describe a
particular project
They ask about my
services
I offer my services,
and I send them my
materials
Search Marketing and
Mobile Conversions
Target Markets/
Personas: all three
personas
Target Markets/Personas:
Laura/Kevin,
Jessica/Matthew
Search Marketing

14. TIMELINE
14

15. Google Trends
•Track movement up or down, change keyword
terms to test success, track seasonality (how
pronounced and how long)
15
MEASUREMENTS
“December is a bad time to look for
clients, because:
• Employees are busy with the
holidays and
• They’ve already used up their
budget for the year.” – XX, XX
Magazine
Measurement Tool
Measurements continued on page 16

16. Alexa
•Check out
competition: SEO
keyword
difficulty,
keyword matrix,
SEO checker, SEO
audit
Similarweb.com
•Look at
competition:
overall visits,
time on site,
bounce rate,
page view,
keywords,
Google Analytics
•Number of
unique site
visitors
•Bounce rate
•Engagement, not
“average” stats
•How people
found my site
Google Search
Console
•Improve search
results, discover
which pages are
most effective,
check most
effective
keywords, check
for general errors
Klout.com
•Improve my
Klout score.
Scores range 1-
100, and the
average score is
40. My score is
45.
Google Search
•Find the
unsaturated
niche by trying to
estimate how
much content is
in my space.
LinkedIn Social
Selling Index
•Improve my
score of 66. I’m
in the top 19% of
network SSI rank
and top 2% of
industry SSI rank.
Try to get more
likes, comments
and shares and
increase number
of connections.
16
MEASUREMENTS
Measurement Tools
Measurements continued on page 17

17. Survey for website
• On website or email
campaign
• 4-5 multiple choice
questions
A/B Test
• Test two things that are
very similar, for
example:
• posting my discussion
question at beginning
or end of post.
• Compare my
infographics with
different colors but
same content
• Compare two of my
videos: my narration
vs. music only
Word of Mouth
• Email recommendation
from friend or family
members
• In-person or phone
recommendation from
friends or family
• Get more
recommendations on
LinkedIn from previous
clients by staying in
contact with them
• Track social engagement
via likes, shares,
followers
Multivariate Test
• Break a page into
components: –
headline, image,
content – and come up
with best combination
and order of items
• three variations of my
quiz question post on
LinkedIn
17
MEASUREMENTS
Measurement Tools
Measurements continued on page 18

18. Links
•Post links from other sites, so that
they reciprocate and put links to
my site on their site.
Sessions and Users/Visits
and Unique Visitors
•Keep track of visitors, so I can
adjust the focus of my site as
needed.
Bounce Rate
•Low bounce rate for my business,
because my personas are using it
to gather information about me
and make a decision whether to
hire me.
Conversion Rate
•MarketingSherpa’s conversion rate
is 10% for professional/financial
and media/publishing
Traffic Sources Key Content (pages) E-commerce Site
Conversion
•Meet or exceed average for B2B,
which is 7%
18
MEASUREMENTS
Other Measurements
Measurements continued on page 19

19. 19
Measurements continued on page 18
Objectives KPI Qtr. 1 Qtr. 2 Qtr. 3 Qtr. 4
Awareness and visibility Sales metric No. 1
Positioning Sales metric No. 1
Engagement
Sales metric No. 1
Conversion Sales metric No. 1
Awareness and visibility Website metric No. 1
Positioning Website metric No. 1
Engagement Website metric No. 1
Conversion Website metric No. 1
Awareness and visibility Social media metric No. 1
Positioning Social media metric No. 1
Engagement Social media metric No. 1
Conversion Social media metric No. 1
KPI Scorecard
MEASUREMENTS

20. CONCLUSION
20
I look forward to your comments!
Margo Dwight