Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Would it be correct to assume a major part of your marketing strategy today is digital? Probably.
Consumers and businesses alike are almost always online and on the go – and you want to be able to reach them and observe their behavior where they spend their time.

But when you’re growing a business, this ever-changing digital landscape can quickly become an overwhelming one. With a number of other responsibilities and tasks that you need to do, how can you also efficiently create, fine-tune, and maintain an agile digital marketing strategy?
We’ve put together this guide about marketing strategies to help you improve your digital presence and grow better.

If you’re a small business and you’re unsure how to jumpstart your strategy, this digital marketing strategy template will help you get there. It includes actionable tips and templates to set you up for success.
Now back to this — are you confused about the difference between a marketing strategy and marketing tactics? We cover that below.

Marketing or not, there are three parts of any strategy:

A diagnosis of your challenge
A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge
A set of targeted actions that are necessary to accomplish the policy

Depending on the scale of your business, your marketing strategy may include several moving parts, each with different goals. With that said, working on your strategy can become daunting at times.
So, if you’re ever feeling overwhelmed about your marketing strategy, refer to these three steps to keep you focused on achieving your objectives.
To provide a better understanding of what they may entail, check out the following list of basic marketing strategies commonly utilized by teams across a range of industries.
Marketing Basics

Publish a blog.
Advertise on specific social media platforms (e.g. Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads).
Offer free educational resources.
Search engine optimize your digital content.
Create a giveaway and/ or contest.
Test different campaign types to determine what works best for your audience.
Organize a webinar.
Produce a podcast.
Create an email campaign.

Now, let’s look at digital marketing strategy.

Similar to marketing strategies versus marketing tactics, “digital marketing strategy” and “digital marketing campaign” are also often interchanged. So, how do they differ?
We cover that in the following sections.
What is a digital marketing campaign?

Digital marketing campaigns are the building blocks and actions within your digital marketing strategy that move you toward a specific end goal.
For instance, if the overarching goal of your digital marketing strategy is to generate more leads through social media, you might run a digital marketing campaign on Twitter. You may share some of your business’s best-performing gated content on Twitter to generate more leads through the channel.

1. Build your buyer personas.
For any marketing strategy – digital or not – you need to know who you’re marketing to. The best digital marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas, and your first step is to create them.
Organize your audience segments and make your marketing stronger with templates to build your buyer personas.
Buyer personas represent your ideal customer(s) and can be created by researching, surveying, and interviewing your business’s target audience.
It’s important to note that this information should be based upon real data whenever possible, as making assumptions about your audience can cause your marketing strategy to move in the wrong direction.
To get a rounded picture of your persona, your research pool should include a mixture of customers, prospects, and people outside your contacts database who align with your target audience.
But what kind of information should you gather for your own buyer persona(s) to inform your digital marketing strategy?
That depends on your business — it’s likely to vary depending on whether you’re B2B or B2C, or whether you sell a high-cost or low-cost product.
Here are some starting points that you can fine-tune and tailor to your particular business.
Quantitative and Demographic Information

Location: Use web analytics tools to easily identify what location your website traffic is coming from.

Age: Depending on your business, this may or may not be relevant information. But if it is, it’s best to gather this data by identifying trends in your existing prospect and contact database.

Income: It’s best to gather sensitive information like personal income through persona research interviews, as people might be unwilling to share these details via online forms.

Job Title: This is something you can get a rough idea of from your existing customer base and is most relevant for B2B companies.

Qualitative and Psychographic Information

Goals: Depending on what challenge your product or service solves, you may already have a good idea of the goals of your buyer persona. Cement your assumptions by speaking to real customers and internal sales and customer service reps.

Challenges: Speak to customers, sales and customer service reps, and any other customer-facing employees to get an idea of the common challenges your audience members face.

Hobbies/Interests: Ask customers and those who align with your target audience about their hobbies and interests. If you’re a fashion brand, for example, it’s helpful to know if large segments of your audience are also interested in fitness and well-being to inform future content and partnerships.

Priorities: Talk to customers and target audience members to find out what’s most important to them in relation to your business. For example, if you’re a B2B software company, knowing your audience values customer support over a competitive price point is very valuable information.

By combining all of these details, you’ll be able to create buyer personas that are accurate and highly valuable for your business.
2. Identify your goals and the digital marketing tools you’ll need.
Your marketing goals should always be tied back to the fundamental goals of your business.
For example, if your business’s goal is to increase online revenue by 20%, your marketing team’s goal might be to generate 50% more leads via the website than the previous year to contribute to that success.
Use a high-level marketing plan template to outline your annual marketing strategy, identify top priorities, and more.

Download the Template
Whatever your overarching digital marketing goal is, you must be able to measure the success of your strategy along the way with the right digital marketing tools.
For instance, the Reporting Dashboard in HubSpot brings all of your marketing and sales data into one place, so you can quickly determine what works and what doesn’t to improve your strategy for the future.
3. Evaluate your existing digital channels and assets.
When reviewing your existing digital marketing channels and assets to determine what to incorporate in your strategy, it’s helpful to first consider the big picture — this will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed or confused.
Gather what you have, and categorize each vehicle or asset in a spreadsheet, so you have a clear picture of your existing owned, earned, and paid media.
Owned, Earned, Paid Media Framework
To do this effectively, use the owned, earned, and paid media framework to categorize the digital “vehicles,” assets, or channels you’re already using and decide what’s a good fit for your strategy.
Owned Media
This refers to the digital assets your brand or company owns — whether that’s your website, social media profiles, blog content, or imagery. Owned channels are what your business has complete control over.
This can also include some off-site content you own that isn’t hosted on your website (e.g. a blog you publish on Medium).
Earned Media
Earned media refers to the exposure you earn through word-of-mouth marketing. Whether that’s content you’ve distributed on other websites (e.g. guest posts), PR work you’ve been doing, or the customer experience you’ve delivered. Earned media is the recognition you receive as a result of these efforts.
You can earn media by getting press mentions and positive reviews as well as by people sharing your content via their networks (e.g. social media channels).
Paid Media
Paid media refers to any vehicle or channel you spend money on to catch the attention of your buyer personas.
This includes things like Google AdWords, paid social media posts, native advertising (e.g. sponsored posts on other websites), or any other medium through which you pay in exchange for increased visibility.
Since you have a better grasp of what this framework entails, let’s look at an example.
Say you have an owned piece of content on a landing page on your website that’s been created to help you generate leads. You know you want to incorporate different parts of the framework rather than just working with owned, earned, or paid media alone.
To amplify the number of leads the content generates, you make an effort to ensure it’s shareable so your audience can distribute it via their social media profiles. In return, this will increase traffic to your landing page. This is the earned media component.
To support your content’s success, you might post about the content on your Facebook page and pay to have it seen by more people in your target audience.
This is how the three parts of the framework are able to work together — although, it’s not necessary for success. For instance, if your owned and earned media are already both successful, you might not need to invest in paid. So, evaluate the best solution to help you meet your goal, and then incorporate the channels that work best for your business into your digital marketing strategy.
Now you know what’s already being used, you can start to think about what to keep and what to cut.
Keep track of your paid media efforts with this free Paid Media Template.

Download the Template
4. Audit and plan your owned media campaigns.
At the heart of digital marketing is owned media — and it almost always comes in the form of content. That’s because nearly every message your brand broadcasts can be classified as content, whether it’s an About Us site page, product descriptions, blog posts, ebooks, infographics, podcasts, or social media posts.
Content helps convert your website visitors into leads and customers while improving your brand’s online presence. And when this content is search engine optimized (SEO), it can boost your search and organic traffic.
Whatever your digital marketing strategy goal is, you’ll want to incorporate owned content. To start, decide what content will help you reach your goals.
If your goal is to generate 50% more leads via the website than last year, your About Us page is most likely not going to be included in your strategy, unless that page has somehow been a lead-generation machine in the past.
Here’s a brief process you can follow to work out what owned content you need to meet your digital marketing strategy goals.
Audit your existing content.
Make a list of your existing owned content, and rank each item according to what has previously performed best in relation to your current goals.
For example, if your goal is lead generation, rank your content according to which pieces generated the most leads over the last year (such as a blog post, ebook, or site page).
The idea here is to figure out what’s currently working, and what’s not so that you can set yourself up for success when planning future content.
Identify gaps in your existing content.
Based on your buyer personas, identify any gaps in the content you have.
For example, if you’re a math tutoring company and know through research that a major challenge for your personas is finding effective ways to study, create some.
By looking at your content audit, you might discover that ebooks hosted on a certain type of landing page convert really well (better than webinars, for example).
In the case of this math tutoring company, you might make the decision to add an ebook about “how to make studying more effective” to your content creation plans.
Create a content creation plan.
Based on your findings and the gaps you’ve identified, make a content creation plan outlining the content that’s necessary to help you hit your goals.
This should include:

A title
Format
A goal
Promotional channels
Why you’re creating the content
The priority level of the content

This can be a simple spreadsheet, and should also include budget information if you’re planning to outsource the content creation, or a time estimate if you’re producing it yourself.
5. Audit and plan your earned media campaigns.
Evaluating your previous earned media against your current goals can help you get an idea of where to focus your time. Look at where your traffic and leads are coming from (if that’s your goal) and rank each earned media source from most effective to least effective.
You can obtain this information using tools like the Sources reports in HubSpot’s Traffic Analytics tool.

You may find a particular article you contributed to the industry press drove a lot of qualified traffic to your website, which boosted conversions. Or, you may discover LinkedIn is where you see most people sharing content, which increases traffic.
The idea is to build a picture of what types of earned media will help you reach your goals (and what won’t) based on historical data. However, if there’s something new you want to experiment with, don’t rule it out just because it’s never been done before.
6. Audit and plan your paid media campaigns.
This process involves much of the same process: You need to evaluate your existing paid media across each platform (e.g. Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to figure out what’s most likely to help you meet your current goals.
If you’ve spent a lot of money on AdWords and haven’t seen the results you’d hoped for, maybe it’s time to refine your approach, or scrap it altogether and focus on another platform that seems to be yielding better results.
Use this free guide for more on how to leverage AdWords for your digital marketing strategy.
By the end of the process, you should have a clear idea of which paid media platforms you want to continue using, and which (if any) you’d like to remove from your strategy.
7. Bring your digital marketing campaign together.
You’ve done the planning and the research, and you now have a solid vision of the elements that will make up your digital marketing strategy.
To review, here’s what you should have solidified so far:

Clear profile(s) of your buyer persona(s)
One or more digital marketing-specific goals
An inventory of your existing owned, earned, and paid media
An audit of your existing owned, earned, and paid media
An owned content creation plan or wish list

Now it’s time to bring all of this together to form a cohesive marketing strategy document. Your strategy document should map out the series of actions you’re going to take to achieve your goals, based on your research up to this point.
Let’s discuss how our digital strategy template can help.
Digital Marketing Strategy Template
While a spreadsheet can be an efficient format for mapping your digital marketing strategy, that approach can quickly become messy and overwhelming.
To plan your strategy for the long-term – typically between six to 12 months out, you need a reliable digital marketing strategy document. But, where to start? With our free digital marketing plan template.
This template will walk you through your business summary and initiatives, help you build your target market and competitor information, and flesh out your marketing strategy — including your budget and specific channels and metrics.

Use this digital strategy template to build out your annual digital marketing strategy and tactics. By planning out these yearly plans, you can overlay when you and your team will be executing each action. For example:

In January, you’ll start a blog that will be continually updated once a week, for the entire year.
In March, you’ll launch a new ebook, accompanied by paid promotion.
In July, you’ll prepare for your biggest business month — what do you hope to have observed at this point that will influence the content you produce to support it?
In September, you’ll focus on earned media in the form of PR to drive additional traffic during the run-up.

This approach provides a structured timeline for your activity which will help communicate plans among colleagues.
Finally, here are some examples of digital marketing campaigns and their strategies to inspire you.

1. Béis: Paid Ad
Travel accessory brand, Béis, recently launched a social media campaign to announce feature updates to one of its products. And they did it in the best way: by showing instead of telling.

In a 34-second clip, the brand showed how their product performed before and how it performs now following some changes to the material.
This is a fantastic campaign as it not only highlights an improvement on a product but it also shows customers that the brand is constantly iterating and improving. Secondly, they make sure to include captions in the video to ensure that it’s accessible without sound.
2. Omsom: Social Media
Asian food brand Omsom leverages its TikTok profile to share behind-the-scenes content, recipes, and culturally relevant content.
In a recent video, the brand’s co-founder shared how it sources one of its key ingredients and how they chose the more difficult route to preserve the integrity of the food.

@weareomsom
here’s why we choose to make our lives harder as food founders! #business #sourcing
♬ original sound – Omsom

Here’s what Omsom did right: They highlighted their brand’s values while still building excitement around the product.
Sharing behind-the-scenes content is a great way to connect with your audience and share details that will simultaneously highlight your mission and/or values.
3. The General: Paid Advertising
After reports that consumers thought the brand was untrustworthy due to its low-budget ads, The General decided to revamp its entire marketing strategy.
In a commercial featuring basketball superstar, Shaq, the brand addressed the elephant in the room and introduced a new-and-improved look.

In addition, they also emphasize their credibility by mentioning how long they’ve been in business and how many people they’ve helped.
By addressing negative perceptions head-on, brands can not only change how consumers view them but also show that they are in tune with their target audience.
Grow Better With Marketing Strategies That Improve Your Digital Presence
Your strategy document will be very individual to your business, which is why it’s almost impossible for us to create a one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy template.
Remember, the purpose of your strategy document is to map out the actions you’re going to take to achieve your goal over a period of time — as long as it communicates that, then you’ve nailed the basics of creating a digital strategy.
If you’re eager to build a truly effective strategy to help grow your business, check out our free collection of content marketing templates below.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Find out what marketing automation is and what it can do for your business. See examples of how marketing automation can be used in different industries and how you can start automating your campaigns.

Looking for a website builder for your small business? We rounded up this comprehensive guide to help you find the best one for you.

Bounce rate is a metric that can be confusing when you first stumble upon it. I’m sure several questions pop into your head: Is a bounce rate close to 100% good or bad? Is it at all like a bounced email? Is it a vanity metric that I should ignore? And if I want to fix it, what should I do?

Luckily, you’re not alone. Many marketers have asked those questions and might not have found a solid answer yet. We’re here to demystify bounce rate with an overview of what constitutes a bounce rate — what doesn’t — and exactly how you can fix it.

Keep in mind that bounce rate is different from an exit rate. Bounce rates only measure “one-and-done” visits — the ones in which people arrive and leave your website without navigating away from a single page. Here’s what they look like in your HubSpot Web Analytics Dashboard, for example:

Exit rates, on the other hand, are a little more complicated. They include the percentage of people who leave your website from a certain page — but, that’s not necessarily the only page they’ve visited on your website. The page from which they exited could be the last in a long sequence of page visits. That’s why the exit rate isn’t always as troubling as bounce rates.

But a high exit rate, on the other hand, wouldn’t be cause for concern. It would mean that this page was the last in a chain of visits — people exiting from that page probably arrived from its preceding landing page, downloaded the offer on the thank-you page, and left to go make use of the content they just downloaded.
Keep in mind that this scenario is hypothetical, and these takeaways can differ based on other page metrics — but it serves as a simple illustration of the difference between bounce and exit rates.

For example, if 100 people visit your site and 10 of them only visit one page, then your bounce rate would be 10%. This number will likely change over time, so using an analytics provider to track all the changes is beneficial for understanding what’s affecting your bounce rate.
What is a good bounce rate?
If you’ve recently taken a look at your website’s bounce rate, you might find yourself discouraged at the number. But if you then decide to aim for a 0% bounce rate, you’ll probably find yourself even more discouraged. The average bounce rate is somewhere between 26% and 70%, with the optimal range being between 26% and 40%. To land anywhere under 20% is generally unlikely, so if that’s what your data is showing then you may want to double-check some things. Duplicate code, incorrectly implemented tracking, and third-party add-ons can all result in an inaccurately reported bounce rate.
The average bounce rate can also change depending on the viewer’s device. Mobile devices, for instance, have the highest bounce rate across all industries at 51%. Whereas the average bounce rate on a desktop is 43% and the average for tablets is 45%. So, take into account where the traffic is coming from as you’re judging your site’s bounce rate.
High Bounce Rate
A bounce rate over 70% is above average, but it’s not necessarily on the high side until it’s reaching 56%. If it’s over 90%, that’s a major cause for alarm but it’s usually easy to decrease because there’s something specific scaring everyone off. Things like bad design, errors in your tracking code, excessive bots, or browser incompatibility could be the culprit. Also be aware that high traffic from social media or paid ads, as well as a lot of mobile visitors can be increasing your bounce rate as well.
How to Reduce High Bounce Rates
Now you know what a bounce rate is. But what can you actually do about it?
In general, high bounce rates might indicate that the page is irrelevant or confusing to site visitors. But don’t jump into drastic actions like deleting a page or undertaking a redesign right away. There are some important steps you need to take before you figure out which action to take.
Remember: Bounce rates only tell you that someone landed on a web page and left it without visiting any other page on your website. It doesn’t tell you how someone interacted with your page. That’s why it’s important, says Director of Product Marketing at Iterable Jeffrey Vocell, to take “practical steps” to examine other metrics and pieces of your web presence to see what might be behind the bounce rates. We’ve outlined these steps below.
1. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Mobile users account for about half of web traffic globally. That makes it crucial, says Vocell, “to not only provide a mobile-ready experience,” but to make sure that experience is engaging. How annoying is it when you arrive at a mobile site, only to have to zoom in to read its content? Having a responsive site is no longer enough — engagement with the mobile version has to be user-friendly and interactive.
Video is one particularly engaging type of content. It can often explain complex topics more concisely than text, which might be why 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. But when it comes to mobile usage, long videos require a significant amount of data and might therefore slow the user experience — causing the visitor to bounce. For that reason, Vocell suggests eliminating these longer videos from your mobile site or creating more concise versions that still address the most important points.
This kind of improvement, however, isn’t limited to video. Take a holistic approach to evaluating your mobile experience, and consider how you’ll address contingencies like these.
2. Look at your bounce rate based on different sources.
Sometimes, the sources directing traffic to a given page might have something to do with its bounce rate. That’s why the HubSpot Web Analytics Dashboard allows you to break down the bounce rate according to source:

Let’s say your bounce rate is particularly high from direct traffic — take a close look at the URL to make sure it’s easy to read, remember, and type in. Then check to see that the visitor isn’t being greeted with a 404 error or a home page that isn’t very inviting. The headline should be clear and signal to the person that they’re in the right place.
You have to meet the expectations of the visitor — regardless of source.
3. Avoid other disruptions that might hurt the user experience.
We’ve already discussed the importance of a good mobile user experience, and that goes for all platforms. Things like full-screen pop-ups, for example, are not only annoying but can also result in search penalties.
The key thing to consider is the user. “You want visitors to be drawn into your page and stay for as long as needed to convert,” says Vocell, and while “some pop-ups are good,” — like well-crafted inbound messages that add context to a site — avoid any that significantly disrupt the user experience in a way that might cause visitors to leave.
4. Determine which keywords this page ranks for — and if your content sufficiently covers those topics.
Remember how we cautioned against misleading visitors about your site’s content in social distribution? The same goes for keyword rankings. “Matching keyword intent to your content is important to ensure organic visitors get the content they expect,” explains Vocell.
Let’s say someone is searching for “marketing automation software solutions” — it’s likely that this person is looking for software to help nurture leads into customers. But if someone is using the query, “What is marketing automation?”, she’s probably not at a stage where she’s looking to buy a product. Rather, this person is looking for content that’s more informative than anything else.
So when you evaluate the keywords for which your page is ranking, make sure they’re aligned with the actual content. Once you’ve done that, try looking at a topic-cluster framework — the kind that groups your site’s pages into clusters according to subject — to help attract organic traffic to the right pages.
Let’s Bounce
When you’re investigating bounce rates, make sure you’re looking at the full picture. Take a look at the time people spend on your site, where they’re coming from, and what device they’re using — and if your content and experience are aligned with all of those factors. You might uncover patterns that show how you can fix the bounce rate problem.
Think of bounce rates like your car’s “check engine” light. When it goes on, you know there might be a problem — but you need to check all of the car’s systems to accurately diagnose the issue. There’s no one-size-fits-all fix for bounce rates, but knowing what they are and how they can inform your marketing strategy can help ensure your website’s success.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2014 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

I first discovered podcasts a few years ago when I was commuting for work two to three hours a day, every day.
The first podcast that got me hooked was NPR’s “How I Build This” show on entrepreneurship. 

Today, I listen to a wide range of podcasts on business, pop culture, and current events, like The Nod and “Louder Than a Riot.” So, what does it take to start a podcast in 2022? We’ll cover that in more in this article.

What is a podcast and how does it work?
What is a podcast host?
What equipment is needed to start a podcast?
How to Start a Podcast

Find a unique and compelling topic or theme.
Set up your show format.
Leverage your network.
Record and edit your episode.
Finalize your creative assets.
Set up a website.
Build a promotion strategy.

Track your metrics.

Learn how to monetize your podcast.

What is a podcast and how does it work?
A podcast is an audio series that a user can download to a personal device and listen at their leisure. It centers around one theme or topic, with each episode typically ranging from 20 to 60 minutes.
Think of a podcast as the audio version of any television series. It follows the same production format: It follows a specific theme or topic, t’s episodic and can have several seasons, and can be reality- or fiction-based.
One thing that sets podcasts apart from TV series is the use of a podcast host. Every podcast needs a host who can narrate the story and guide the listener through the episode. In addition, podcasts are only audio. Otherwise, the two mediums are very similar.
The most popular platforms to listen to podcasts include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
Google Trends shows that podcasts have gradually become more popular, peaking around the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2020 worldwide.
Today, 28% of the U.S. population over 12 years old listens to podcasts on a weekly basis, according to the 2021 Infinite Dial study – a 17% year-over-year increase.
Podcasts vs Standard Audio Files
The difference between a podcast and standard audio files is the same as the difference between a video and a television series.

An audio file is a file format used to store audio on a digital device. A podcast, on the other hand, is a produced show that involves storytelling, formatting, and audio sourcing. You need audio files to create a podcast, but the same is not true the other way around.
What is a podcast host?
A podcast host is a platform that stores your podcast and distributes it to publishing platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Here’s how it works: You first upload your audio file to your hosting platform, then they create an RSS feed and send your episodes to various directories (AKA publishers).
The most popular podcast host platforms include Casted, Buzzsprout, Captivate, Libsyn, and PodBean. Here are the top features you should look for as you evaluate your options:

Transcription integration
Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Custom website

Analytics
Text editor for show notes

What equipment is needed for a podcast?
One of the best things about starting a podcast is that it doesn’t take much to get started. All you need are these high-quality items:

A microphone – While you might be tempted to use your computer’s or phone’s built-in microphone, invest instead in an XLR or USB mic that will offer better sound quality. If you’re just starting out, you might opt for a dynamic mic that’s less sensitive to ambient noise. If you have a studio set up, a condenser mic might be better.

A studio or soundproof room – When recording a podcast, you should minimize ambient noise as much as possible as that can distract listeners. Because of this, it’s important to create a quiet, soundproof space to record.

Editing software – Once you record your episode, you will need to edit it to add in music and ad spots and remove any content that may not fit. There are various audio editing software that you can use, including Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Descript – each ranging in editing features.

Noise-canceling headphones – Headphones are important both during production and in post-production as they allow you to monitor and detect sounds during the recording.

A hosting platform subscription – Before you can distribute your episodes, you must first upload your files to a hosting platform first.

1. Find a unique and compelling topic/theme to cover.
The first thing you need to start a podcast is an idea. For an individual, it can stem from a passion for or expertise in a particular topic/industry. For a brand, this can come from research you’ve gathered about your audience.
At the core, your podcast should speak to a particular audience. Because if there’s no interest in it, then you’ll be speaking into an empty room. And if you’ve ever done an 8 a.m. PowerPoint presentation in college, you know exactly what that’s like.
If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you already have an idea for a podcast. In this case, the goal is to dive deeper into your idea and see if it’s worth pursuing.
To do this, here are the questions you want to ask yourself:

Has this been covered before in another podcast? If so, is there another angle I can take?
Is this idea relevant and timely?
Is there an audience for this? If so, what type of listeners will it attract?
Is there enough content to create a season?

You’ll know you have a winning idea when you have a clear answer to these questions. Your idea may go through some changes as you develop it but the foundation starts here.

During this step, you may be tempted to secure your name and logo but we recommend waiting on that. More on that in step five.
Want some inspiration? Check out these marketing podcasts.
2. Set up your show format.
The great thing about podcasts is that they can follow just about any format.
Some are interview-based and conversational with one or several hosts bringing on guests while others focus on storytelling (fictional and non-fiction). It’s up to you to decide which format will suit your theme the best.
From there, start brainstorming your episode segments, which break down your show into sections to make it easier for listeners to follow.

Segments aren’t always clearly stated either. Sometimes, it’s as simple as act one, two, and three. It’s all about finding the best way to tell the story in a way that captures and maintains the audience’s attention.
3. Leverage your network.
Once you’ve figured out which format you want to follow, you might need to reach out to your network.
Perhaps you need a co-host, or you need to line up a few high-profile guests for upcoming shows. This is when you reach out to your network.

In addition to posting on your social platforms, you should also reach out to your network in shared interest groups, like Facebook Groups, as members may have a special interest in your project.
4. Record and edit your episode.
Now that you’ve worked out all the editorial details of your podcast, it’s time to record your first episode.
While this may seem nerve-racking, see it as a dry run. Once you review the recording, you can work out any kinks in the episode regarding segments, flow, storytelling, etc.

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from others. While you’re in the early stages of developing your podcast, this is the perfect time to get notes on where you can improve and implement them before it officially launches.
5. Finalize your creative assets.
So, earlier I mentioned not finalizing your name and logo during the initial development stages. That’s because, from idea to production, your idea may have evolved into something different from what you originally thought.
In addition, you may get more inspiration after creating your first episode and having a clear product to name.

You may find that you had a name for your podcast from day one, and that’s great. But if you need something more concrete to get your juices flowing, that’s fine too.
6. Set up a website.
Consider your website as your home base for your podcast.
It’s where all information surrounding your podcast will live, including show notes, transcripts, episode descriptions, host descriptions, and more. It also allows you to get more listeners by increasing organic traffic to your website.

By following SEO best practices, you can reach consumers who may be interested in your content and make them convert once they land on your website.
7. Build a promotion strategy.
Having a great podcast concept won’t be enough to attract users. You have to build a robust promotion strategy to get it in front of your target audience. Because how will they listen to something they don’t even know exists?
First, the pre-launch. Promotion doesn’t start after your first episode has aired, it should start before.
Why? It builds anticipation surrounding your show and can help you start out with a strong listenership right out of the gate. Share on platforms you’re already on along with those you haven’t yet explored.
For instance, you might start by securing your handle on social media and sharing a few posts to count down the air date for your first episode. If you already have a captive audience elsewhere, like a newsletter or a blog, prioritize promotion on those channels as well.
Once your show launches, be consistent about promoting the episodes, and don’t be afraid to test various methods.
You may find that posting audio snippets from episodes get higher engagement rates than posting about your guests. Or vice versa.
Once you identify what your audience responds to, stick with it.

Pro-tip: Reviews can go a long way in gaining new listeners. During your post-launch strategy, consider incentivizing your audience to leave a show review by hosting a giveaway.
8. Track your metrics.
If you’re not tracking it, did it even happen?
Once your podcast launches and is in full swing, start monitoring its performance. Here are the metrics you want to keep an eye on:

Subscriber count
Monthly episode downloads
Unique page views to the podcast page
Average listening time

Every piece of data you track will offer insight into your listeners and inform your strategy for future episodes.

For instance, say your top episode is on a particular topic, you could cover that more. Here’s an in-depth piece on how to grow a podcast.
9. Learn how to monetize your podcast.
Finally, it’s important to figure out how to earn an income based on your podcasting.
The most straightforward way is through sponsorship. Ever heard “This episode is brought to you by [insert brand]”? Well, it means the show has set up a partnership with the brand to increase brand awareness or meet another marketing goal.
In some cases, the sponsorship will also include ads pre-roll (at the beginning of the episode) and mid-roll (in the middle of the episodes). However, that’s not always the case.
Affiliate marketing, which refers to the process of promoting a product or service in exchange for a commission on the sale. Podcasts hosts will often do this by offering a unique discount code that includes the show name.
With both strategies, you’ll have to actively seek out these brands in the beginning. Create a pitch explaining the benefits of partnering with you. It’s easy to do this once you have a few episodes under your belt and can show metrics to support your points.
Another podcast monetization strategy is offering paid membership tiers for exclusive, bonus content through services like Patreon and Stitcher Premium. For instance, say your podcast is interview-based.
You could promote extended interviews at the end of each episode and encourage your listeners to join your membership platform.
If you join a podcast network or advertising network, some of this work is done for you. But it also means you don’t have full control over which ads are placed on your show. Additionally, you may not receive the full profit from the ad, as that may be split between you and the network.
Lastly, you can also maximize your podcast by publishing it on YouTube. If you have a good at-home setup or a studio setup, consider recording both video and audio – particularly if your show is educational or conversational.
This way, you can publish it on YouTube, access a wider audience, monetize your channel, and diversify the ways in which you promote your show.

What do you use spreadsheets for? If you’re anything like me, you likely use them to collect data, track campaign or blog post analytics, or keep track of weekly assignments.
But have you ever thought about using spreadsheets to make a calendar? If not, let me tell you why Google Sheets is the perfect tool for your content calendar.

If you often work on campaigns for a few different clients, creating individual calendars in Google Sheets could be uniquely useful for ensuring the client understands when certain content will go live. Alternatively, perhaps you need to create an internal Google Sheet calendar for your team to keep track of upcoming projects.
Making a calendar in a tool that’s commonly used for spreadsheets sounds a little intimidating, but don’t worry, the process is actually pretty intuitive. And with the help of some tips, you can easily make a functional calendar that you can sync your schedule with.
Below, we’ll go over how to make a calendar in Google Sheets and include some tips that’ll help you elevate the design. At the end, your calendar will look something like this:
Open up Google Sheets and get ready to create your very own calendar. 📅
1. Open a new spreadsheet and choose your month.
First, open a new spreadsheet. 
Then, choose your month. For this example, I decided to do January 2022, so I filled that into the first cell. What’s great about Google Sheets is that it automatically recognizes dates, so typing in a month, followed by the year in YYYY format will tell Google that you’re going to be working with dates.
2. Begin to format your calendar.
Next, format your calendar. I selected the text, January 2022, in Column A, Row 1. I highlighted seven columns (A-G), and clicked Merge to make that cell span across the entire column. You can find this button to the right of the Fill tool.

Here, I also center-aligned my text using the tool next to Merge. Then, I increased the font size and bolded the month.
3. Use a formula to fill in the days of the week.
Next, fill in the days of the week in each column (A-G). You can do this manually but I decided to use a formula. Sheets has a function that lets you type in formulas to complete certain actions at once.
To fill in days of the week, in the cell where you want your first weekday to be, type: =TEXT(1, “DDDD”). What this tells Google is that your number will be replaced by a date or time and the format you’re using is weekdays.
Highlight the number 1 in the formula and replace it with: COLUMN(). Then, press enter and select your first day. You’re going to copy the formula in Sunday’s cell by dragging the selector to the end of your row, (A-G), and pressing enter again.
Pressing enter should automatically fill in the rest of the week. Remember, if this doesn’t work for you, you can always fill in the days manually.
Pressing enter should automatically fill in the rest of the week. Remember, if this doesn’t work for you, you can always fill in the days manually.
4. Fill in the numbers.
Excellent! You have your days of the week. Now we’re going to fill in the numerical values. Before this step, I took the time to add color to the days row and changed the font to one I liked a little more.
For the numerical values, we’ll simply identify the first day of the month and click and drag to fill in the rest.
How?
Place the number 1 on the box right underneath the first day of the month, then click and drag horizontally. Depending on the day of the week, you may need to follow this process using the second day of the month so you can click and drag horizontally.

5. Fill in the rest of the numbers.
Note: In this step, I filled in the calendar numbers every other row to help with my formatting later.
Now that you’ve filled out your first row, it’s time to fill in the rest. Manually insert the next number under “Sunday,” then click and drag horizontally to fill in the rest.

Repeat the process for the next rows. You’ll insert the first number manually, then click and drag down the row. Here’s what that looks like for the next row in January.

Note: Make sure to end the month on the right number! For January, that would be the 31st.

6. Reformat your calendar if necessary.
Everything is starting to look like a calendar, right? At this stage, I reformatted things to clean up the look of my calendar a little.
Remember those extra rows in between the numbered rows? I expanded those rows to create boxes underneath the numbers. To do this, I simply dragged the rows down to make those cells bigger.
Here are some additional formatting tips:

Select the empty rows underneath your numbers and center them using the center text alignment tool.
Select your entire calendar and vertically align all elements so that they’re in the center of their cells. To do this, use the vertical alignment tool.

Bold your day numbers.
If desired, lightly shade your numbered rows.
If desired, gray out the Saturday and Sunday columns so that your workdays stand out.

7. Add design elements to professionalize the look.
Finally, you can add in some fun design elements to personalize the look and feel of your calendar. If it’s for a client or upcoming project, you’ll want to incorporate the necessary launch days here.
For this step, I added in a few fun images, included a few hypothetical calendar events, and played with font sizes.
8. Repeat the process from February to December.
It’s time to repeat for the month of February to December. Simply duplicate your January calendar once you’ve designed it how you want it to look. To do this, right-click the sheet’s tab and select Duplicate from the menu.
To fill in the numbers, you’ll only need to know the beginning day, then click and drag to fill in the rest of the rows. Here are the first days for every month for the year 2022:

January: Saturday

February: Tuesday

March: Tuesday

April: Friday

May: Sunday

June: Wednesday

July: Friday

August: Monday

September: Thursday

October: Saturday

November: Tuesday

December: Thursday

Next, you’ll want to know how many days you’ll need to fill in. Here are the number of days you’ll need for each month:

January: 31

February: 28 or 29

March: 31

April: 30

May: 31

June: 30

July: 31

August: 31

September: 30

October: 31

November: 30

December: 31

And then, you’re done!
It’s handy to use Sheets because you can open your calendar right on your browser. You can also keep track of your schedule in a place that’s separate from your phone.
Alternatively, you can create important business documents such as social and editorial calendars. Below, I share a template that’s perfect for the task.
Google Sheets Calendar Template
Here’s an editorial calendar template for all of your editorial planning needs. This template helps you lay out a strong editorial strategy on a daily basis.
Featured Resource: Free Editorial Calendar Templates

Download the Free Templates
Use a Google Sheets Calendar to Organize Your Tasks
If you’re handy with Sheets and want to give it a shot, create a Google Sheets calendar. It’s a great option if you need to create a clean calendar to track an internal marketing campaign, organize a client’s upcoming projects, or share an event calendar with key stakeholders. But if you don’t want to create one from scratch, use our editorial calendar template to jumpstart your planning and organization efforts immediately.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.