John Lincoln

The Forecaster Method: The Perfect Digital Marketing Strategy

The Forecaster MethodJumping into the world of digital marketing can be scary. It is constantly changing and can be hard to keep up with a strategy that works.

What if I told you that the perfect digital marketing strategy exists?

I wrote my second book, The Forecaster Method, in 2019. Regardless of what has changed since then, the general framework is still successfully used by my clients today.

Let’s talk about it.

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

First things first, what is a digital marketing strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan you make to achieve your business objectives in the virtual space. It consists of a variety of platforms including social media marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing, SEO, online advertising, and any other marketing opportunities online.

Regardless of the size of the business, the majority of businesses are moving their marketing into the digital space.

And for good reason. Most customers are now online. They are researching products and services. They are scrolling social media. They are living in their email inboxes for work.

Long story short? If you want to reach your customers, the digital space is the best place to do it.

What is the Forecaster Method?

The Forecaster Method is the framework that I use for all of my own clients’ digital marketing strategies.

It’s a method that I have created after spending 15+ years in the digital space and it works for every business — whether they have 100 customers or 100,000.

Why do I use the same framework for everyone? Because it works! Every business that has used my Forecaster Method has seen massive success. No matter what changes in digital marketing trends, the strategy is easily adaptable.

And I want to help you learn how to implement this digital marketing strategy in your own business.

Step 1: Start with a Goal

Everything starts with a goal and your digital marketing strategy is not exempt from that fact. In order to be successful, you need to figure out why you are marketing and what you hope to achieve.

There are three types of goals in the digital space:

  • Micro Conversions: These are small steps you want your audience to take. Maybe you want them to click on your ad or like your Facebook page. These goals don’t require your audience to make much effort.
  • Macro Conversions: These conversions require more action on your audience’s part. They are your end goal. This goal is usually to make a sale.
  • Brand Awareness: If your goal is to increase your brand awareness, you want to increase the extent to which your brand is recognized and associated with a particular product or service.

Once you determine what your goal is, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Find Your Customers

You can’t achieve your goals if you are targeting the wrong people. The next step in your digital marketing strategy is to determine who and where your customers are.

Think about who would benefit the most from your product. Are these the same people who will be most likely to purchase it? It’s important that your ideal audience will both benefit from your product and be drawn to spending money on it.

Once you establish your ideal persona, do your research to see where your content will have the best chance of reaching them. There are various types of analytics and data for you to study to determine where they are spending their time online.

Once you know who your audience is and where they are, you can move on to the next step of creating your digital marketing strategy.

Step 3: Determine Your ROAS

ROAS stands for return on ad spend. This tells you how much money you’re earning as a result of the amount you’re spending on your ads.

The formula for ROAS is simple.

ROAS = Revenue Earned from Advertising / Advertising Expense

Business is all about profitability and your ROAS is going to tell you if your digital marketing strategy is going to make you money.

Step 4: The Forecaster Method

Now that you know what you want to achieve, who you want to target, and what your ROAS needs to be, let’s talk about The Forecaster Method.

The following steps make up The Forecaster Method, the digital marketing strategy that I swear by.

Step 1: Determine a Source

Step 2: Build the Model

Step 3: Forecast the Value

Step 4: Determine ROAS

Step 5: Compare

Step 6: Scale the Best Sources

Step 7: Diversify

These 7 steps will help you to build an exceptional digital marketing strategy that works.

Step 5: Properly Track Your Results

What good is a digital marketing strategy if you don’t know how well it’s working?

This is why it’s important to create clear reports and KPIs. The more accurate your reports are and the easier they are to read, the better off you’ll be.

Do your research into different platforms and software that will help you create quality reports and determine which one is best for your business.

Step 6: Determine What You Can Do and Get Help for the Rest

The truth of the matter is that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Part of building a successful business is knowing when it’s time to ask for help.

Part of establishing a successful digital marketing strategy is knowing what tasks you can keep in house and perform successfully and efficiently and which tasks you should hire out.

Luckily, if a task isn’t in your wheelhouse, there’s a good chance that there is an agency that specializes in that task that can help you out.

Step 7: How to Scale Your SEO

Sometimes, it seems like SEO is just a buzzword in the digital space.

But it’s actually a very important piece of your digital marketing strategy puzzle.

Determining how to scale your SEO and what will work best for your business is a large key to your success.

Spend time establishing this at the beginning of your strategy creation and continue to revisit it and make adjustments as you grow.

Step 8: Optimize Your Conversion Rate

Once you get your audience on your page, there are a few things you can do to optimize your conversion rate and increase their odds of finalizing their purchase.

  • Try an on-page timer: Some people are more likely to buy if they feel like the deal has a time limit on it.
  • Location detection: Personalize their experience depending on their geographical location’s preferences.
  • Optimize check-out process: No one likes a difficult purchasing process. Make it easy for them to spend their money on your page!
  • Add pictures of real people: Call it peer pressure but people love to do things that other people are doing. Feature pictures of real people enjoying your product to help convince your audience to make a purchase.
  • Install a heat map on your website: This is more for you to know what parts of your landing pages are working and which aren’t. A heat map will tell you where your audience is focusing their attention and where they’re clicking on your page.

Step 9: Create a Clear Customer Journey

It won’t matter how great your digital marketing strategy is if you make it impossible to know where to go to purchase your product.

Work hard to get people on your landing page. Determine which type of digital marketing will work best with your audience.

Does your audience seem to mostly come from pay-per-click ads? Or do you need to nurture them a little bit more through quality email marketing, eye-catching social media marketing, or informational content marketing?

Whichever type of marketing resonates with your audience and gets them to put eyes on your landing page is the type that you want to lean into.

Your job isn’t over once you get them to your landing page.

Spend time developing a great landing page with a clear customer journey. Make it easy to understand what you’re selling, why they need it, and how to purchase it.

Why Learn From Me?

If you want to learn how to be the best, you need to learn from the best.

Creating digital marketing strategies is what I love and where I thrive. Just talk to me about it for one minute and you can see how passionate I am about it.

I’ve worked in this field for over 15 years and have implemented over 1,000 successful marketing campaigns for clients like Tony Robbins, Fox, and Morgan Stanley.

These campaigns helped me earn the title of Search Marketer of the Year from Search Engine Land in 2017. My company, Ignite Visibility, has been named an Inc. 5,000 company three times and is one of the leading digital marketing strategy firms in the country.

In addition to the hands-on work I’ve done, I have also taught courses in digital marketing at the University of California San Diego.

In 2022, you can tap into my digital marketing expertise without being a student at UCSD!

My digital course, The Forecaster Method: The Perfect Digital Marketing System, is now available to the public! In this hour-long course, I will go into detail about The Forecaster Method and how you can apply it to your business to start achieving those big goals you’re dreaming of.

Want to take it one step further?

When you join the 2022 Marketing Masters Program, you’ll gain access to The Forecaster Method: The Perfect Digital Marketing System AND an entire library of advanced digital marketing strategy courses that will take your business to the next level.

The best part? As part of the 2022 Marketing Masters Program, I will release a brand-new course every single month designed to keep you at the top of your digital marketing game.

I can’t wait to teach you everything I know about creating digital marketing strategies that work.

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Welcome To John Lincoln Marketing

Welcome to John Lincoln’s personal website. You can learn about John Lincoln’s books, films, book him to speak and contact him. John is directly associated with many of the businesses mentioned on this website and freely discloses this information. 

About the Author

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, one of the top digital marketing agencies in the nation. Ignite Visibility is a 6x  Inc. 5,000 company. Ignite Visibility offers a unique digital marketing program tied directly to ROI with a focus on using SEO, social media, paid media, CRO, email and PR to achieve results. Outside of Ignite Visibility, Lincoln is a frequent speaker and author of the books Advolution, Digital Influencer and The Forecaster Method. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top digital marketers in the industry and was the recipient of the coveted Search Engine Land “Search Marketer of The Year” award. Lincoln has taught digital marketing and Web Analytics at the University of California San Diego since 2010, has been named as one of San Diego’s most admired CEO’s and a top business leader under 40. Lincoln has also made “SEO: The Movie” and “Social Media Marketing: The Movie.” His business mission is to help others through digital marketing.

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