DIY Digital Marketing: What You Can Do Yourself (and What You Can’t)

*Updated 3/2/2023

DIY-ing digital marketing is one of those things that seems like an easy solution, especially when you are tight on funds. It’s also one of those things you will quickly realize is not a one-person project.

Have you ever started a home project (for instance, suddenly deciding to finish your basement single-handedly) telling yourself that yes, it will take longer and be a lot of work to do yourself, but it is definitely doable and worth the savings?

Then almost a year in, you can’t believe how much time it is taking and can’t imagine how saving any amount of money is worth this kind of aggravation? At last, you swallow your pride, calling in the experts to clean up your mess and get the project over the finish line.

Think of DIY digital marketing like that.

Sure, you can pull off a few tasks and save some money doing them yourself. But when it comes to project management, complicated installations, quality of work, and huge time savings (not to mention sanity), calling in the pros is more than worth it.

Still, thinking about it? That’s fine, but it’s important to set realistic expectations before taking on DIY digital marketing, so Big Leap is about to answer some key questions to help you out:

• What projects can you and your in-house marketing team realistically take on?
• When do you need to bring in a digital marketing expert?
• What are the dangers of DIY digital marketing gone wrong?
• How do you find high-quality digital marketing help?

This article might also be of some help, particularly for those considering hiring freelance assistance: In-House vs. Outsourced Digital Marketing: Pros and Cons.

PART ONE

DIY Digital Marketing Essentials Any Marketing Team Can Handle

Good news: you don’t need to outsource everything. There are plenty of digital marketing tasks you can handle on your own to save marketing budget.

Here’s our list of digital marketing essentials just about any marketing team can handle:

1. Set up digital marketing analytics and accounts.

• Create social media accounts wherever your target audience resides.
• Sign up for Google Analytics to measure your advertising ROI and track your social networking sites and applications.
• Sign up for Google Search Console to measure your site’s search traffic and performance, fix issues, and increase your SERP ranking.

2. Devise your overall marketing strategy.

• Build buyer personas that reflect your ideal customer.
• Identify your marketing goals and point them back to your business goals.
• Evaluate your existing digital channels (website, blog content, imagery, social shares, Google Ads, etc.).
• Audit and plan your owned media campaigns (product descriptions, ebooks, podcasts, About Us site, etc.).
• Audit and plan your earned media campaigns (where your traffic and leads are coming from, etc.).
• Audit and plan your paid media campaigns (Facebook ads, Google Ads, etc.).
• Use an SEO roadmap template to track your progress and help plan future work.
• Bring together all the pieces and solidify a coherent, doable, budget-friendly strategy. HINT: You can always use an outside expert, like Big Leap, to execute and refine your strategy if you want a second opinion.

3. Get your brand listed and mentioned on major review sites.

• Set up a profile (or ensure your current info is correct) on general review sites like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook and ask your customers for reviews.
• Utilize industry-specific review sites like Clutch (for B2B), Houzz, and 1-800 DENTIST.

4. Analyze your competition.

• Determine your competitors and the products they offer.
• Research your competitors’ pricing, sales tactics, and results.
• Learn your competition’s marketing/content strategy and the tools they use.
• Perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.

5. Choose your digital marketing tools.

For free, affordable, and expert recommendations, refer to Big Leap’s free Digital Marketing Tool Kit.

• Your preferred keyword research tool
• Your website analytics source
• A content management system (CMS)
• An email marketing tool
• A social media manager with scheduling and analytics
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software

When DIY Digital Marketing Doesn’t Cut It

Does seeing even just the DIY-able digital marketing tasks give you a reality check? Well, here’s another one: it only gets harder from here.

If you choose to keep doing it yourself, these roadblocks lie directly ahead:

• An intense learning curve as you familiarize yourself with the digital marketing landscape
• A big monetary investment as you invest in the must-have tools for gathering data and building effective strategies
• A huge pile of work as you execute numerous paid and organic marketing campaigns to connect with your audience repeatedly
• Unpredictable algorithm updates and shifts in best practices that require you to pivot fast

And one more factor to consider: time. While you experiment with techniques and try to find the ideal strategy for selling your products to your audience, (at least) one of your competitors is using digital marketing experts to get ahead.

Unlock Part Two

Learn what digital marketing experts can do for you when you leave the DIY lane. It’s a deep dive into what the pros bring to your efforts in SEVEN different categories.

Submit your email info below to gain immediate access to what you can expect when you move beyond DIY digital marketing.