Does the picture to the left look confusing?

If it does, hopefully by the time you’re done reading this article it should all make sense.

So often when marketers are creating their online marketing strategy, they focus on the individual platforms and their functions. In a way this is good, if you have multiple people specializing in different disciplines of online marketing.

But if you’re like most of us, getting wrapped up in one platform will actually hurt you more than it will help you.

Spin your web in 5 minutes (or less)

What you see in the picture above is an example of my strategy map template.

This is the first thing I do when a new client signs a contract.

The focus of the strategy map template is not to break down how you’ll use each platform, but rather how each platform uses each other.

In the example above, try not to focus on the boxes, but rather the arrows that are connecting the boxes to each other.

Find your focal point

Every strategy map template needs to have a point that is clearly the place that drives the most people. For some strategies it might be a social media platform, for others it might be a web page that ranks high for a targeted keyword. Try not to get caught up so much in what the “right” focal point is, but rather focus on where you’re already the strongest.

In the example above, the focus point is an email marketing campaign. This is for two reasons:

1. The brand’s current email list has over 3,000 subscribers
2. The brand collects emails at the register.

Because email is the strongest asset in this brand’s online presence, this is the beginning of our strategy map template.

Know your outposts

Where will people be spending the most time with you?

Once you have your focal point, use that to direct people to the other places you have a presence.

The key here is to make sure that your presence in each place is unique. Try and avoid certain redundancies. Let each platform tell a different piece of your story.

In other words don’t post the exact same thing on every platform you’re on. Know the purpose of each platform, and stick to it.

Keep it Light

Remember, the point of the strategy map template is not to get into detail. You can do that later. Just get a brief overview each platform’s role in telling it’s piece of the story and where it’s going to direct people.

In the example from above, email is going to be the most frequent point of contact with new people. It introduces them to a free 18 week video course (hosted on youtube, updated weekly), a weekly update from the blog, new pictures from the flickr community, and contains links to the Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr page.

The purpose of the email is to direct members of it’s list to other places on the web where the brand has a presence as well as inform about special offers.

Depending on where a person goes from this email, they’re going to get a different piece of the brand’s story.

Facebook is used for general service, brand interaction, media posting, and buzz building. It will be updated on a daily basis and will be used to learn more about brand’s s. The Facebook ad platform will be used to gather psychographic information about s to learn how the brand can be useful to it’s target market. Facebook will also host content from the blog, flickr, youtube, and any site the brand guest posts on.

Youtube used for hosting the 18 week video course and video blogs. Videos will be titled and tagged to attract people searching for related keywords and will have subtitles and links in description to other places on the web. Videos will be updated 2-3 times a week between video blogs and course videos.

Blog- used to host detailed step by step instructions for projects that can not be demonstrated simply over video or require more thought. Also a place to host video blogs (but not free 18 week course) Blog will also be used to give product reviews and sell affiliate products as well as give a behind the scenes view to the company. Blog will promote sign up for email list and posts will be written to target niche key-phrases to attract local relevant to the business.

Once you’ve designed your strategy map template, create a master document that gives an overview of what all the pieces do and how the different platforms work together.

Next you’ll want to drill down the specifics of each platform, but we’ll save that for another time.