Digital Marketing Checklist for Australian Businesses

At-a-glance digital marketing checklist

• Set one primary 90-day goal and a clear numeric target.
• Define your ideal customer, key problems and buying triggers.
• Clarify offers and proof (case studies, reviews, guarantees).
• Fix critical website issues (speed, mobile, UX, trust signals).
• Track conversions end-to-end (GA4 + ads platforms + CRM).
• Build a simple dashboard and check it weekly.
• Have at least one reliable traffic driver (SEO or PPC) in motion.
• Run remarketing to warm audiences across search and social.
• Create bottom-of-funnel content and landing pages that convert.
• Use email nurture for leads not ready to buy yet.
• Standardise lead handling and follow-up in a CRM.
• Test one change at a time (message, audience, offer, page).
• Set channel-specific benchmarks and decision thresholds.
• Review monthly, reallocate budget to highest ROI channels.
• Document next actions and owners for the next two weeks.

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Channel-by-channel checklist

1) Strategy and planning

• Goal: leads, sales or revenue target with timeframe.
• Bottleneck: traffic vs conversion vs follow-up—choose one to fix first.
• Positioning: who you help, the problem, why you are the safe choice.
• Offers: core, entry, and follow-on offers mapped to buyer journey.
• Funnel: awareness → consideration → conversion → retention.
• Resourcing: in-house vs agency, responsibilities and cadence.
• Risk plan: approvals, compliance, seasonality, capacity constraints.

2) Website and conversion

• Speed: pass Core Web Vitals on key templates.
• Clarity: headline, offer, proof and CTA visible above the fold.
• Trust: reviews, case studies, accreditations and guarantees.
• UX: mobile-first forms, click-to-call, clear next steps.
• Landing pages: one intent per page with matching ads/keywords.
• Forms: short, essential fields and thank‑you pages for tracking.
• Legal: privacy, cookies and consent aligned with Australian requirements.

3) SEO essentials

• Technical: indexing, sitemap, robots, HTTPS, no critical errors.
• Keywords: map intent to pages (informational vs commercial).
• On-page: unique titles, meta descriptions and structured headings.
• Content: topics that answer buyer questions and objections.
• Internal links: connect related pages and key funnels.
• Local: Google Business Profile and citations if location-based.
• Measurement: track organic conversions and assisted impact.

4) Google Ads and PPC

• Structure: separate campaigns by intent and match type strategy.
• Keywords: exact/phrase for control; negatives maintained weekly.
• Ads: strong value props, ad extensions, and matching landing pages.
• Bidding: start with maximise conversions or tCPA once you have data.
• Budgets: fund enough clicks to reach statistical significance.
• Tracking: verified conversion actions and enhanced conversions.
• Optimisation: search terms, placements and split tests on-page and ads.

5) Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, etc.)

• Objectives: awareness vs lead gen vs remarketing—choose per ad set.
• Audiences: lookalikes, customer lists, website visitors and engagers.
• Creative: thumb-stopping hooks, clear offer, brand cues in first seconds.
• Landing: fast, specific pages with social proof and low-friction forms.
• Compliance: platform policies, industries and claims reviewed.
• Iteration: test variations of hook, offer, creative and audience.

6) Content marketing

• Calendar: plan topics for awareness, consideration and decision.
• Formats: articles, guides, checklists, calculators, videos and FAQs.
• Distribution: email list, social, partners and remarketing.
• Repurposing: turn one core piece into multiple short formats.
• Attribution: track assists and influenced pipeline, not just last-click.

7) Email marketing and automation

• List hygiene: verified domains (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and segmentation.
• Nurture: 5–7 email sequence for new leads with value and proof.
• Lifecycle: re-engagement, upsell/cross-sell and review requests.
• Forms: double opt-in where required; clear consent on forms.
• Metrics: deliverability, open/click rates, and pipeline created.

8) Analytics, tracking and dashboards

• GA4: events for key actions, thank‑you pages and phone clicks.
• Ads pixels: Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn—verified and deduped.
• UTMs: consistent naming for all paid and partner traffic.
• CRM: lead source, campaign and revenue attribution fields.
• Dashboard: weekly view of CPL, conversion rate and ROI by channel.
• Governance: access control and backup of key assets.

9) Sales process and CRM

• Speed to lead: under 10 minutes for inbound leads.
• Scripts: discovery questions and objection handling aligned to offers.
• Pipelines: clear stages, probabilities and next actions.
• Follow-up: multi-touch (email, phone, SMS) over 14–21 days.
• Feedback loop: sales insights sent back to marketing for messaging.

10) Budget, resourcing and timeline

• Budget model: goal-based (lead target × CPL), not guesswork.
• Cadence: weekly optimisation, monthly review, quarterly reset.
• Resourcing: who writes, designs, builds, measures and decides.
• Decision rules: thresholds for pausing, scaling or changing tests.

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How to use this checklist in 90 days

1. Week 1–2: confirm goal, fix tracking, tighten offers and key pages.
2. Week 3–6: run one controlled PPC or paid social test; publish 2–4 BOFU pages.
3. Week 7–9: expand winners, add remarketing and launch nurture sequence.
4. Week 10–12: assess ROI, reallocate budget, document the next quarter.

Plan my next 90 days

Benchmarks and review cadence (Australia)

Actual numbers vary by industry and offer strength, but these are common starting points to stress-test plans:

• Website conversion rate (lead gen): 1–4% from paid traffic; 2–6% from branded or remarketing.
• Google Ads search CTR: 3–6% for commercial queries; landing page quality influences CPC.
• Meta ads CTR (link): 0.9–1.5% typical; creative and offer drive variance.
• Cost per lead: work backwards from closing rate and revenue per sale to set a viable target.
• Review rhythm: weekly metrics, monthly channel moves, quarterly strategy refresh.

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Common mistakes (and quick fixes)

• No single goal or owner → pick one metric and one owner.
• Tracking gaps → verify GA4, ads conversions and CRM attribution end-to-end.
• Sending traffic to the homepage → use focused landing pages.
• Weak proof → add case studies, reviews and outcomes near CTAs.
• Testing too many things → change one lever per test cycle.
• Stopping too early → wait for statistically useful data before judging.

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