In recent years, the number of people utilising the internet and devoting significant amounts of time to it has risen. Due to the development in digital presence, a lot of marketing efforts are now focused online.
What is a digital marketing strategy?
A digital marketing plan describes the different ways that a company can establish an online presence through platforms like social media, paid search, organic search, and other web-based mediums like websites. Digital marketing initiatives are designed to raise brand awareness and draw in new clients for businesses.
A digital marketing strategy is, to put it simply, a process that involves marketing actions a business takes to establish an online presence. This is accomplished via a variety of strategies, including paid advertising, social media, and organic search. These tactics have two objectives: to make the company more visible and to attract new clients.
No matter what business you’re in, digital marketing is vital. If you want to build your business, you need to know how to compose a working digital marketing strategy. We have put together this guide for your business or brand.
How to craft a Digital Marketing Strategy
Every business is different, so there’s no single formula for coming up with an effective digital marketing strategy. However, there are a few key steps that all businesses should follow:
1. Thorough market and competitor research
Going into a field without understanding what has been done, what is being done, and what will be done in the future in that field is not advised. The initial step in your digital marketing strategy plan should be research because it is very crucial. Keep an eye out for rival businesses, see what they’re doing, how they’re getting results, where they’re falling short and how you can improve it for yours, what social media platforms they’re using, etc. How can you distinguish yourself from competition if you are unaware of what is available?
2. Set objectives, goals and unique selling points
After conducting the research, you need to set business goals and objectives for the strategy you are putting together. What do you aim to achieve? Where do you want your business to be in 6 months? How much do you want to make in sales at the end of the year? How many customers do you want to serve? Ensure these goals and objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bounded. When you have your goals and objectives spelt out, it helps keep you on your toes because you’re constantly reminded of what you need to achieve within a particular time. Remember to have your unique selling points ready. What does your business have that your competitors do not have? What makes your business different from what is already existing? These are questions that will help you determine the unique selling points of your business.
3. Define the target audience
Now you have carried out comprehensive research, you have your objectives and unique selling points. Do you know the buyer persona? Do you understand your customer behavior? Whom are you selling to? Who are your potential customers? Who needs your product or service? Where are these people? Where can you find them? What do they do? Where do they work? What do they need? How can you help them? What will be the customer perception of your product or service? Who is your ideal customer? These are questions you should answer when figuring out who your target audience is. If you don’t know who needs your product or service, how do you know where to find them and how to sell to them? You can also include this step in your research phase.
4. How will you achieve these goals and objectives?
The fourth step is very crucial. So, you know whom you need to sell to and where to find him or her. How do you use the information you have gathered to achieve the goals and objectives in step 2? Let’s look at the GSOT strategy framework.
Goals: these are things you want to achieve on a high scale. For example, you want 100 email newsletter sign-ups
Strategy: this is what you will do to achieve your goals. You can focus on any of the following stages: awareness, interest, desire or action.
Objectives: are measurable numbers connected to your goals. For example, you want 100 email newsletter sign-ups by the end of September 2022.
Tactics: this works in hand with your objectives. For example, you need 100 email newsletter sign-ups by the end of September 2022. Your tactic can be to run a social media ad.
One of the most important things in composing a digital marketing strategy is setting a clear strategy. By having a strategy, you can focus more attention on other wings of your business.
Additionally, digital marketing is an ever-changing field; there is always something new you can add. However, part of having a successful digital marketing strategy is knowing what you should be doing, and that often comes back to having a clear strategy.
5. What marketing channels will you use?
If you did a good job of researching your target market, you should be aware of the marketing channels you can use to connect with them and the kind of content that will resonate with them. Don’t discard any marketing or digital marketing channels just yet; list them all and choose the ones you think will assist you meet your goals and objectives based on your target audience. You must use the right channels because one digital marketing tool is unable to satisfy all of your plan’s requirements. Integrated marketing communication can help in this situation. IMC, or integrated marketing communication, is the process of using marketing technologies that are suitable for your company. You may be directed to email marketing and email with some IMC technologies.
6. Create marketing materials
The next step is to create a library for your marketing materials. You understand your target market and what they need, so now it’s time to produce various types of content for use in your marketing initiatives. This will help you to keep your campaigns fresh, engaging, and relevant to your audience. Just like content marketing, this library will contain content marketing assets like videos, pictures, infographics, blog content, logo, copies, content calendar, captions, templates etc. and also when and where to publish them. Remember to include calls to action in your content. Envato Elments is one of the best resources for content marketing assets.
7. Set key performance indicators
Most times, business owners invest time and resources into their businesses without a clear plan for measuring results. This can lead to frustration and a feeling of wasted effort. To avoid this, you need to make sure that you have a solid understanding of what success looks like for your business and put together a plan for tracking progress along the way. Everything you do concerning your business should have a key performance indicator, this acts as a measuring scale for your business’s success. At every point, know what you want to achieve, how to achieve it and the determinants for whether it is a success or not. For example, the KPI for your monthly email newsletters could be the click-open rate, and what you want to achieve could be a 20% increase in the click-open rate. Another example of a measurable goal is checking how much organic traffic your online channels are getting.
8. Execute the plan with recent trends in mind
The old saying goes “the devil is in the details”, and when it comes to digital marketing and user-generated content, that couldn’t be truer. If you’re not executing your content plan perfectly, you’ll likely find that the results you’re getting aren’t what you were hoping for. Paying attention to the small steps and making sure they’re being carried out correctly is crucial to the success of your digital marketing strategy. Remember to hop on meaningful trends you feel can benefit your business. For example, social media managers started a hashtag trend in 2021 during the Met gala called #Memethemet as a content strategy and promotional content. They used pictures from the Met gala to create funny content on social networks around social media management and it became a viral sensation. Put your ears on the ground, when there is something positive trending, look for a way to create personalized content with it for your business.
9. Re-evaluate and adjust the plan when needed
You must stay current as the field of digital marketing is always changing. What made Angela make sales in 2010 might not make them in 2022. What worked yesterday might not make them tomorrow. There are frequently new platforms that require new strategies, so you need to stay on top of things and make sure your actions are in line with your present objectives. It’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t aim to be a master of all channels. Instead, pick the channels that are right for your company, master them, and add other platforms as an add-on. Review your strategy from time to time and assess your social media or marketing strategy. http://marketing
This will inform you more about the areas where you need to work harder as well as about the advantages of the content kinds you choose.
Due to the fact that practically all businesses now use digital marketing strategies on a daily basis, it is difficult to fathom a company operating without one. The next time you go to a company’s website, you’ll see how the digital marketing strategy has permeated the site. This can take the form of social media posts, blogs, internet videos, or even adverts. These are only a few instances of the numerous applications that may be made of digital marketing techniques. You should be aware that your current digital marketing strategy is a crucial component of your business plan and can have an impact on your company’s revenue, leads, and brand recognition. Book A Consultation