Digital marketing is made up of so many working parts: blogs, content marketing, social media, online channels and platforms to anywhere your brand appears online.
An average business professional sends and receives an incredible 121 emails per day. Your digital marketing strategy is how you’re going to stand out among those numbers.
So where to from here?
Let’s look at how to improve your digital marketing. Follow these suggestions to define marketing strategies and take charge of your marketing.
How to Define Marketing Strategies 101
Before we dig into the details, let’s take a quick overlook at your digital marketing strategy and what it should cover.
A marketing strategy is about a company’s goals and objectives, it’s the comprehensive plan of how your company is going to get from A to B successfully with a good return on investment.
A great marketing strategy is based upon extensive market research and built on that foundation. The same can be said for a digital marketing strategy.
Your business will have a broad marketing strategy that covers everything from websites to business cards, your digital marketing strategy focuses on the digital environment and how your brand interacts with and creates optimized leads online.
Putting it plainly, your digital marketing strategy should be designed to promote your business and its products so that you can make a profit.
Strategy Before Plan
The important thing to remember is that a strategy becomes before your plan. Your strategy is your ideas, your motives, your objectives and goals all rolled into one.
Your marketing plan is the tactical elements of how you’re going to get this done. Your digital marketing plan will include the platforms your brand will be engaging on, the actual ways in which you’ll be promoting your services online. This plan will detail your content plan, the blog topics you’ll be writing on and an extensive level of detail for implementation.
Focus On the Outline of Your Strategy
We’re talking about the higher-level outline of your strategy here.
When building on your digital marketing strategy, you need to focus on a few key elements.
What are your goals and objectives? What do you want your business to achieve through its digital marketing efforts? These elements need to be included in your overall strategy.
If you’re after increased brand awareness, this will affect the platforms you choose to use. But if you’re after increased sales and lead generation, the platform you choose to use might differ. This all depends on the market research you’ve done in the initial phases.
For example, you’d be looking at a certain geographical location that might not have many Facebook users, so you’d choose an alternative channel to communicate with your target audience.
It’s always a good idea to talk to the team within your business. Ask them questions about their interactions with current and potential customers. Ask them about the questions they’ve been asked, and their experiences from receiving the lead to closing the sale. The information they give you will most likely give you insight into how you would build your digital marketing strategy.
The Characteristics of a Marketing Strategy
There are things to be mindful of when building your strategy from the ground up. Your marketing strategy needs to tick certain boxes so that you, as the business owner or leader, can accurately determine if the strategy is working or needs to be evolved.
Your marketing strategy needs to be realistic and achievable. You cannot base a marketing strategy on figures and numbers pulled from thin air. Your goals and objectives should be documented and then given realistic deadlines that you’re able to monitor throughout that time.
If your digital marketing strategy is not performing to standard, then you know that something needs to be changed.
Make sure that each section of your marketing strategy is measurable, however you choose to do it. If you’re after an increased online engagement, then give it a percentage that you would like to achieve. If you’re after increased sales, then give this goal a monetary figure that you can monitor success against.
Prioritize Your Brand
This part is important. You need to have someone spearheading the strategy.
Wherever your brand or business is going to appear, it needs to keep to your brand’s personality and guidelines. The only way you’re going to keep your communication and branding at an above-average standard is if you have someone taking charge of the strategy and plan from the beginning.
Someone who is monitoring the platforms and outcomes to ensure that brand uniformity is kept solid across all collateral.
Branding forms such a large part of marketing as a whole. Your logo, your brand identity and the way in which your customer remembers you is paramount to the continued success of your marketing strategy.
Ensure that branding is placed as a priority at every level throughout your marketing plan.
If you’re launching a social media campaign then images, videos, and content need to be in the same voice, tone, and colors that your brand would be found inside your office for example.
If you’re launching a PPC campaign (Pay Per Click) as part of your digital marketing campaign, then your brand’s voice needs to be prevalent in every single advert.
Diving Into Your Marketing Strategy
Headfirst is the only way to go. But be realistic about your marketing strategy journey. There will be bumps in the road and there will be things that don’t work out.
Remember, that as long as each fact of your marketing strategy is measurable and realistic, then any element can be adapted and evolved to perform the way in which you’d like it to.
Define marketing strategies. Then define your marketing plan and tactics, and just go for it.
If you need more business advice, head on over to the business section of my blog for more great articles.
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