A step-by-step guide to build a digital marketing strategy
A step-by-step guide to build a digital marketing strategy
A solid digital marketing strategy sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Here’s how to create your own.
Table of Contents
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing refers to any marketing that uses electronic devices or technology to convey branded content, sponsored communications, or promotional messages to a potential consumer. A digital marketing strategy can refer to marketing campaigns on any device including a computer, phone, or tablet. Your digital marketing can take many forms including; email, social media, website content, digital coupons, digital rewards apps or programs, online videos, and more.
To read more about the Digital Marketing, check out What is digital marketing and what are its types? article.
Why should my business be digital marketing?
Today, more than ever, people are living the majority of their days online. If you’re not targeting consumers where they spend most of their time. You’re missing out on a major opportunity to place your product or brand in front of potential buyers’ eyes.
Some digital marketing statistics:
- 75% of Americans are online daily
- 26% of Americans report being online “almost constantly”
- 69% of marketers invested in search engine optimization (SEO) in 2021
- On average, Americans have access to over 10 devices in their home at any time
To read more about the relationship between Digital Marketing and small businesses, check out Why digital marketing is important for small businesses? article.
What can be included in a digital marketing strategy?
- Content Marketing: Including blog posts, articles, and other website content that educates your audience about your product or industry.
- Social Media Marketing: Includes the creation of a branded presence across any social media platform (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok)
- Pay-per-Click Marketing (PPC): Posting a paid ad on a platform that costs money anytime a consumer clicks on it. These ads are most commonly posted through Google or Facebook advertising platforms.
- Affiliate Marketing: A revenue sharing model where those who promote a business are paid a kickback in profits from purchases or clicks on a link.
- Email Marketing: Marketing to an audience using a newsletter, promotional emails, or other forms of emails.
- SEO Marketing: This is the process of optimizing a website to appear higher in search engine (Google) results. SEO makes your business easier to find when potential customers are searching for companies like yours.
Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Digital Marketing Strategy:
1. Define your target audience
Create a target audience that includes where your ideal customer may be spending their time online (online shopping sites, lifestyle websites, preferred social media platforms, etc.)
2. Set your end goals
You can’t create a digital marketing strategy without some clear goals of what you’d like to achieve for your business.
– Are you looking to increase engagement with your brand?
– Do you want to position your business as a thought leader in your field?
– Would you like to increase profits through online advertising?
Considering your end goals will make it easier to tailor your digital marketing strategy to that vision.
3. Create a list of your strategy channels
Select from the below tactics to build a digital marketing strategy for your business. Consider how much time, money, and ability is currently on your team to execute any (or all) of the below strategies. You may also want to hire expert contractors or freelancers to complete the work for your business (Fiverr, Upwork, part-time or casual employee).
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- PPC Marketing
- SEO Marketing
4. Create long-term & short-term plans
Now that you’ve decided on your preferred digital marketing strategies, break out what you’d like to achieve for each in a long-term (1 year) and short-term (quarterly) period. It will help you to hone in on exactly what you should be aiming to complete within the quarter to achieve your annual goals.
For example, your digital marketing strategy may set these goals:
Annual:
– Increase traffic to the blog section of the website by 100%.
– Increase inbound leads via sales page by 33%.
– Increase email database by 50% subscriptions.
– Increase overall sales of products by 25% as a result of marketing strategies.
– Create a social media marketing strategy.
Quarterly:
– Publish 1 x 1000-word articles monthly to the blog section of the website.
– Update all content on the website to have better SEO keywords.
– Hire x1 content marketing expert to assist with other strategies.
– Write x1 educational email newsletter and x3 promotional emails per quarter to the current email database.
– Begin branded content on two social media platforms that are targeted to key audiences.
5. Track your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
When you set your goals from the outset of your digital marketing strategy, you must be able to measure that progress. Monitor KPIs that are impactful to your branded content strategy (such as several email database subscribers) over time. KPIs and metrics are a great way to make sure that you’re going to hit your long-term goals. Social media marketing makes it incredibly easy to monitor metrics and data on almost any platform that you publish branded content too.
6. Tweak your strategy over time
Be flexible and pivot your strategy depending on the successes (or failures) that you’re seeing. Don’t be afraid to double down on your strategies that are working and to try something new if you find something else isn’t working.
Conclusion
A digital marketing strategy can be as simple or as complicated as you (and your team) make it. Leverage the skills that you already have, use the internet to research additional strategies, and stay true to yourself and your business! The real secret to effective digital marketing is to remain genuine and authentic in your communications at all times.
Related Posts
