A digital marketing strategy is paramount these days. Simply throwing your money at the screen and hoping for the best never works. (So pick your pennies up.) Being in possession of a must-have product or having a service that blows people’s socks off is only half the battle, the trick is promoting this service throughout the nooks and crannies of the digital world. That’s where a digital marketing strategy comes in.
These strategies are created by businesses of all shapes and sizes, usually fairly early on in the decision-making process. Without one, your super-duper idea may flounder, so it’s best to start as soon as you can. It doesn’t have to be a stressful experience either, as with the right know-how, anyone can make one. Read on for five of our top tips for creating your very own digital marketing strategy.
Tip 1: Figure out what you want
This might sound simple, but it’s often difficult in practice. You need a mission, a purpose, a goal, whatever you fancy calling it. Without one, you might as well be shouting into the void.
Set your objective
What are you hoping to achieve? Do you want more sales or exposure? Are you hoping to reach a different demographic? Write these down and find out which one matters to you and your business. The first step to success is charting your course.
Get specific with KPIs
Your Key Performance Indicators should be relatively straightforward once you have your overall objective. For example, if your aim is to increase exposure, measure the amount of site traffic you receive month-on-month and aim for an average percentage increase. You can use Google Analytics to track these and create goals within analytics too if necessary.
Use the past as a guide
Your KPIs may be great, but make sure you’re using previous data as a guide as well. There’s no point shooting for the moon straight away if you can’t build a rocket, so work your way up based on past performance to set a realistic, achievable goal. It’ll also provide a better timeframe for managers/directors at your company.
Tip 2: Source platforms that matter to you
There are plenty of platforms out there that aid with promotion, whether you want to shout from the rooftops with Facebook advertising or use PPC to promote your services on search engines. Once you have your objectives and KPIs, deciding how to achieve these is often difficult.
Our best advice is to look at what has worked before and prioritise that in your new campaign. You may have a channel that brings in more revenue compared to others, so you should start with that. Leave room for experimentation with other platforms as well though, as that’s often where the nice surprises happen. Here are a few of our favourites:
Tip 3: Define your target audience
Now that you’ve set your objective and chosen your platforms, you should work on defining a target audience. Start off with your ideal customer. Who are they? What do they do for a living? How does your business or product help them or improve their life? The audience report in Google Analytics could help with this, or you could try Facebook’s Audience Insights tool if your business is already on the platform.
This step is important, as the audience should be the backbone of your marketing strategy. They’re what give your KPIs purpose. It’s important to be as specific as you can with your audience. Base them on data, as your ideal customer may not be the character that you have in your head.
Tip 4: Stick to your budget
This is an important one. All too often we see lofty marketing goals hampered by the lack of available budget. Unfortunately, in this business, money definitely does matter, but how you use it is equally as important. An overall budget should be defined and split between the previously selected platforms. This should be prioritised based on past data from your advertising channels, or if no data is available, on the platforms that suit your business.
Your staff should also be taken into consideration. The budget doesn’t just include monetary value, it also includes time spent on the campaign. You may need to outsource work as a result if you truly wish to capitalise on your strategy, which we can help with.
Tip 5: Don’t be afraid of change
Our fifth and final tip just might be the most important one. You can’t plan for everything. No matter how good your digital marketing strategy is, changes should be made on the fly. It’s good practice to plan your campaigns out by year and divide the year into quarters with your overall aims at the forefront. (Though this doesn’t work for everyone.) Either use a templated spreadsheet or a task management tool like Asana to do this. That way, you can easily make changes to ideas that just aren’t working as well as they should be.
For further advice and guidance regarding digital marketing campaigns and services, please contact the team at Colewood. Your business might just need a push in the right direction.
