No doubt you’ve heard the term “Digital Marketing Strategy.” It is likely the reason you came to this page. The question then is, what is a strategy? And how can it help your digital marketing efforts?
The truth is, if you’re putting any effort into digital marketing, it needs to have a strategy behind it to mean anything in the long run. Having a thorough strategy in place helps to define individual goals & objectives, making them achievable milestones for your business to reach.
A marketing strategy is a plan for reaching specific marketing goals in a focused and achievable manner. It considers the methods currently performing well and highlights gaps where achieving the objective is falling short, overall assisting you with setting achievable targets to reach your goals.
Think of strategy as a plan for your marketing activities. Your strategy should seek to achieve each objective by making use of the various digital marketing tools, such as:
- SEO
- Paid Advertisement (Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube)
- Content Marketing (Blogs, Articles, Emails)
- Host Podcasts
- Publish & Share Content (Visual – photos & videos)
- Organic Content & Posting (Social Media)
Ultimately, you unify all of these areas into a single driving force, by defining overall goals and calculating how activity in specific areas can help you reach them.
The purpose of your strategy is to serve as a framework to which you refer to, report on and measure against all of your marketing activities. Your strategy should be unique to your business, helping you achieve what matter most to your business.
Any company-related strategic plan should be based upon thorough knowledge of both the business and the marketplace in which it operates. These areas are not always the first focus when considering your business’s goals, but having a true understanding of them is critical to your company’s success. Here are some questions to help you gain an in-depth understanding of your business;
- What does your Business do?
- Who are you competitors?
- How does your Business differ from X competitor?
- What does your current customer base look like?
- What are the current strengths & challenges for your business?
- What is your understanding of the industry you’re operating in?
Setting the bar high and aiming for the stars is what drives a business forward. Reaching those goals is what makes a business successful. Your digital marketing strategy should outline your specific goals. Before you create a roadmap to achieve them, you need to define them.
Different businesses have different goals, a set percentage increase in revenue, to lower product manufacturing & shipment times, increase conversation rates, grow your brand exposure and overall business growth are among a few of the most common. With a vast range of targets and goals, it’s within your best interests to get as specific as you can to make these clear goals to achieve.
Key areas to focus on when settings your goals can help clarify the true intent behind the goal;
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – measuring your progress towards any goal is key to achieving it.
- Timeline – Having a set time to achieve targets can not only help the overall goal, but also keep momentum when additional drive may be needed.
- Primary & secondary goals – Allowing for continual focus & drive whilst achieving maximum output.
- Budget – Much like KPIs, knowing how much you have to spend is key to being profitable & generating revenue.
Once you’ve determined your objectives and figured out how much money you’re willing to spend, you can devise the strategies you need to reach your goals. When you initially set your goals, take time to consider the process as a whole. That way, tracking your progress will be easier and you’ll have a list of next steps to help keep you on track.
Having an overall plan of action will not only help with day-to-day tasks & jobs to complete, it also provides long-term insight as to how you’re going to achieve your goals from your current position. Providing in-depth details as to each individual portion of your strategy, your plan helps to align these into a single driving motion.
Your plan of action should contain specifics such as blog titles, post numbers, proposed schedule dates, content selections and so on. A step-by-step guide to each individual branch of your strategy if you will.
Below we’ve highlighted our key services and which areas we think about when crafting a strategy;
Posting organically & engaging with your audience across social media is amongst the most common methods used by businesses today when looking to branch out online. But what groups are you sharing your content with? What style of content are you creating? Which platforms will achieve the furthest reach to your demographic? What times are most effective on which platforms?
Incorporating SEO into any long-term digital strategy is beneficial. Staying current with techniques and adapting your strategy as needed is key to achieving long-term positive return. A combination of keywords, structured and well-optimized content, and a strong digital presence will see search-engine optimization effectively become one of the cornerstones of your marketing strategy.
So you’re utilising SEO, you’ve got blogs on the go and you’re posting like mad on all of your social platforms, but you’re just not satisfied with the traffic? Paid ads can instantly provide a targeted influx of traffic to your desired platform, web page or blog post – the powers are endless. Controlling that power to yield a positive return, that’s where your plan of action comes into play.
Content will inevitably be used and published across your business, specifically your digital marketing channels. Having an organised plan that covers each piece of content, it’s purpose and the intended goal will make each blog post, picture and article more valuable. Having a solid content marketing plan in place also aids with utilising content and making the most of it, having one piece of content work it’s magic in several locations to a range of audiences, for example.
Now you’re moving forwards, you’re checking in on your plan and keeping everything in order. How do you know if you’re strategy is working?
Looking back through analytic data and identifying key performance indicators against time-frames & goal achievements is essentially how It’s done. Along with working out associated costs & budget, the overall achievement of goals is the indicator of choice for most. Drilling down through KPIs help identify when goals have not been achieved, allowing for in-depth analysis of your plans and any changes to be made accordingly. Is the purpose behind a strategy starting to become clear now?
Working with larger marketing agencies will often include regular monitoring statistics provided digitally or discussed over a meeting – these are a key indicator as to the success rate of a campaign and overall return on investment.
Yearly, monthly and weekly reporting all serve their place in most modern-day marketing strategies. It’s important to have a thorough understanding of performance to accurately align expectations of your return from any campaign, and to identify where you’re seeing the most return.
