What To Include In A Digital Marketing Strategy

Beginning a digital marketing campaign requires a strategy. Without one, you won’t have the foundation to build a successful campaign that generates the results you want. A plan is the building block that helps define your goals, your measuring metrics, your approach and your adaptation. It also helps with what to avoid, so you don’t waste your time or money.

Here is what you should include in your digital marketing strategy.

Setting Your Objective

You can’t launch your digital marketing campaign if you don’t have a solid foundation on where to start. That’s why your strategy must define your business’ overall mission/objective first and how your digital marketing fits into your grand plan.

Consider how investing in particular strategies and services will help you achieve your overall mission. For example, do you want to position your business as a go-to online provider for manufacturer wiring? If so, you might need SEO to help you dominate your industry. Want to display the benefits of visiting your doggy daycare? Social media marketing is crucial in that aspect.

To see if your campaign is successful, make sure you set up KPIs. That way, you have something that you can compare it to when it launches.

Set your objective and define your KPIs to meet them. Only then will you be able to continue with your digital marketing campaign.

Analyze Your Past Mistakes (& Prepare For Future Ones)

You would have no doubt made mistakes in the past when promoting your business. So we hope you learnt from them so that you can incorporate them into your strategy. Make a note of what you did wrong and how you did it, and then include them into the plan.

But that doesn’t mean you should stop there. You should also make the time to ensure that you analyze your new digital marketing campaign when it launches. You can do it quarterly, yearly, bi-yearly, or monthly. It’s something that digital marketing agencies do when analyzing their clients, so you can follow suit.

To do it, check your KPIs, and see if you’ve reached them. Think about what you can do to improve your campaign. Yes, this is something that you won’t actually do until your campaign is launched, but it is something that you should prepare for.

Remember Your Audience (aka Your Customers)

Remember who you are reaching out to – your audience. Too often, digital marketers do not include how they plan to connect with customers, and that becomes a problem when the campaign fails.

You already know who your audience is, so build your plan around them. Do your research on how you plan to relate with them, what they like and how it is best to reach them. Does Facebook work or email marketing? Are they professionals that use LinkedIn or millennials that enjoy the quick tweets of Twitter? Do phone calls help build better relationships or only emails?

You have to really go to another level of research to determine all this, and only then, can you ensure that you reach your audience on an effective and consistent level.

You’re going to put your audience at the heart of your digital marketing strategy by connecting your KPIs, objectives and budget to them.

Setting Your Budget

It is crucial to take stock of your resources to determine what you can afford when it comes to your digital marketing campaign. You have to compare what you can afford against to what you want to achieve. It might be challenging to manage both, but it is an essential part of the process. Is there a way to do this? Yes, there is…

• Research the average cost of digital marketing agencies and services and how much you’ll expect to pay. Also, see what you will get in terms of results, so you know the ROI.

• Look at the historical data of what has worked before, and how you can compare it to what you can afford. For example, does investing in one particular service mean better results than others? Relate it to your KPIs and objectives.

• Allocate specific funds to specific digital marketing channels. Example: Put $500 a month in Google Ads and a $1000 on SEO. Spread it out across so you know what works and what doesn’t.

• Consider leaving some extra money on the side in case of changes. Maybe you need to change the direction of your strategies mid-way through the campaign, or some extra funds might be needed to boost your channels. In some cases, if specific channels aren’t working, re-invest the allocated budget figure into the channel that’s bringing you the best results.

Identity The Key Digital Marketing Services

With a solid foundation of KPIs, your overall objectives and audiences, you can now determine which digital marketing strategies work best for your business. Here are the most commonly available services:

• Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short)

• Social Media Marketing, Management & Advertising

• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (also known as Google Ads)

• Content Marketing

• Remarketing

• Email Marketing

• Website Design

Remember that you don’t need all the services to be successful. Depending on your current status, your online reputation and your budget, you can narrow down what you need to be successful and to achieve your overall marketing goals.

Stick To The Plan (& Change When Necessary)

If you’ve done enough research, you don’t need to divert from your plan – you need to stick to it!

Too often, business owners try to change from the plan right away. That’s the wrong way to go about it. Time and patience are required to see results happen. It could take weeks or months, especially in the digital sphere.

Not every assumption you make is going to be correct, and not everything you plan will work like clockwork. Things will change as time goes on, but if you continuously measure and monitor the performance of your digital marketing strategy and change elements where needed, you can achieve your online objectives.