Since the early days of the internet, digital marketing has become exponentially more complicated. Businesses rarely developed a digital marketing strategy back then. Those who did concentrate primarily on websites, banner ads, and email marketing.
You now have access to a plethora of digital marketing channels and platforms. Should you prioritize SEO or PPC? What’s better, blogging or webinars? Email or social media? What’s better, podcasts or video marketing? Which is better, augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR)? What should you spend, and when should you expect to see results? Trying to choose the best options for your brand can be difficult, if not overwhelming.
What you require is a digital marketing strategy.
A well-defined plan assists you in determining the most effective digital marketing strategies for your company and then putting those strategies into action. A digital marketing plan helps you organize your initiatives so that you are constantly connecting with, engaging, and driving your audience to action. A digital marketing business plan allows you to plan ahead of time, collaborate across departments, and integrate your digital marketing for greater impact.
Continue reading to learn the nine steps to creating a digital marketing plan.
What exactly is a digital marketing plan?
It may include, among other things, business objectives, digital strategies to achieve those objectives, competitive landscape analysis, timelines, budgets, digital channels, and more. Consider a digital marketing strategy to be a sort of road map. You know where you want to go, and the plan lays out a specific path for you to take. Your digital marketing efforts will be inefficient and ineffective unless you have a well-defined plan in place. You’ll most likely end up wasting money and failing to make the desired impact.
How to Make a Digital Marketing Strategy
Now, let’s go over the various components of a digital marketing plan, as well as the specific steps to take as you develop your strategy.
1. Establish your digital marketing and business objectives.
Clear, measurable, and achievable digital marketing plan objectives assist you in defining precisely what you want to achieve and measure. Be as specific as possible when setting these objectives. Include specific numbers and timeframes that can be used to track your progress. Avoid goals such as increasing lead generation, increasing conversion rates, or improving digital customer experience. Those are a little too hazy. You can’t measure your progress, and it’s unclear what steps you should take to get there. A far more attainable goal would be to double organic search traffic in the next 12 months. This gives you a deadline, a framework for establishing milestone goals, and specific steps to take (optimize your site, create amazing content, and conduct strategic outreach for SEO, etc.). Smart goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) provide clarity on the actions required to achieve those things.
2. Identify audience segments and buyer personas.
To be successful with any digital marketing campaign, you must first understand who you are attempting to reach. Building buyer personas for each segment of your audience can provide you with insights into what types of marketing will be most effective.
Assume you provide IT services. Small businesses with less in revenue may be among your target audience. You could also target large corporations with significant IT requirements. Your buyer personas and marketing strategies will be very different for each of these segments.
Begin by defining the various segments of your target audience. Begin by creating personas for your ideal customer within each segment. Here are 9 great persona examples to get you started.
Your buyer persona information will differ depending on whether you are B2B or B2C, as well as the cost of your product/service. You may want to include the following demographic and additional information: age range, income, job title, location, priorities, goals, challenges, interests, social media platforms, industry, pain points, products/features desired.
The goal of creating personas is to get inside the heads of your target customers and see things through their eyes. When you understand what is most important to them, you can create a digital marketing strategy that addresses both their deep desires and major challenges.
3. Carry out a competitive analysis to determine market share.
If you want your marketing efforts to be effective, you must first understand who your competitors are. A competitive analysis enables you to identify your competitors, calculate your market share, and learn about their marketing strategies.
Consider the following factors when conducting a competitive analysis:
- Which demographics are they aiming for?
- What are your competitors’ digital marketing channels?
- Where are they most powerful?
- Where are they most vulnerable?
- What percentage of their traffic is earned, owned, or paid?
- What is their market positioning?
- What is their ostensible difference?
- What kind of messaging and language do they employ?
- What is the tone and personality of their brand?
A comprehensive competitive landscape analysis will provide you with insights into how you can use online marketing to outperform your competitors. For example, you may realize that your competitors’ positioning and differentiation are well understood, so you will benefit from crystallizing your own in contrast. Alternatively, you may discover that they excel at social media marketing but fall short when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) performance.
4. Perform a SWOT analysis
A competitive landscape analysis is the inverse of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. It gives you a framework for analyzing your business within the context of your market. It enables you to identify what works and what doesn’t, identify potential organic growth opportunities, and prepare for external threats.
Begin by assessing your company’s strengths. What are your primary competitive advantages? What are you particularly good at? What one-of-a-kind resources do you have at your disposal?
Next, consider your flaws. What aspects of your business aren’t performing well? What factors are preventing you from making sales? Where do you lag behind your competitors?
The third step is to carefully examine the opportunities that are available to your company. Are there any market trends that you can capitalize on? Can you take advantage of new technology that your competitors cannot? Is there a demographic in your audience that is underserved?
Finally, make a list of any potential threats to your company. Is it possible for a competitor to take market share? Is there anything impeding your progress? Are there any financial concerns on the horizon?
Next, consider your flaws. What aspects of your business aren’t performing well? What factors are preventing you from making sales? Where do you lag behind your competitors?
The third step is to carefully examine the opportunities that are available to your company. Are there any market trends that you can capitalize on? Can you take advantage of new technology that your competitors cannot? Is there a demographic in your audience that is underserved?
Finally, make a list of any potential threats to your company. Is it possible for a competitor to take market share? Is there anything impeding your progress? Are there any financial concerns on the horizon?
The information gleaned from your SWOT analysis will aid in the creation of your digital marketing strategy. Your strategy should capitalize on your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, seize opportunities, and avoid potential threats as early as possible. All in the name of assisting you in increasing sales.
So in the next blog, I will explain to you another step of the setup a marketing plan and continue reading it to get more knowledge about this.
Author – Hiruni Kalinga
