A digital marketing strategy is a component of a larger business plan that details how to achieve the organisation’s overarching business objectives through digital channels.
An effective digital marketing strategy is part of any successful enterprise.
Developing a strategy is one thing, but its execution is at least as crucial.
But given the ever-changing digital landscape, where is the ideal place to begin creating and optimising your strategy?
Learn how to develop a successful digital marketing strategy for your brand by reading on.
What is a strategy for digital marketing?
Digital must inevitably become the cornerstone of your overall marketing strategy.
With an average of 12 touchpoints and two months to convert a consumer from awareness to sale, the majority of touchpoints will be digital.
Although there is no definitive definition of digital marketing strategy, it can be summarised as follows:
A digital marketing strategy is a component of a larger business plan that details how to achieve the organisation’s overarching business objectives through digital channels.
A digital marketing strategy must be tailored to the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the organisation. Included among the fundamental components of a successful strategy are digital channels.
• Audience and regions of interest
• Elements central to the communication of a message
• Budgets.
Specific channels are identified as part of a digital marketing strategy to target the company’s ideal consumers and drive conversions.
These channels may include search engines and social media platforms, but they are not limited to them.
• Email.
•Websites. • Apps.
The identification of channels is only one component of the digital marketing strategy. The second essential component is pertinent and consistent messaging to the target audience.
Digital Strategy Compared to Tactics
Numerous brands have a tendency to conflate strategies and tactics, merging them together.
While both strategy and tactics are essential components of a marketing plan, their definitions and functions are distinct.
As stated previously, a strategy is a component of a larger business plan that helps brands achieve overarching corporate objectives.
In contrast, marketing tactics are deliberate actions that support a larger marketing strategy.
Digital Strategy Examples
While digital marketing strategies for different brands may share similar characteristics, each strategy and its tactics will be unique. Not all strategies are “one size fits all.”
Below are some of the most prevalent digital marketing strategies employed by brands worldwide:
• Cost-per-click (CPC) marketing
• SEO (search engine optimisation)
• Content marketing
• e-commerce; • e-mail marketing; • social media marketing
PPC Marketing
clicks on their ad and is redirected to their website. Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter are the most common PPC platforms.
Depending on the advertiser’s objectives, these two PPC platforms each offer a variety of campaign categories. These may include search and display advertisements.
• Shopping advertisements; • YouTube advertisements
• App ads
• Discover advertisements.
•PerformanceMax. • Additionally
Depending on the brand’s objectives, PPC advertisements can be hyper-targeted to specific audiences or broad-based. PPC is typically used to increase traffic, revenues, and conversions for a brand.
SEO An SEO strategy involves optimising a brand’s website, app, and/or content in order to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
When a brand’s website and content are optimised, it contributes to increased organic (non-paid) search visibility, which ultimately increases website traffic.
SEO is considered a long-term strategy, and although there are typically no “direct” costs (unlike PPC advertising), there are indirect costs such as employee or agency time and fees. • Third-party platforms or technology costs
Over time, a strong SEO strategy can reduce the need for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, resulting in a more efficient budget.
Content Advertising
This strategy involves more “behind-the-scenes” labour. It involves creating and sharing distinct and valuable content with the target audience of a business.
A component of a content marketing strategy is the production of unique forms of content for each digital platform.
For instance, if a brand wanted to create content for the TikTok platform, the content would consist of brief video segments (three minutes or less).
In contrast, if a brand wishes to increase its brand authority, it may create a website-based long-form article and blog strategy.
The objective of content marketing is to cultivate and establish trust with the target audience and convert them into loyal, recurrent customers.
Ecommerce
If a company sells physical goods, an ecommerce strategy should be vital to its business objectives.
When an ecommerce strategy is enabled, an online storefront is established for consumers to make purchases.
• Creating an online portal through which brands sell directly to consumers (DTC).
• Selling tangible goods on online marketplaces like Amazon
• Developing affiliate sales programmes that pay third parties to promote a brand’s products
• Promote sales with paid purchasing advertisements on Google and Microsoft.
• Marketing using influencers and brand ambassadors
Email Marketing
This aspect of digital marketing involves sending targeted emails to prospective and existing consumers. Email marketing’s ultimate objective is to generate leads, sales, or transactions and retain customers throughout the customer journey.
For instance, a bride-to-be searching for the ideal wedding invitations after becoming engaged
After a user subscribes to a brand’s email or marketing communications, an email strategy cadence is developed to assist them in their planning. This may include promoting complimentary sampling on wedding invitations.
• Wedding invitation suite discounts
• Free (or discounted) thank-you cards following the nuptials
• A referral programme to generate revenues through word-of-mouth
Email marketing is an excellent method for communicating with the target audience and establishing long-lasting consumer relationships, even after the initial sale.
Social media promotion
Depending on the brand, a social media marketing strategy’s use cases and objectives will vary.
Social platforms should be selected as part of the larger digital marketing strategy to promote content or interact with the target audience.
Listed below are just a few social media marketing strategies:
• Producing original content for posting
• Running paid advertisements on targeted platforms
• Implementing influencer marketing campaigns based on the specific objective
Five Steps to Creating a Digital Strategy
As stated previously, a digital marketing strategy should be developed after identifying the enterprise’s overarching objectives.
For this reason, the steps to establishing a successful digital strategy include specific actions that contribute to the achievement of the enterprise’s larger objectives.
Step-1 - Identify your target audience and create personas.
A digital marketing strategy is only as effective as its intended audience. They are, after all, the purchasers of your brand’s products and services.
Consider the following aspects when developing a target persona:
• Demographics: Determine, after determining where to sell your products or services, if any essential geographic areas may perform better than others. Additional demographic categories include age, parental status, and household income.
• Hobbies: What types of pastimes does your ideal persona enjoy? This information can help influence the customer’s experience.
• Behaviours: How (and where) do these Internet consumers consume content? Are they consumers on impulse? Which social networks do they frequently use?
• Pain points: What issues are users attempting to address? This is the primary focal area. By providing a solution to your target audience’s pain points and communicating with them in a manner they can comprehend, you will likely earn a customer for life.
Step-2 - Conduct a competitor landscape analysis.
Before delving into digital channels, it is crucial to comprehend the digital landscape.
Among the most important aspects of conducting a competitor analysis are the following: • Which competitors are bidding on the keywords you wish to target?
• How do competitors communicate with their target market?
• Which channels do competitors use to advertise?
• How do your competitors’ organic rankings compare to your own?
• What are your competitors’ monthly digital advertising budgets?
Semrush, SpyFu, Google Keyword Planner, and Google Trends are among the third-party tools that can help answer a number of these queries.
Keep in mind that no third-party utility can guarantee its data to be entirely accurate, so it should only serve as a general guide.
Step-3 - Determine the required digital marketing channels
Once you have determined who your target audience is and where they congregate online, the next step is to identify the most effective digital marketing channels.
It is not best practise to choose only one or two channels and place all of your goods in one receptacle; rather, it is preferable to select a variety of channels.
Diversify your digital channels and encounter your consumers wherever they are online at any given moment.
These channels are likely to include any of the previously listed digital strategy examples.
Each identified channel should have its own set of KPIs. Marketers and larger business organisations decide what these are.
As each channel serves a distinct purpose, avoid setting the same KPIs and measurement objectives for each.
Developing attainable measurement objectives ensures that awareness channels are evaluated based on awareness KPIs, such as brand elevation, rather than direct conversions.
As is the case with all digital channels, it is essential to comprehend how they can be measured.
This phase should involve identifying a suitable measurement platform, such as Google Analytics or another tool, in order to measure marketing budgets and channels.
Step-4 - Create Content and a Unique Value Proposition Plan
After identifying the digital channels, it is time to plan the content for each channel.
The key is to develop a framework for consistent messaging that can be reused and modified for each channel. Thus, you will not have to start from the beginning each time.
If you want to introduce your brand on YouTube or the Google Display Network, for instance, the content should not be concentrated on direct conversions or “Buy Now” CTAs. This is an unreasonable expectation for a first brand awareness touch point.
On the other hand, when a user is well into their search voyage and searching for specific products and services, discounts and special offers may be appropriate.
Ensure that the product or service you offer your consumers is distinct and differentiated in the market. First, conducting a competitive analysis will help determine what is currently available on the market.
Even if your product or service is comparable to those of your competitors, you must discover a way to distinguish your brand.
Step-5 - Execute and Optimise Your Digital Marketing Strategy
After defining stages 1 through 4, it is time to implement your digital marketing strategy.
However, construction is not yet complete. Your digital marketing strategy should be continuous and adaptable based on performance and the shifting market environment.
Digital marketing channels and campaigns should be perpetually monitored and analysed to maximise the utilisation of marketing budgets and resources.
Include daily, weekly, and monthly checkpoints for each channel.
Monthly reports and quarterly business reviews (QBRs) should be conducted in order to provide opportunities to adjust and alter strategy in response to findings.
Conclusion Digital marketing strategies are not “one-size-fits-all.” They should also not be the only brand strategy.
Despite the importance of “digital-first” strategies, they must be in line with the overarching business objectives.
Don’t conflate strategy and tactics and rush into a tactics-first approach as a result.
By taking the time to develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, you position the brand for long-term success and the ability to adapt based on performance.
