A Simple Guide on How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy

You have a product. You know that people need it and want it. You studied your target audience thoroughly and you are keen to have your business visible online. Digital marketing strategy is key for your business if you want to be successful, but how do you create one?

I’ve always considered digital marketing strategy to be both an art and a science, I mean, you can’t just come up with a bunch of ideas. You need to be systematic about it, even if it is art. Many marketers, myself included, prefer to approach online strategy with inbound marketing. Important to note here that digital strategy is only one aspect of a larger business plan, so there are some specific guidelines given to marketers when developing a brand presence online. While it is helpful to consult with professionals or digital agencies, in this article, I will discuss the basics of what makes up an effective digital marketing strategy and some of the current misconceptions to help you on kicking off that strategy.

There are 4 areas that you need to think about when developing a digital strategy:

Consider the environment surrounding your business. This means that it will need multiple strategies utilised on different platforms depending on what your target market uses and its online activities. For example, while someone may use Twitter constantly throughout the day, this does not mean they would also use Facebook the same way. It all comes down to how individuals (target audience) consume media and socialise with each other on these platforms.

Creating impactful content. Content might be king but distribution reigns supreme in today’s world. You will want your customers/prospects to learn about your product through different mediums like video (social media & email), blogs, audio (podcast) etc… Your ideal goal should be for people who discover information on your business from these channels to share it with their friends and family because they trust their recommendations. Social media is a great way to distribute content as it has the ability to reach a large audience quickly and easy, sometimes even with no cost required. In order to make sure that you are reaching your target market, it is essential to research your demographics and craft content that appeals to them. Paid advertising can also be very effective in getting your message out there and I will expand on this later in this article. However, if you are going to use paid advertisements, you must track the results so you can determine whether or not they are worth continuing.

Constant optimization to your social media. The algorithms for each social media platform are always changing, so you should keep up with what works best on each platform. For example, on Twitter, you will want to tweet multiple times a day and use hashtags, whereas, on LinkedIn, you will want to post less frequently (maybe once or twice a week) and include more long-form content. Another thing to consider is the time of day that you are posting. For instance, if you are based in Central Europe and you are targeting people in North America, you will want to post during their business hours. Finally, important to consider the best times of year to post on each platform. For example, you may not want to post to Facebook during the holidays because everyone is too busy with family and you won’t get much engagement.

Last but not least — Paid advertisement campaigns! Just like with anything else, it is important that you set some goals for your campaigns before you start them. Some questions that you might want to ask yourself are: Do I need to boost awareness or bring traffic and engagement to my business? How many leads do I want this campaign to generate? What’s my budget? What’s my target market? How much competition do I have in my industry? How much product/service differentiation is there between me and the competition?

Don’t “Always” Go With The Flow:

Some of the current misconceptions & myths related to digital marketing and online advertising, I often see my clients or sometimes marketers fall for these!

“Digital Marketing is just for big companies”

Digital marketing can be used by any business, no matter how small. In fact, it might be even more important for a small business to use digital marketing as they may not have the same name recognition or resources as a larger company. With the right tools and strategies, every business can make the most of its digital presence!

“Social Media is free so it doesn’t require a budget” or “you don’t need to track the results of your advertisements.”

This couldn’t be more wrong! Digital marketing strategies require a significant investment. You will need to determine your budget, whether or not you are going to track the results of your campaigns and how much time you have for each task on a daily/weekly basis. If money is tight, it might make sense to hire an agency that can help with this process but if there isn’t enough in the budget, it may take up too much time which could delay other important aspects of your business that must be addressed immediately. It’s also worth noting that companies like Facebook charge advertisers per impression so even though social media advertising appears free initially, they still come at a cost! This means that just because something is “free” doesn’t mean it will be effective. Digital Marketing Strategies should always include a budget and they require planning, time management, testing & analytics.

“Digital marketing is expensive.”

Not necessarily! Digital marketing strategies are inexpensive if you have the right tools at your disposal. You can use social media platforms for very low-cost advertising options. The key here however is to not just throw money into digital ads without any strategy behind it — this will likely end up being an expensive mistake that could potentially damage your brand image instead of helping it grow over time.

“Digital Marketing is just for young people”

Digital marketing is for everyone! In fact, one of the benefits of using digital marketing is that you can reach a larger audience than traditional methods. Additionally, as technology continues to evolve, older generations are getting more comfortable with using digital channels for information and purchasing decisions. So don’t be afraid to target them with your digital marketing campaigns.

There you have it! The basics of what goes into a digital marketing strategy. Keep in mind that this is just a starting point — you will want to continue researching and tweaking your strategy as you go along to make sure that it is best suited for your business. If you are feeling overwhelmed or need help getting started, don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance. I would be happy to help!