A Guide to Creating a Strong Digital Marketing Strategy

Show:

April 23, 2021 Marketing

Digital marketing is an important part of any marketing plan and a key way of making sure that your business is seen by a large number of people all over the world, which can help boost your business’s profits. However, in the ever-changing digital landscape, it can sometimes seem impossible to keep on top of your digital marketing plan, and you might feel that you are constantly playing catch-up and feel that your time would be better spent working on other tasks rather than sending out daily tweets. With some planning, you can create an effective digital marketing plan that works for you. Read on for a guide to creating a strong digital marketing strategy.

Create strong buyer personas

Every effective digital marketing plan begins with the creation of strong buyer personas designed to give you a reasonable idea of who your online customers are. Simply put, a buyer persona is a detailed profile of the person who will be accessing your products, noting factors such as age group, social media presence, income level, and hobbies. For example, if your business is a sustainable clothing retailer, a buyer persona for you might be a socially conscious professional aged 25-35 who uses Twitter and Instagram. However, how do you obtain such specific details without simply making it up? The answer is to obtain robust quantitative and demographic information through research. For instance, use web analytic tools to learn about the habits of those who visit your social media sites and web pages, such as their location and what other things they look for. You could send out an annual questionnaire to obtain more specific information regarding your customers to help further develop your buyer personas and digital marketing strategy.

Evaluate your existing social media channels

Thanks to the knowledge provided by your buyer personas, you can evaluate your existing social media channels and decide whether you need to branch out onto another platform or change how you use your current platforms and the content you are putting out. For instance, if your character profile has revealed that your primary customer is most active on Twitter, whereas you as yet only have a Facebook business account, developing your Twitter presence should be a priority. Furthermore, you can seek to engage your audience on social media by being more accessible – it is not called ‘social’ media for nothing. Host regular Instagram Lives or question and answer sessions on Twitter to enable your followers to directly engage with your brand and get to know your business on a more personal level. This can help to build a sense of brand loyalty that can convert to sales.

Online advertising

Advertising is a huge part of traditional marketing strategies, and the good news is that it can also be massively beneficial for online marketing. However, how can you make your brand stand out amongst the cacophony of online advertisements? Key once again is knowing your audience and what social media platforms they are most likely to use, as you can pay for advertisements to appear on social media platforms. For example, Facebook Ads would be a good use of your marketing budget as it is popular across many demographics and can help to build brand awareness. Always remember to include links to your webpage and social media accounts in your advertisements so that consumers know where to look for more information and to drive traffic to your pages.

Direct mail

Thanks to the data generated by your online analytics and social media activity, you can go old school and take your digital marketing strategy offline by carrying out a direct mail campaign.

While this might seem counterproductive to a digital marketing strategy, many people like the surprise of receiving something in the mail as it is no longer as common, and research shows that direct mail advertising has a higher response rate than email advertising. There are, however, certain considerations to keep in mind to ensure that your direct mail campaign is successful, for instance, being sure to include a strong offer and eye-catching promotional flyer; money-saving coupons are particularly successful. Furthermore, harness your social media data to ensure that you are targeting the right audience with direct mail. It could be those who have signed up for a newsletter, for instance, or if you receive a lot of traffic from a certain location.

Maximize your content

Content is king when it comes to digital marketing. Many customers are resistant to the old methods of push marketing, preferring instead to be treated as an individual rather than a potential sale. As such, they are likely to be more responsive towards high-value content than a continuous stream of advertisements. However, what is content, you may ask? Online content is the textual, visual, or aural text that users encounter online, and you should ensure that the content you produce by way of social media posts and web page updates is interesting and meaningful for your visitors. As such a large part of your digital marketing strategy, you should dedicate time to creating a well-thought-out digital marketing plan; however, there are some basic suggestions you can keep in mind. Supplement your website with regularly updated blog posts discussing current issues in your industry and disseminating other useful information to your readers. Provide followers with a behind-the-scenes look at your business through a series of Instagram posts and Instagram lives that enable you to connect further with your audience.

Schedule posts

One reason why your digital marketing strategy might previously not have worked to its full advantage is that you have fallen behind in regularly posting content. How do you have the time to constantly tweet when you have other work to do for your business? A social media schedular allows you to schedule posts for publication ahead of time. Spending an hour or so each week scheduling your posts across all platforms frees up your precious time so that you can focus more on the mechanics of your business.