Creating a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy
How to Make a Digital Marketing Plan in 7 Steps
It’s important to know what you want and set goals to get there. So is getting clear on what you need to do to get there.
Digital is becoming more and more a part of what a business is, what it does, and how it grows. So, a digital transformation plan becomes a more important part of how a company markets itself. But even though we live in a digital age, it would be a mistake not to plan for digital as a different thing.
Digital is a part of all marketing, but “all-digital” is more than just what’s obvious in standard marketing. We’ve put together a full guide to building a strong digital marketing plan for 2020 because of this. We’ll talk about what digital marketing is, what its main parts are, and how to start.
What is a strategy for digital marketing?
A company’s digital marketing plan shows how it can reach its business goals by using digital channels, platforms, and ways of thinking. It sets clear goals, puts audiences in order of importance, acknowledges customer wants and behaviours, and describes how channels should be used and what platforms are needed. Simply put, it tells you how to plan and use technology to keep being important.
“All-digital goes beyond what is obvious in traditional marketing.”
Digital marketing overlaps with identity, customer relationship management, user experience, customer experience, and customer care.
AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) make the brand a part of how we experience the goods.
Content strategy includes not only standard marketing assets, but also any content that can help a business grow.
New services, goods, and experiences are being made possible by digital innovation. These are things that are worth marketing.
How to make an effective plan for digital marketing
Through our work with clients in many different industries and markets, we’ve found that a modern digital marketing plan is made up of seven steps
1. Figure out what could happen
The status quo has changed, and you need to be digital to stay up-to-date, competitive, and appealing in the market. What kinds of ways do your customers talk to you? What are your rivals doing in digital to be transformative? How easy is it to find your brand, and how many of the leads that come to you have turned into sales? Probably, you’re already behind if you don’t know.
2. Explain what role digital marketing plays.
In what ways does digital marketing help the business? This shouldn’t be a long list of marketing goals, but rather a clear vision and set of choices that show what digital marketing can and should do for the business.
Make sure you know how digital marketing relates to other parts of your environment. These parts often include your brand, data, marketing, content, CX, UX, CRM, support/customer care, product innovation, and media. By writing down what’s at stake and what chances are available, you can quickly figure out where you want to put your attention. On the basis of this evaluation, you can then create key performance indicators (KPIs) that show your senior team how digital is affecting the business.
3. Know who you want to reach.
Make detailed digital profiles of your customers, including what they want, how they act, how to connect with them, and who else they talk to. Map the customer’s journey and look for places where they exchange value along the way. Most of the time, these profiles start with traditional segmentation, but you need to go a step further to understand how people act, how they connect, and what they need in terms of content, functionality, and experience.
Digital profiles for many clients, especially in B2B, aren’t always made based on who the customers are, but rather on what goals the target audience is trying to reach. Goals versus jobs. When you do this early on, you stay aware of what your customers want and can set your goals to meet those needs.
4. Use more than one way to reach people
Make a modern channel plan by using and turning on key channels like search, the web, social media, and email. Some platforms and connections may need their own “channel charters,” which spell out how to use them best for the brand and the business and what’s needed on the inside to make it happen.
Think of social media as a way to drive sales, not just as a way to share news or help customers. How can you use social to reach your business goals?
Search should be clear. Can organic or paid search engine optimisation (SEO) help build the credibility of a brand, drive people to a website, or keep competitors away?
Try new things with the web. Is your website set up to get leads, keep them, and turn them into customers?
Do you keep in touch with past, current, and possible clients using email or marketing automation platforms?
5. Figure out what you need.
Use the information in the chart above to figure out what you need to carry out this plan. This includes the number of people you need, your budget, and your marketing technology system (platforms, APIs, services, and data integration points). Mayur Gupta of Spotify said, “Technology is the interface of marketing” and “the pipes connecting the different pieces together.”
Governance is very important. Make rules and playbooks for people (their jobs, responsibilities, and skills), processes, and tools. Governance is important, but many companies don’t pay enough attention to it. However, people need to know what their part is and how it affects the success of the programme. Also, if you’re a global or complex organisation, you’ll need to set up “market types” to help local leaders see where they are and understand what they need to do to grow in a new way.
6. Create a Roadmap for Execution
Organise and prioritise your projects into a plan that will take you from strategy to implementation, even if it takes six, twelve, or twenty-four months. Don’t be too slow or too careful, and don’t wait for the annual planning stages. Instead, be ready and flexible, and have a few different plans in mind. The digital transformation of an organisation may take some time, but marketing should be the most agile and ready to act on chances as they arise.
7. Back up your strategy for digital transformation
Find out how digital marketing can do more than just its regular job well and become a powerful tool in this new digital change era. It could be done by sharing creative stories, improving digital services, or letting the customer’s voice affect how much money is spent on media, find new ways to get people involved, and find new audiences. Using digital in your marketing can be a catalyst for change within your company, as the chances of digital transformation make your culture more at ease and give it more confidence.