How to create an effective digital marketing strategy

Creating a successful digital marketing strategy requires long-term thinking and planning.

However, in today’s competitive world, with so many platforms, channels and devices to choose from, creating an effective marketing strategy that’s aligned to your business objectives is more challenging than it has ever been.

The team at Generate UK would like to share one method for creating a digital marketing strategy that works.

We can help you to improve the exposure of your brand to new customers, engage existing customers and create loyalty and new brand advocates through aligned digital and classic marketing tools.

PHASE 1: CREATE A ROADMAP

Achieving measurable results in marketing begins with a plan.

In order to successfully manage your digital journey, a clear roadmap needs to be put in place that outlines your visions and goals, an assessment of the resources and talent pool for implementation, costs and opportunities for your brand.

By formalising your marketing plan, not only can you establish clear goals that are consistent with your culture and branding, but you can also establish measurable benchmarks to attain your digital marketing objectives.

Track your results against your efforts to see what works best for your market and customer base, and repeat what works best for your business.

PHASE 2: WHERE YOU ARE AT

Start by completing a review of your resources, organisation, market, current digital position and structure.

Benchmarking is a fantastic way of assessing your current position and comparing your digital marketing activities with your competitors.

Marketing is not about the finish line; it’s creating a strong start and a consistent journey that helps your business arrive at its goals.

Make note of where you began:

• How many followers do you have on social?
• How many visitors do you have to your website each month?
• What geographic regions are your customers visiting from?
• How often do you contribute content on social channels and to your website?
• Are you engaged in pay-per-click advertising? If so, how would you rate your results?
• How responsive are customers to the content you share? How many ‘likes’ or comments and re-shares do you receive for your posts?
• What is your current digital marketing budget? Include personnel, software and advertising expenditures.
• How do you utilise direct email marketing for brand promotion and sales?

Creating a snapshot of where you are currently in your digital marketing practice will allow you to track and measure results as you implement your new strategy.

If some of the suggested measures are not present in your current marketing mix, that’s okay. It provides ample room to introduce new methods that will provide the results you need to remain competitive in your online marketing.

Record your metrics for each digital marketing channel, including social media network followers, engagement (such as ‘likes’ or comments, or retweets) weekly.

If you are working with an agency, review metrics on a monthly basis that provide impressions that show audience interaction. It is an exciting process when you see your efforts begin to pay off!

PHASE 3: WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE?

It is easy to envision where you want your company to be, in the broader sense of brand positioning. Most business owners and corporate executives share the same goals; they want to sell more products and services.

But beyond the measure of success through sales is the cultivation of a strong brand message that resonates through all marketing and customer service channels.

Consider your organisation’s long-term goals and company objectives – where do you want to be in the digital world?

What user experience (UX) do you want to create with your website, blog or newsletter, online commerce and/or social media and community management?

What impression do you want to create to stimulate interest in the products or services that you offer?

You already know who “does it well” and which companies are gaining market share by capitalising on their brand attributes and culture.

Look at how industry leaders in your marketplace respond to the digital landscape, how do they interact across multimedia platforms – this will give you some inspiration and successful models to base your own personalised strategy upon.

Be authentic in the cultivation of your brand image. Be specific and realistic in your goals. Achieving a million followers on Facebook is possible, but requires a strategic approach and significant investment in pay-per-click advertising.

Thankfully there are other qualitative and affordable measures that, when used consistently, will help you improve awareness of your product and services using digital marketing tools. There is more to marketing than ‘likes’.

Set tangible benchmarks and reasonable timelines to keep your business goals on track.

PHASE 4: WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?       

After you have successfully completed your own internal marketing audit, you should have a picture of what needs to change in order to realise your goals.

Once you have your benchmark and objectives in place the next phase defines your digital transformation strategy including:

• Digital marketing strategy
• Existing marketing technology infrastructure
• New technology infrastructure
• Internal and external resourcing
• Processes
• Budget

Create a concise list of specific functions that are not being accomplished and evaluate the benefit of having a strategy (and professionally consistent digital marketing services) in place.

PHASE 5: GETTING STARTED

A detailed plan can be formulated to describe how to achieve the digital transformation including an integrated approach to systems, structure and skills that are needed for you to implement your strategy.

How much time and how many people can you allocate to support your marketing goals?

What is the cost of initiating new digital marketing activities internally in terms of recruitment, training and other resources?

Consider the cost of poor digital marketing or inconsistent online branding to your business.

PHASE 6: MEASURING RESULTS

With a set plan and a clearly defined road map, the final phase of digital excellence is to manage and optimise your plan through monitoring.

By reviewing your progress with business metrics such as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you will be able to monitor your transformation and continually improve and refine your digital marketing strategy.

SUMMARY

When it comes to digital marketing, it is no longer a question of ‘whether you should’ or ‘should not’ have an effective strategic plan; your competitors already have one and every single day your business is subject to new brands and service providers who are entering the market, new channels to market through, internal and external threats and of course, new opportunities.

As the needs of the customer continue to evolve, so too must your marketing strategy. Fresh ideas and customer-centric campaigns are central to growth for businesses; digital marketing tools are a proven, effective means to recruit and retain customers.

How can you manage your journey to achieve excellence in marketing? Start by evaluating where you are versus where you want to be, and understand that with a comprehensive marketing strategy that incorporates content management tools, social media and classic marketing methods, you can achieve measurable results.

Creating a successful digital marketing strategy requires long-term thinking and planning.

Our team aim to create a sustainable marketing approach that will aim to deliver both short and long-term success – connecting with your customers, and engaging prospects to drive business growth.

• Our marketing strategy services include:
• Strategic workshops
• KPI and objective identification
• Branding
• Audience research
• Marketing campaign planning

Let’s have a chat to discuss how we can help you create a digital marketing strategy that will enable your business to generate growth through marketing.