There are currently more than 5 billion people worldwide who use the internet.
There are various types of business marketing that you’ll need to use to make your brand successful. More people than ever are using the internet to find information on businesses and interact with their favorite brands. One of the most important marketing elements in today’s world, therefore, is digital marketing, as it determines your company’s online presence.
For a guide on how to build an effective digital marketing strategy, keep reading.
What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is all about how you market your brand online. This is done through a range of mediums such as websites, social media platforms, and emails.
Your strategy will outline the approach you’re taking to meet your marketing goals. It will consist of your objectives, details about how you’ll achieve them, who they’ll be aimed at, and a timeline for everything.
Understanding all elements of a digital marketing strategy will ensure it’s effective. The internet changes quickly, so having a flexible plan is ideal. It’s also worth remembering that no two businesses will have the same plan.
The Importance of a Digital Marketing Strategy
Markets are more competitive now than ever. Whatever your business is, people can easily go online and find your competitors. As such, you need to show your audience what makes your company better.
By paying attention to digital marketing trends and digital marketing tips, you can keep your strategy up-to-date and efficient. This will give you an edge over other companies, helping you stand out to your customers.
Building a Digital Marketing Strategy
If you don’t have a digital marketing strategy, it’s definitely something you’ll want to get in place. There are several steps to establishing a proper one.
1. Determine Your Objectives
The first step of any digital marketing plan is to establish your goals. Make sure you know what you’re working towards, as it will guide the entire process.
Where possible, you want to be specific about this. You might want to increase traffic to your site, but that itself is quite general. Setting a goal like “raise traffic by 50% in six months” gives you a figure to work towards, and you can use analytics to keep track of things.
2. Build Your Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel will help you make people aware of your company. A marketing funnel has 4 main steps:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Advocacy
You’ll be making your audience aware of your brand, engaging with them, converting them into paying customers, and then encouraging them to remain loyal to your brand.
3. Define Your Audience
You need to establish who your target audience is, and this is another area where you want to be specific. You should build a buyer persona based on background, demographics, and identifiers. Knowing who you’re targeting will help you optimize all of your marketing.
You also need to establish the goals and challenges of your audience. From here, you can determine what you can do to solve the problems they have.
4. Outline Your Messaging
Once you know who you’re talking to, you can decide what you’re going to say. Establishing a hook will help you bring people in, and it should talk directly to your ideal customer. A hook doesn’t need to be too clever, but it should be something that your audience will respond to.
Once your target is hooked, you want to interest them. Using “power words” can help here. This includes things like:
- You
- Free
- Instantly
- Limited time
- Easy
- Secret
- Risk-free
You then need to convince them to act. How you do this is crucial. Don’t just tell them to buy your products.
Invite them to learn more about your company. Things like videos or blog posts, for example, are ideal for this.
Make sure all messaging is consistent. This will help establish a solid brand personality.
5. Select Your Marketing Channels
There are a lot of different marketing channels available, which often makes people struggle a bit with this step – although it’s actually quite simple. If you know your target audience, you should know what channels they’re on. These are the ones you want to use.
If your customers are likely to use Google to find your company, then you want to focus on SEO (search engine optimization) so that your company shows up higher in search results. If more of your audience is on Instagram, then you should make that a key part of your strategy. Wherever your customers are is where you should focus your efforts.
Bear in mind, however, that you need to keep things within your budget here. Make sure you look at what you have available to spend and prioritize it accordingly. This should help you make the most out of your digital marketing strategy.
6. Define Your Content
Your content is crucial. This is what your customers will see on your marketing channels, and it will have a huge impact on the overall success of your digital marketing strategy.
The key here is to offer value. You can use content like videos, images, social media posts, podcasts, and more. Show your audience that you have something to offer and it will convert them into paying customers.
7. Execute and Analyze
Once you’ve completed all of the previous steps, you’ll know what your digital marketing strategy will look like. Now it’s time to put it into action. Your strategy will be constantly changing and adapting, so the work will keep going on.
You can analyze the different elements to see how everything is performing. From here you can determine what aspects are the most effective, and which are the least. Tweak your campaign over time to ensure it remains as effective as possible.
Your Digital Marketing Strategy
A strong digital marketing strategy is crucial for any business. You want to take the time to establish one, and continue to make improvements wherever possible.
Key Element Media is a leading digital marketing company that offers a range of other services such as graphic design, SEO, and more. To find out more about how we can help your business, click here to contact us today.
