There is no doubt that digital marketing is becoming an important part of running a successful business, especially start-up ones.
Without a digital marketing plan added to your overall marketing mix, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your customer base.
Because it’s a fact that the number of Internet users is growing each year.
However, in order to make digital marketing work and give you the kind of results you want, it is crucial that you have the required clarity.
In the following article, we will be looking into how you can use your current business knowledge to craft a digital marketing plan that helps you reach out to your ideal customers.
The idea is to create an impact and at the same time be prepared well in advance so that your business is not invisible to your target audience.
Here are 4 key steps to create a digital marketing plan.
4 Important Steps to Develop A Digital Marketing Plan
Step #1: Define Your Brand
The first and most important step to building a solid digital marketing plan is to define your own brand.
The reason why this step is necessary is that until and unless you know what your brand stands for and how it is different from other businesses.
You will not be able to apply the correct digital marketing tactics.
Having an insight into what makes your brand different than others can make a world of a difference.
To start with, you need to focus on bringing out the unique selling point or proposition of your business.
Every single business, regardless of the size and industry it is operating in, has something unique to offer — yours is no different.
It’s just a matter of identifying this differentiating factor so that it reflects in your digital marketing plan.
Your USP not only matters to your company but also to your prospects and customers.
Why? Because people are always looking for solutions that are unique to their own needs.
So if you are able to define your brand and how it is different from the others, it will be easier for your prospective customers to choose your competitors.
Every prospective customer thinks, “what’s in it for me?” before making a buying decision.
By letting your customers know what makes your business better than others, you make it easy for them to take this decision.
If you haven’t already figured out your USP, then you need to start doing some research on how your business is different than others in your industry.
You have to spend time looking at the products and services offered by your competitors. And also see how they are applying their digital marketing plan.
This is one step that you need to be patient with because it’ll be extremely helpful in the long run.
Step #2: Create Buyer Personas
A buyer persona or a customer persona is made up of detailed information pertaining to your target customer.
You can call it an avatar that gives you a clear understanding of who you are targeting with your marketing.
Without a buyer persona, your digital marketing plan will not have a clear direction.
Let’s face it, not everybody is going to be interested in buying your product or service.
Which is why creating a buyer persona lets you perceive people who are most likely to become your customer.
The best thing about a buyer persona is that it has all the necessary, actionable information needed to create high-converting marketing material.
So once you have created a proper buyer persona.
All your messaging and imagery along with your offers can be directed towards this group of audience.
With a buyer persona in your kitty, you can say goodbye to any guesswork or assumptions that you may have.
Step #3: Choose the Right Digital Marketing Channels
The major digital marketing channels include:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) or paid media [Google AdWords, Bing Ads, etc.]
- Social media platforms [Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.]
- Blogging [WordPress, Medium, etc.]
- Search Engine Optimization [Google, Bing, etc.]
- Display Networks [Google Display Network, Facebook Audience Network, etc.]
Here is how you can go about choosing the right digital marketing channels that go with your business objectives:
Know Where Your Ideal Buyers Are
The number one criteria for selecting a certain digital marketing channel is whether you can find your prospective buyers on it.
Focusing on digital channels that are not relevant to your business is a waste of time and money.
Take some time out to choose your marketing channels. Do some research and understand your buyer’s preferences and where they like spending time.
The more clarity you have on where your ideal customers hang out, the easier it will be for you to choose a channel.
Know Your Long-Term & Short-Term Business Goals
Every business has different needs, based on which goals should be created, both long-term and short-term.
What type of digital marketing channel you choose depends on the type of business goals you have.
For example, if you have a long-term goal of doubling your revenue in the next year, then your short-term goals should correspond to it.
Each short-term becomes a milestone that lets you reach your long-term objective.
So let’s say you choose content marketing & SEO for long-term brand building and revenue increase.
In the short-term, you can use pay-per-click ads to send traffic to your content pieces and convert them.
In relation to this, you should consider having SMART goals.
SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
So knowing your marketing goals and listing them out can definitely help you choose marketing channels that go with your business objectives.
Know Your Marketing Budget
What’s the use of choosing a marketing channel that will burn a hole in your wallet.
Knowing your budget goes a long way in helping you work with marketing channels that are worth it.
Both paid and organic marketing activities require an investment, so you need to be careful in your approach.
When you identify the state of your budget and how much you have, you can focus on working with marketing channels that let you operate on it.
Rather than going overboard, try to stay within your budget and maximize it. And speaking of budget, here are more tips on how to get the most out of your social media budget.
Positioning
And lastly, know how to sell your brand.
Have a clear plan on how to show your audience why you are not like your competitors and why they should pick you.
You need to communicate what your value proposition is and determine how to reach out to them in the right channels (e.g. social media, blog, email).
Step #4: Know Your ROI
In the early days of digital marketing, measuring the ROI of a digital marketing campaign was not possible, which lead to a lot of untrue assumptions.
Many businesses spent money on digital marketing but were unable to tell which half of their budget was going to waste.
Things aren’t the same anymore.
Today, digital marketing has evolved and you have many sophisticated tools such as…
…Google Analytics, SEMRush, KissMetrics and etc. that give you a clear idea of what metrics to track so that you can use them to improve your results.
In a study conducted by Microsoft, they used big data to measure the return on investment of digital marketing vs traditional marketing.
It was found that digital marketing worked way better than…
…traditional advertising mediums such as TV, radio, and print — it helped get a much higher ROI.
It doesn’t matter what business you are running or what kind of products you sell, in order to successfully measure your return on investment.
You need to define which key performance metrics you will be focusing on.
Your definition of success will make or break your digital marketing campaign, which depends on what you want to achieve.
Conclusion
Building a solid digital marketing plan starts with knowing your own brand and the kind of goals you want to achieve.
There are many different ways to leverage digital marketing to grow a business, but what works for others may not work for you.
This is why it is extremely important that you build a foundation first that lets you plan your digital marketing and execute it as well.
At AktivLeads, our expert marketing team customizes a different digital marketing plan for each client to be sure we are putting our best foot forward and doing everything we can to help your business grow.
Learn what kind of digital marketing plan we will put together for you. Get started today!