Where do you start if you want to develop a digital marketing strategy? First, you need to know what exactly you’re trying to achieve and why you’re doing it. That’s where the 10-step approach comes in – this guide will help you define your goals, analyze your market, define your key performance indicators, prioritize your resources, create an action plan, and more. You’ll also learn why social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing and mobile marketing are so important in today’s digital world – and how they fit into your strategy. Start creating your own digital marketing strategy with these 10 steps!
Step 1: Take stock of your business’ digital presence
This might mean looking at what channels are being used today and how they’re being used. If there are holes, it’s time to figure out what needs to be done. You should also take stock of your customer base. What digital and mobile channels do they currently use? Step 2: Know where you’re going: The whole point of a digital marketing strategy is to help drive business growth, but exactly how you’ll achieve that growth will be different from one company to another.
Step 2: Evaluate opportunities with analytics
Without analytics, you can’t know what’s working and what isn’t. And if you don’t know that, how can you develop your digital marketing strategy? You should be using analytics tools like Google Analytics on all of your websites, tracking where people are coming from, which pages they’re spending time on, and whether they’re converting (or not). The insights gleaned from these tools help you align your marketing efforts with trends. This will enable you to create an effective digital marketing strategy with data.
Step 3: Identify pain points and gaps in the market
The next step is to take a look at what your competitors are doing and see where they’re coming up short. If you’re trying to develop an SEO strategy, take note of what your competitors aren’t doing that you can optimize your content around. Is it low-quality links? Or something else entirely? Could their content be better optimized, or are they using great strategies but just not seeing results yet?
Step 4: Map out short-term goals
The goals you set need to be measurable, and you should aim for three key accomplishments every quarter: 1) add new customers or clients, 2) provide an updated or new product, 3) generate more revenue. If these milestones aren’t met within one quarter of setting them, you need to reevaluate your strategy and make adjustments. Over time, your long-term goals will change—and that’s OK. When they do shift, revisit your long-term objectives and adjust accordingly.
Step 5: Outline the medium-term steps
Once you’ve outlined your long-term vision, it’s time to determine how you’re going to get there. Ask yourself: What changes need to be made and what new skills do you need? What needs tweaking and what can be left as is? By answering these questions, you can begin charting your path forward. And remember, don’t focus on an exact timeline—leave that for Step 6.
Step 6: Draw up a long-term vision
Before you can create a digital marketing strategy, you need to look at your business’s long-term goals. Which markets do you want to break into? Which customer groups would you like to target? How do your objectives align with those of your current customers and suppliers? This is where it’s good idea to bring on an expert advisor or strategist who can work with management and help shape an effective vision for future growth.
Step 7: Define your key performance indicators (KPIs)
Measuring success online is key, but you want to be sure you’re tracking and recording data that will help your business succeed. Defining your key performance indicators (KPIs) early on helps ensure that all of your activities are supporting larger business goals. If you don’t have KPIs defined for things like landing page conversion rates, social media followers, or email list growth at launch, consider some of these core metrics
Step 8: Assess your budget constraints
Take an inventory of your available cash. Start by setting aside your emergency fund—six months’ worth of expenses is generally recommended, although some people recommend more. If you already have a house, subtract your mortgage balance from that figure. (We’ll cover home equity in detail later.) If you don’t have a house or apartment, use how much you currently spend on rent and utilities as part of your six-month estimate.
Step 9: Choose where to start first
Which area of your marketing strategy needs attention? You need to choose at least one channel you’ll focus on now, and decide which channel will get next most attention. Your priorities may change over time depending on factors like budget or opportunities available. When deciding what channels to prioritize first, start with things that are easy and quick win, then move up from there.
Step 10 : Develop an action plan with milestones and deadlines
Having your digital marketing strategy ready and having thought about how you want to implement it are two different things. To get from one stage to another, you need an action plan. It needs to include milestones and deadlines so that you will know when each step is going to be completed. If you develop it together with your team, they will feel more involved in achieving results.