Introduction
Digital marketing strategy is a set of actions aimed at helping companies achieve their goals through online channels. In other words, it is a structured action plan that allows one or more predefined objectives to be achieved. For example, a company may set a goal of increasing the number of leads generated on its website by 25% compared to the previous year.
Why is digital marketing essential?
Because it allows you to reach your customers where they are: online. Thanks to precise measurement tools, you can track the results of your actions and adjust your strategy accordingly.
What is a successful digital marketing campaign?
It is a campaign that achieves its goals. For example, a successful SEO campaign will increase your visibility in search engines and bring you more qualified traffic.
1 – Identify buyer personas
For any marketing strategy, whether digital or traditional, it is crucial to determine the target audience. The most effective digital marketing strategies are based on well-defined buyer personas, and the first step is to establish them.
Buyer personas represent ideal customers. They can be created by conducting research, conducting surveys, and interviewing the target audience. It is essential that this data is based on concrete facts, as incorrect assumptions about the audience can lead to failures in the digital marketing strategy.
To draw a detailed persona portrait, research should encompass a variety of customers, prospects, as well as people not in the database but who fit the target audience.
What information should be collected to shape buyer personas?It depends on the industry, the type of market (B2B or B2C), and product pricing. Here are some basic things to consider, which may vary depending on the business.
- Quantitative or demographic data:
- Location :Use web analytics tools like Google Analytics to determine where visitors are coming from.
- Age :Depending on the industry, this information may vary in relevance. It is advisable to analyze trends in the customer and prospect database.
- Income:Collect sensitive data like personal income during interviews, as some users may be reluctant to share it online.
- Occupation :Analyze the current customer base to gain insights into occupations, which is particularly relevant for B2B.
- Qualitative or socio-demographic data:
- Goals :The company should already have an idea of the aspirations of its personas based on the needs that its product or service must satisfy. However, it is advisable to validate these hypotheses by interviewing customers and sales teams.
- Challenges:It is essential to engage with customers and customer service representatives to understand the recurring problems that the audience encounters.
- Interests:It’s important to talk to customers to identify their interests, which can help tailor content and partnerships.
- Priorities:Engage with customers to find out what is most important to them in their relationship with the company, such as the value placed on customer service versus price.
2 – Set goals
Every online marketing strategy should be oriented towards clear objectives to allow the company to evaluate its return on investment (ROI). Among these objectives, four are frequently found in many companies.
- Increase traffic on digital media (website, application, newsletter).
- Optimize the conversion journey from visitor to customer.
- Building customer loyalty, with sub-goals such as improving the digital experience and increasing trust.
- Strengthen the company’s online awareness and reputation, as perceived image is essential to attract and retain customers.
To define clear, concrete and achievable objectives, the SMART method is recommended. Each objective must meet five criteria:
- Specific :Only one goal.
- Measurable:Associated with a specific indicator.
- Achievable:Following clear steps.
- Realistic:Feasible with available resources.
- Temporal:With a set deadline.
How to measure the effectiveness of a digital marketing strategy varies from company to company and depends on the goals set, but being able to do so is imperative in order to adjust the strategy over time.
3 – Choose digital marketing tools
Regardless of the established objective, it is essential to select marketing tools that support the company in its campaigns and growth, while measuring the impact of each action by channel. Many tools and software are available to assist companies in monitoring their digital marketing strategy. To be effective, these tools must be easy to use and help improve ROI, save time by reducing repetitive tasks, centralize data and strengthen the company’s digital presence.
- Digital resource management.
- Customer relationship management, including automation of sending messages on various media.
- Centralization of data and tools.
- Creation and optimization of conversational tools.
- Management of advertising campaigns.
- Website optimization.
- Analytical data analysis.
Examples of tools:
- HubSpot for digital marketing,
- Social media management platforms like Buffer or Hootsuite,
- Keyword research and content idea tools such as SEMRush, Google Trends,
- Email sending tools like Mailchimp.
4 – Evaluate digital marketing channels and available resources
When an entrepreneur is considering integrating their existing marketing channels into their strategy, it is best to take a broad view at the start to avoid being overwhelmed. The system of internal, external and paid media helps to classify the digital channels already in use.
- Internal media:
These are the resources owned by the company, such as its website, social media profiles, blog, etc. - External media:
This refers to the visibility gained through word of mouth and content published on other sites, such as guest posts or public relations. These external media represent recognition of the work done, such as press mentions or shares on social networks. - Paid media:
They encompass any medium or channel where money is invested to attract the attention of buyer personas, including Google Ads and sponsored ads.
Digital marketing strategy can combine elements of all three types of channels to achieve set goals. For example, a business might publish internal content on a dedicated page of its website to generate leads, while ensuring that this content is shared on social media to increase traffic to that page. It’s important to explore how these three types of media can be used together to maximize results, but it’s not necessary to use all channels simultaneously.
5 – Evaluate and plan internal content
Everything a business publishes is its content: About pages, product descriptions, blog posts, e-books, infographics, or social media posts.
To build this strategy, it’s important to determine what type of content will be most useful in achieving your goals. If a company is aiming for a 50% increase in leads through their site compared to the previous year, their About page is unlikely to be effective unless it has a proven track record of success. On the other hand, an e-book offered behind a form on their site could generate many more leads.
The three-step process for determining what content is needed:
- Evaluate existing content:
Start by taking inventory of the content you’ve already produced and rank each piece according to how it performed against your goals. Companies focused on lead generation should evaluate which content performed best in the past year. - Identify the gaps:
Businesses should identify gaps in their content, taking into account their buyer personas. For example, if a company offers math lessons but does not have content tailored to the needs of students, it would be wise to create some. - Develop a content creation plan:
From the data collected, it is essential to design a content creation plan detailing the content needed to achieve the objectives. This plan should include: title, format, objective, promotion channels, reasons for creation and priority level. A simple table may suffice, including the budget if the creation is outsourced or an estimate of the duration for projects managed internally.
6 – Evaluate and plan external content
External media should also be analyzed based on current goals, in order to identify areas for improvement. For example, if the goal is to determine sources of traffic and leads, each external source should be ranked from most to least effective.
Businesses might find that an article they wrote drove relevant traffic to their site, increasing their conversion rates. It could also be that LinkedIn is the network where their content is most
The goal is to identify external media that can help them achieve their goals, based on past performance. However, if the marketing team is considering a new idea, it is essential not to dismiss it simply because it has not been tested yet.
7 – Analyze and plan paid media
This step is quite similar to the previous one: it consists of evaluating the results obtained on each platform, such as Google Ads, Facebook or Twitter, in order to determine the most effective resources to achieve the set objectives.
Following this analysis, it is crucial for companies to clarify which platforms they wish to continue to operate and which ones they could disengage from.
Digital Marketing Strategy Summary
To develop a digital marketing strategy, companies must define buyer personas, marketing objectives, as well as internal, external and paid media. They must also evaluate these media and establish a content project. All these elements must be grouped together to create a strategy of actions aimed at achieving the objectives, which can be facilitated by an Excel sheet.
It is important to plan actions in the long term, for example, launching a blog in January, releasing an e-book in March, preparing for the key month in July, and focusing on external media in September. This planning helps to clarify priorities and improve communication within the team. Each strategy is unique and should detail the actions to be taken to achieve the set objectives. If this is understood, the foundations of a digital strategy are established!
