Best Digital Marketing Strategy: Build A Strong Online Presence

First, what is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy is a plan for reaching a specific sales goal. It details what you’re doing well, and what you need to improve.
Large corporate strategies often include multiple goals. Marketing strategies for small businesses usually have one goal. Whatever your size, here’s how to create a digital marketing strategy to increase
sales, online presence, and profit.

What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a tactic?

A strategy is your entire plan. It includes all tasks listed by priority, sequence, and schedule. A tactic, on the other hand, is a method for accomplishing a single task within your strategy.
Here are a couple of marketing strategies and tactics examples:
– You discover that starting a podcast will provide the brand awareness and online presence you need. Your marketing strategy is your detailed plan to launch your podcast within 2 months.
– Your podcast needs a name. Your team meeting to brainstorm and select options is a marketing tactic.
– You aim to increase revenue by 20% within 3 months. Your plan to reach this is a marketing strategy. One step in the plan is making sales calls, so hiring a salesperson is a marketing tactic.

What is a digital marketing strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is simply a plan to attract new customers online. Some tactics might include SEO (organic search), social media, and/or paid ads.

What is a digital marketing campaign?

A digital marketing campaign is a group of steps within your overall strategy. Let’s say you want to introduce a new product, so you send out a series of emails. This email marketing activity is a campaign.

How to make a digital marketing strategy.

1. Make a buyer persona or profile.
   • Include web locations where your audience spends time, their age, income, job titles, goals, pain points, interests, affiliations and priorities.
   • Discover these details by surveying a mix of existing customers, new prospects, and even your own sales and customer support people.
2. Start defining your digital marketing goals. Look at the tools you’ll need and how you’ll measure success.
3. Evaluate and list all your online assets. This includes:
   • Owned media (websites and podcasts)
   • Earned media (press, social mentions, and reviews)
   • Paid media (ads)
4. Audit your owned media.
   For example, how well does each content piece rank in Google? How many people read each content piece? Google Analytics can help. List your content, ranked by the best performing, according to your goals.
   Look for new content opportunities. Social media and keyword research tools can reveal popular topics you haven’t covered.
   Make a content planning document. The following points make a great template:
   • Temporary Title – A copywriting process can make final headlines later.
   • Format – This could be videos, audio files or blog posts.
   • Goal – How can this content piece nudge people one step toward reaching your sales goals?
   • Promotion Method – How will you get enough people to see this content item?
   • Priority – Rank your content pieces by which ones will move you toward your goal the fastest.
   • Schedule – When will you have each piece written, edited and then published?
5. Audit and propose changes to your earned and paid media.

Choose tactics to add to your Marketing Strategies

• Blogging – Many people buy based on blog recommendations. Study your audience’s pain points.
• Digital Advertising – Choose between Google, Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook. Create audience profiles. Determine a budget.
• Free Resources – Exchange education for contact information. Learn landing page best practices.
• SEO – Search engine optimization includes keyword research, search popularity and ranking difficulty.
• Giveaways and Contests – Sometimes a $10 product people really want can get you hundreds of leads, followers or sales.
• Webinars – Educate while interacting with prospects and answering questions.
• Podcasts – People with audio devices are everywhere. Market beyond search and social media.
• Email – Earn subscribers through your blog, webinars and contests. Nurture relationships with them.

Document your strategy

The 7Ps marketing framework makes a great digital marketing strategy template. The Seven are:
Product, Price, Place sold, Promotion methods, People making/distributing/selling, Process for delivery, and Physical evidence (customer experience). Use this checklist to set goals and prioritize where you need improvement. Itemize a budget for each marketing action you plan, along with the total cost.

Examples of Digital marketing strategy

Fanatics, a sports apparel e-commerce retailer, used content marketing to boost its brand awareness. They focused on current sporting events, sports history, and modern trends.

This effort brought 11 times more people to their website. They ranked for 230% more keywords and even got featured on The Score, Yahoo Sports, and USA Today.
Digital Marketer, an online marketing course and coaching provider, focused on email subject lines. They found the best ones fit into 4 categories:

1. Scarcity or Urgency
2. Benefit Driven
3. Curiosity Creating
4. Providing Proof or Credibility

They sometimes used a symbol, such as an arrow, or personalized it with the recipient’s first name. The result?
They tripled their email open rate.

What does all this mean for you?

Scrutinize what you’re currently doing right and what you’re missing. Define where you’d like to be. Map out the actions that reach your goal. Set deadlines. How much will it cost? Make sure your team understands these.
Digital marketing strategies are not blueprints for money printing machines, but they almost are. An average strategy, vigorously executed, adds far more to your bank account than the best strategy with little action. First Direct Marketing enjoys helping people win with their marketing.
How can we help you today?