How To Make An Excellent Digital Marketing Strategy
Having a digital marketing plan or a marketing strategy is crucial for any business to succeed. If you hire an expert digital marketing agency such as Emedia Creative, you will be able to attract more customers which, in turn lead to more sales and revenue.
Hence, here is how to make an excellent digital marketing strategy.
As opposed to traditional marketing, digital marketing happens online and involves using various online marketing tactics. Because most of your audience is online by this point, digital marketing will probably be way more effective than traditional marketing.
Here is how you can get started with it in ten simple steps.
If you get your facts wrong, you will not be able to reach the target audience that will be interested in your products or services. Remember that it is essential for you to know who this audience is if you really want to make your plan work.
There are several things you can do to complete your research quickly and efficiently. First, you can hire an expert to do everything instead of you and simply provide you with results. This way, you will have more time and attention to dedicate to other aspects of your business.
Another way to do your research is by organizing surveys to ask your potential target audience questions that will help you understand whether they really are your target audience or you need to seek customers elsewhere. For instance, you might discover that the books you will be selling are suitable for young adults and teenagers rather than children or adults.
Alternatively, consider finding businesses like your own and see who their target audience is. Their customers are the ones you will be targeting one way or another, so it’s a great way to start before expanding to other markets too.
Now that you know the general picture, you need to get down to basics and start building your customer personas. These are profiles that will help you understand what kind of people your customers are and divide your target audience into segments which will then help you create better content and optimize your campaign.
To build comprehensive customer personas, think about these features of your customers:
To identify your goals and priorities, ask yourself these questions:
You already know who your audience is, but you should also know who your competition is. Otherwise, you will not be able to successfully compete against them.
Once again, there are several ways you can analyze the market. For example, you can hire a writer from a writing services review site like Pick The Writer, someone who knows how to do proper research and have enough experience doing it and get a detailed report from the writer about who your competitors are.
On the other hand, you can consult experts in your field or read some reports available online. These are usually published by specialists who track all the changes in your industry, analyze them, and write about it afterward. Of course, you can always do the job yourself if you have the necessary skills, experience, and knowledge.
This way, you will know exactly what you are looking for and you will have the most accurate information about your competitors.
The best way to have a website that you will be able to control is by using WordPress which is basically perfect as a platform for hosting your website. It gives you enough options to customize your website the way you want it to appear.
Besides, you will be able to create a blog on your website without having to host it separately.
When creating your business website, make sure that all the necessary pages are present on it. These will include the home, contact, about, and other pages. In addition to that, make sure that you find a way to categorize your products or services and perhaps group them from the beginning to make the experience smoother for your site visitors.
Once your website and blog are set up, you will need to fill them with content. Use relevant keywords when writing your product description pages and all the other pieces necessary to fill your site. And remember that your blog will need to have regularly published blog posts and articles to serve its purpose – that is, generate traffic to your website.
Believe it or not, but customers like checking whether a brand has a social media profile to verify that they are, indeed, a legitimate company.
First, you will need to check which platforms have the majority of your customers. For instance, if you are planning to target primarily younger audiences, you will need to create an account on Instagram, but if you want to engage with older audiences, you will probably need to turn your attention to Facebook.
Once you decide which social media platforms you will be using, you will need to create your social media profiles. Always fill out all the blanks because the more information you give, the more legitimate your business will seem, and the more details you will provide social media search engines with to help users look for your profile.
Besides, your social media accounts are also a way to inform your audience about who you are and what you do.
But, of course, you also need this to improve brand awareness, get more exposure, generate traffic to your website, grow your social media follower base, and so on.
You can either create content by yourself or you can hire in-house writers to be a part of your team. Alternatively, you can look for a freelance writer from a writing services review site like Writing Judge. The main advantage of remote workers is probably the fact that you will be able to reduce your costs.
Keep in mind that content for your blog and website should be different from content for your social media. In turn, social media posts will probably also vary.
For example, you won’t be able to post an equally long piece of text on Instagram or Tiktok as you did on Facebook. At the same time, some of your blog posts can be copied and published on your Facebook page.
When creating and publishing content, you should also remember about the nuances of each platform. For your website and blog, you will need to use relevant keywords. For your social media profiles, you will need to use appropriate hashtags.
To grow your mailing list, you will need to create a newsletter subscription form on your website and promote it on the site as best as you can.
For example, pop-ups can be great for this. At the same time, think about ways to grow your mailing list by using off-site tactics. You can host a contest or a giveaway where one of the requirements for participation would be to subscribe to your mailing list (though you can use a social media follow rule instead).
Organizing webinars or hosting podcasts is not a mandatory step in a digital marketing strategy, but both of these can significantly improve your reputation, increase brand awareness, attract new potential customers, and educate your audience among other things. Besides, you will also have a steady flow of content to put out for your audience.
Webinars don’t necessarily have to be hosted on your website or on YouTube – you can simply have live streams on social media and have your webinars through these live streams. It’s also easier to promote your future webinars through social media platforms than via other channels.
Hosting podcasts can also be done on a variety of platforms. You can also do them either in video or in audio format which gives you more flexibility. Consider hosting podcasts on YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, or other platforms.
To track performance, look at how well your content is performing. How many likes, comments, shares, etc. does it get? Look at the metrics of your website such as your click-through and conversion rates. Track your social media reach, followers, likes, comments, reposts, etc. In other words, track everything you can track.
Hence, here is how to make an excellent digital marketing strategy.
What Is Digital Marketing?
So, what is digital marketing?As opposed to traditional marketing, digital marketing happens online and involves using various online marketing tactics. Because most of your audience is online by this point, digital marketing will probably be way more effective than traditional marketing.
Here is how you can get started with it in ten simple steps.
#1 Do the Research
First and foremost, you need to do the necessary research that will be the foundation of your entire digital marketing strategy.If you get your facts wrong, you will not be able to reach the target audience that will be interested in your products or services. Remember that it is essential for you to know who this audience is if you really want to make your plan work.
There are several things you can do to complete your research quickly and efficiently. First, you can hire an expert to do everything instead of you and simply provide you with results. This way, you will have more time and attention to dedicate to other aspects of your business.
Another way to do your research is by organizing surveys to ask your potential target audience questions that will help you understand whether they really are your target audience or you need to seek customers elsewhere. For instance, you might discover that the books you will be selling are suitable for young adults and teenagers rather than children or adults.
Alternatively, consider finding businesses like your own and see who their target audience is. Their customers are the ones you will be targeting one way or another, so it’s a great way to start before expanding to other markets too.
#2 Build Customer Personas
Now that you know the general picture, you need to get down to basics and start building your customer personas. These are profiles that will help you understand what kind of people your customers are and divide your target audience into segments which will then help you create better content and optimize your campaign.
To build comprehensive customer personas, think about these features of your customers:
- Basics: These include everything like age, gender, sexuality, marital status, location, education, and income. These details are the foundation of your customer personas.
- Interests: These include interests, hobbies, priorities, dreams, and aspirations. These details help you better understand what your customers are guided by.
- Flaws: These include flaws, weaknesses, fears, and phobias. Like Interests, these details help you better understand your customers.
- Other: If you want to get really specific, you can include other features (e.g. can they drive, do they speak multiple languages, what are their beliefs). These are not mandatory.
#3 Identify Your Goals and Priorities
Though understanding your customers’ goals and priorities is important, you should also identify them for your business. Knowing what you are aiming for will not only help you stay motivated and inspired but will also give you a better orienteer and show you the direction you should be moving in.To identify your goals and priorities, ask yourself these questions:
- How much do I want to be earning in a set period of time (say, a month)? How many sales should I make to meet that goal? Is it worth the effort?
- What kind of customers do I want to be selling to? How fast do I want my business to expand? Do I want to be a local business or do I want to go global?
- What kind of partners do I want to find to collaborate with? When and how can I start looking for partners to work with?
- How many employees do I want to have? Do I want to hire more employees overtime or do I want to keep my team as small as possible?
#4 Analyze the Market
Once you have identified your goals and priorities, you need to turn to research again (if you didn’t complete this one before) and analyze the market.You already know who your audience is, but you should also know who your competition is. Otherwise, you will not be able to successfully compete against them.
Once again, there are several ways you can analyze the market. For example, you can hire a writer from a writing services review site like Pick The Writer, someone who knows how to do proper research and have enough experience doing it and get a detailed report from the writer about who your competitors are.
On the other hand, you can consult experts in your field or read some reports available online. These are usually published by specialists who track all the changes in your industry, analyze them, and write about it afterward. Of course, you can always do the job yourself if you have the necessary skills, experience, and knowledge.
This way, you will know exactly what you are looking for and you will have the most accurate information about your competitors.
#5 Create Your Website and Blog
A website and a blog for your business are essential if you want to succeed with digital marketing. In fact, they are the foundation of your digital strategy and everything you do with your website and blog will directly impact your chances of getting onto the big scene and growing your online follower base.The best way to have a website that you will be able to control is by using WordPress which is basically perfect as a platform for hosting your website. It gives you enough options to customize your website the way you want it to appear.
Besides, you will be able to create a blog on your website without having to host it separately.
When creating your business website, make sure that all the necessary pages are present on it. These will include the home, contact, about, and other pages. In addition to that, make sure that you find a way to categorize your products or services and perhaps group them from the beginning to make the experience smoother for your site visitors.
Once your website and blog are set up, you will need to fill them with content. Use relevant keywords when writing your product description pages and all the other pieces necessary to fill your site. And remember that your blog will need to have regularly published blog posts and articles to serve its purpose – that is, generate traffic to your website.
#6 Set Up Your Social Media Profiles
Then, you will need to create social media profiles for your business. You don’t necessarily need to have an account on every social media platform in existence, but you definitely need to have at least one or two to show that you exist.Believe it or not, but customers like checking whether a brand has a social media profile to verify that they are, indeed, a legitimate company.
First, you will need to check which platforms have the majority of your customers. For instance, if you are planning to target primarily younger audiences, you will need to create an account on Instagram, but if you want to engage with older audiences, you will probably need to turn your attention to Facebook.
Once you decide which social media platforms you will be using, you will need to create your social media profiles. Always fill out all the blanks because the more information you give, the more legitimate your business will seem, and the more details you will provide social media search engines with to help users look for your profile.
Besides, your social media accounts are also a way to inform your audience about who you are and what you do.
#7 Start Creating Content
You’ve got your website, your blog, and your social media accounts ready. The next step is to start creating high-quality content and publishing it regularly to attract the necessary audience of potential customers who will get interested in your products and services.But, of course, you also need this to improve brand awareness, get more exposure, generate traffic to your website, grow your social media follower base, and so on.
You can either create content by yourself or you can hire in-house writers to be a part of your team. Alternatively, you can look for a freelance writer from a writing services review site like Writing Judge. The main advantage of remote workers is probably the fact that you will be able to reduce your costs.
Keep in mind that content for your blog and website should be different from content for your social media. In turn, social media posts will probably also vary.
For example, you won’t be able to post an equally long piece of text on Instagram or Tiktok as you did on Facebook. At the same time, some of your blog posts can be copied and published on your Facebook page.
When creating and publishing content, you should also remember about the nuances of each platform. For your website and blog, you will need to use relevant keywords. For your social media profiles, you will need to use appropriate hashtags.
#8 Grow Your Mailing List
Email marketing should also be a part of your digital marketing plan because it can be extremely effective for customer retention. Acquiring new customers is more expensive than keeping the ones you have at the moment, so you need to use all the best tactics for customer retention in order not to lose your client base.To grow your mailing list, you will need to create a newsletter subscription form on your website and promote it on the site as best as you can.
For example, pop-ups can be great for this. At the same time, think about ways to grow your mailing list by using off-site tactics. You can host a contest or a giveaway where one of the requirements for participation would be to subscribe to your mailing list (though you can use a social media follow rule instead).
#9 Organize Webinars or Host Podcasts
Webinars don’t necessarily have to be hosted on your website or on YouTube – you can simply have live streams on social media and have your webinars through these live streams. It’s also easier to promote your future webinars through social media platforms than via other channels.
Hosting podcasts can also be done on a variety of platforms. You can also do them either in video or in audio format which gives you more flexibility. Consider hosting podcasts on YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, or other platforms.
#10 Track Performance
Last but not least, always remember to track your performance. You need to be able to understand what parts of your digital marketing plan are lacking something to then improve these aspects. After all, your aim is to have a nearly perfect strategy that you can follow closely to achieve certain aims you have set up for yourself in the beginning.To track performance, look at how well your content is performing. How many likes, comments, shares, etc. does it get? Look at the metrics of your website such as your click-through and conversion rates. Track your social media reach, followers, likes, comments, reposts, etc. In other words, track everything you can track.
Final Thoughts
All in all, having your digital marketing strategy might seem like something unmanageable at first, but if you follow the tips in this article, you will be able to create a solid digital marketing plan that will help you promote your business.Guest post by: John Edwards, a writing specialist who is looking for ways of self-development in the field of writing and blogging. New horizons in his beloved business always attract with their varieties of opportunities. Therefore, it is so important for him to do the writing.
