The Importance of a Clear Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital Marketing Strategy

A recent Smart Insights study titled “Managing Digital Marketing” revealed that a shocking 46 per cent of brands have no clearly defined digital marketing strategy. Another 16 per cent have a defined strategy but have not integrated into their daily marketing activity. Without a plan, it’s much harder to innovate and expand. Furthermore, with no way to measure results, how can you ever learn from your mistakes when you don’t even identify them? A top tip to help with inspiration for your marketing strategy is to get involved with local business networking in Hampshire. Other tips and advice are:

1. Have a Clear Objective

You need to clearly define your business’s mission and your digital marketing strategy must be focused around your core objectives. What do you want to achieve with your digital marketing campaigns? For example, do you seek to position your brand as the go-to provider of smartphone parts in the UK? You need a clear mission.

Set Measurable KPIs. Your KPIs need to be specific with quantifiable tracking. Your KPIs should be realistic, so it makes sense to first analyse the results of your previous efforts in the digital marketing sphere. That way, you can see the positive impact of a new strategy and avoid setting unrealistic expectations for your company.

2. Analyse Past Performance

If you want to learn from previous mistakes, you need to analyse your past performance. You shouldn’t go into the planning stage of a digital marketing strategy blind. The strategy should be derived from your company’s past failures and successes so that you can set achievable KPIs that will deliver real results for your business. It might be worth combining steps one and two into a single entity – or at least work on them both simultaneously.

Select a time frame to analyse – ideally one that is the same span of time as the duration of the digital marketing strategy you are planning. Decide whether to analyse the previous month, quarter or year. If your business is in a fast-moving niche, you might even want to analyse weekly results.

Ways to Analyse:

  • Decide on a time period to analysis. Filter your Google Analytics settings to follow that time frame. You can also try using Benchmarking Reports from your Google Analytics account to compare your progress.
  • Remember to also analyse the marketing strategies your competitors are using. Create analysis spreadsheets that document their digital activities. You can use online SEO tools like SEMrush to learn more about your competition, such as which keywords they are targeting and which phrases are driving the most organic traffic to their sites.

3. Keep Your Target Audience in Mind

Often when planning a digital marketing strategy it can be easy to become removed from the audience you are trying to target. You should already know who your target audience is and seek to make all digital marketing efforts speak to them. Focusing only on business metrics like your budget and KPI settings can often result in you losing touch with those you want to reach.

This means you need to put your target audience at the centre of your digital marketing efforts. You should seek to serve their emotional needs and tap into their dark desires. “It that possible?” You may ask. Of course, you just need to create fleshed-out personas in the boardroom.

The Creation of Useful Personas

• Get the basics right first. Jot down key demographic info surrounding your target consumers, such as age, location, gender, etc.
• Start digging a bit deeper. Think about some of the problems your target consumers may currently be facing and how your company can solve them.
• Run towards their emotional desires, future aspirations, career goals, fears and escapism go-to’s. Make a note of all those factors – keep conscious and unconscious desires in mind.