You already know that the level of use of digital devices is constantly increasing. The 2022 survey found that the average adult spends 6.9 hours a day using digital devices (computers, phones, and other Internet-enabled devices).
Such dependence can also seem scary. But it also gives companies a real opportunity to actively communicate their brands to customers who spend more time online.
This is where the digital marketing strategy comes in handy. “Your digital marketing strategy is a series of actions aimed at achieving corporate goals using carefully selected online marketing channels,” said Alyssa Hudson, Senior Marketing Manager, Australia, and New Zealand at Hubspot.
Let’s face it: creating your own digital marketing strategy is a very serious task. So what is its significance? We will definitely share examples that will inspire you.
Table of Contents
Why You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy?
Here is the short answer: Like any other business activity, you need an overall strategy that will help you plan and improve your performance. With its help, you can make a choice keeping in view the end goal.
This is especially important in the field of digital marketing, as there are many areas in this field. What kind of digital marketing do we know? These may include:
- contextual advertising
- Social media marketing
- affiliate marketing
- Email Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content marketing
So what is the main goal of digital marketing strategy? It combines all these elements into one plan, saving you time, money, and effort.
How to build a digital marketing strategy?
Did you like what you just read? Well, now you have to solve the problem of creating your own digital marketing strategy. It may seem complicated to you, but it certainly is not.
Be short and explain the five simple steps to get yourself on the right track. Consider it infrastructure for your future strategy.
1. Get to know your audience
Before you develop a set of marketing activities, you need to understand who you are talking to. So, your first step is to study the audience.
There are many ways to do this, but some of the most popular and effective methods are:
- Analytics (on your website, email marketing platform, and social media)
- Survey and Feedback Forms
- Discussion with sales and customer support staff
These three methods alone will give you valuable insight into who your customers are, what their goals are, what challenges they face, and how your company can help them.
With this information, you can create personal buyer profiles so that you can always remember who you are talking to and target your messages accordingly.
2. Set goals
Your entire digital marketing strategy should be tied to one big goal - more specific and persuasive than “promoting the company” or “expanding the audience”.
One of the best ways to set marketing goals is to use the SMART method. This abbreviation aims to mean:
S= Specific
M= Measurable
A= Achievable
R= Relevant
T= Time-bound
By working through each letter, you can set goals that will help guide you in the right direction. For example, the SMART digital marketing goal might be:
Increase our mailing list to 2,000 members in Q1 to get enough viewers to promote our webinars.
If you want to use an alternative method, you can use the OKR (“Objectives and Key Results”) method to maximize the results of your marketing activities.
3. Evaluate past performance
Developing a strategy is a very difficult task, and you may feel like you are doing everything from scratch every time, but that is not entirely true. If you’ve been involved in marketing before (although the activity is not very large), that means you already have some experience.
Analyze your past performance to understand in which cases you achieved the expected results and in which cases you failed to achieve. This will help you to understand where you are working harder.
Additionally, you get a good opportunity to gather content and various materials - from social media illustrations to important information - that can be reused without taking extra work. For example, a quote from a previous blog post can be used as an example on Instagram.
4. Think carefully about all the main strategic points
No matter how high the flight of your creative imagination, there are always many insurmountable conditions to consider. Strategic development has nothing to do with dreams. Instead, it’s an attempt to understand what you can achieve with existing limitations.
And here you have to think. The Digital Marketing Institute uses the phrase “identify your resources”, which means you should consider the following:
- Your budget. How Much Can You Spend on Digital Marketing?
- Your staff. Who is responsible for the outcome? Outsource certain tasks or responsibilities to subcontractors?
- Your channel. What marketing channels do you use and what is the purpose of each channel?
These basics should be explored in advance so that you can develop a successful strategy within any limits.
5. Make a plan
If you have all the basics - your audience, your goals, and your resources - it’s time to combine them into a single digital marketing strategy template.
Start with a simple calendar that combines all of these elements (either in the spreadsheet or directly on the rack). For example, you can schedule a single mailing list in Calendar and start adding other snippets to it.
Be prepared for the fact that your initial intentions will eventually turn out to be completely unexpected, but sometimes you have to move on to find the best way for you. As with any process, you go through trial and error!
5 Examples Of Digital Marketing Strategy
Do you know the first steps you need to take to get started, but do you feel insecure? Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration.
The following are examples of well-known brands focusing their marketing efforts in three different areas: content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing.
In what direction does digital marketing bring the best results? These brands have proven that there is no single answer to this question. It all depends on how you implement your plans.
1. Content Marketing Example: Airbnb
Once again, we see that content marketing does not have to be equated with good old blog posts. Airbnb proved.
Their neighborhood guides are the best example for travelers looking for temporary accommodation in a specific area.
With these guides, customers can find attractions, activities, restaurants, and other local places. Airbnb employees actively use user-generated content, including reviews, recommendations, and tips to provide a realistic representation of the region.
In fact, Airbnb aims to motivate people for the excursions and rental accommodation that the company offers. So, thanks to such guides, customers will find out about the best Airbnb deals and lodging in these homes and apartments. This is a great example of promotional material that offers real value.
In addition, Airbnb employees provide customers with information and resources to create high-quality content, which can then be used to create property listings published on the Company’s website.
“For example, when a homeowner posts their information on Airbnb, we offer suggestions on how best to describe the home, report pricing for similar features in your area, and suggest service ideas that will help guests get better results.” I want to receive, “said Marisa Phillips, Content Director at Airbnb.
2. Content Marketing Example: Buffer
When it comes to content marketing, it’s hard to think of Buffer as the most popular social media post scheduler. The company that provided this service is often cited as an example of the “proper” use of content marketing.
In the early days, company executives relied mainly on guest posts. The content they created was posted on a lot of different sites‌ because they wanted to make it recognizable. One of the co-founders of Buffer stated that the strategy allowed them to reach their first 100,000 customers.
However, they are dissatisfied with the neglect of their site. But in the years that followed, the company gained credibility in the industry by posting high-quality content on its blogs.
Did you notice that in the previous paragraph it was mentioned as “Blogs” instead of “Blog”? That’s right- they have two different blogs for different audiences:
And while content marketing usually focuses on creating e-books and blog posts, Buffer has proven that marketing strategy goes beyond the printed word. He started a podcast called “The Science of Social Media” that shares ideas and valuable information about social media.
3. Social Media Marketing Example: Glossier
There are many factors that have contributed to the undeniable success of the color cosmetics brand Glossier. And social media posts have played an important role in this success.
Company executives have prioritized social media advertising (especially Instagram) from the beginning and they were able to reach 13,000 Instagram followers before the first product was released.
But how? The reason for this amazing success is that the company employees understand their audience better and create publications that resonate with the readers.
“A modern woman has exactly five minutes to put on her make-up and leave the house. This is the world she lives in, but she still wants to look beautiful and at least strive for it, ”said Emily Weiss, founder of Glossier, in an interview with Entrepreneur.
This is the image they represent in their publications. Images often do not look stylized or polished and usually show real people in realistic settings (children, animals, in the cabin, etc.).
While other brands are trying to reach thousands of people to promote their products, Glossier is taking a different approach by relying on its loyal customers and fans.
When launching a new product, the company management came up with the idea of ​​providing product models to the five hundred most dedicated fans who constantly buy their products or actively interact with the brand on the internet. These girls promoted the product on their own pages on social networks. And what is the result? The very original social media campaign was very successful.
4. Email Marketing Example: Adobe
List segmentation is a very powerful tool. But if you do not have a huge audience like Buzzfeed, the idea of ​​creating very different newsletters may seem suicidal.
The good news is that email is not the only way to send personalized content or to receive information about customers. Adobe is a perfect example of such a strategy. Although they also have a huge audience, they take a slightly different approach to personalization.
Consider the email example below, where two calls to action are placed on top of each other. It allows clients to choose their own expedition, relatively and also helps Adobe professionals learn more about a particular client’s interests.
Additionally, Adobe provides the Adobe & You newsletter with more personalized content for customers, including news from the digital marketing world, tips on working with Adobe, and local events and training courses.
5. Email Marketing Example: Buzzfeed
The people at Buzzfeed have been so successful in digital marketing that they seem to have taken over the internet. But in all their marketing activities, email marketing is very different.
Now that our inboxes are full of emails, email marketing is becoming a real problem. How do you get people to open and read your emails without having to look at them (or worse, unsubscribe)?
Employees at BuzzFeed are proving with their example that personalization is a very important thing. They know that in order for users to open incoming emails, they must have the content that these users want to receive. But at the same time, it can be very difficult to send targeted content if you are addressing the entire audience.
Therefore, BuzzFeed divides its mailing list into very specific interests (for example, you can subscribe to receive a photo of a cute dog once a day).
They have dozens of different mailing lists to subscribe to and at the same time, subscribers always know what to expect from the content they send and how often they receive new messages. In addition, memberships offer a variety of challenges that allow users to take small steps to achieve their goals.
And what is the result? High-quality targeted content that users expect.
Create your own digital marketing strategy and engage your audience
Nowadays, digital marketing has become an absolute necessity for companies looking to build a recognizable brand and engage an audience. But this does not negate the fact that creating your own strategy is a very difficult task.
But you can divide this task into simple steps:
- Study the audience.
- Set goals.
- Review past work.
- Think carefully about all the key elements of a digital marketing strategy.
- Make a plan.
Do this with the inspiration of these examples and your digital marketing efforts will begin to bring more significant results.
If you have a solid digital marketing strategy, you can start implementing your plans. Mixwithmarketing with its content helps thousands of marketing teams bring their ideas to life and achieve their goals.
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2 Comments
Jonna Schegetz
I couldn’t resist commenting. Very well written!