If you’ve decided to up your digital marketing game, it can be hard to know where to begin.
It’s easy to get caught up and jump right in, but this can lead to a lot of wasted time and money. We support businesses with their online digital marketing strategy day in, day out, and we’ve learned a few things along the way about how to set some solid foundations for your digital campaign.
Here’s five building blocks you need to consider before embarking on your digital marketing campaign:
1: Work out who your target audience is
The first thing you need to know ahead of any marketing campaign is who your target audience is. There’s no point in putting stuff out there if it’s not reaching real potential customers.
Take some time to identify who you want to communicate with:
- If it’s B2B, what industry are you targeting, and what specific person or role within the organisation will be the one interested in your services? The more detail you can add, the better.
- If it’s a B2C campaign you’re launching, make a note of everything you can think of that might make up your ideal customer – like their age, gender, location, interests and career.
Creating actual personas for various audiences and giving them names can be really helpful and makes it easier for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to your audience.
2: Set some SMART goals
You’ll never know if your digital marketing strategy has been successful if you don’t have goals and objectives to work towards.
Before you launch, think about what you would need to achieve to consider your campaign successful. What is it that you’re aiming for?
Whatever your goals are, make them SMART – that’s:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Timely
This makes sure that your objectives are actually possible, and makes it easier for you to know when you’ve achieved them.
3: Research your competitors & define your difference
It can be beneficial to conduct some research into your competitors and what digital strategies they’re using to communicate with customers, including which channels or social networks they use, the kind of content they share (and how they share it), and the level of interaction they’re getting.
But remember – you shouldn’t just try to replicate exactly what your competitors are doing, this is all just to give you a starting point, and ideas about what does or doesn’t work.
It’s key to define what is unique about your business, and ensure it’s something your market values, if you’re going to succeed.
4: Refine your voice and messages
When you launch your digital marketing strategy, you’re sharing your brand’s personality with the world. You need to think about what kind of personality you want that to be, and how it will be represented through your brand’s tone of voice.
Are you going for witty and informal, or more professional and authoritative?
Once you have your target audience, you also need to figure out the key messages you need to communicate to them, including the core information about your products/services, and what differentiates you from your competitors.
You need to share your key messages concisely, and in a way that your audience will understand and engage with.
5: Choose your channels
Although it’s tempting to launch campaigns on every single digital channel available if your budget allows, it’s usually easier and more efficient to focus on a few, and consider what you expect each one to do for you.
Do they use social media a lot? Do they prefer engaging with content in their emails? Are they fans of reading blogs and sharing them, or would they rather download a more technical white paper? When prospects are ready to engage with you, how are they most likely to do that? Is there a product or service you can offer to buy online or do you need to provide channels such as email, forms, online chat or telephone?
Once your marketing has got the attention of your prospects you need to think about building specific campaigns to get them to commit to you.
Create a list of the channels and social networks you want to use, how you want to use them, and how important they are in terms of reaching your audience – then, if things get confused, you can remember to focus on the channels that are top priority.
If you need more information about creating an effective digital marketing strategy, we are here to help.
Get in touch with us today. Call us on 01642 924507, or email hello@forrestdigital.com.