Digital Marketing Strategies That We Use
Having a strategy is a basic element of a successful marketing system. It allows you to consciously approach the distribution of efforts and resources when attracting customers.
Why do you need a strategy?
When we plan, we assume what will happen in the future, what actions we will take and what tools we will use. However, there are a lot of channels and opportunities in internet marketing: targeted advertising, content marketing, chat bots, etc.
New tools are constantly being created, and consumer preferences are also rapidly changing.
Which of these digital marketing tools are worth using and how to distribute the efforts?
The strategy allows you to determine the sequence and select the necessary tools at each specific stage. Without a strategy, there is a great risk that none of the selected tools will be mastered correctly, which means that there is a chance of simply losing time and money.
Strategic planning removes chaos and creates consistency in work, achieving goals, using various tools and hypotheses. It is the strategy that allows you to cope with the main task of marketing - converting costs into investments and optimizing them. If we do not see a return on funds, then marketing remains just an expense, which certainly does not mean success.
WHAT DOES A DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY CONSIST OF?
A digital marketing strategy is essentially a refined part of a company's overall marketing strategy. It concerns primarily the use of digital marketing tools and channels, as well as their role in the overall strategy.
But nevertheless, it is not worth simplifying it to a simple plan of advertising activities on the Internet, although such a plan can and should also be drawn up on the basis of the strategy.
In order for advertising and other marketing activities to be streamlined and bring results, it is necessary to take into account more global and indirect factors, which we will talk about below.
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
A strategy cannot contain only an action plan. This is primarily an analysis of external and internal factors that affect the development of the company. Internal factors include, first of all, information about the company itself:
- Business model- What model does the company follow and is it planned to change it in the short and long term.
- Financial position-The general position of the company, including what marketing budget it has.
- Employees and partners- The number of employees, their responsibilities, and the expertise they possess. In addition, this includes partners and contractors of the company.
- Business objectives and goals- What goals does the company set for itself and how they will be solved by means of Internet marketing.
- Strengths and weaknesses of the company- The classic SWOT analysis of the company works well here.
OFFER
After you have decided on the product or service that you offer, you need to move on to an equally important and requiring special attention question - "How is our product or service presented?"
In response, we discuss the price offer, pricing policy (discounts, promotions, special offers), product description, and also, which is very important in digital marketing, where you can see it.
Since today we are all in the digital space, it is important to understand where on the Internet a client can get acquainted with our description: a website, social networks, closed commercial offers, etc.
Do not overlook the question of what channels and tools are used to promote the product.
Channels depend on the goals that we set for ourselves. Due to the fact that the goals are general in nature, you need to decompose them. For example, one challenge is to attract customers and create one-off sales.
If you are dealing with a complex product or service that requires brand building and community trust, then that will be a different challenge.
Thus, in marketing, you need to work for different goals. You can do this simultaneously, or you can do it sequentially, and in each case we will use different channels.
Let's say that social networks will be such a channel to build a community, first of all, if your business is selling a high-quality product that simply requires reaching a buyer, then you can use search engine optimization, contextual and targeted advertising.
MARKET AND COMPETITION ANALYSIS
When creating a digital marketing strategy, it is necessary to take into account the size of the market in which a company or a specific product is present, the specifics of this market and consumer preferences.
The state of the market is also important: whether it is growing or falling, what kind of competition is and what place our company occupies in the market now. In the same section, it is important to examine the marketing efforts of competitors:
- Advertising platforms used
- Indicative marketing budgets
- Competitors' price and product offer
- Target market segments for competitors
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
The first question we ask at this point is "Who is our client?" The description of the client depends on the size of your business.
For example, if you represent a large company, then you need to conduct research on your clientele with its further segmentation. If your case is a small business, then a simple description and creation of a client avatar will be enough.
In general, the easiest way to describe your target audience is to ask questions. The answers to them will represent segmentation.
It's worth starting with the most general question: who is my client? These can be entrepreneurs, women, mothers on maternity leave, etc. Then you should turn to more specific questions such as where my clients live, how old they are, how much time they spend on social media, what kind of social media they are, etc.
Thanks to these questions, you will be able to break your customers into segments that will greatly facilitate your work in the future.
In some cases, the information will be objective, as you get it from studying the analytics of your website or social media accounts. In other cases, especially if you are just starting a new project and working with a new product, this information will be hypothetical.
You only assume how your client's profile will look like, and in the future, throughout the work, you will be able to update the information, receiving new data.
CHANNELS AND INSTRUMENTS
After we have identified who our target client is and what we are going to offer him, we can proceed to the most important and meaningful part of the digital strategy.
It is dedicated to working with the channels and tools that we are going to use to communicate with the client. Do not overlook the question of what channels and tools are used to promote the product.
Channels depend on the goals that we set for ourselves. Due to the fact that the goals are general in nature, you need to decompose them. For example, one challenge is to attract customers and create one-off sales.
If you are dealing with a complex product or service that requires brand building and community trust, then that will be a different challenge.
Thus, in marketing, you need to work for different goals. You can do this simultaneously, or you can do it sequentially, and in each case we will use different channels.
Let's say that social networks will be such a channel to build a community, first of all, if your business is selling a high-quality product that simply requires reaching a buyer, then you can use search engine optimization, contextual and targeted advertising.
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY CREATION
A good strategy should take into account many external and internal factors. You also need to take into account the resources that the company has and various technological and consumption trends.