Intro: Are your digital marketing efforts giving you value for money and measurable results? Here’s how to improve them.
Digital marketing covers a range of ways you can market your business online. These include email marketing, your company website, search engines, mobile apps and paid ads that appear on social media and websites.
While most companies use some or all of these channels, a huge portion of them haven’t coordinated these within a digital marketing strategy. This is a missed opportunity. A digital marketing strategy gives you clear goals for what you want to achieve with your digital marketing, a road map for getting there, and a way to measure your success. It helps you target your digital marketing efforts to avoid duplication, save money, and gain a better understanding of your customers’ habits, needs and wants.
Here’s how to create one.
1 Set a clear, measurable goal
Work out what you want to achieve with your digital marketing efforts and decide how you will measure this. You can do this using SMART criteria: SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. A good example would be the goal of increasing visitors to your website by 20 percent within a given timescale.
2. Assess your current online marketing
Consider your website, your search result ranking, your social media presence, your email marketing, how much you spend on ads and where these efforts are focused. What is bringing you the best results? Where are your efforts and money being wasted?
3. Understand your digital marketing funnel
The sales funnel is the path online customers take from discovering your brand to buying from you. It’s often described using the AIDA formula: awareness, interest, desire and action. You need to take the correct action at each stage in order for the process to work. Awareness is making potential customers aware of your business – for example, through social media advertising. Interest can be increased in your brand through relevant, engaging content such as videos and blog posts, or getting mentions in key publications. At the “desire” stage you amplify the customer’s desire for what you are selling – for example, with strategically placed ads. The next step is “action” – the purchase, which should be followed by actions designed to build customer loyalty and advocacy – for example, through s rewards for introducing friends to your brand.
4. Create buyer personas
Consider your typical customers and create a persona for each type. How old are they, where do they live, what job do they do, what are their interests? The better you understand who your customers are, the greater chance you have of reaching them and selling to them.
5. Plan your marketing content
Your marketing efforts can encompass everything from email marketing to paid ads. Research keywords to use in your digital marketing and plan out what you will do, and when. These decisions should be informed by your understanding of your sales funnel and your buyer personas.
6. Measure your results
Use analytics software to establish what is getting you clicks and conversions. This will help you hone your efforts and make them more cost effective.
Need help?
At Primedia Marketing we’re experts at all forms of digital marketing, delivering measurable results. Get in touch today to find out more.
