How to develop a Digital Marketing plan
Digital marketing has become exponentially more complicated since the early days of the internet. Back then, businesses rarely created a digital marketing plan. And those that did, focused mostly on websites, banner ads, and email marketing.
Enjoying an excellent digital presence is essential to the results of any business these days.Digital Marketing is important to consolidate your image on the Internet and attract new leads and consumers. If you want to do so, it is necessary to act strategically.
Exploring Digital Marketing is the only way to meet modern consumer expectations.
A recent study indicates that 1.8 billion people already shop online. Even if we consider those who don’t, 63% of the shopping occasions begin online. In other words, the Internet is used by the public both to buy and to discover information about products.
What you need is a digital marketing plan.
An clear plan helps you determine the most effective digital marketing strategies for your business and then put those strategies into action. A digital marketing plan helps you organize your initiatives so that you’re continually connecting with your audience, engaging them, and driving them to action. With a digital marketing business plan, you think ahead, coordinate among departments, and integrate your digital marketing for greater impact.
What is a digital marketing plan?
A digital marketing plan is a document in which you strategically map out your digital marketing objectives, as well the actions you’ll take to achieve those objectives.
Situational analysis
The first thing you need to do when developing your digital marketing plan is to carry out an internal and external analysis (SWOT analysis) of the company. A useful framework for this is the SWOT analysis that allows you to look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your company and the market at large.
Create buyer personas
Buyer personas are fictional people that represent the traits of the people you’re trying to target to buy your products or services. They embody your ideal customer and the person who is most likely to purchase from your business.
To create your buyer persona, collect information like:
• Location
• Age
• Income
• Job title
• Hobbies and interests
• Goals
The way you market to a single woman is not the same way you’d market to a married woman with three kids. Buyer personas help you keep these different people in your audience separate, so you can provide them with the best and most relevant marketing message.
Establish Digital Marketing Goals
Once you have your place in the market and your strong points in mind, work on establishing some goals to create a clear idea of where your actions should take you. Everything you plan has to work towards meeting those goals.
Here’s an example:
Not a SMART objective: “I want to increase the number of visits to my website.”
SMART objective: “I want to reach 20,000 visits a month on my website every month within three months. To do so, I’m going to do X, Y, and Z.”
Set your goals
Before you embark on a journey to market to your target audience, define your goals. It’s important to set goals, so you can determine whether your marketing campaign is working effectively to help your business grow.
A small goal towards helping you achieve that goal may be to gain 10 new email subscribers. This smaller goal helps you work towards accomplishing your bigger goal.
Choose your digital marketing methods
If you want to know how to create an effective digital marketing plan, choose the right digital marketing methods. You know who you’re trying to reach and your goals, so the next step is to figure out which channels will help you reach them.
There are many methods available to your business to reach these leads:
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
Set your budget
Your budget is a crucial part of your campaign. You must know how much you can spend on your digital marketing campaign before you start implementing your methods. Having a set marketing budget allows you to better distribute your money to the services you need.
You must find a balance between how much you’re willing to spend on each channel and how much you need to invest to drive valuable results.
When you know how much is available in your budget and how much you need to spend on each channel, you will create a better digital marketing business plan.
Measure results
A digital marketing plan should always have a strategy for measuring results. Measuring results is crucial in determining whether your business was successful with your efforts. It’s important to constantly monitor your results to ensure you’re putting out the best campaign.
You can use key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine your campaign’s success.
KPIs are statistics that help you define whether you reached the goals you set.
If you aren’t meeting your goals, it provides you with the opportunity to restructure your campaigns to drive better results. You can alter and optimize your strategies to help you reach consumers better.
