Developing a Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy
Nowadays, when people think about digital marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is often social media. We all know how important it is to establish a presence across various social platforms, but people often tend to overestimate the standalone value of this approach. Social media is absolutely a key part of digital marketing. It’s a great place to attract the attention of a wider audience! But what value does that audience have if you’re not directing them further down your sales funnel? This is why it’s critical to take a holistic approach to marketing, so that you can anticipate the customers’ experience with your brand from first impression all the way through to a sales conversion, and beyond to customer loyalty and referrals. Read on to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what a good digital marketing strategy should look like.
First and foremost is effective branding. Establishing a memorable brand is the most important step in all things marketing. Without a strong, cohesive image, your marketing efforts won’t be as effective as you’d hope. A huge part of building your brand is defining your target audience. Make a list of their defining characteristics, such as age group, geolocation, interests, pain points, etc..
Once you’ve identified who you are trying to reach, you can then begin to strategize how you will reach them. Try to get inside their heads. What does their average day look like? What digital platforms do they use most? What sort of messaging might resonate with them? Answering these questions will help you identify what channels to prioritize. Most organizations simply don’t have the bandwidth to implement all digital tactics without hiring a marketing agency. It’s important to know where to focus your efforts depending on your target audience, rather than splitting your effort less effectively across all platforms.
Creating an easy to navigate, up-to-date website should always be a top priority. This is where leads get converted to sales, so this is where you want to drive all traffic from your other marketing channels. Ultimately, the purpose of your website is to get visitors to buy your product/service. If you can’t make an immediate sale, the goal is to get a ‘foot in the door.’ This is why it’s so important to have a call to action on your homepage. This could be something like “schedule a consultation,” or “sign up for our newsletter,” which will allow you to further target marketing efforts straight to their inbox or over a phone call. Repeated exposure to what your brand has to offer is the best way to get people on board with what you’re selling.
Once they’ve visited your website and subscribed to your email list, you can begin nurturing the lead via email marketing. Email marketing is a highly effective tactic, and can have an ROI as high as 4400% (or $44 for every $1 spent)! With this platform being such a good investment of time and money, we highly recommend incorporating it into your digital marketing strategy. There are several ways in which this can be done. Having a welcome series is a great way to get people excited about your brand. It's a simple automation that can be built using software such as Active Campaign or Hub Spot. Typically a welcome series has 4-6 emails, delivered on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, informing new subscribers of your brand's mission/backstory, as well as a detailed description of your products/services. Having this regular cadence is useful in keeping your brand in the forefront of your potential customers' minds. A newsletter is another great way to do this. It’s perfect for keeping your audience engaged in all things current with your organization - think blog announcements, upcoming speaking events, featured items (depending on your industry, this could be valuable expertise, new products, company updates, etc.). While email marketing is undoubtedly a wonderful tactic, it only goes one way, so it doesn’t make room for meaningful interaction. This is where engagement comes in.
Engagement is an easily overlooked, yet highly effective aspect of your digital marketing strategy. By engaging with your existing audience as well as target demographics, you create a dialogue that generates trust in your brand. Positive interactions translate to positive brand associations. Engagement is two-fold: inbound (reactive) and outbound (outreach). Inbound engagement is pretty straightforward, since it’s mostly just about being present across your social profiles. If someone comments on a post, like it to show your appreciation. If someone sends a question or concern, try to get back within a few days to show that you prioritize their needs — this is a good opportunity to demonstrate how your business operates on the customer service end. If someone reaches out hoping to work with you, respond - even if you’re not interested in a partnership. You are representing your brand, and if you’re non-responsive, then that could negatively impact your reputation (every impression matters, and people talk!). Outbound engagement involves you initiating: liking, commenting, posting in specialized groups, and sending pitches (both for new business and PR). This part of engagement requires some research on the front end so that your efforts are informed and targeted. Take some time to do some list-building for people who might be interested in hearing a pitch (i.e. someone who works for a media company that specializes in your industry and might like to feature you, or an individual who is looking to hire someone in your field). Engagement has always been a wonderful way to generate leads, and though the platforms have changed from paper mail and phone calls to digital inboxes and social media DMs, this method is still highly effective.
Publishing a blog is a great opportunity to demonstrate your industry expertise. It’s also an effective method of driving traffic to your website, which as previously mentioned is usually the final step in converting leads to sales. If you decide to publish a blog, it’s important to establish a regular cadence (as with all marketing tactics). Monthly or bi-monthly is the typical approach, and can be done in a variety of ways. For example, your founder/CEO can write all of the blog posts, or your team can take turns rotating. Regardless of how you do it, we recommend laying out a game plan in advance. What is the blog topic for the coming months, and what does the outline include?
Blogging is just one of several ways to share your expertise and establish trust among your audience. Other approaches include Linkedin articles or podcasts on platforms like Clubhouse or Help a Reporter Out. These are several ways you can get your name out there, and definitely options worth exploring.
Fine-tuning your digital marketing strategy takes time and patience. It’s a constantly ongoing process that you should tweak as you go along. There are so many moving pieces, and it can be hard to know which tools are best for your purposes. Make sure to utilize analytics so that you can have a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not. If your target audience changes, then so too should your tactics. When in doubt, feel free to schedule a free consultation with the Social Canvas team to learn how you can strengthen your efforts.
