How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy

by Fred Warner | Jul 31, 2023 | Digital Marketing

In the digital age, a well-crafted digital marketing strategy is not just a luxury but a necessity. This is especially true for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that may not have an established marketing function.

In this first part of our three-part series, we will delve into the initial steps of creating a digital marketing strategy, focusing on defining your goals, understanding your target audience, and conducting a digital marketing audit. 

Don’t forget to get in touch with CREATIVE in TiME directly, and our marketing experts can handle your entire digital marketing strategy for you.

Step 1: Define Your Goals 

Understanding the Importance of Goal Setting 

The first step in creating a digital marketing strategy is to define your goals. These are the guiding lights of your strategy, the endpoints you aim to reach through your digital marketing efforts. Your goals could range from increasing brand awareness and driving more traffic to your website to generating leads and boosting online sales. 

Aligning Your Digital Marketing Goals with Business Objectives 

It’s crucial that your digital marketing goals align with your overall business goals. Whether these are related to sales, product development, operations, HR, etc., your digital marketing strategy should serve as a tool to help you achieve these objectives. This alignment ensures that your marketing efforts are not just creating noise but are contributing to the growth and success of your business. 

Step 2: Understand Your Target Audience 

The Role of Audience Analysis in Digital Marketing 

Knowing your target audience is a cornerstone of a successful digital marketing strategy. This involves understanding their demographics, preferences, online behaviour, and pain points. This information will help you create content and messages that resonate with your audience and meet their needs. 

Creating Buyer Personas 

One effective way to understand your target audience is by creating buyer personas. These are detailed profiles of your ideal customers, including their demographics, interests, challenges, and behaviours. Buyer personas can guide your marketing decisions and help you tailor your content and messaging to the needs and preferences of your audience. 

Step 3: Conduct a Digital Marketing Audit 

The Importance of a Digital Marketing Audit 

Before you start planning your strategy, it’s important to conduct a digital marketing audit. This involves assessing your current digital marketing efforts and identifying what’s working and what’s not. 

What to Include in Your Audit 

Your digital marketing audit should cover all your digital marketing channels, including your website, social media accounts, email marketing campaigns, SEO efforts, and more. It should evaluate the performance of each channel, identify areas for improvement, and highlight opportunities for growth. 

Using the Audit to Inform Your Strategy 

The insights gained from your digital marketing audit will serve as a foundation for your digital marketing strategy. They will give you a clear picture of where you stand and where you need to go, helping you make informed decisions about your marketing efforts. 

Step 4: Choose Your Digital Marketing Channels 

Understanding Different Digital Marketing Channels 

Digital marketing encompasses a variety of channels, each with its unique strengths and capabilities. These include Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, and more. 

Selecting the Right Channels for Your Business 

The choice of channels depends on your business goals, target audience, and resources. For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness among a younger demographic, social media marketing might be a good fit. On the other hand, if you’re looking to drive immediate traffic to your website, PPC advertising could be a more effective strategy. 

Step 5: Create a Content Strategy 

The Role of Content in Digital Marketing 

Content is the fuel that drives digital marketing. It’s what attracts and engages your audience, builds trust and credibility, and ultimately converts prospects into customers. 

Developing a Content Strategy 

Your content strategy should outline what type of content you will create, how often you will publish it, and on which platforms. The content should be valuable and relevant to your audience, helping you build trust and engage with them. 

For more on content marketing strategies, click here.

Content Types and Platforms 

There are various types of content you can create, including blog posts, videos, infographics, webinars, and more. The choice of content type depends on your audience’s preferences and the platforms you’re using. For instance, if you’re focusing on Instagram, visual content like photos and videos would be more effective. 

Step 6: Implement Your Digital Marketing Strategy 

Putting Your Plan into Action

Once you have your digital marketing strategy in place, it’s time to put it into action. This involves creating and distributing content, managing your social media accounts, optimising your website for SEO, running PPC campaigns, and more. 

Coordinating Your Efforts 

It’s important to ensure that all your digital marketing efforts are coordinated and aligned with your overall strategy. This means that your SEO efforts should support your content marketing, your social media posts should promote your content, and your email marketing should drive traffic to your website. 

Step 7: Measure Your Digital Marketing Performance 

The Importance of Analytics in Digital Marketing 

One of the key advantages of digital marketing is that it’s highly measurable. Through analytics, you can track the performance of your digital marketing efforts, gain insights into your audience’s behaviour, and determine the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing activities. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 

To measure your performance, you need to define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your digital marketing goals. For instance, if your goal is to increase website traffic, your KPIs could include the number of visitors, page views, and bounce rate. 

Step 8: Refine Your Digital Marketing Strategy 

Using Data to Drive Decision-Making

The data you gather from your analytics should inform your decision-making process. By understanding what’s working and what’s not, you can make data-driven decisions to refine your digital marketing strategy. 

Continuous Improvement 

Digital marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of activity. It requires continuous monitoring, testing, and refining. By regularly reviewing your performance and making necessary adjustments, you can ensure that your digital marketing strategy remains effective and aligned with your business goals. 

Conclusion

Creating a digital marketing strategy is a crucial step for any business looking to succeed in the digital age. It involves defining your goals, understanding your target audience, conducting a digital marketing audit, choosing your marketing channels, creating a content strategy, implementing your strategy, and measuring its performance.

With a marketing partner like CREATIVE in TiME, you can ensure that your digital marketing strategy aligns with your overall business goals and drives your business forward. Get in touch today.