3 Things to Define in Your Digital Marketing Strategy

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December 11, 2015

Much of the power of a digital marketing strategy lies in its giving clear, defined guidelines for your marketing activities. When it comes to putting a good strategy together, however, this can also seem like an obstacle.

Digital marketing is sometimes a complex and multifaceted undertaking. Which aspects should be defined, how precise should those definitions be, and how should these things be defined? For the uninitiated, it can be daunting figuring out where or how to start – especially without a clear pathway or plan of attack.

But, with many complex tasks, working through them is often just a case of breaking them down to manageable chunks. Creating a digital marketing strategy is no different. Start at the beginning, focusing on those priorities that once addressed will open the pathway to a whole host of positive digital marketing outcomes.

1. Setting Sail With Your Digital Marketing Goals

One thing your digital marketing strategy should have is direction, and this means that the first thing it should define is clear goals. These could be specific short-term goals that are subject to change, for example, boosting website traffic by a certain amount within a specific timeframe. Or, this could refer to more general goals such as delivering sustained growth in online revenue or maintaining your position in key search rankings. These achievements may be the outcome of your strategy, so it is important to know where you want to go before you set off. Therefore, spend some time thinking about exactly what you hope to achieve and then work backwards to create a route you can use to get there.

Not sure what sort of goals you should be thinking about? Check out our post on setting digital goals that drive growth for small business owners and you’re sure to find some inspiration.

2. Your Tactics for Achieving Success

A sound digital marketing strategy should also clearly define the actual tactics you intend to use across all of your chosen marketing platforms. More specifically, it should specify the activities you intend to use to bring about the achievement of your goals. So, what does this really mean in terms of an actionable plan for your business? Often, the trick is to work out where your current efforts have the most room for improvement. This might be because they are either the weakest or because they are the most scalable. Closely review your opportunities and come up with a strategy for enhancement.

For example, suppose your goal is to achieve a certain percentage increase in sales. Your website might already be converting well, so an easier way to improve sales may be to increase traffic. Ways to achieve this could include increased social media promotions, improvements in your SEO strategy and activities, or stepping up your paid search efforts, to name just a few – depending on where you think you have the most room to push harder.

3. Specify Your Online Marketing Tools

Bigger businesses can afford to go all-out with every digital marketing tool available. Smaller businesses however, might find it a challenge to make use of multiple subscription-based marketing tools. That said, there are a number of readily available free or low costs tools that they would certainly benefit from documenting how they intend use each tool to their advantage.

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Confused About Where To Start?

If this describes your situation, don’t despair. Rather, start by defining which digital marketing method and tools you’d like to use; for example organic SEO, paid search, affiliate schemes, email marketing and social media promotions. Next, outline how and why you will use each one, how long for, and how you will measure and judge whether each method is driving real benefits for you. Lastly, don’t forget to describe how each method will be optimised to work seamlessly with all of your other digital marketing efforts – for example, regularly blogging and promoting each blog on social media at optimised times will build a buzz among your followers while also enhancing your organic SEO efforts through both regular updates and link-building.

Good luck with your digital marketing efforts and do let us know if any of this has been helpful to you.

Enjoy!