What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
Digital Marketing Strategy can be defined as a holistic approach to create a comprehensive plan of action which helps the business to achieve their digital marketing goals.
What is the need for Digital Marketing Strategy?
In today’s digital era, where every brand knows the importance of their presence of Digital Marketing, no matter what is the size of the business whether it is small, large, startup, everyone is adopting different digital marketing channels for the brand presence. For any successful implementation of digital marketing efforts every marketer should prepare an effective digital marketing strategy. Let’s have a look regarding the effective digital marketing strategies that every brand must follow:
1. Set up digital marketing strategic business planning:
Create a well-defined business plan template to get an overview of your business idea and the essence of your product or service, break it down into key parts. Check out what are the key objectives you need to include in your business plan template. Below are given key points that you can include:
a. Identify the Problems:
List down – What problems are people facing? List their top 3 frustrations.
Existing Alternatives
This can be a direct competitor to what you are offering or the existing ways people are employing to address their problems.
b. Solutions:
List down – How will you solve these problems? Write down a solution for each problem.
Identify Key Metrics for the solutions.
You can note the key points of how will you measure the success of your product or service? List the key metrics.
E.g. if your competitor is performing well in terms of brand presence on social media, then likes, reach, engagement of the post can be key metrics measured, you can use SEM rush tool to do competitor analysis and compare your brand with the competitor for any brand for all the channels in digital marketing
c . Unique Value Proposition:
List down – How will you turn an unaware visitor into an interested customer?
Create a clear and compelling one-liner message you want to send across.
Create High Level concept for your value proposition:
Identify how does your product or service fit into the grand scheme of things? Try to be innovative and prepare Unique Selling preposition
d. Unfair Advantages:
Identify what separates you from competitors? What makes you ahead of the pack? Look at the opportunity gap and identify how you will fulfill
Identify Channels
How will you reach your target consumers? Direct marketing, social media, ads, partnerships — identify the effective ways to reach them
d. Customer Segments:
Create 3 to 4 personas of the people you can help. Visualize these people who will turn to you for solutions.
Early adopters for your customer segment
Identify what are the specific characteristics of your early adopters?
e. Cost Structure:
What are the fixed and variable costs to launch your product or service? Consider the cost at each stage from setting up a website, hiring employees, production, marketing, and bringing them to consumers.
Revenue Streams for your cost structure
What money sources will grow your money? How will you generate income?
Show a pricing model of your product or service and include other revenue
sources, such as sales and subscription fees.
2. Find Your Competitive Position with a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis maps out your companies path towards your goals by identifying strengths and weaknesses (internal attributes) and opportunities and threats (external conditions). Uncover your company’s competitive position with these guiding questions. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own SWOT analysis.
Strengths – What advantages does your company have? What do you do better than anyone else? What are your unique selling points?
Weakness – What areas can you improve on? What does your company lack? What things do your competitors do better than you?
Opportunity – What changes in technology, policies, and social patterns can be a growth opportunity for the company?
Threats – What are the obstacles to your company’s growth? What changing factors can threaten your company’s position?
3. Visualize Your Company’s Weak Points with a Pirate Funnel
The Pirate Funnel is a customer-lifecycle framework by Dave McClure that shows what you need to focus on to optimize your marketing funnel. It is called a Pirate Funnel because the first letters spell out “AAARRR” for Awareness, Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own pirate metrics.
a. Awareness:
How will you introduce your company to your potential customers? Examples: impressions, click-through rate, visits, and social media metrics.
b. Acquisition:
Where are your potential customers coming from?
What channel is driving the most valuable traffic for your company? Examples: new leads, email subscribers, resource downloads, support and sales chats.
c. Activation:
How will your potential customers try your product or service for the first time? Examples: new trial signups, product sales, activation after app download.
d. Retention:
How many of your customers are you retaining? Why are you losing others? Examples: customer acquisition rate and customer churn rate.
e. Revenue:
How can you increase revenue? What’s your monetization plan?
Examples: customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value.
f. Referral:
How will you introduce your company to your potential customers? Examples: impressions, click-through rate, visits, and social media metrics.
4. Position Your Product or Service with the 4Ps of Marketing
The 4Ps of Marketing illustrates how product, price, place, and promotion work together when a product or service is launched to customers. It is created by Neil Borden in the 1950s to demonstrate the ways companies use advertising and marketing techniques to convert potential buyers into actual customers. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own 4Ps of Marketing.
a. Product:
Product refers to the good or service you are offering to customers. What needs does this product fulfill? What frustrations does it address? What makes it compelling to customers such that they will believe they need to have it? It includes
Brand
Features
Packaging
b. Promotions:
Promotion is how you will get the word out about your product or service to your target customers. It includes advertising, public relations, and promotional strategies like
- Ads
- PR
- Social Media
- Search Engine
- Video
c. Price:
Price is what customers pay for a product or service and it takes into account the cost of production. Are there established price points for this product or service in the market? How will this price compare with competitors? It includes
- Discounts
- Bundling deals
- Credit terms
d. Place:
Place refers to how and where your customers will look to see your product or service. It also considers how you will deliver the product or service to them. Will it be in a physical store or online? What will be the distribution channels? It mainly includes:
- Stores
- Website
- Online
- Marketplace
5. Establish Your Product’s Appeal with a Product-Market Fit Pyramid
Product-Market fit is a concept coined Marc Andreessen and refers to your start-up being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. Finding Product-Market fit is the difference between struggling to find customers and having them knocking down your door for your product. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own Product-Market Fit Pyramid.
a. Identify your target customer:
Use market segmentation and create personas to get a picture of the people you are targeting. No need to be precise. A high-level hypothesis is enough to start testing, and revise as you go
b. Know “undeserved” needs:
What needs do they have that are adequately met?
c. Define your value proposition:
How you will meet your customers needs better than your competitors? Of all the needs you can address with your product, which ones will you focus on?
- Build only what is needed to create enough value for your target customers to validate the direction of your product.
- Create a version of your product to test hypotheses with your customers. Apply user experience principles to receive feedback and to bring your feature set to life for your customers.
d. Test it out to your customers.
Ensure you are testing with your target market so feedback received will help iterate your product in the right direction. Making your test group answer a survey is a great way to ensure they possess the attributes of your target customer.
6. Know the Stages of the Customer Journey with a Marketing Funnel
A Marketing Funnel maps your company’s marketing activities at each stage of the customer journey. It starts with making your target audience aware of your solution, then guiding them through an evaluation process and finally leading them to make a purchase. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own marketing funnel.
Marketing funnel will include the following key points:
- a. TOFU – Top Of The Funnel
Activities that facilitate awareness. Make your target audience aware of the problem you’re addressing and how you’re solving it - Social media post and ads
- Email marketing
- Promotional video
- Press Release
b. MOFU – Middle Of The Funnel
Activities that facilitate evaluation. Convert those who are aware into leads - Discounts
- Exclusive offers
- Free trial
- Event
c. BOFU – Bottom Of The Funnel
Activities that facilitate conversion. Guide the leads in making an informed purchase decision - Demo
- Feedback
- Success stories
- Comparison sheets
7. State Your Company’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Clearly defining your company’s mission, vision and values is a powerful way to align your team and reach your goals. Below are the points to be included for framework which will give you the idea of how to plan for it
- Mission – It is the reason why your company exists. It is the visible and tangible effect you want your company to create for your customers and the world.
- Vision – our company aspires to be in the future. It is how the world will look like once you’ve accomplished your mission.
- Values – These are the guiding principles that will influence your actions to fulfill your company’s mission and vision.
8. Clearly define your strategy planning with Strategy, Tactics and Execution
A strategy, a list of tactics, and knowing how to execute them are integral in the attainment of your company goals. Use the blank framework on the next page to start filling out your own strategy, tactics, and execution - Strategy is how your methods, time, and resources come into play to fulfill your company mission and vision.
- Tactics are the specific methods, resources, and techniques you will need to accomplish your strategy.
- Execution is how you will employ the tactics you’ve chosen. It includes measurable outcomes, such as timelines and deliverable.
9. Develop Deep Insights About Your Customers Using Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your target customers. These personas are based on market research and real data about the people you are targeting. Two to three buyer personas are ideal. The more detailed the buyer persona, the better.
Typically a buyer persona’s include following:
a. Demographics – Gender, age, marital status, employer
b. Buyers Journey – Awareness, consideration, purchase, advocacy
c. Buying Roles – Decision makers, influencers
d. Channels – Social media, other digital activities,non-digital activities
e. Sources of Information – Content that influences purchase decisions
f. Values and Fears – Values dependability, clarity, good UI, fast support Objects to pricing and poor value proposition during sales process
Not all audience is created equal. The need for a persona helps in:
• Targeting specific contents.
• Mapping content to the stage of buyer journey.
• Personalizing.
• Marketing to develop the correct pitch.
