In the 21st century, a business must continue to grow and adapt to the market around it. To do this, a digital marketing plan is recommended. Digital marketing consists of only effective strategies that drive valuable leads for your business. If you find yourself without a digital marketing plan, then you better set one up now! Throughout this post, you will learn about 6 steps to help create a solid digital marketing plan. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
6 Digital Marketing Plan Steps to Take
1. Budget
One of the most crucial and first steps you have to take for planning a digital marketing strategy is creating your budget. You have to know what you have to spend on your campaign prior to following through with your methods. Also, with a set budget, you will be able to accurately distribute your funds to all services you need to bring in brand awareness, traffic, leads, and sales.
Once a budget has been set, you are able to allocate and break down the money for multiple channels. You will be able to discover a balance between your available funds and what is needed to drive results.
For example, if you have a budget of $350 per campaign to run P.P.C., it won’t be able to generate the same results as if you had a budget of $700. What you can put in, you will get out. It is all about the methods you use in your digital marketing campaign to drive the desired traffic.
Once your available budget is determined, and you are aware of how much you must spend on each specific channel, you are able to design a digital marketing plan suited to your needs.
2. Buyer Personas
When you are making a digital marketing plan, you want it to be effective. How can it achieve the goals you have if you don’t know your target audience? That is why the next step is to create Buyer Personas.
Buyer personas define your target audience. They are fictional people that are representations of your ideal audience. They mimic the traits of the individuals that buy your services or products. They will be a stand-in for the ideal customer, as well as who is the most likely to make a purchase of your services/product.
In order to create a buyer persona, you need to collect this information:
- Age
- Location
- Income
- Goals
- Hobbies/Interests
- Job Title
Each bit of that information makes up what you are looking for in a consumer. This information will shape the persona and give you an idea of how to best approach the audience you need. Now, you are probably wondering, “How does a buyer persona help with my digital marketing plan?”
Like we stated before, a buyer persona helps narrow down your target audience. In several cases, you have more than one type of buyer in mind, which means you have multiple targets. When you create these buyer personas, you are helping yourself market to all the right people based on the information you gathered about your audience.
If you run a car dealership that sells used and new cars, then you obviously have two different audiences that you need to market to. In this instance, you will have a persona for people who are only interested in new cars, and a persona for only used car seekers.
You will have to market to different car seekers in different ways too. Some want a family vehicle, whereas others want a vehicle that looks classy or goes fast. When you utilize buyer personas, you are able to find ways to market to all these individuals and more. It is about providing the most relevant and best marketing message to those who would be interested in your cars.
In short, you will know how to approach your audience in the right way with a persona’s help. That is how buyer personas help improve your digital marketing plan.
3. Defining Your Brand
While this step comes in third, it is one of the first things you need to focus on when you are making a digital marketing plan. You have to know all the details about your brand so you can successfully sell it to your target audience. You need to define the business’s unique features. Also, you have to figure out what separates you from the competition. It is vital that you understand what makes your business so different from others in order to properly market it.
You need to create U.S.P.s (Unique Selling Points) for your audience to find insight into the brand you are promoting.
Defining your brand means you are collecting the facts of your business that make your company unique and will help convince your audience to go with your brand. U.S.P.s will make the image of your brand become more familiar with individuals, giving them confidence in picking you over your competitors.
Other aspects you need to define, besides U.S.P.s, are your values and mission. Tell the audience why your business does what it does. Talk about your motivation to provide your services/products to customers.
4. Digital Marketing Methods
In order for you to design a marketing plan that is effective, you need to utilize the proper marketing methods. You have determined your budget, your audience, and defined your brand. Now it is time to take that information and figure out which channels will allow you to reach your audience.
These methods will help you reach the audience that would be interested in your services/products:
- Influencer Marketing
- SEO
- PPC
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- E-Mail Marketing
Believe it or not, there are other channels you can take advantage of to reach your leads. But picking the right method is vital.
5. Setting Goals
However, before you can utilize one of these channels, you need to make sure you are defining your goals. Your goals will give you a direction and figure out how effective your campaign is. The goal is to grow your business. Setting goals isn’t enough. You have to make sure you are setting small goals as well as large ones. The small goal’s primary objective is to assist in reaching your bigger goals.
If you want to increase your conversions by 40%, a small goal should be something similar to gaining 10 new subscribers to your e-mails. The smaller goal will aid you in working towards your bigger goal. All your goals should work together to help you achieve them.
S.M.A.R.T goals are measurable goals. S.M.A.R.T stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
Your goals need to define what you wish to accomplish. They need to be easily measured. Something simple, like earning more subscribers, isn’t enough. You want to add 40 more subscribers. A more detailed goal will give you something specific to shoot for.
6. Measure Results
Something you need to have for any digital marketing plan is a strategy for measuring your results. This is critical in the process, showing whether or not your business was successful due to your efforts. Constant monitoring of these results will allow you to adjust your campaign as needed for greater results. There are tools known as key performance indicators that can help you determine the success of the campaign. These KPIs are statistics that allow you to recognize whether or not you have met your goals.
