What is a digital marketing plan? It is a document in which a certain company defines its promotional goals, strategies, budget, and metrics that will measure the results over a certain period of time.
Why is digital marketing planning so crucial?
Before diving into the characteristics of a digital marketing plan, we need to figure out what is a marketing plan. Put simply, it is a road map for our advertising strategies on a certain chosen platform, whether it is retail, radio, banners, magazines, or the Internet. If the company chooses an online promotion only, we are dealing with digital marketing. An accurate plan will eliminate misunderstandings between departments and will bring a clear interpretation of what the company is aiming at and what actions should be taken.
Benefits of digital marketing planning:
Easy to define the target market, or target audience
Probably every marketing strategy starts with the research of your potential customers and their behavior. If we focus on the wrong audience, we’ll get minimal to no results. With digital marketing, you can easily
Easy to coordinate all departments
Since all the members have access to your digital marketing plan and understand the digital campaign definition, each of them can work efficiently. Besides, you can edit the strategies if you see they do not have the effect you were hoping for.
Cost-effective budget
Clear objectives and precise time frames will prevent you from spending resources on unnecessary experiments. You will execute only what you can measure afterward.
To write a better digital marketing plan, you need to know the elements/segments of digital marketing.
Segments of digital marketing
Probably the best advantage of digital marketing is that you are in full control of your actions. Besides, you can see the results of your campaigns almost immediately, whereas penetrating commercials on TV for example requires a long time to analyze the data.
1. Content marketing
It is probably the most effective marketing technique in recent years. The main objective of this strategy is to generate and nurture leads, convert them from cold into hot, and guide them through the sales funnel into the sale. We can accomplish it by attracting customers’ attention, educating them, eliminating their concerns by providing blog posts, webinars, etc.
2. Email marketing
Another efficient tool for a strategic marketing plan. eCommerce businesses love this type of marketing since they can analyze how many emails have been opened, how many have been delivered to the Spam folder, and how many links have been clicked on. Marketers can segment their audience by their behavior and send personalized promotions.
3. Advertising
One more tool for a digital marketing planner. Internet advertising increases traffic to your website, expands your audience on platforms that you might have not even known about you. Some types of ads include social media ads; web push, video ads, display ads, etc.
4. Mobile marketing
An irreplaceable tool in your arsenal. Promoting “mobile-friendly” products and services will hugely impact your results, as per statistics, more than 80% of users browse the Internet via mobile phones. Optimize your websites, landing pages, ads, videos, articles, and emails for a cellphone.
5. Reputation marketing
It deals mostly with feedback and reviews. According to statistics, nine of ten customers read reviews before a purchase. 79% of people interviewed say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 54.7% read at least four reviews before making a purchase. Use this analysis to collect positive feedback from your customers and strengthen your brand.
6. Social media marketing
It focuses on growing loyal customers and building a brand community through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and similar channels. 45% of the population, i.e 3.5 billion people use social media for different needs, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to show yourself there.
7. Video marketing
Such as pre-roll ads on YouTube can advertise your products/services to a huge audience.
You can also try entertaining videos on TikTok if you want your brand to go viral, or create a YouTube channel where you can educate and instruct people about your product.
Add videos in emails too, as this can also increase purchases.
8. Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about improving your website performance and enhancing traffic to it. To get a high ranking, marketers pay attention to keywords and unique information, implementing cross-links and backlinks for higher visibility.
9. Web analytics
This tool helps you track and analyze the user’s activity on a web page. Not only can it show the number of visitors to your website, but also how exactly they found you, and the duration of their visit, the phrases and pictures they got interested in, and more.
How to create a digital marketing plan
Actually, as in any other marketing strategy, you need to:
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define your brand;
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finally decide on its positioning.
Then answer the questions:
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what are my product’s advantages;
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what differs you from your competitors?
Then you need to decide:
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where the target market for your product is;
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who your target audience is. Good if you know their gender, age, marital status, income, and even interests of your potential customers for your digital media plan.
Then establish the goals for a given budget that can be easily measurable, and finally map out a digital marketing strategy. Depending on the age, status, and interest of your audience you will choose the best channels for communication with your audience and generating leads. Create a digital content plan for your blog posts, emails, and social media. Move your leads through the sales funnel into a purchase and don’t forget to ask them for feedback. Analyze the results and implement new tactics.
So this is a digital marketing plan outline and the exact marketing strategies will depend on the company’s objectives.
