The unstoppable digital revolution makes everything available online and instantly. Everyone appreciates next-day deliveries and instant answers to pressing questions. The digital culture certainly demands that all businesses have a solid digital marketing strategy to be sure that they are found by customers and have a high profile in this fiercely competitive landscape.
Hopefully, your business has a website and social media presence no matter what industry you are in. However, this isn’t enough. Having a clear strategy around your online marketing is crucial to your success, especially as digital technology continues to develop pace.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many businesses to experiment and see the actual value in digital marketing as a means of branding and reaching new customers. However, SmartInsights found that 44% of companies engaged in digital marketing don’t have a solid digital marketing strategy. Overwhelm is part of the problem – there is a lot of information available online, but working out what suits your organization’s needs isn’t natural or easy for many.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is all about connection: your business is a brand, and brands need to connect with potential customers. A digital presence can take many forms and be informed by many processes, from online video, search engine marketing, paid social adverts, and general social media posts.
However, the game-changer for businesses is the insight into customers’ minds that digital marketing can provide. A surplus of digital marketing tools, analytics, and software allows you to see actual online customer behavior. Once you know what works, you can begin to take your strategy further with exciting digital content such as videos made by companies like MHF Creative. Video remains the format that audiences respond to the most.
Here is a list of some top tips for creating a successful digital marketing strategy for this year.
1. Research, research, research
Step one: research. It takes time, but it’s worth it. You want to consider your audience and consider demographics such as age range, location, activity levels, and gender.
Consider your competitors – what are they doing on their channels? What works for them, and can you do something similar? How can you drive traffic from their channel to yours? During this research stage, it’s worth doing a social media audit to know what is currently performing well and what isn’t on your channels.
Finally, think about what trends are getting the best results. Data shows that video content performs well across all channels, so jumping on TikTok trends could be a great way to reach new audiences and share your message – or product – with the world.
2. Get SMART with goals
You might have heard of the SMART approach, but if not, this tool could make a real difference to your marketing efforts this year. SMART is an acronym that you can use to guide your goal setting and is particularly useful when planning a new digital marketing strategy. Creating SMART goals means focusing your efforts, clarifying your ideas, and using your time productively.
Your goals should be:
- Specific: outline what you aim to achieve.
- Measurable: your goals should contain metrics and data to monitor the success of your strategies.
- Achievable: make sure your goals are attainable. You have to complete all the tasks to reach your goal and have the adequate resources to make them possible.
- Relevant: in other words, reasonable and realistic.
- Time-bound: it’s a good idea to set a time period to achieve your goal. For example, you might decide to have an annual SMART goal and review it at the end of the year. However, you can also set smaller timeframes for achieving your goals and then assess whether you should continue to pursue that goal or try a different approach.
3. Which social media platform is right for me?
It’s all about finding the most relevant social media platform for your business, which might be all of them – but most companies will see success penetrating their audience via a few well-chosen platforms. Do a few well. Do it consistently. The most popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram in social media marketing, followed by LinkedIn and YouTube. Each platform has demographic targeting options that you’ll want to consider when creating your digital strategy. For example, if you’re a start-up business wanting to target people in their late teens and twenties, Instagram and TikTok would be great platforms to get to grips with. LinkedIn and Twitter might be more relevant if you share research and business training.
4. Thinking about the user experience
Your website might look fabulous on a laptop screen but flop on a mobile. However, it must work elegantly on mobiles as well because this is the most used device for accessing platforms. It’s crucial to consider this in your marketing plan. Make sure your website and social media platforms are accessible on both desktops and smartphones and consider your own experiences when using your phone – what user experience would you want?
It’s never been more critical to have a well-thought-out marketing strategy for your business. The whole world is on board with it, and it’s only getting bigger, more comprehensive, and more profound. The new year is a great time to begin your audit. Start planning, researching, setting some goals, and see where your strategy could take your business this year.
