What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

Think of it like you would think of an itinerary for your trip

In today’s modern age of technology, a strong digital marketing strategy is key for the organisational success of a business. Time and time again, we are seeing that companies that heavily invest in digital marketing strategies are thriving. In essence, with the right digital marketing strategy, you can reach customers across various different platforms, driving more revenue and an improved conversion rate. 

So, what does a digital marketing strategy look like?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan...a plan that will help your business reach specific goals through a number of marketing channels including paid, owned, and earned media. Many businesses run digital marketing campaigns without an appropriate strategy but, in my opinion, this is like driving to an unknown destination without running Google Maps in the background - you will take MANY wrong turns, get immensely frustrated, and take a longer journey to achieve your business goals. 

So, think of your digital marketing strategy like you would think of an itinerary for your trip - an essential part of your planning to make the most of your budget and time. 

Audit your current scenario

The first step is always the hardest - this is where you have to be the most critical and harshest towards your business’ current point of view. Before going anywhere near a digital marketing strategy, you will need to audit your current owned, paid, and earned media. 

Here’s a quick refresher of what these three media consist of: 

• Owned media represents channels that your business owns such as a website, blog, video channels, podcasts, and others. You can use these channels to your advantage in your digital marketing. 
• Paid media refers to third-party channels such as influencer marketing, sponsored content, digital advertising, and others - mainly media which you pay compensation for. 
• Earned media is content that is separate from your business gained from reviews, awards, testimonials, user-generated content, and others. This is the most authentic form of content. 

Your digital marketing strategy components 

There are several digital marketing strategy components that your business can utilise to get the message across to customers. Each business differs from the other so what works for one business might produce a completely different outcome for another. 

• Content marketing: We all know that content is king. You can use your business’ owned media such as a blog to target potential customers. With high-quality content comes improved rankings and website traffic. 
• Website marketing: Your website can help reel in potential clients, especially if you employ effective call-to-action messaging. 
• Search engine optimisation (SEO): Writing content does not stop there. The practice of optimising your content will improve your rankings in search engines which will ultimately result in reaching prospective clients. 
• Social media marketing: By communicating your message through social media, you can attract more customers to your brand and business.
• Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising: PPC falls under digital advertising where businesses place ads with a third-party website to drive traffic. However, you will only pay whenever a user clicks on your link, making it more targeted and cost-effective. 
• Email marketing: Email marketing can be used to target new clients and re-target old customers. An effective tool to strengthen your relationship with customers. 
• Customer relationship management (CRM): A CRM can extract essential contact information from those who interact with your content and sort it out efficiently, decreasing manual work. 

How do I go about producing an effective digital marketing strategy?

After analysing each business separately, taking into consideration the business goals, vision, and current marketing standpoint, I follow the below five steps to effectively come up with a unique and personal digital marketing strategy. 

1. Conduct a SWOT analysis: The first step is to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the business in question. 
2. Establish SMART business goals: Every business has goals but I try and break these down into specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals to make them more manageable and digestible. I also like to ask myself these questions: ‘What, Why, When, and How’? 
3. Market segmentation: I like to divide a business’ target market and audience into smaller groups to make it easier to tailor unique content to these digestible groups. 
4. Create a persona: A fictional profile that represents your target audience. This helps businesses understand their customers better, which in turn, gives a better understanding of how to target those clients. When creating a persona, it is also important to consider buying stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. 
5. Identify budgets: All businesses are different, especially when it comes to their budget. The type of digital marketing strategy that you apply will heavily depend on a budget so it is crucial to get an understanding of how much a business is willing to invest from the start. 

Essential digital marketing tools 

Using the correct tools in each stage is key to nailing down your digital marketing strategy. This will allow you to make hard choices on hard data! Data comes from all kinds of sources. Here are my go-to tools when analysing customer data: 

• Google Analytics: The tracking code on your website will bring invaluable data to Google Analytics including traffic, where this traffic is coming from, how long it stays, where the engagement is, where the traffic is dropping off, among other metrics. 
• Google Ads: Every digital marketing strategy should include some kind of paid media, irrespective of whether you have a tight or abundant budget. Google Ads also offers opportunities for ad optimisation and re-marketing. 

Feel free to ask for my help! 

If you need assistance with the creation and setting up of a digital marketing strategy, I am here to help. With 18 years of experience, I specialise in creating digital strategies proven to deliver results. 

My goal is to be an extension of your team by bringing in innovative ideas, sharing knowledge that will bring in positive results, and building a digital marketing strategy that your business is looking for.

Let’s talk! Feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn or alternatively drop me an email at ask@gordon.mt