Marketing practices have changed in recent years, back in the day you targeted customers through print, TV and radio advertising, now there is a whole new digital channel. Targeting customers on the internet requires a whole new skill set and it is important to formulate a strategy to do this.
One Managing Digital Marketing 2020 report found that nearly half of companies don’t have a clearly-defined digital marketing strategy. But of those who do, the majority have integrated it into the businesses marketing strategy. This is important because the digital strategy has to fit in with your overall marketing plan in order to be successful.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is the process of selling your unique proposition through a variety of online channels, including:
- Website
- Social media pages
- Search engines
- Mobile apps
- Online advertising
Your online presence is often the first thing a customer sees of your business. It should reflect your brand, values and goals. A website doesn’t need to be a hugely complicated affaire, a simple, clear, professional site showcasing your business can be just as effective as an all-singing, all-dancing site. It just needs to show your products and give your contact details. Adding regular content in the form of a blog targeting key words and phrases will help you rank better in search engine results.
There are currently 4,208,571, 287 internet users (Internet World Stats) and the total number of websites on the internet is 1.95 billion (Internet Live Stats). If you’re not part of this you are missing out on a huge potential audience.
55% of people will search online for reviews and recommendations before making a purchase, with 47% visiting the company website, 26% checking out the physical store, and 23% of people talking with friends and family (KPMG). However, 46% of small businesses didn’t have a web presence in 2018, (The Balance Small Business) with many believing they are too small to warrant one.
Digital marketing primarily involves creating content, publishing it and then amplifying it. That content could be a blog, advertising, social media posts or emails to prospects.
The digital marketplace is constantly evolving, so any digital marketing strategy will need to be reviewed regularly and adapted to remain effective.
Why do you need a digital marketing strategy?
Consumers are going digital
In 2019 the number of smartphone users in the United Kingdom rose to 55.5 million, making it 82.9 per cent of the population, and this number is growing all the time. Consumers expect you to have an online presence otherwise you come across as backward and incompetent. The statistics show the potential market online so if you’re not competing for it you will be losing on a huge audience.
To understand your online market
Your online market may differ from traditional channels and without a digital marketing strategy you won’t understand the marketplace and where you stand in it. You need to establish who your online customers are and how to target them.
To take your business in the right direction
In order to succeed online it is vital to have clear set goals and objectives. Simply having a website and a Facebook page isn’t enough. You need to define what you want to achieve through your online activities and then put a plan in place to meet those goals.
To stay ahead of the competition
If you’re not marketing your business online you can bet your competitors are. Research what they are doing and whether or not it works, then aim to give the customer something better. If your competitors have an online strategy then so should you otherwise you will find yourself getting behind.
Low Cost, High Return
The entry level to digital marketing is very low. Websites can be built very cheaply, it costs nothing to set up social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) and keep them updated. With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, a business can set whatever budget suits them, from £5 per week to £500,000. Like all marketing tasks, it takes some basic skills and a consistent effort to see results. Unlike other marketing methods, digital marketing allows businesses to learn as they go without wasting thousands of pounds on traditional print and media marketing.
Target the right customers
Within digital marketing you have the opportunity to reach the specific customers you want with the right messaging. Analytical tools help you assess who is coming to your website and what they are doing once they get there. Using pay-per-click (PPC) you can target your specific market, at the most appropriate time of day to facilitate purchasing. Working with a digital marketing agency like Quadrant2Design to do this will give you a significant advantage over competitors just using traditional media techniques.
Ecommerce Potential
For online stores, digital marketing is an obvious choice. Online shopping requires online marketing. For bricks-and-mortar companies, though, ecommerce can add more strings to their bow. By creating a simple, well-managed online store, a traditional retail shop can expand their selling capabilities and their reach without adding the significant cost of physical expansion. Black Robin Exhibits recently set up an online store for their modular exhibition stands using Koreti and have seen a huge increase in orders.
Adapt your messaging
Different groups need to be approached in different ways; digital marketing allows you to tailor your messaging to target a specific group much more easily than traditional methods. For instance, to target millennials a business might focus on value for money, or the sustainability of a product, whereas targeting generation X or baby boomers’ companies might focus more on quality and resilience.
Easy to analyse
Analytic tools make measuring the success of an online campaign very straightforward. Using Google Search Console and Google Analytics will show you exactly where your website visitors came from and what they do once on your website. This makes adapting a digital marketing strategy easy to do as you can see what is working and what isn’t.
How to integrate digital into the overall marketing strategy
Moz has developed a six-step guide to help with integrating digital marketing into the overall marketing plan.
- Establish how marketing fits within the organisation
- Identify a problem statement and set your marketing goals
- Identify the appropriate marketing channels to utilise
- Develop core objectives for the marketing channels identified in step 3
- Draw up an integrated workflow process for marketing activities
- Analyse the results, reassess, and then expand or reallocate resources as necessary
The quote ‘He who fails to plan, plans to fail’ can easily be applied to a digital marketing strategy. It’s no-longer enough to just create a website and social media accounts and think that amounts to a digital marketing strategy. All online activity should serve a purpose. Without a strategy, there’s no way to track growth or failure, and you can’t learn if you don’t have a track record.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking a digital marketing strategy is something that stands on its own. However, it is important to understand digital channels as part of an overall integrated marketing communications strategy that effectively delivers a consistent message using multiple channels of media.
Having a strategy in place allows you measure your results and show whether you have succeeded or failed. It can act as a roadmap for you to explore the digital marketplace. Even if you fail you can examine what didn’t work in pursuit of what does. The plan needs to have set goals and ways to meet them, otherwise, it will fail.
