Covid-19 surprised the world at the beginning of 2020. It shook the world down to its core, and not only that, it shook up the lives of businesses as well.
People are not the only ones trying to survive the current pandemic. Companies are also striving to get past the economic effects of the virus. Covid-19 demanded businesses to implement a process of digital transformation immediately due to the majority of business transactions going online out of necessity.
The business world knows that technology changes rapidly. And the inability to adapt to this rapidly-changing environment is dangerous to the life of an existing business. Therefore, it is a must for every entrepreneur to have in place an agile digital marketing strategy regardless of how long it has been in the business.
Digital Marketing is too broad and it is a daunting task just to know where even to start. To help you with that, we’ve put together this guide to create a digital marketing strategy to help you grow your digital presence.
Create a Customer Avatar
There is nothing more important than knowing your customer. It has been a common mistake of entrepreneurs to focus on WHAT they are selling and completely forget to think about WHO they are selling to. Understanding your customer avatar is so important.
Defining your customer avatar early on will help you to customise campaigns that will resonate with your customer’s goals and motivations for buying. This is one step that intersects with every marketing discipline whether it be content marketing, paid traffic, product creation, copywriting or email marketing.
Build your Marketing Funnel
A Marketing funnel is an intentional path you take your prospect through as they go from unaware prospect to a happy customer. There are 8 essential steps to build an effective marketing funnel. One is to determine the product/market fit. You can easily achieve this step if you have gone through the process of creating your customer avatar. Second is to choose a traffic source. Choose the traffic source that matches the persona of your audience. It will be ideal to master 1 traffic source rather than applying multiple sources as these will contribute to the delay of actually acquiring any customers. The third is to create lead magnets. Once you have identified your traffic source, provide an irresistible offer to your customers in exchange for contact information which will lead you to the fourth step of offering an entry point offer. By giving a generous offer with immense value, it sets your relationship with the customer on the right foot. It is on the fifth step where you start to offer your core product. The sixth step is when you offer a profit maximiser. It can come in the form of upselling, cross-sell or premium subscriptions. These are just different ways to improve on customers' experience thereby improving their lifetime value. The seventh step is to create a landing page. It is a page where your customers will learn all the good things that you can offer to them. Lastly, create a return path. This is you giving your customers a reason to come back frequently.
Conduct a Competitive Analysis
In today’s digital ecosystem, competition is an inevitable fact of life. New businesses are created every day and the likelihood of them taking away your customers is very much possible. Thus, the importance of having a multifaceted approach in analysing direct and indirect competitors must be present in your digital marketing strategy. The benefits of having a competitive analysis are very much evident as this will give you a deeper insight not only about your customers but your competitors as well.
Build a Content Marketing Plan
In building your content marketing plan, it is a must for you to determine your voice and style. Developing your company brand’s voice and style is the persona that will emanate in your content. It is the voice that will tell your customers about the distinct “YOU”. There are different types of content that you can choose from but choose the one that relates directly to your customers. Keep in mind that the goal of your content is to drive awareness, deliver value, to gain trust and credibility for your brand.
Launch an Email Marketing Campaign
Email Marketing provides the highest ROI of any digital tactic. Your business needs an email marketing plan. For email to be effective, you need to use the right email at the right time. There are 5 kinds of email campaigns that you can use for your email marketing campaigns. First are Welcome Email Campaigns. These are the kind of emails that you send out to welcome new subscribers. It is an opportunity for you to manage your customers' expectations and helps indoctrinate them.
Second, are Engagement or Conversion Email Campaigns. These are the kind of emails that drive leads and sales. It is important to have a clear Call-To-Action that explicitly tells the customer what exactly they need to do.
Then there are Ascension Email Campaigns. These are the kind of emails that drive customers to logical upsells or incentivises patronage.
Next are Segmentation Email Campaigns. These are the kind of emails that leads people to show interest in specialized offers.
Lastly, there are Reengagement Email Campaigns. These are the kind of emails that help you to filter the passive customer from active customers. It lets you know who to remove from your mailing list.
Select a Paid Advertising Platform
You can increase your traffic and leads by implementing Online advertising. Advertising nowadays still has the same 3 Pillars namely; The Offer, The Audience and The Creative. All of these three should be shown to the right person at the right time in the right way.
When it comes to deciding where to place your ads, understanding your customers' intent is very important as this will help you decide what will be the best advertising medium to spend on. By understanding your customer’s intent, you will be able to strategically place your ads to reach the top, middle or bottom of your funnel. Part of your strategy should continuously and constantly be testing new creatives.
Optimise Social Media
Entrepreneurs who know how to harness the power of social media have a big advantage over those who do not. Social Media has helped brands and businesses by leveraging social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In and YouTube. Making this a part of your digital marketing strategy is a must in creating awareness and engagement with your brand. By optimising your social accounts, it helps you to listen to your customers' needs, wants, feedback and complaints. It makes you connect to your audience and send the message that you are TRULY listening to their needs and wants.
Obviously, there is a lot of work involved in creating a digital marketing strategy but having a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy can make the difference between success and failure for your business.
DigitalxMarketing specialises in developing customised digital strategies to help Business Owners, Executives and Marketers.