1. What is a Digital Marketing Plan?
A digital marketing plan is a comprehensive outline of the digital marketing activities you’ll be conducting throughout a given period of time. It outlines both the mediums you’ll be using as well as the actions you’ll be taking. This plan is created to help you stay on top of your digital marketing efforts and identify any bottlenecks in your marketing strategy. The goal is to prevent any issues from occurring so you can achieve a high return on your digital marketing investment.
2. Why Do You Need a Digital Marketing Plan?
There are many benefits that come with having a digital marketing plan. Let’s take a look at a few of them. Having a well-organized digital marketing strategy helps you stay focused. The more you’re able to focus on your core competencies the better positioned your business will be to grow. Good planning also means that you’ll be able to identify any bottlenecks or issues that may arise with your digital marketing strategy. Once you’ve identified any potential issues, you’ll be able to address them before they cause any problems. You’ll also be able to measure the success of your digital marketing activities. This can help you identify areas where you may need to adjust your strategy to maximize results.
3. Create an Actionable Digital Marketing Plan
A digital marketing plan can be very detailed and technical. Alternatively, you can make it more understandable for your team and clients by keeping it more actionable. Actionable means that the content can be followed by someone with a basic understanding of the subject matter. Actionable content is centered around the key takeaways that your audience wants to be reminded of. This includes what the digital marketing strategy is all about, the mediums you’ll be using, the expected outcomes, and how you plan to measure each outcome. You can also break down your digital marketing plan into specific steps that your team and clients can follow. This helps them to understand what they’re supposed to be doing and gives you more visibility across the entire plan.
4. Digital Marketing Strategy Elements
Your digital marketing strategy should include the following elements.
- Audience insights – What kind of audience are you after? What kind of problems do they face? What are their needs and concerns? What are their challenges and obstacles? How can you address these?
- Audience persona – What kind of person does your audience look like? What are their demographics? How is their lifestyle? What are their interests and needs?
- Research – What research needs to be conducted to get a better understanding of your audience? What information do you need to collect? What data do you need to link it all together?
- Content – What kind of content do you need to be creating? What formats do you need to be using? What do you need to be writing about? Where do you need to be publishing your content?
- Promotion – What promotional activities do you need to be undertaking? Which channels will you be using? What times of day and days of the week will you be driving traffic to your site?
- Measurement – What metrics will you be tracking? Which will you be keeping track of? What will you be reporting on?
5. How to Work with a Digital Marketing Planner
A digital marketing plan is a great fit for a company that’s looking to significantly expand its digital presence. They can help you plan out your strategy and identify specific areas to focus on. If you’re smaller in scale and don’t expect to significantly increase your digital presence then a digital marketing strategist may be more appropriate for you. They can help you identify and prioritize your goals so you know what to work on first. They can also help you keep your strategy focused and on track.
6. Should you require a Digital Marketing Strategist?
A digital marketing strategist can help you with just about any aspect of your digital strategy. From planning to implementation and optimization, they’ll be able to help you take your business to the next level. If you’re not sure if you need one or not then ask yourself the following questions.
- Do you want to expand your digital presence?
- Do you want to increase your ROI with your digital marketing?
- Do you want to make sure your strategy is following best practices?
- Do you need help prioritizing what you work on?
- Will hire a digital marketing strategist to be cost-effective for your business?
- Are you comfortable delegating more of your responsibilities?
- Is your team ready for the challenge?
7. What’s in an Effective Digital Marketing Plan?
- Define the goals – What is the specific outcome you want from each element of your digital strategy? How do you want to feel when you’ve completed each one?
- Create a clear digital marketing plan – Your plan should be short, sweet, and to the point. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with too much information.
- Create a calendar – Create a calendar that will help you track when you need to complete your tasks. This will help you stay on track and feel more organized.
- Measure your success – How are you going to measure the success of each element of your digital strategy? What will you use to determine if it was successful?
- Build a go-to-plan – Create a go-to-plan that outlines what you’ll do in case one of your digital strategies isn’t performing as well as expected.