Have you ever wondered why some digital marketing strategies are more successful than others? From the outside, your strategy may look similar to one that’s generating more leads, conversions, and sales – but there could be some underlying differences.
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You see, every winning digital marketing strategy will contain the following five elements. If yours doesn’t, then it will never reach its full potential!
5 Keys to A Winning Digital Marketing Strategy
1. A Brand Identity
Branding is a critical aspect of every digital marketing strategy, and it should be where you begin. Building a brand is all about telling a story and making people perceive you in a specific way.
You’re likely wondering, what is a brand story and how do I create one? Your “story” is an expression of your business and what you stand for. It gives you value to your target audience beyond the products/services you provide.
Building a brand identity means you have to settle on things like brand colors, tone of voice, and other general design elements that will apply across your marketing campaigns.
At the same time, it’s also about creating your main values – the reasons your target market should trust and connect with your business. A brand identity fuels much of what your strategy revolves around.
2. Clear Goals & Objectives
No marketing strategy is complete without a set of goals and objectives.
What do you want to achieve from this strategy? Are you trying to generate more leads? Is it about brand awareness, or do you want to see your sales figures rise? Ask yourself what you hope to get at the end of your strategy and this helps you work out the best moves to make.
For instance, a goal of achieving more sign-ups from a newsletter will require a different approach than one with the goal of generating more sales from your brick & mortar store. Define your goals and objectives before doing anything else, as this sets the framework for what your strategy will entail.
3. A Killer Website
You can’t create a winning digital marketing strategy without a killer website. Your website gives you a professional online presence – in other words, it helps people find you when they’re searching online.
You can’t understate the importance of a website. 89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine (usually Google). Without a website, this could mean you potentially miss out on 89% of customers.
Even local businesses benefit from a site as people often run local Google searches when looking for nearby businesses. Having a website isn’t good enough – it needs to be exceptional.
All of the pages should load quickly, it should reflect your brand image, users should have a great experience on the site, and it should work across all devices. Think of your site as the base of operations for your marketing campaign – everything will run through it!
4. The Right Digital Channels
As well as your website, you need to figure out the right digital channels to use. Some ideas include:
- PPC advertising
- Social media
- Influencer marketing
- Affiliate marketing
All of these channels come with pros and cons – but should you use all of them? It all comes back to your goals and objectives, as well as your target demographic. The right channels for you will be the ones that help you achieve your goals while targeting your core audience.
Figure out which channels your demographic is likely to engage with, and then be sure you can use these channels to convince them to complete your goals. It could mean that you neglect some popular digital marketing channels, but that’s okay because they don’t work for you!
5. Exceptional Content
All digital marketing strategies need outstanding content. Content fuels everything you do – it engages your audience and helps funnel them along to complete your desired actions. You must create and update a range of content, such as:
- Website copy
- Social media posts
- Email messages
- Blog posts
- Videos/podcasts
The list can genuinely extend way beyond this page; your task is to consider which content forms are the best for your campaign. Again, take your goals and target demographic into consideration.
Similarly, your content should align with your brand values and reflect your tone of voice. Bad content can destroy a marketing strategy, while good content helps it thrive.
Breaking down a marketing strategy into five core components makes it far easier to understand. Be sure your strategy contains all of these elements if you want it to be successful and push your small business in the right direction.
