Deciding where to start with your digital marketing strategy can be a bit like the old “chicken or the egg” dilemma. Assuming you have a website up and running, how to go about driving qualified traffic to it? Should you focus on paid advertising first to build brand awareness and put organic rankings and email marketing on the back burner? Is social media important enough to let your content marketing slide in the early stages?
Rather than tell you which specific online marketing channels you should be focusing on first (hint: as many as it takes for you to succeed), this post will outline five broader aspects of online marketing that should come first when you are developing a digital marketing strategy.
Putting these five facet at the forefront of your overall approach to digital marketing will naturally steer you in the right direction.
People
In the fast-paced world of online marketing, it can be easy to forget what’s at the heart of all this digital communication and interconnectivity – people. By placing people at the center of your online strategy, you position your brand and all subsequent digital marketing initiatives in a way that shows real human caring beyond just making a sale. Keep in mind that “people” in this context encompass more than just customers – your co-workers and employees should also be considered when developing your digital marketing roadmap.
Messaging
Your message should be the driving force of your overall digital marketing strategy, and will dictate most facets of your approach: which online channels you’ll leverage, what forms your messaging will take, who will ultimately be the recipient of your message, and the end goal(s) of your message. Without a defined message behind your strategy, it’s nearly impossible to coordinate and drive a successful marketing strategy.
Quality
We’ve all been the victim of spammy email blasts, automated or irrelevant social media posts, and uselessly thin online content. Whichever online channels you’re planning to utilize in order to deliver your marketing message, make sure that you always favor quality over quantity. This holds true for content creation, link outreach, email marketing, social media engagement – pretty much any type of online media promotion you plan on doing, make sure it’s done at a high level.
Mobile
How important is adopting a mobile-centric approach with your digital marketing strategy? Well, considering that internet usage on mobile devices has overtaken desktops, we’d say pretty damn important. The days of “mobile strategy” being an afterthought are gone, and brands who continue to think in those terms are setting themselves up to fall behind. Keeping mobile top-of-mind in your design, marketing, and online interaction is now a necessity, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Measurement
Do not…and I repeat, DO NOT launch a digital marketing campaign without proper tracking procedures in place. It is seriously mind-boggling how many brands out there are creating and launching digital marketing campaigns with HUGE budgets, but aren’t tracking a single performance metric. Remember, all the traffic and online engagement in the world means nothing if you can’t accurately track it and make informed decisions based on what you find.
Developing a sound digital marketing strategy can seem daunting, especially when you aren’t sure where to start. However, if you allow the initial focus of your approach to center around the five aspects mentioned above, you’ll be well on your way to digital marketing success.
