If you’ve never developed a digital marketing strategy before the idea of writing one can be enough to put you off from starting at all! If this sounds like you, or you would like to try something new, then I would suggest reading my earlier post on the RACE planning framework.
In this post, I want to offer up some straightforward tips on developing a digital marketing strategy. I’ve listed the following things to think about when outlining your plan.
- Always start with your customer in mind: think about your customers’ wants and needs and flesh out your plan based on those and not just your offers, products or services.
- Be adaptive and ready for change: the online world changes at an alarming rate, so your plan needs to be adaptive to new situations without having to rewrite the whole thing. Try to make sure your plan is adaptable by stating clear long-term objectives and to keep the details to a quarterly term. Your long-term objectives will normally remain the same, it’s the path that will twist and turn along the way.
- Keep it Real: set realistic goals and KPIs. When you’re starting out this part can be quite tricky but it comes clearer as every term as you begin to acquire historic analytics and other performance data. So start now!
- Keep it Simple: this is especially true if you are intending to share the report with a marketing team, investors or other stakeholders. Keep the language as marketing spiel-free as possible. This is very important if you want others to buy into your plan.
- Keep it fresh: keep plans up to date. Review your marketing performance and update monthly or quarterly accordingly. Things will change, keep track of the changes and tweak where needed.
- No one is perfect: there is no such thing as a perfect plan so don’t fret if you don’t get it bang on the first time. The important thing is to make sure your plan can adapt and change course accordingly (see tip #2).
These pointers are by no means definitive but yet they are important guidelines for developing digital marketing plans. Writing effective an effective digital marketing strategy can take time and experience and if you’re short of these, or want to have a chat about your digital marketing, feel free to Ask Me Anything or connect on Twitter.
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