Published in: SME Business

5 Steps to Create Your First Digital Marketing Strategy

Author Arien Smith

Published on: November 20, 2024

Want to make a splash online? Here’s your playbook for effective digital marketing:

1. Set Goals and Know Your Audience
2. Check Your Online Presence
3. Pick Your Online Channels
4. Plan Your Content
5. Start and Track Results

Key takeaways:

• Digital marketing is cheaper than traditional methods
• Companies with written strategies are 414% more likely to succeed
• Focus on SMART goals and detailed buyer personas
• Choose channels based on your audience and budget
• Create consistent, valuable content across platforms
• Track meaningful metrics and adjust your strategy as needed

Tools to get started:

• Google Analytics (free)
• Mailchimp (free up to 500 contacts)
• Buffer (free plan available)
• HubSpot CRM (free up to 5 users)
• Canva (free plan available)

Related video from YouTube

Step 1: Set Goals and Know Your Audience

Let’s get specific about what you want to achieve and who you’re trying to reach. People with clear goals are 10 times more successful than those without them. No pressure, right?

Write Clear Goals

Your digital marketing goals need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Here’s a real-world example from Dove:

"Dove set a SMART goal to expand their market share by 5% through a campaign focused on promoting body positivity – Girls Room: A series inspiring self-love and body positivity."

When setting goals, focus on both revenue and brand awareness. Use your past data to keep things realistic. If you’re getting 1,000 website visitors per month now, aiming for 1,500 in three months? Doable. 100,000? Not so much.

Build Customer Profiles

Creating detailed buyer personas isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a must. Why? Because 96% of marketers say personalization brings back customers, and 94% say it boosts sales. That’s not chump change.

Take Eindhoven365, a travel company that shook things up by zeroing in on three customer types:

• Tech starters (entrepreneurs)
• Bright talents (college students)
• City explorers (temporary visitors)

For each persona, dig into:

• Demographics (age, location, income)
• Professional details (job title, decision-making power)
• Goals and challenges
• Behavioral patterns

Find Customer Problems

Customer pain points come in four flavors:

1. Process: Struggles with using your service
2. Financial: Money worries
3. Support: Customer service headaches
4. Product: Features or functionality hiccups

Want the inside scoop? Talk to your sales and support teams. They’re like customer whisperers. And don’t forget to crunch those numbers – churn rates and resolution times can tell you a lot.

Here’s some wisdom from the trenches:

"From my experience, I believe customer pain points manifest culturally and via a team’s ability to deliver. A good operation should have awareness of these problems and contingencies to maneuver around them."

In other words: know your weak spots, and have a plan B (and C, and D) ready to go.

Step 2: Check Your Online Presence

You’ve nailed down your goals and audience. Now it’s time to take a good look at your digital footprint. Here’s the deal: over half of web traffic comes from mobile devices. So your online presence needs to be on point across all platforms.

Review Your Digital Tools

Let’s start with your website. It’s like your digital storefront. Businesses with well-structured websites see higher conversion rates. So, check these key elements:

• Is your website fast and mobile-friendly?
• Is your contact info and business hours up-to-date?
• Are you using professional email addresses with your domain?
• Do your social media links actually work?

Don’t forget about your Google My Business profile. Here’s what Digiality Co. says:

"Regular audits allow you to adjust your strategies in real-time, ensuring you stay ahead of competition and in line with your business goals."

Make sure your business looks the same across all platforms. Use the same profile photos, business names, and current contact details everywhere you show up online.

Study Your Competitors

Analyzing your competitors isn’t about copying them. It’s about learning. Simon Bacher, CEO of Ling, has this to say:

"Owler assists in understanding market trends, tracking performance metrics, and staying updated on industry news."

Here’s a quick look at some top competitor analysis tools:

The Digital Marketing Institute points out:

"Your top competitors are successful for a reason, they have tested and tweaked their strategies across digital platforms over time."

Focus on understanding what works in your industry. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Look for gaps in what your competitors are offering. Those gaps? They’re your chance to shine.

Step 3: Pick Your Online Channels

You’ve checked your online presence. Now, let’s choose the right channels to reach your customers. Not every platform will work for you, so we’ll focus on what matters.

How to Choose Channels

Pick channels that give you the best bang for your buck. Recent data shows the top three digital marketing channels are PPC advertising, SEO, and email marketing. Here’s why they work:

PPC advertising is quick. Businesses typically get $2 back for every $1 spent. Google Ads does even better, returning $8 per dollar. It’s great for reaching customers ready to buy.

SEO is your long-term play. It grabs over 40% of revenue from organic traffic. It takes time to build, but once it’s rolling, you get steady results without constant ad spend.

Email marketing is the ROI king. It generates $44 for every $1 spent. As Gee Ranasinha, CEO of KEXINO, puts it:

"Simply posting updates on social media channels is NOT going to generate appreciable sales for your business."

Platform Guide

Different platforms do different jobs. Here’s a quick look at major channels and what they’re good for:

For B2C companies, Instagram and Facebook lead in ROI, with Instagram at 25% and Facebook at 23%. B2B companies often do better on LinkedIn, with tech companies seeing 2-5 times higher returns compared to other social platforms.

Scott Le Roy, a marketing pro, says:

"You must nurture your customers so, that as you plan to communicate with the target market, you can encourage them to move ahead in the purchasing journey."

Here’s the thing: 92% of successful marketers use multiple channels, and 81% use more than three. But don’t try to be everywhere. Be where your customers are, with a focused strategy that gets results.

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Step 4: Plan Your Content

You’ve picked your channels. Now it’s time to create content that clicks with your audience. Let’s dive into what works.

Content Options

Different content types do different jobs. Semrush’s 2023 report shows that 55% of marketers swear by blog posts and articles. But don’t stop there.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Blog posts: Great for SEO and teaching stuff
• Videos: Perfect for showing off products (53x more likely to hit page one on Google)
• Infographics: Make complex info easy to grasp
• Podcasts: Tell your brand’s story to 460M listeners worldwide

And don’t sleep on live streaming. Viewers stick around 10-20 times longer than with pre-recorded stuff. It’s set to be a $184.3 billion market by 2027.

"Content marketing is about who you’re selling to, not what you are selling." – Lesley Vos, Content Creator

Keep Your Message Clear

People trust brands that stay consistent. Hubspot says 46% of American buyers think about brand trust when shopping. So, how do you keep your message clear?

1. Make a Brand Style Guide. It should cover your voice, tone, and writing rules.
2. Watch how your content performs. Use data to see what your audience likes.
3. Check your content regularly. Make sure it’s on-brand and hitting your business goals.

Remember, 73% of people check out products on multiple channels. Your message needs to be the same whether they find you on social media, your blog, or in an email.

"A consistent brand voice is like a distinctive thread running through the fabric of your content, holding it together with strength and clarity." – Stephen McClelland, Digital Strategist

Step 5: Start and Track Results

You’ve planned your content. Now it’s time to launch and see what works. Smart tracking helps you spot wins and fix problems fast.

Measure Success

First, set up Google Analytics. It’s free and shows where your traffic comes from. Gartner says you should track both basic activities and business outcomes.

Focus on these metrics that actually matter:

• Conversion rate
• Lead generation
• Customer lifetime value
• ROI

Skip vanity metrics like page views. They look good but don’t help your bottom line. Instead, build a dashboard that combines data from different channels.

Tools like Hubspot Marketing Hub ($890/month) offer deep insights. Google Search Console helps track your search performance for free.

"You need to know how your marketing campaign is performing while it’s in motion – otherwise, how can you make timely improvements?" – WebFX Analytics Team

Make Changes as Needed

The real power of tracking? Using data to improve. Here’s what successful marketers do:

Review your metrics at least monthly. Here’s a shocking fact: 72% of companies don’t check their ad campaigns for over a month. That’s way too long.

Use tools like Woopra to see where people drop off in their customer journey. When something’s not working, don’t wait – change it up.

For example, if your email open rates drop below Mailchimp’s 21.33% benchmark, try new subject lines or sending times. The key? Make small, data-driven tweaks instead of big overhauls.

"Tracking digital marketing metrics and KPIs gives your marketing team a real-time view of your campaign performance." – Klipfolio Analytics

Helpful Tools

The right tools can supercharge your digital marketing. Here’s what you need to kick things off.

AB Digital’s Services

AB Digital offers a full suite of digital marketing solutions:

• Digital strategy development
• SEO optimization
• Social media management
• Email marketing campaigns
• AI and Web3 innovations

Their secret sauce? A custom approach. They build solutions that fit your business like a glove, whether you’re a startup or a big player.

Tracking Tools

To see if your marketing’s working, you’ll need some specialized tools. Here’s what the pros use:

"Digital marketing tools are apps that help you attract, engage, sell, and retain business online." – WebFX Analytics Team

If you’re new to this, start with the free versions. As you grow, you can upgrade based on what you need. HubSpot’s data shows that using multiple tools together can give you a clearer picture of how your marketing’s doing.

Here’s a pro tip: Use Zapier to connect these tools. For example, you can automatically add new Mailchimp subscribers to your HubSpot CRM. This can save you hours of work each week.

Just remember: tools should support your strategy, not drive it. Pick ones that match your goals and budget. According to Simple Machines Marketing, using both Google Analytics and HubSpot gives you the fullest view of your marketing performance.

"If your business is getting analytics from HubSpot, it doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from GA4. If you’re getting analytics from GA4, it doesn’t mean you won’t get more insights by incorporating HubSpot analytics." – Simple Machines Marketing

Conclusion

Creating your first digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a headache. By taking it step-by-step and zeroing in on what really counts, you can build a solid online presence.

The secret sauce? Understanding the basics – the What, Who, Where, When, and Why of your strategy. Growth Lab hits the nail on the head:

"To truly understand the impact of your efforts and make informed decisions, you must be able to measure the success of your campaigns effectively."

Let’s talk real results. Picture this: a local e-commerce shop boosted organic traffic by 45% and sales by 35% in just six months. How? They mixed SEO optimization, targeted social media, and personalized emails.

The trick is kicking off with SMART goals and tracking what matters. Here’s a wake-up call from WebFX: over 72% of companies haven’t checked their ad campaigns in over a month. Don’t make that mistake. Use the tools we’ve covered to keep tabs on your progress and make choices based on data.

Here’s the kicker: digital marketing isn’t set in stone. Your strategy should flex based on results and business needs. As you put these steps into action, focus on giving your audience value first. The results will follow.

Ask Digital Marketing puts it perfectly:

"A digital marketing strategy is like a roadmap, it outlines the plan, the content, the people, the resources, and the budget that will make up your strategy."

Start small, measure often, and tweak as you go. With the right game plan and tools, you’re all set to create a digital marketing strategy that delivers real results for your business.

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