Does your company have a digital marketing plan? If you said no, you’re not alone—as many as two-thirds of businesses say they don’t really have a digital marketing strategy, even if they are spending money on marketing initiatives online. Many businesses realize the potential and would like to be more strategic about their online marketing, but just can’t seem to find the time and resources to get there. Here are just a few of the reasons you should make it a priority to create a digital marketing strategy.
Strategies Keep You Focused
Marketing is a big word, and encompasses so many different things that if you don’t have a strategy you can quickly get lost somewhere in there. As a business, you are likely getting phone calls and emails all the time trying to tell you about the latest way to reach customers, and without a clearly defined strategic plan you might be tempted to test them out. A strategy can help you clearly identify your target market, then find the right channels to reach those people in the most effective ways, which means less money wasted on the “shiny” new things that are constantly popping up, but might not be the best ways to spend your money.
Strategies Help You Narrow Your Efforts
If you’ve been online recently (or ever, really) you probably know that there are a lot of different websites, platforms, apps, and social media sites. Today’s consumer is able to structure their own media world according to their personal preferences and habits, so your messages need to find them wherever they are. Unless you have an unlimited budget and a huge team of marketing people who can help you create content and interaction on all these channels and platforms, you will need to figure out where to use your limited resources for maximum impact—whether that is email, e-newsletters, website landing pages, display banners, search engine optimization, or Facebook and Twitter ads. Having a clearly defined strategy that includes your budget and your available resources can provide the right roadmap.
Strategies Help You Measure Success
Nobody wants to waste money, but if you’re not tracking the success of all your marketing efforts, you might be inadvertently wasting your marketing budget, simply because you don’t really know what is working. Part of every digital marketing strategy should be the tools and measurements you will use to identify whether what you are doing is successful.
Strategies Keep Everyone on the Same Page
Having a plan that includes your overall goals and brand strategy, your available budget and resources, and a clearly defined target for your marketing can ensure that everyone on your marketing team understands the goals, how they will accomplish them, and who owns each part of the process so there is accountability.
If you’re one of those companies that knows you probably should be in the digital space but you’re not sure how to get there, talk to the Standard Examiner today to find out more about our digital marketing and strategic planning services.
