More and more companies have decided to start using Digital Marketing tools in their business strategies. Social networks, online ads, email marketing, and several other platforms are very attractive for those who want to win customers and increase their online sales, but without a well-structured Digital Marketing plan, these efforts can become costs.
It would help organize your business’s audience very well, what actions will be chosen, and the expected results. That’s why I created a step-by-step guide with everything you need to know about making a Digital Marketing Plan for your company.
Does Digital Marketing work for my business?
Whenever we try something new, the question arises if it is right for what we need and suitable for our needs and goals. With Digital Marketing, it is no different, mainly because of the various aspects that involve the online world.
Different tools adapt to the most diverse types of business. Social networks suit most companies, but other more complete actions have different purposes.
Content Marketing seeks to create relevant content for your audience, dealing with your target audience’s doubts, pains, and expectations with your business and your area of expertise.
E-mail Marketing is still one of the main allies of marketing teams that want to convert new customers. In other words, there are different means for different purposes.
Do you realize how digital media are very different from offline? The important thing is to find what your company needs, know your audience, and invest in content creation and promotion.
Step by step to make a marketing plan
Now that we’ve talked a little about planning, Inbound Marketing, and Content Marketing, how about learning the step by step to make a good Digital Marketing plan for your business? Come with me!
Know your persona
This is the fundamental step. If your Digital Marketing plan is designed to attract new customers, not knowing them would be wasting money and time. And when I talk about meeting them, it does not just know their age, gender, and social class. The definition of persona goes further. It’s discovering your pains, desires, doubts, needs, and goals and aligning them with what your product or service delivers.
Define the budget
Unlike offline advertising — which usually requires a very significant initial investment in Digital Marketing, you can adapt the strategy to your pocket. With less than ten$, it is already possible to advertise on the Internet, for example, but of course, the more you invest and the better the team that manages your strategy, the greater the chances of success. And the most remarkable thing is that you will have, in real-time, the engagement metrics of your campaign.
So the plan can start with a small initial budget for testing. When you see that the actions bring good results (leads, clicks or traffic to your website, for example), increase the investment. If not, retest with another segmentation and approach. In short: your budget can be adapted and changed throughout the development of your strategy based on the results that appear.
Set goals
All planning needs to be thought out to achieve goals. It can’t be different with the Digital Marketing plan. Establish main objectives that can be achieved in the short, medium, and long term, based on the reality of your company and your budget.
For example, if you start e-commerce and your goal is to generate sales on your website, you can set a goal of 50 sales in the first three months, 300 in the first half, 1,000 in a year, etc.
Analyze the competition
In any industry, you will rarely be alone in the market. If you want to discover it, you will need to study your competitors. Start by asking yourself:
- Who are my main competitors?
- Do they already have a digital presence?
- What do they do that is working? What is wrong that I can do better?
- What makes my product different from theirs?
By analyzing these threats and opportunities, you will be able to define which position to take, which content to produce, and several other valuable strategies for your Digital Marketing plan.
Take action!
Digital Marketing is very dynamic. It would help if you thought about the medium and long term, but it can’t take long to put the actions into practice because everything can change a year from now.
Start by organizing the channels you will use; think about the contents for each of them; structure your inbound Marketing strategies and, most importantly: don’t forget to have a competent team to manage all of this. Thus, you guarantee that no message from your persona will be ignored and that your audience will not be left without new content for long periods.
In addition, metrics and results must be analyzed periodically to know if your plan is on the right track or if it will be necessary to exclude or optimize some strategy.