Why it’s Important to Implement a Digital Marketing Strategy

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A Digital Marketing Strategy is a great way for businesses to plan their online marketing material so that they can achieve their business goals. This type of strategy is where a business takes certain actions so they can achieve their aims and objectives through the use of online marketing. 

Implementing a digital marketing strategy means that companies can plan what they would like to achieve and how they will get there. Most companies already have a business plan in place, but having a well-developed digital marketing strategy is what can really help a company to achieve their business goals, now and in the future. 

Why is a strategy important for me?

As a business operating in the 21st century, it is important that you promote yourself on offline and online channels. Here are a few reasons why. 

Marketing online is easier to track

Marketing online is much easier to track compared to traditional media. With tools like Google Ads, Google Analytics and SEMrush, your business can review how well its digital marketing campaigns are performing in real-time, and plan ways to improve them in the future. You can also measure what’s working by using A/B Testing. 

You can plan how to effectively reach your target audience 

By setting up a digital marketing strategy, you can plan how to reach your customers on the right channels. By doing so, you can target your customers wherever they are, whether they are commuting on a train, relaxing at home, or walking their pet dog.

Stay ahead of the game 

Being active online means that you can compete against your competitors who are also marketing themselves in similar ways. With so much competition online, you must find your competitive advantage, and implementing a developed digital marketing strategy will really help you. 

Direction 

Implementing a digital marketing strategy can provide you with a solid strategic marketing plan that covers what you will need to do in order to achieve your business goals. Without a strategy in place, you might post content that doesn’t achieve the results you want.

Reach a wider audience

By having an online presence, you are able to reach out to a wider audience to promote your company. Even if you tend to promote your services in a particular region, an online presence means that you can reach more customers who might be interested in your service from different parts of the world. This means that you could acquire audiences that you never considered before; especially if you are an e-commerce business that sells your products worldwide.  

Developing a Digital Marketing Strategy

When you start to create your digital marketing strategy, you will first need to plan what you would like to achieve on different forms of media. 

Owned media

This is where you can create content for anything you own, such as product pages or blog posts on your website, or posts for your social media channels.  

Earned media

Media that is earned can be through either positive word-of-mouth discussions from followers on social media, or mentions in the news. 

Paid media 

If you pay to be shown on media, you are paying for a way to communicate your message online to others. Here at Lnet Digital, we have paid to be sponsors at Leicester Digital Live and have promoted this on our owned social media channels.

Examples of Digital Marketing 

Now that we’ve explained what a digital marketing strategy is, here are a few examples that companies can use to help expand their business. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be used by businesses to improve their website so that it ranks higher on a Google search engine results page. Ideally, companies will try to build their organic (free) traffic so that visitors can be directed to the website at a cheaper cost. Using relevant keywords on website product pages, or blog post articles (just like this one!) can also be used to drive visitors to a website page. 

There are three types of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) activities that companies can use to benefit their business.
1. On-page SEO

On-page SEO is content that appears on any area of a website. For example, descriptions on your landing page, or a post shown on your social media site, are all examples.  

2. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO is content that is shown outside your website that could affect its ranking. For example, backlinks can be shown on your website, and the authority of these links might influence the position you rank for on a Google search engine results page. 

3. Technical SEO

Technical SEO is based on “behind the scenes” functions of your website. Companies should make sure that their websites are coded correctly, otherwise, Google might not rank the website high on the search engine results page, if at all. So you will need to make sure that your website is not broken so visitors can find your website and its content.  

Below are a few ways to fix common technical SEO problems:

Common technical SEO problems

Check Indexation

If you don’t understand why your brand name is not ranking, this could be because your website pages are not correctly indexed. To fix this, you will need to type your site name on Google’s search engine results page to see which pages are ranking. You can also take a look at different pages on your website to see if they are displaying on Google. Alternatively, you can check subdomains to see if they’re all indexing.  

Speed

Google likes websites that have a high loading speed as it promises a good user experience. To make sure that your website runs faster, you could check your site speed using SEO tools like GTmetrix. Alternatively, you can ask your developer for support. 

Read more here about Search Engine Optimisation in ‘Your Beginners Guide to SEO’

Content Marketing 

Another area of a digital marketing strategy is when websites create their own content, either to increase brand awareness or to grow their customer base. Blog posts are an effective way to promote articles to showcase a company’s industry expertise that will build trust towards the brand. If website visitors enjoy reading your blog posts, they may even become customer advocates. 

Any content shown on websites should be the following so that a company can achieve its business goals:

• Engaging
• Informative
• Descriptive 
• Unique 
• Contain relevant keywords 

If your content contains the above, Google is more likely to show your website on a Google search engine results page. This content can also make your website appear exciting to site visitors, and may encourage people to work with you.

Discover more about Content Marketing in ‘A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing’

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is where companies promote themselves on social media channels, depending on where the target audience is most active. If a brand has a social media account, a company can choose to increase the awareness of its brand and drive traffic to the official website from an external link that is published on the social media channel. 

According to Buffer, Facebook is the most used social media channel with over two billion users on its site each month. 

Evidently, social media networking sites are important to engage audiences whilst increasing a brand’s followers. Here at Lnet Digital, we make sure that we are active on Facebook as well as other social media channels including Twitter and Linked In so that we can engage our target audience who are kept updated about our latest social activities. 

Be sure to like or follow our social media accounts so that you can keep updated about any of our upcoming events. 

You can also read more about Social Media Marketing in ‘A Beginners Guide to Social Media for Business’ 

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click is a form of advertising where companies pay each time their ad has been clicked. 

Using Google Ads for Search Engine Advertising 

Google Ads is used in Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing whenever a company pays for a bid on a keyword and then someone clicks on their advert. By doing so, companies can promote their adverts to customers that fit within their budget. Using Google Ads for new websites is especially important as it can increase the visibility of their website in line with SEO to reach new customers that will help expand their business from the very beginning. 

What should a Digital Marketing Strategy include?

An effective digital marketing strategy should include various components to make sure that it works successfully for a company. Here is what this strategy typically includes:

• Setting strategy goals. These goals should be SMART to meet business goals
• Understanding your target audience. Creating a buyer persona means that you know who you are selling to, and how to engage them. This will help you to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website if you are appealing to the correct audience. 
• Analysing your current situation. You will need to review how your competitors are performing, check trends, and review which channels your company is performing well on, and where you can develop. 
• Create a content plan. A content plan is a great way for a business to consider content that they would like to release, and how this aligns with the needs of their target audience. Ideally, your content should be integrated across all your marketing channels so that your message can be reached by your target audience. 
• Deciding which channels to use. You will need to consider how to reach your customers so that you can communicate your product or service to them effectively. You could choose to invest in Google Ads to promote your message with targeted advertising, or regularly post content on your social media channels.
• Tracking your online performance. You will need to measure the success of your online digital marketing activities in real-time. Web analytic tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics are fantastic ways to track how your brand is performing. You might then consider altering your strategy in the future, or continue with what seems to be working. 
• Key messages. All digital marketing channels should feature key messages to communicate to a target audience. This will allow audiences to respond appropriately to messages, either by calling the company, filling out an enquiry form, or making an online purchase. The tone of voice for your key messages should also align with your brand personality to engage the target audience. 
• Consistency. Just like any other strategy, a digital marketing strategy needs to be consistent. Using the correct tone of voice for your key messages should therefore be used across all your digital marketing channels to achieve your business goals. 

Track the stats that matter to you 

Below are a few facts that demonstrate why implementing a digital marketing strategy is so important for businesses today.

Next steps

Now that you understand what a digital marketing strategy is and why it is important for businesses, perhaps you should start to create yours.

And we can help! You can either choose to create your strategy by yourself, or you can choose an agency like us that has the resources to help you to set up your strategy.

Here at Lnet Digital, we are a certified Google Partner which means that we are experts in what we do. If you are looking to create successful campaigns, we use industry tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics to help you achieve your results. We also like to stay alert about the latest changes in Google so that we can respond to them quickly to help your campaign.  

To get started on creating your very own digital marketing strategy, give our marketing team a call on 0116 319 5626 or email [email protected] 

And let us help you plan your next move…