Digital Marketing Strategy: 7 Effective Ways You should Consider

The power of technology and the internet has driven business toward digital marketing. Digital marketing is the latest way of doing business, and it keeps on evolving. Big or small, it doesn’t matter when your business has the right digital marketing strategy; it is bound to be successful.

Alongside having a physical presence, a business also needs to have an online presence too. Therefore, your online business platform is enough to make a business successful. That is the very first step of digital marketing, taking your business online.

Moreover, digital marketing strategies can give a high level of boost for a startup or small business. With a proper digital marketing strategy, you can reach more customers in fact. You can also elevate brand awareness, increase revenue, and cut your business cost. Not only that, digital marketing is measurable and gives you more control over your business.

So if you are planning to start or improve your business, this article will help you with it. The article includes the basics of digital marketing and why you need it. But most importantly, you will find 7 effective business strategies to make your business thrive.

Table of Contents

What is Digital Marketing?

The days of billboards, flyers and newspaper advertisements are gone. Your audience and customers are now on the internet. So you have to take your marketing to them by having an online presence.

Digital marketing is the process of reaching your customer, promoting your brand and also selling service and product through the internet and digital medium. Hence, it is a diverse area that attracts customers through search platforms, content marketing, email marketing, social media, and other methods. 

Moreover, digital marketing also uses mobile devices, a subway platform, a video game, or a smartphone app. Through these channels, your prospect learns more about your products. They can also interact with you about your product and eventually buy it. 

In many ways, digital marketing is like traditional marketing. It depends on creating a beneficial relationship with prospects, leads and customers. 

Firstly, prospects are the people who fit into the criteria of the ideal customer of a business. 

Secondly, a lead is a potential customer who comes in inquiring about your service. They show interest in buying your product or service but are in a decision mood. 

Finally, a customer is convinced and buys your service and likely to come back when they want any similar service. 

Additionally, digital marketing consists of many strategies that can benefit your business, each in its way. But they also work together to create a strong foundation for your business. For example:

  • Attracting prospects, 
  • Cultivating relationships, and 
  • Making an offer that your target audience will respond to and appreciate.

Digital Marketing Platforms

As a business holder, you have to wisely choose digital marketing platform. You just cannot randomly select a platform or use all the platforms at once. To do so, you need to understand who the audience of your products are. Then you have to find out the platforms which your target audience uses. Digital marketing platforms and media are:

  • Business websites
  • Mobile application
  • Social media business pages
  • Search Engines
  • Email and automation
  • Digital Partnerships with other digital companies

The Importance of Digital Marketing

To compete and make your business successful today, you must do digital marketing. Digital Marketing also brings versatility to your business. Moreover, it is trackable and measurable. It also brings growth and opportunity to your business. Here are some main benefits of digital marketing.

  • Firstly, it takes your business online. This exactly where your customers are and spending their time and money.
  • Secondly, it helps you to target a specific audience according to your business goals and needs.
  • Through digital marketing, you can easily scale, monitor and adapt every aspect of your business simultaneously.
  • Then it also helps to decrease the overall cost and budgeting of your business.
  • Next with digital marketing, you can expand and reach many areas. You do not have to fix your business only in one place.
  • Moreover, you will be able to get an impressive return on investment.
  • Alongside, it helps to increase and establish your brand reputation.
  • Finally, you will be able to sell your service online without the need for an office or establishment.

According to Statista: “During a January 2021 survey carried out among marketing leaders from the United Kingdom (UK), it was found that digital marketing spending in for-profit companies increased 9.57 percent in the twelve months leading up to the survey, as compared to the prior 12 months. For the following year, the expenditure was boosted by another 18.71 percent.”

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

Digital marketing strategy is the plan and action that you take to achieve marketing goals. In fact, the plans and actions take place across digital channels to achieve the goals. Furthermore, the channels can be owned, paid or earned media. The goals also depend on your marketing objectives and the priority of the objective. After setting the marketing goals, you have to develop digital marketing campaigns and execute them to reach them. 

Digital marketing strategy is different from digital marketing campaigns. In fact, digital marketing strategy is like making a road map or master plan for accomplishing long term goals. On the other hand, digital marketing campaigns are tactics made to achieve short term goals. A digital marketing campaign is a part of a digital marketing strategy. There can be several campaigns for a strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategy beginners

Moreover, a digital marketing strategy includes setting marketing objectives based on:

  • Firstly, the analysis of market information 
  • Secondly, the target audiences, 
  • Thirdly selecting digital marketing channels and platforms, 
  • Fourthly determining channel-specific delivery tactics, and 
  • Finally, defining macro marketing KPIs to monitor the success of a digital marketing strategy

Owned, Paid or Earned Media

Developing a solid digital strategy today requires understanding a more complex and competitive buying environment. It is because our customer journeys involve many forms of an online presence than ever before. In order to form a strategy to reach and influence potential customers online, you have to consider three main kinds of media:

1. Owned Media

The online media that are made and owned by a business is owned media. This media can include a business or brands own website, blog, email list, mobile application. It also includes social presence like Facebook, Linked In or Twitter. As a result, owned media helps to build a long term relationship with customers.

2. Paid Media

Paid media are channels you put your money to promote your business. Holistically, it is used to drive traffic to owned media and also enable the company to gain earned media. Here you invest in getting visitors, generate leads from search and display ad networks or affiliate marketing.

3. Earned Media

Traditionally, earned media is generally when your brand gets publicity and exposure from others. Promotion is usually achieved firstly through investing in public relation. Secondly, targeting influencers to increase awareness about a brand. Earned media also includes word-of-mouth which is done through social media marketing. Therefore, earned media is sharing of engaging content that is developed by different types of partners. These partners can be publishers, bloggers and other influencers, including customer advocates.

Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.
Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.

Why do you need a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a vital part of your business. Creating a digital marketing strategy will assist you in determining what makes your company special. It will also help to communicate with your target audiences through a variety of digital channels. Below are some problems that you are likely to experience without a digital marketing strategy. 

  • Firstly, without a digital marketing strategy, your business is directionless.
  • You will have a limited idea about your online audience and market share.
  • New or existing competitors will likely gain your market share.
  • Your business won’t be able to optimise and stay ahead.
  • Next, you might be wasting or suffer from insufficient resources
  • Also, you will not have sufficient ROI
  • Finally, there will be low brand awareness and reputation.

Benefits of Digital Marketing Strategies:

  • It assists you in defining your short and long-term goals.
  • Next, it indicates who your customers are.
  • Show you where your customers are.
  • Highlights what you’ll need to get the attention of your target customers.
  • It provides a strategy for attracting and keeping customer’s attention.
  • Finally, it shows you how to evaluate and boost your marketing performance.

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy?

By now, you might be thinking about how to land up with your digital marketing strategy. Let’s take you through a step-by-step process to create your digital marketing strategy.

Define your Brand

Your brand is the image that customers have of your company, so define it carefully and early on before the market does it for you. In that way, the appearance of your organisation will be precisely the way you want it. It should be planned and strategic.

defining your brand

Create or use brand guidelines to define your brand and how it will appear in your online campaigns. Consider your unique selling points (USPs), value proposition and brand voice.

Understand the Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a way to view the customer journey and break it down into each step. Each stage of the customer’s relationship with your brand, from initial knowledge to the point of purchase, can be plotted and thus strategised. 

The funnel works by integrating marketing and sales strategies, guiding the buyer’s decision-making process and converting prospects into customers.

The funnel will assist you in targeting specific marketing strategies at particular people based on their past interactions with the brand. For instance, the way you market your product to a customer will differ greatly from selling it to a returning customer.

Identify the Target Market

Conduct market research to identify your target market. Learn about your target markets, as well as your customer’s needs and aspirations. Define your client needs thoroughly and how your business will meet them. Understand and communicate to customers how you can assist them in meeting their needs. 

Target markets are typically classified based on age, location, income, and lifestyle. A business should focus on specific market factors to reach and engage with customers through sales and marketing strategies by defining a particular target market. 

Create Buyer Personas

Now that you have identified your target market, create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is an analysis based profile of a potential customer. Buyer personas explain who your potential customers are, how they spend their days, the obstacles they face, and the choices they make. With the help of buyers persona, you can improve your product. You will be able to identify your customers need and also fulfil them. Furthermore, you can target your customer without much less effort. 

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Setting a reasonable market goal is the most important part of every business strategy. Make your goals SMART, which means specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. You can do this by thinking about the short and long term goals of your business.

Set the quantitative and qualitative goals of your business and also set Key Performance Indicators (KPI). It will help your digital marketing strategies to be on track. Furthermore, choose the tools that you will require to accomplish your goals.

Choose your Digital Marketing Strategy

Choose the best strategies for your company. Focus on techniques that add the most value to your company or organisation rather than smart strategies. Do not just randomly choose any marketing strategies. Choose wisely depending on your business and its target audience. You can select from strategies or channels like: 

  • Content marketing
  • Search engine optimisation
  • Pay-per-Click
  • Display advertising
  • Email Marketing
  • Online video marketing
  • TV commercials
  • Mobile ads
  • Channel partnerships
  • Events 
  • Social media advertising 
  • Podcasts and radio advertising
  • Print advertising

We will be discussing the 7 most effective digital marketing strategies from the above list soon. 

Additionally, invest in marketing automation tools. With the help of marketing automation, you can keep your goals organised and launch campaigns anytime you want. You do not have to be there to launch a campaign personally.

Establish Budget

Research the budget you need to invest in your digital marketing strategies and tools. On average, a business spends 10% of its revenue on digital marketing. But it ranges from 5% to 15%. 

Audit Online Marketing Strategy

Analyse your existing marketing strategies and make changes to them according to the current business needs. Check on how effective the existing channels and strategies are working. Note down the changes and improve your marketing strategies need.

Launch your Campaigns

Launch the campaigns you planned according to your business goals. Make sure they are trackable. You also have to ensure that customer can easily interact with the content of your campaigns. 

Since online business is all about engaging with potential clients, the website’s traffic should be strong to achieve positive results. As a result, your digital marketing strategy should ensure that your leads and visitors are not exerting undue effort to connect with you. Connecting with customers is highly beneficial to your business.

Track Results Through KPI

Constantly track and monitor your digital marketing strategies to ensure that they are working effectively. Thoroughly analyse them all the time. You need to know that your campaigns are on track to help you accomplish your objectives once they’ve gone live. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are designed to help with this. We must track each activity via KPI to determine if we have received the expected ROI. Measuring the effectiveness of our digital marketing initiatives and actions would allow you to correct what does not work for our goals.

7 Effective Digital Marketing Strategies

We have discussed how to create the most relevant digital marketing strategies for your business so far. We also came across different channels, or strategies companies usually use. Now, let’s discuss 7 effective strategies that you can incorporate into your business. Eventually, with the proper action, your business is bound to thrive in the market.

1. Content Marketing

Our digital marketing strategies are nothing without having good content. So, content marketing is at the top of digital marketing strategies. “Content is the king!”

Nearly all the things we see on the internet are content. Thus, your first step to digital marketing can be doing content marketing.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the definition of content marketing is:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Therefore, content marketing focuses on reaching, interacting and connecting to customers through content. Having a website for your brand or business is an essential part of content marketing. But you can also do it through social media pages and video platforms. The content can be anything about your brand that communicates to your customers. Some examples of content marketing are:

  • Blog posts
  • Infographics
  • E-books
  • Social media posts
  • Email newsletters
  • Photos: Instagram
  • Podcasts
  • Videos: YouTube, Instructional, Event Recordings
  • Micro-videos: Vine
  • Webinars

Why is content marketing an effective digital marketing strategy?

You might be thinking about how content marketing can be effective for your business. There are several ways content marketing is the most effective digital marketing strategies. Here is why:

  • Firstly, you can enhance your brand reputation by building trust through content marketing.
  • Creating good content is the cheapest way to generate new leads.
  • Great content helps to gain the attention of prospects, generate lead and also convert them into customers.
  • Optimised contents help improve your search engine optimisation.
  • Through content, you can also showcase the subject expertise of your brand.
  • Then publishing excellent content helps to create a good relationship with customers.
  • Next, your leads and customers are looking to read good and relevant content.
  • Content is also important during each step of the marketing funnel.
  • Finally, content marketing is the foundation to form other digital marketing strategies.

Blogging, an essential part of content marketing strategy

Blogging is one of the best ways of content marketing. Making blogs doesn’t mean you have to write about a business or brand every day. Instead, blogs about different problems and educates customers on how to solve them. For example, if you are providing real estate service, your blog can be about “How do beginners invest in property?” or “What is the cheapest way to buy property?”. 

Moreover, blogs help you to rank for keywords on the search engine result page. Keywords are words and phrases that people commonly used to search for topics related to your brand in search engines. 

Google and other search engines usually show the website with the exact keyword or phrase and answer their queries when they do so. Therefore, if your website and blogs rank for the keywords up on the search engine result page, it will generate more traffic. As a result, there will be more leads and customer conversion rate. 

7 Effective Digital Marketing Strategies Infographic

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

For any kind of business and brand, search engine optimisation is the most effective digital marketing strategy. Making your website and content search engine friendly is one of the best ways to rank up in SERP.  This is because it can generate a high level of organic traffic. No matter where you are in your digital marketing journey, SEO is an ongoing digital marketing strategy that you cannot let go out of sight.

Hence, SEO is the method of upgrading different factors of your website. It is done to rank high on the search engine results page for relevant keywords and phrases. Moreover, SEO contributes to making your website visible without making any investment. 

Furthermore, Google and other search engines have algorithms. The algorithm helps select the most perfect and relevant websites to display on the first page. An aspect of SEO is keyword and keyword research. We already have discussed it in the content marketing stage. Content marketing and SEO are co-related. Apart from that, there are more than 200 factors that may affect your ranking of a website. And SEO takes care of them. 

Here are the 12 most common ranking factors that your SEO strategy needs to consider optimising your website:

  • Site Security
  • Crawlability
  • Mobile-Friendliness
  • Page Load Speed
  • User Engagement
  • High-Quality Content
  • The Right Target Keywords
  • Optimised Content
  • Structured Data
  • Consistent Business Listings
  • Backlink Profile
  • Domain Age

Why SEO is an effective strategy for your business?

SEO is essential because it ensures a fair ground in search results. People trust search engines, and placing first in search engine results indicates to searchers that your site is a reliable source. The higher you rank in search engine results pages, the more clicks and traffic your website will receive. SEO also enhances the user experience so that customers are more likely to be repeated buyers. Here is some more reason your business needs SEO:

  • SEO contributes to organic search, which is one of the primary sources of traffic.
  • SEO helps to build trust & credibility in your website.
  • With the help of local SEO, there will be increased engagement, traffic & conversions.
  • SEO best practices and factors are always being updated. If your website keeps up with the updates, there are more likely to rank before your competitor.
  • Understanding SEO helps you understand the environment of the web, market and your competitor.
  • SEO Is relatively cheaper than other strategies
  • It’s a long-term strategy, and it bears fruit long after factors are implemented.
  • It’s quantifiable and measurable. You will be able to keep track of every progress your business makes.
  • SEO brings new opportunities to light.
  • If your page is not ranking up, it is probably not getting traffics.

3. Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay per click (PPC) is a model of internet marketing that utilises paid advertisement to bring visitors to your website. It is an action-based system where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. You pay a well known third party to advertise your business in the space they own. Simply, it is buying visits for your website instead of doing it organically.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

With PPC, you bid on keywords for which you want your ads to appear. Your ad appears when a user searches for your keyword. These advertisements are then displayed at the top of search results, above organic listings. If a user clicks on your ad, you must pay for that click. PPC is used for all types of campaign goals, including:

  • Increasing sales
  • Generating leads
  • Promoting brand awareness

Platforms, where you can do PPC campaigns, are:

  • Google Ads.
  • Microsoft Ads.
  • YouTube.
  • Facebook.
  • Instagram.
  • LinkedIn.
  • Twitter.
  • Pinterest.

Why is PPC an effective strategy for your business?

PPC can highly impact your brand and its reputation. Keeping this in mind, here is why you should consider PPC as a business marketing strategy:

  • PPC is the fastest way to run an advertising campaign and get the fastest results.
  • An important aspect of PPC is that everything you do has a clear, measurable target.
  • It helps you to reach the right audience who want to buy your product.
  • You do not have to rely on SEO, which can be time-consuming entirely.
  • With PPC, targeting and ranking for a keyword is easier. You can easily target keywords related to your industry, and people searching for those keywords will constantly see your ads.
  • PPC is highly effective for local search.
  • PPC is budget-friendly. You choose how much to pay for each click. Also, you can decide how much money to spend on an ad or campaign.
  • It’s a great tool to test your marketing strategies for other mediums.
  • PPC platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads provide you with all the tools you need to run your campaigns. It helps you to collaborate with your teammates and analyse your data and results.

Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.
Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.

4. Email Marketing

One of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies is email marketing. Email marketing is the promotion of products or services while developing relationships with potential customers or clients with the help of Email. 

Email marketing generally involves newsletters containing updates on the company, promotional contents, ongoing sales and exclusive deals. It is also used to make an aware subscriber of any general message about your company. Even though email marketing is a decade old practice, it still is a helpful strategy to generate leads and retain customers.

Email Marketing

Additionally, you can align Email marketing strategies with content marketing strategies. As a result, you can also send emails to your subscriber on the latest blogs when you publish a blog. In this way, there will be ongoing traffic to enter your website and help your website rank up in SERP. 

Why is Email marketing an effective digital marketing strategy?

Email marketing can enhance your content marketing strategies and contribute to many other factors. Such as:

  • Emails generate better results than most marketing channels. It has a high ROI, and the conversion rate is around 60%. 
  • With the help of Emails, you can communicate, engage and retain your customer.
  • Emails can be a great way to influence your audience to take action.
  • Emails communicate the value of your brand and improve brand awareness.
  • Through emails, you can bring loads of traffic to your website.
  • Emails get along with other marketing channels seamlessly, such as social media marketing, webinars, and content marketing.

5. Video Marketing

Currently, video marketing is an effective way to promote your products and business and gain traffic and customers. Video marketing is promoting your brand, product and service by creating and using engaging videos. It can help you to increase activity in your digital and social channels, improve the relationship with the audience and reach them with a new medium.

Video Marketing

Furthermore, video marketing can also be used to show unique content ideas. For example:

  • how-tos, 
  • boost brand testimonials, 
  • live-stream events, 
  • distribute viral (entertaining) content.

Likewise, video marketing is a business strategy that includes a wide range of videos. Here are some examples of videos that can be created or viewed and ready to be explored and used.

  • Demo Videos
  • Interviews
  • Animated Videos
  • Reviewing Videos
  • Live Videos
  • Brand Videos
  • Event Videos

Why is video marketing an effective digital marketing strategy?

People are watching video more than ever, and businesses can easily take advantage of that. Here is why video marketing is an effective strategy.

  • Video increases sale and conversion rate.
  • Video helps customers to understand your product better.
  • There is a great ROI when the video is used for promotion and sale.
  • Video helps to build the trust of your audience and customer.
  • Google loves to display video in their SERP, which will be a bonus for your SEO.
  • Video is more appealing to mobile users, and there is a huge population of mobile users.
  • Video is more explaining and engaging than other content.
  • Live videos can contribute to bringing around 13% of business traffic.

6. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

One of the current constant digital marketing strategies to make the business successful is social media marketing. Moreover, because a huge population uses one social media or the other, social media marketing is a powerful way to promote and boost sales. Therefore, Social media marketing is a strategy that involves making and sharing engaging content on social media to attain your marketing and branding goals.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Furthermore, you can do your business just depending on the social media platform without requiring any other marketing channel. SMM also influences the audience and customers by posting written content, image update, video, and other engaging content. 

Similarly, there is also the option of paid advertisement, upon which a social media platform will advertise your brand to the target audience and prospects. Furthermore, SMM creates a smooth line of communication between you and your audience through personal message and comment options.

Some major social media marketing platforms are: 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Snapchat
  • Pinterest

Why is social media marketing an effective digital marketing strategy?

Social media marketing is very engaging and helps your business become successful, even if you’re just beginning. Here is why you should consider social media marketing:

  • Social media marketing helps to create brand awareness and reputation
  • SMM is a cost-effective way to promote products and boost sale for your business.
  • You can also inspire people with your brand story.
  • Moreover, a robust social media marketing strategy will spark discussion about your brand, products, and partners.
  • It also helps you to connect to your target audience and understand their needs.
  • Furthermore, it helps to provide exceptional customer service that keeps your audience and customers happy.
  • You can learn more about your competitor and also how to stay ahead of them
  • Most essentially, SMM increases traffic to your website and blog through referrals. 

7. Influencer Marketing

Closely followed by social media marketing is influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is promoting your service and product via someone who has many social followers. These people are called influencers and can inspire their followers to take action. They are usually experts in what they do.

Influencer Marketing

An influencer mentions your products on their video and picture and inspires your target audience to use them. They do so by using social media and other personal online channels. You can directly pay an influencer to promote your service and product. Also, you can provide them with your service without any charge. 

Related Blogs:
1. World of Digital Marketing
2. The Future of Freelance Digital Marketing
3. Data driven marketing: Digital Marketing transformation in recent years
4. Is Digital Marketing A Good Career?
5. Digital Marketing Basics for Beginners: Ultimate Guide for skeptic mind
6. Top Reasons Why People Should Consider a Career in Digital Marketing
7. Five ways a Digital Marketing Course Can Improve Your Business
8. Digital Marketing Apprenticeships: A Guide for Beginners

Why is social media marketing an effective digital marketing strategy?

Influencer marketing is currently the most trending way to promote your business and boost sales. Here is why you should invest in influencer marketing:

  • Firstly, influencers understand the needs of their followers and will offer them exactly that with your product.
  • Working with influencers helps you to reach thousands or even more traffic and consumers whom you couldn’t get on your own.
  • You can reuse content created by influencers. Utilising influencers to create brand content can help you save both time and money.
  • Influencer marketing precisely targets your ideal customers.
  • Finally, it helps to improve your SEO.

Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.
Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing in no time. A Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will help you to become a digital marketing specialist.

Form your Digital Marketing Strategy!

We have reached an end. Digital Marketing is still young, and every day there is a new way that enhances its power. With a proper strategy, you can boost your business, take your business a long way, and achieve success. I hope this article helps you to choose your digital marketing strategy.

May 4, 2023

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