Ultimate Guide to Creating an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy

A digital marketing strategy is the action plan that will help you achieve your goals through online marketing efforts. Creating a good strategy doesn’t have to be complicated; however, it’s important to consider a series of factors that will help you organize and optimize the processes successfully.

Define your SMART goals.

The “SMART Goals” model will help you define them to be efficient.

• Specific: The goal should be as specific as possible. The more detailed it is, the better it will be understood.
• Measurable: The goal must be measurable. You need to clearly define the method or system of measurement, establishing the indicators to be used to evaluate the degree of goal achievement.
• Attainable: The goal must be achievable, ambitious but not impossible to achieve. It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone, striving for something that seems difficult but attainable, as otherwise, it will cause frustration and discouragement.
• Realistic: You should have goals that can be achieved with the tools at your disposal, within your capabilities, and in line with your values and motivation to achieve said goal.
• Timely: A specific deadline must be established. Each goal must be defined in a timely manner, as this will help you set the different stages that will allow you to reach the proposed goal. 

It’s important to consider that your strategy’s objectives must be perfectly aligned with your business’s goals and objectives. This way, you will avoid consuming important resources that could jeopardize its continuity.

Analyze your audience.

Target a specific audience to achieve better results.

Learn to analyze your audience and that of your competition to understand their likes and needs and create successful content. The challenge is to produce the perfect message for the right audience at the right time.

Some starting points to describe your audience are:

• Demographic information (age, location, income, occupation).
• Interests, motivations, aspirations.
• Personality.
• Consumer habits.
• Internet and other media usage habits.

Once you know a little more about your audience, use that information to create complete profiles of your ideal consumer. Make sure to always keep this information in mind throughout the strategy.

Analyze your competition.

This is a way to identify strengths and weaknesses in the market that will prevent you from making the mistake of repeating what others have already done wrong.

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• Who is my competition?
• What is the quality of the product or service they offer?
• What are their marketing and sales strategies?

Identify user opinions, read discussion forums, reviews, and comments on social media. Identify the areas of opportunity your business has to differentiate itself and tailor your strategy to leverage your strengths and take advantage of your competition’s current situation.

Define and analyze your “conversion funnel.”

Define the different steps a user has to take to fulfill an objective within your online platforms.

Analyzing this process in detail will help you determine the percentage of user loss at each step, as well as the points that can be optimized to achieve the fulfillment of the highest number of objectives.

Determine the channels and digital marketing tools you will need.

Defining the tools you will use in your strategy can be overwhelming. Start by auditing the media you already use and analyze the options you can incorporate to enhance your current tools and achieve your goals.

Create a value proposition.

Regardless of the type of business you have or the product or service you offer, the value proposition is key to achieving success. Use an irresistible hook to arouse people’s curiosity and differentiate yourself from the competition.

To define your value proposition, start by identifying the key points your company offers to the customer:

• Make a list of the benefits and value of your product for your customers.
• Identify what makes your business proposition different from the competition.

With the above information, focus your value proposition on two essential elements that you can effectively communicate:

• A title that describes the benefit you offer.
• A descriptive text that briefly details what you offer, to whom, and why.

Optimize the user experience.

Reduce elements that may cause frustration or discomfort to your visitors. Design a clear and simple path for your customers to achieve their goal, as well as language that is attractive and easy to understand. This way, you will be able to have impactful messages and functional platforms.

Define continuous improvement tests.

Testing and improvement are the quintessential dichotomy of the digital world. Using user behavior measurement tools allows you to effectively integrate the results of your tests and experiments into your digital product or service.

Sometimes, the smallest variations such as a change in font size, the color of a button, or the change in the position of a call to action (in the case of a website) are enough to exponentially increase results in achieving your website’s goals.

Google Optimize A/B testing is the perfect example of a continuous improvement technique that allows for evaluations with real website visitors, to constantly measure the best version of your website. Use tools like Google Optimizer and make the most of your digital tools’ potential.

Constantly measure and analyze the results.

Following the strategy’s line and taking into account the objectives set at the beginning, it’s time to start measuring the results. Ideally, you should measure a series of aspects, both quantitative and qualitative.

• Check if your audience remembers your brand message.
• Evaluate the clarity of the consumer regarding your product or service.
• Identify your KPIs (key performance indicators) and periodically make comparisons to analyze and compare the results of your efforts with respect to the fulfillment of your objectives.

Finally, represent this information graphically in a “conversion funnel,” where you can clearly review your return on investment (ROI) from the digital marketing strategy. This will allow you to visualize the results beyond just “likes” or the “reach” of your brand. And thus, optimize the results to make them better each time.