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Digital marketing has become more complicated in recent years, but it’s also a lot more effective than it used to be. If you know where to look for help and how to put together a solid plan, you’ll be well on your way to putting the right tools into place and seeing results.

In our blog, we’ll go over how to put together a reliable and strategic digital marketing plan for your business. Let’s get into it!

Figure out your starting point.

First things first: define your goal.

Before you start any marketing plan, there’s one thing you need to know about yourself: what do you want? This seems easy enough—you want more customers, more revenue, or whatever else it is that your business does best. But by taking a closer look at what exactly it is that will help get you those results, you’ll be able to come up with some tangible and achievable goals.

Take fitness as an example: if someone’s goal is simply “get healthy,” they could end up in the gym every day but not make any progress toward their ultimate objective of looking great at their friend’s wedding next summer because they’re not setting specific enough goals. Instead of just focusing on stretching or improving cardiovascular endurance (which may lead them nowhere), they should focus on defining a wider scope for their fitness journey—for example, being able to run five miles without stopping by December 1st so they can enter a local race that takes place the following weekend.

What this means for digital marketing plans is that before sitting down and putting words on paper (or typing them into Google Docs), ask yourself what success looks like for your company—what do I want? And then go from there!

Define your audience and goals.

As you begin to develop your digital marketing plan, it’s important to define your audience and goals. Knowing who you’re trying to reach and what they want will help guide the process as you work through everything else. If you don’t have an idea of who will be reading and interacting with your content, then how are you going to know what kind of content they want? And if you don’t know what kind of information or products they would find useful or interesting, then how will anyone else?

Remember: define your audience before defining goals. Understanding who needs which kind of information will inform how much time and energy goes into creating that content. It’s also worth noting that different audiences may require different types of interactions from brands—and so this step can help clarify what kinds of engagement tactics might be most effective for each group (more on these later).

Research topics and keywords.

The first step to developing a digital marketing plan is research.

You need to know the topics and keywords that people are searching for online, as well as what they’re sharing on social media and blogs. One way of doing this is by using a tool like Google Trends, which shows you how often specific words have been searched over time. For example, if you want to start writing about cloud computing but aren’t sure what people are looking for, use Google Trends to see how often “cloud computing” has been searched in the past month (and if it spikes around certain times of the year). If a lot of people are searching for “cloud computing” in July but almost no one searches for it when school starts back up again in September, then that would be an indication that your audience might not be interested in reading about cloud computing during summer vacation.

Another way to search popular topics and keywords is by using tools like Buzzsumo or Ahrefs; these show you what content has been shared most often across different platforms like Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, blogs, etc. This can help you identify topics likely to interest your target market while also showing which types of content they’re more likely to share – which can help guide where exactly within your larger campaign plan those different pieces should go!

Decide which channels fit your brand best.

Now that you’ve established your goals and audience, it’s time to consider the various channels through which you can reach your audience. In this section of the digital marketing plan, identify the channels that are most important for your brand and those that don’t make sense given your goal or target audience. Consider both online and offline channels as well as print media (such as magazines), television spots or radio ads, billboards, direct mail campaigns, etc.

The following list includes some common types of marketing channels:

• Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter)
• Advertising networks (Google AdWords)
• Email newsletters/Email lists

Identify the resources you’ll need.

If you’re looking to hire a digital marketing agency, the first step is to come up with a budget and determine how much money you want to spend. Budgeting is an important part of any business, so it’s essential that you create an accurate budget before hiring any outside help. A good way to start is by creating a checklist of what needs to be done and then estimating how much time each task will take as well as its cost.

Create a marketing mix that emphasizes content.

Developing a digital marketing plan is the first step to helping your business grow. It’s essential to define your audience and create content that meets their needs. If you don’t have the time or resources to create content yourself, outsourcing it may be the best option for you. Once you’ve defined your audience, start brainstorming ideas for different types of content based on what they want to see from you. You can also use tools like Google Analytics or Facebook Insights to better understand what kind of information people are looking for online and where they’re coming from as well as where they go after visiting your site – this will help inform you of which topics are most relevant to your audience so that you have an idea of the type of content they’ll be seeing out in the future.

Create and write content for each channel.

Now that you have a plan, it’s time to create and write content for each channel.

• Create unique content for each channel: This is the most important part of your digital marketing strategy because it helps you reach more customers and build trust with them. Each channel has its own set of guidelines, meaning you’ll need to write different types of content on each one.
• Use the right tools: You can use Google’s keyword planner tool or SEMrush to find out which words people are using when searching online so that you know which keywords to include in your blog posts and other articles.
• Use the right language: On Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., users use different words than they do on their blogs or websites – so make sure that when creating social media posts (which should always include images), make sure they’re relevant but don’t copy/paste anything from another website (this is called plagiarism). Sites such as Unsplash offer stock/non-copyrighted images.

Pick the right tools for the job.

To make the most of your digital marketing efforts, it is important to have the right tools in place. A simple Google search for “digital marketing tools” will display a seemingly endless list of options.

The following are some of the best tools available to help you with your content creation:

• Canva – This easy-to-use tool lets users create professional designs for social media posts, blog images, and more. It has templates for all types of media including business cards and Instagram stories.
• Unsplash – A free stock photo site that offers high-quality images that are free to use in both personal and commercial projects (with proper attribution).
• Pixabay – Another free stock photo site with millions of royalty-free photos available at no charge under Creative Commons CC0 license.

Get everyone on the same page with department-wide training on how to market effectively across channels, from email to social media.

Training is a critical activity for any marketing department. It’s also one of the most important steps in developing your digital marketing plan. When you train your team, you’ll have a better understanding of what everyone does and how it fits into the overall strategy, which will help keep everyone on the same page.

Training should be done at least once quarterly—and more often if necessary, especially during the transition to a new year or after major changes to company goals and objectives. The training should cover the following:

• What digital marketing channels do we use (email marketing, social media advertising)
• How do we use them (what platform(s) do we use? How do we measure success?)
• What success looks like in each channel (what are our KPIs? How do they relate to each other?)

Summary

Digital marketing is more complicated than it was 10 or 20 years ago, but there are many resources available today that can make it easier and more effective if you know what they are and where to find them.

• Digital Marketing Tools: Digital marketing tools can help you with everything from building websites to analyzing data. We recommend using Google Analytics because it’s free, easy to use, and indispensable for any business wanting to track its website traffic.
• Online Tools: There are hundreds of other online tools out there that can help you with your digital marketing strategy. Some of our favorites include MailChimp (for email newsletters), Trello (for managing projects), Snagit (for creating screenshots), Slack (for messaging), Buffer (for scheduling social media posts), and Canva (for creating graphics).
• Online Training & Support: There are also many training programs available online that will walk you through the basics of digital marketing; some even offer certification programs so you can become certified in your field after completing the coursework! We also offer many informative blogs that we hope can provide more insight into your digital marketing efforts.

Conclusion

The social media landscape is constantly changing, so it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and technology. And remember that even though there are many channels available today, it’s still important to define your brand and find where it fits best.

If you are looking for an effective digital marketing agency, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Reversed Out Creative. 

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