25% of the world economy will be digital by 2020. We foresee 40% year-on-year growth for the digital marketing industry, compared to 5-6% growth in other industries. We also foresee $335.5 billion worldwide digital advertising expenditure by 2020.
What Is Digital Strategy?
In short: Your digital marketing strategy is the series of actions that are going to help you achieve your goal(s) using online marketing. The term ‘strategy’ might seem intimidating, but building an effective digital strategy doesn’t need to be difficult.
What is a Digital Marketing Campaign?
It’s easy to confuse your digital strategy with your digital marketing campaigns, but here’s how to distinguish the two:
Your digital strategy is the series of actions you take to help you achieve your overarching marketing goal. Your digital marketing campaigns are the building blocks or actions within your strategy that move you toward meeting that goal.
For example, you might decide to run a campaign sharing some of your best-performing gated content on Twitter, to generate more leads through that channel. That campaign is part of your strategy to generate more leads.
It’s important to note that even if a campaign runs over the course of a couple of years, it doesn’t make it a strategy – it’s still a tactic that sits alongside other campaigns to form your strategy.
How to Build a Comprehensive Digital Strategy?
1) Build your buyer personas. The best digital marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas, and your first step is to create them.
2) Identify your goals and the digital marketing tools you’ll need.
3) Evaluate your existing digital marketing channels and assets.
4) Audit and plan your owned media.
5) Audit and plan your earned media.
6) Audit and plan your paid media.
7) Bring it all together.
You’ll also need to plan your strategy for a longer-term period – typically, something like 12 months is a good starting point, depending on how your business is set up. That way, you can overlay when you’ll be executing each action
Your Path to Digital Marketing Strategy Success
Your strategy document will be very individual to your business, which is why it’s almost impossible for anyone to create a one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy template.
Remember, the purpose of your strategy document is to map out the actions you’re going to take to achieve your goal over a period of time — as long as it communicates that, then you’ve nailed the basics of creating a digital strategy.
M S Narayanan
Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, IndSamachar
