Digital marketing strategy

A strategy must address the issues of who you are, what you offer and to whom, as well as why and how you do so. The steps detailed next address what the marketer should be aware of when designing and implementing a marketing plan that will meet its marketing goals and solve its challenges.

Defining the objectives

First, it is essential to define what you want to achieve: what the main objectives of the marketing campaign are.

What you want to conquer should also be defined: new clients, a higher level of loyalty from existing customers, encouraging existing customers to devote more time and money to the brand, and so on. The different possible goals are endless, but it is indispensable that you define yours.

It is also important that these goals are achievable—being creative is being productive—but it should also be taken into account that not all ideas can be effectively implemented. Thus, goals should be adjusted to the available resources.

Defining the target audience

No matter what business or sector you're in or how you operate, it is necessary to define the target audience to which the marketing campaign is aimed.

In this sense, it becomes essential to know your product's possible consumers/users, that you define them as your target, and that you conduct research around their needs, even defining the key capabilities of what you are promoting and how they will arouse consumers' interest.

Assessing the competition

Reviewing the market's key competitors helps put into perspective the condition in which your company/brand/product stands out, enhancing the factor that makes it unique and idealizing the value of your proposal.

Understand the main rivals in the market in which you operate (how many of them there are and what they have to offer; what needs they satisfy that you don't; what the needs that your product satisfies or can't satisfy are) in order to differentiate yourself from the competition—all of this is important to the success of a good marketing campaign. It is always valuable to know what your competitors are doing right now, where they are evolving, and why.

This is the best time to perform a SWOT analysis, which includes the following four essential aspects:

• Strengths: What your company does well; what value it adds when compared to its competitors
• Weaknesses: The company/brand/product's weaknesses; what it should improve upon
• Opportunities: Conditions outside the company that benefit its market performance
• Threats: Conditions outside the company that impair its market performance

Defining tactics and media

The possibilities are numerous: social media, search advertising, email, TV, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, online advertising, and so on—you can even choose to let the message be spread by word of mouth, among many other media outlets.

Now, the important thing is to decide which ones fit your message, the image of your company, and the product you want to promote. The choice may seem complicated, but with all the planning steps listed previously, the choice becomes easier because you already know what the campaign's goals are, whose attention you want to grab with it, and what their preferences are, as well as the fact that you already know the competitive market in which the campaign will be inserted and what is already being done by competitors, in addition to also having a plan for campaign spending and what the desired financial return is.

Don't forget to set the KPIs per tactic, with an eye on the overall objectives.

Developing an effective message

The message must be appropriate for the selected target audience—each type of audience has different tastes, different preferences, habits that individualize them as a group, and needs that must be met according to their experiences. So, it is important to give emphasis to this content as a whole when choosing a message to communicate.

The great idea, the main point around which revolves the entire marketing campaign, should be defined based on its core strengths—that point where the product stands out more and for which it wants to be recognized.

Once the idea has been decided, you need to create a tangible campaign whereby it is necessary to communicate in a clear and appealing way: choose the right words and pictures, because the mind often needs only 3 seconds to show interest in the campaign and pay attention, or else simply forget it and turn its attention to something else.

Together, words and images should lead to an action by the consumer: therein lies the effectiveness or failure of a marketing campaign.

Be clear on the value you offer to them. People buy outcomes, not services or products.

Reviewing the budget

It is equally important to have an understanding of the consumers' and the target audience's purchasing power and, if possible, a quantification of the consumption/use of the product that will be promoted. It would also be ideal to provide an estimate of the return that will be reached with the marketing campaign.

To ensure a successful marketing campaign, it is crucial that the company's profit is higher than what was spent on the campaign itself, just as it is also essential that the campaign is realistic and that the company's budget can cover the cost of the marketing campaign that is being planned.

Evaluating the campaign's results

It is necessary to perform a measurement of the campaign's effectiveness, and those quantifiers will depend on the media used. For example, if discount coupons were distributed, you can count exactly how many were actually used; assess whether profit increased or decreased since the beginning of the campaign; and perform surveys, among others.

The important thing is to choose a method that correctly evaluates (as close to reality as possible) the results of the campaign. It is also crucial to monitor the campaign from the outset in order to correct or improve aspects along the way, thus enabling the realization of the predetermined goal.

After reviewing all these points, it can be easily concluded that the need for campaign planning is crucial for its execution—they are like two sides of the same coin. In fact, you cannot have a successful campaign without the research, knowledge, organization, and planning of all aspects concerning the company's internal environment, the external image it intends to portray, and the external environment itself (customers, competitors, financial market aspects, and so on).

Customer behaviors change over time, and their needs and desires related to the brand evolve as their relationship grows. Don't forget to revisit your strategy and adapt to the changes that happened in the meantime.