Digital Marketing Strategy: What It Is and Why It’s Important

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• What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
• What’s the Goal of a Digital Marketing Strategy for Companies?
• Common Types of Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing is a broad landscape that contains an enormous number of tactics within it. Many companies use digital marketing strategies, but they don’t always set clear and specific goals to guide these strategies. An effective marketing strategy can help your company meet objectives through the thoughtful integration of useful marketing tactics.

What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a specific selection of digital marketing tactics that work together in order to meet a company’s digital marketing goal or goals. Digital marketing tactics are disparate tools, resources, or actions — for example, sending an email to a prospective customer or posting an ad on Facebook. A digital marketing strategy, in comparison, takes a group of these individual tactics and creates an overall plan designed to meet a specific goal.

An example of a digital marketing strategy might be optimizing your entire website for better SEO. This strategy requires keyword research, website design, and content creation, all of which work together to create a unified plan.

Image via Unsplash by austindistel

What’s the Goal of a Digital Marketing Strategy for Companies?

The specific goals for digital marketing strategies differ from company to company. Broadly, most companies use digital marketing strategies to meet objectives like these:

• Understand their customers better
• Improve conversion rates
• Increase lead generation

Digital marketing strategies, when implemented well, tend to provide several additional benefits aside from the company’s specific goals or objectives. These advantages may include:

• Having a direction — With a digital marketing strategy, every move your company makes online is purposeful and objective-driven, which saves you money and maximizes your resources.
• Knowing your audience — Digital marketing tactics often provide a number of useful metrics about your customers’ habits and preferences, which you can use in all aspects of your business.
• Gaining a competitive edge — An effective digital marketing strategy can set your company apart from your competitors, earning you more conversions.
• Integrating teams — Digital marketing forces your marketing employees to integrate and work together toward common goals.
• Optimizing your website — Many digital marketing strategies seek to optimize your website and your general online presence, which benefits all aspects of your company.

Common Types of Digital Marketing Strategies

You can create a number of individualized and unique marketing strategies designed specifically for your business’s marketplace and customer base. Many companies start with a common marketing strategy and then customize it to reach their goals more effectively. Consider these frequently used marketing strategies:

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving certain aspects of your website in order to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO ranking is vital for brand recognition and earning new customers — the higher your website organically ranks, the more likely consumers are to click your link.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, is similar to SEO in that the goal is to increase SERP rankings and gain more visibility in the marketplace. However, while SEO is organic, meaning you optimize your website for rankings at no cost, PPC advertising is not. With this method, you bid on specific keywords, so when a potential customer searches for that keyword, your website will list at the top of the page with a small “ad” disclaimer. You pay the search engine a fee if the customer clicks on your link.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is the creation of content, including blog posts, videos, and infographics. You can use content marketing to help you advertise to potential customers directly. However, many organizations also use content marketing to increase brand recognition and educate customers about a product, service, or idea. Content marketing is also a great way to link to other areas of your digital marketing strategy.

Email Marketing

Email marketing involves sending emails to current and prospective customers. Email marketing can be hyper focused, allowing you to customize the greeting and content of the message to appeal to the specific receiver. Even if the customer doesn’t open the email, seeing your company’s name in their inbox keeps your business on their mind and helps build brand recognition. With existing customers, you can target past purchases they’ve made and provide recommendations for other products you think they’d like.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing uses social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to communicate with and educate customers. Many companies also use social media for advertising by purchasing ads that show up outside of their specific profiles or pages. Social media marketing is a great way to engage with customers interactively. You can also easily link to your website or sales page to make conversions easier.

Voice Search Engine Optimization

Voice search engine optimization, or voice SEO, is a relatively new digital marketing strategy, but it’s gaining in importance and value. It helps your company rank as the primary response for voice-activated smartphones and speakers. For example, if a customer verbally asks their phone, “How do I wash my sneakers?” the phone will respond with the top-ranking featured snippet. As voice search becomes more and more prevalent, having a stake in the field can make a major difference in brand recognition and customer conversions in the future.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is similar to content marketing in style and objective, but instead of creating written content or graphic content, you share information through videos. When properly optimized, a video is much more likely to grab and hold the attention of a prospective buyer than a blog post. Many companies use videos to increase brand awareness and educate customers on their products and services.

A comprehensive and thoughtful digital marketing strategy can vastly improve your company’s marketing success. Rather than randomly trying out unrelated digital marketing tactics, start by establishing specific goals and creating a digital marketing strategy to help you achieve your objectives.

Knowledge Base: Digital Marketing