Crafting Your Digital Marketing Strategy: A No-Nonsense Guide
At Seaglow Media we never set off without a plan. Building a successful digital marketing strategy takes time, testing and thorough planning to ensure you have everything you need in place to reach your intended audience and move them from awareness to conversion.
Let's cut through the fluff and get straight to what matters. Here's your stripped-down, no-nonsense guide to shaping a digital marketing strategy that actually delivers your business goals.
1. Goals: Start at the end!
Setting clear, tangible goals is step one. It's about asking, "What do we want to achieve?" Whether it's boosting online sales by 30%, growing your email list, or enhancing brand awareness, your goals set the direction. Keep them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to ensure they guide your strategy effectively. Without a clear target, it's all just shots in the dark without a clear benchmark to test against. Sure, your goals will change, but Digital Marketing Strategy is an ongoing piece of work that your business can use as a roadmap.
2. Research: The Foundation
Good decisions come from good data. Before you jump into the tactical arena, you need a solid understanding of the landscape. This means getting to grips with market trends, technological advancements, and, crucially, your customer behaviour. Research arms you with insights to make informed decisions, rather than guesses. It's the groundwork that everything else is built upon.
It is also good to know what people are searching for in your niche. Tools such as Answer the Public, are brilliant for letting you see an insight into exactly what people are searching for. You get eyes on their frequently asked questions and data that lets you see search volume. We use it to generate ideas that we know our clients audiences are genuinely searching for, rather than making assumptions on what their problems may be.
3. Audience: The Heart of Your Strategy
Understanding your audience is non-negotiable. It’s about knowing who they are, what they care about, what their problems are and how they interact online. This knowledge shapes your messaging, choice of channels, and content. Without a deep understanding of your audience, even the most sophisticated strategies can fall flat. Tailor your efforts to speak their language, meet their needs, and answer their questions. Serve them your content that answers the problems, they didn’t even realise they had. Not only does this connect with them, but it supports their need to become a part of your community and become loyal customers.
Another important aspect of understanding your audience is identifying how they use the internet and their buying behaviour. This dictates how long your funnel needs to be, how many different touch points they need before parting with their hard earned cash and how much trust you need to build with them first. It also supports you to understand their user journey to purchase and optimise the user experience of your channels, website, sales process and post-sales communication.
4. Competitors: Your Benchmark
Ignoring your competitors is a rookie mistake. A thorough competitive analysis does more than just tell you what you’re up against; it reveals opportunities for differentiation and innovation. Identify what they do well, where they falter, and how you can carve out your own space in the market. As we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, this is strictly not about copying their ideas, or comparing yourself to them, but about understanding your position in the market.
Ensure you stay in your own lane, but keeping an eye on what is going well and what opportunities they are missing, helps you make stronger, more considered decisions.
5. Content Map: Your Blueprint
Content is the currency of digital marketing. A content map isn't just a schedule; it's a strategic blueprint that outlines what you'll say, how you'll say it, and where it'll be published. It ensures your content serves your goals, speaks to your audience, and is distributed across the right channels. This step is where your strategy starts to take actionable form.
Tips to get this going:
Use project management software to map and deliver your strategy. We love Asana and use it for all of our work. Our team know where to find everything and our clients have full visibility on their content - giving them the opportunity to add in ideas, tweaks and feel excited about their communication without any surprises.
Visual maps such as Miro are effective for understanding your marketing funnel and what touchpoints your ideal consumers are going to see your messaging.
Tap into empathy. Put yourselves in the shoes of your ideal consumer and address their problems. Creating content that speaks to their emotions, helps them form positive relationships with your brand and supports their buying decisions.
Create a content calendar. Mark out your key dates and work backwards. Formulate a plan that enables those key dates go off with a bang. If you are planning a launch for example, you need to have that date in mind and work backwards.
6. Bring in an Expert: The Accelerator
Sometimes, the fastest way to progress is to acknowledge when you're out of your depth. Digital marketing is vast, and its landscapes are constantly shifting. Bringing in an expert can provide the boost your strategy needs. Whether it's for niche advice, a specific campaign, or overarching strategy development, the right expert can accelerate your path to success.
At Seaglow Media we have a team of experts who have years of experience in a variety of sectors including publishing, sports, travel, leisure, hospitality, government and retail - to name a few. We’ve built and delivered strategies since Instagram began - so we are used to adapting to an ever-evolving market!
The Bottom Line
Crafting a digital marketing strategy isn't about following a formula; it's about creating a tailored approach that aligns with your business goals, leverages insights from your research, understands and engages your audience, stays aware of the competitive landscape, plans content with purpose, and knows when to call in reinforcements.
Approach it with clarity, focus, and the willingness to adapt, and you're not just setting yourself up for success; you're staying ahead of the game.
Want more advice on crafting your digital marketing strategy? Book a discovery call to find out about our range of services that are suitable for any budget.
