How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
Maya Rector • Jul 09, 2020
If you’re connected to the internet, chances are you’ve heard of digital marketing. Even if you haven’t, you’ve experienced it whether you know it or not. From ads on websites to social media sponsorships, the possibilities are endless. Learn how to create a digital marketing strategy for your business if you haven’t already - or discover how you can improve your current strategy by reading our tips below.
What is Digital Marketing, and Why Use it?
Before we get started on how to formulate your digital marketing strategy, you may be wondering exactly what it is and why having a digital marketing plan is important in the first place. So what counts as digital marketing? For starters, email campaigns, social media marketing, online content marketing, influencer marketing, and online video ads all play a role - when in doubt, any ads you see online count. One of the most notable reasons for using digital marketing is because digital ads have the advantage of being easily tracked and recorded for performance, which allows for customized audience targeting and reporting capabilities.Thanks to ongoing analytics updates, you can continually optimize your campaigns to ensure the best marketing results. It may help to know that customers are 40% more likely
to purchase from a vendor who tailors content specific to their needs and preferences, and by 2021, 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video.
That being said, getting started with digital marketing is not only helpful for driving traffic to your business, but it’s also a great way to stay prepared for the future in an increasingly digital world. As an added bonus, digital marketing also gives you the best value. It’s more cost effective than traditional marketing, and it allows your brand or business to connect with a multitude of online audiences both locally and globally. Options such as content marketing cost 62% less than traditional marketing, and it’s been found to generate three times as many leads. Have you thought about reaching consumers via email? You’ll be happy to know that on average, every $1 spent on email marketing results in $44 in ROI.
When done the right way, both traditional and digital marketing can complement one another to effectively reach larger and more diverse audiences. However, digital is often preferred, especially on a tighter budget, since there are aspects of traditional marketing that can make it more complicated and expensive. For instance, businesses can’t directly engage with consumers (unlike the ability to do so on social media or review websites), which can make the process feel impersonal for consumers. Less reliable or non-existent tracking and reporting can also make it difficult to truly know how many impressions or conversions took place as a result of a traditional ad campaign, which can make it hard to measure effectiveness. Traditional marketing methods can be pricier as well, and there are no guarantees despite the hefty price tag. Ultimately, both traditional and digital marketing have their place in the advertising world, and you don’t necessarily have to pick one over the other for your business’ overall marketing strategy - but it’s worth looking into digital for it’s value and ability to reach key audiences.
How to Research your Target Audiences
Digital marketing can be a great way to engage your target audience
and reach consumers who are actively looking for the products or services that you have to offer. However, you need to truly get to know who your potential customers are first. Whether it’s through surveys, market research, or seeing what your competitors are up to, you can begin to get a better idea of who your audience is and should be. Many people feel more comfortable voicing their opinions online, so you can get to know what people are looking for by conducting Google searches, reading online reviews of businesses similar to yours in your area, or even asking your friends and family what they look for in the businesses they choose to support.
Once you start to get a better idea of consumer needs and preferences for your particular vertical, you can better identify their pain points and be ready to offer up the solutions that your business can provide them with. In addition to this, you can also identify if your business has a relevant niche that sets you apart from the competition. Whether it’s personalized customer service, exclusive deals, or the ability to serve a particular audience, finding what sets you apart from the crowd can help you hone in on your overall digital marketing strategy.
Ultimately, by researching your online audiences and getting to know what they’re looking for, you can begin to establish relationships and build trust among your potential customers. Over time, that trust can result in long-term loyalty - and major growth for your business.
Consider Including a Multicultural Marketing and Hispanic Marketing Strategy
Narrowing down the demographics of your local area’s audiences is another important way to effectively tailor your messaging and strategy. While researching local audiences and general information about potential customers, it’s crucial to also acknowledge the rapidly growing multicultural audiences across the U.S. and in your area specifically. Not only are multicultural audiences estimated to make up almost half of the population in the next ten years, but they also tend to be more active on social media and are heavy internet users - making them an optimal group to reach through digital marketing. In particular, Hispanics are highly receptive to digital marketing methods, making Hispanic digital marketing a great way to reach a wider audience.
According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. Latino market “has been the principal driver of U.S. demographic growth, accounting for half of national population growth since 2000.” To put this number into perspective, if U.S. Latinos were their own country, this segment would be the second-most populous Spanish-speaking nation
worldwide. Chances are, if it doesn’t already, your local area likely has a growing or soon to be growing Latino population - and the time to reach them is now. Despite these statistics, many businesses fail to reach this audience under the false assumption that the Latino market lacks spending power and influence. However, Hispanic GDP currently tops $2.3 trillion
according to a 2019 study, and Latino consumption grew 72% faster than non-Latino in recent years when comparing compound annual growth rates - outpacing the general market.
The Hispanic market population also tends to be younger, which plays a major role in their media usage. Unsurprisingly, younger Latinos such as Gen Z’ers and Millennials tend to be glued to their devices most, but that’s not to say that they’re the only members of this group who are active online. For more information about Hispanic digital use, feel free to check out our video covering the staggering mobile, social media, video, and audio rates among this digital-savvy population.
How to Choose the Best Digital Platforms to Reach your Audiences
The digital platforms you choose to advertise across should be tailored to your findings of what your target audience prefers, and which sites and apps they frequent. A variety of factors can play a role in determining your audience’s preferred mediums, including demographics such as age, cultural background, language preferences, personal interests, and more. While there is not a cut and dry solution across the board, there are some general media habits that can be used as a guideline when deciding which platforms to use.
For instance, if you own an auto dealership and are running a campaign aimed at targeting young Millennial families looking to buy an SUV, social media marketing and digital video would likely be ideal platforms to reach them on. Why is that? Millennial audiences are known for being active social media users, especially on Instagram and YouTube. Additionally, an increasing number of Millennials are becoming cord cutters, meaning that they no longer subscribe to cable and instead use online platforms to view news and entertainment. Knowing this, reaching them on YouTube via pre-roll ads or on ads run across connected TV platforms can give you a better chance of capturing their attention. As another example, an immgration law firm looking to reach older Hispanic consumers in their area might be best off using a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy to utilize Spanish keywords for Spanish-speakers in their area in search of immigration-related legal help. They may also be reached successfully on Facebook, which has seen a decline in activity from its youngest users in recent years, meanwhile most growth has come from users age 55 and older .
Regardless, these are just a few examples of how digital platforms can be tailored to specific groups within different industries. While it can be daunting to put together a digital marketing strategy, especially for multicultural audiences you may not be as familiar with, the process can be made much easier by choosing an experienced digital marketing agency who can walk you through the process. If you’d like to learn more about partnering with an agency, check out our article for tips on choosing a Hispanic digital marketing agency.
How to Optimize Digital Marketing Campaigns for Success
Digital marketing is not a one-size-fits-all miracle solution, so it’s important to be aware of any potential bumps in the road. Privacy and security is perhaps the most controversial topic of discussion in today’s digital world, so keeping an eye out for privacy regulations to ensure that your campaigns meet the latest requirements is a crucial step. As an ever-evolving medium, digital is constantly changing and expanding - meaning that exciting new features will require new processes for digital marketers to understand and implement. Luckily, this also means that digital marketing sits at the forefront of tech innovation, which can be a compelling component for businesses looking to stand out and stay current.
On a micro-level, the beauty of digital marketing is that it offers the ability to optimize your digital campaigns as you go. This allows you to test out different mediums, strategies, creative messaging, etc. to see what performs well and delivers the best results for your business. For example, you may run a display ad across several websites and see that one particular site saw a significant increase in click through rates, so you may want to shift your future focus on running more ads across that particular site. Testing out messaging with various creative versions can also be a helpful way to gauge your future digital marketing plans in order to keep audiences interested, as well as staying up to date with the latest search trends and customer preferences.
Get Started Today
Now that you’ve learned more about digital marketing and how to create a digital marketing strategy, you may be wondering how to get started. After all, if you’re looking for trackable and cost-effective ads, digital is going to be your best bet - especially if your aim is to target custom audiences in your market.
While there are plenty of resources to learn more, partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency can provide you and your business with a team of experts who can guide you every step of the way. Don’t hesitate to contact us
or find a location
near you to learn more about using digital marketing to meet your business objectives - no question is too big or small.
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