Imagine this: you post a video on social media and it goes viral. You get a bunch of followers, sell tons of your product or service, and become a huge marketing success overnight. This does sometimes happen in very rare instances. Unfortunately, it’s probably something most people will have to stick to imagining. Plus, those overnight successes often see as dramatic of a decline as they saw for their incline to popularity.
To create and sustain a successful digital marketing presence, you must first establish a strategic, well-planned marketing strategy. Of course, this includes more than just a viral video and a few tweets.
Audience
It may seem obvious, but before you try marketing to consumers, you need to know exactly who those consumers are. Where do they live? Do they have kids? What do they do for fun? All these questions and more can help you determine who you’re targeting. You can also determine if they are likely to buy your products based on their demographics and consumer patterns.
Once you determine that audience, it’s much easier to determine the best ways to reach them. If you’re targeting Gen Z, social media, especially TikTok, might be the best way to go. Whereas if you’re targeting moms on the go, Facebook or even more traditional routes like radio might be best. The same goes for running Google ads, in which narrowing (or broadening) to the right audience is crucial in getting visibility from the people you want.
Regardless, being able to hone in on your audience is the first and most important piece of the marketing strategy puzzle. Without it, you’re left spending time and money on content in irrelevant spaces that aren’t reaching the right people.
Unique Selling Proposition
The second piece in creating your optimal marketing strategy is defining the why. In the world of digital marketing, you only have a few seconds to make an impression on your audience. Sure, you know your business is the best around, and people would be foolish not to buy your amazing products! However, you have to be aware of the unavoidable bias you hold and differences in familiarity levels with your product, as opposed to a potential customer.
A strong marketing campaign will spotlight the unique selling proposition as the anchor of your product’s appeal. It could be the low cost, high quality or one-of-a-kind characteristic that makes it better than what your competitors offer. Defining this piece will make you stand out from competitors. It will help customers understand the benefits of your product in a way that is direct and easy to understand.
Consistency in Voice
People crave stability and order. If your ads, emails and posts on social media are all over the place in terms of style, personality and overall vibe, it may turn some viewers off and find it harder to identify with your brand because of a lack of, well, identity!
This is part of why a multichannel approach is important. What’s even more so is making sure they all blend and complement each other. Now, there is room for some variety across channels based on their purpose (i.e. LinkedIn for business/career or Instagram for more creative graphics/photos). However, the voice should feel like it’s coming from the same brand across the board.
Assessing Results
When all your content is out into the world and it’s all is said and done, it’s not actually done. You need to keep track and analyze what you put out. One of the most crucial steps to long-term success is learning from mistakes and celebrating victories. Ultimately, you can use those wins and losses to build even better campaigns moving forward based on what worked and what didn’t.
Say you spend a large chunk of your budget on promoted tweets, but don’t see much engagement. But, when a handful of people with a few thousand followers engaged with your account, it saw higher overall engagement. In your next campaign, it might be a good idea to try out influencer marketing. This type of organic style of promotion might work best for your business. It’s important to know the best strategies for your business, so it can be taken to the next level. Social media is an ever-evolving medium, so your marketing strategy must be flexible to do so as well.
Not sure where to begin to create a marketing strategy that will take your business to the next level in digital marketing? Contact us today!
