How to Develop and Implement Successful Digital Marketing Campaigns
Pay per Click, email marketing, rich content, info graphics, geo fencing, SEO and SEM, pop up ads, call to action buttons, search engines, blogging, and all social media including a plethora of more phrases and acronyms are associated with digital marketing. What is digital marketing really and why is it becoming “a go to strategy” for business today?
Digital Marketing comprises all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. It is any form of marketing that relies on the internet. It’s online marketing. It’s becoming a go to strategy for business owners because to be competitive, it must be used. Consumers today expect engagement, they demand having a relationship and connection with companies and their products and/or services. Digital marketing accomplishes what the consumer demands.
Consumers today do research on products, services and companies. They will use that research to make their decisions on what to buy, where to buy and when to buy. They are more educated on their decisions. The internet is “their book of knowledge”.
Blazing Kiss Media’s blog on May 11th, Business Development” The Playbook Has Changed Outbound versus Inbound Media” addresses how the corona virus changed the Playbook in Business Development. Digital marketing is Inbound Media which develops relationships with the audience because the content they are receiving makes sense to them. They demand that today and as such, digital marketing is being used in all sectors of business.
According to Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends Report, she indicated that the average adult spent 5.9 hours per day with digital media. In 2019, the latest Digital report from Hootsuite and We Are Social, shows we are spending on average 6 hours and 42 minutes on line each day including the use of mobile devices. In October 2019, www.cnn.com reported that US teens spent an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media and that does not include school work. So as a branding strategy and to create brand loyalty, digital marketing makes a strong case. But, like all marketing initiatives, if used incorrectly, and implemented without a plan to measure its success, it can be more expensive than necessary!
So, how does a business go about implementing a digital marketing campaign? How do you know if it’s an effective strategy for your business? These questions need be explored and answered carefully.
Digital marketing has many components to consider, your company website, the social media channels, rich content, email marketing, special offers, pay per click and other paid analytics, will you create blog posts that are designed to generate leads, etc. Therefore, each component needs to be examined to make sure it fits with the campaign goals. These components are typically referred to as tactics and, how they are used impacts the success and impacts budget of each.
Tactics include: email and content marketing, SEO or search engine optimization, social media marketing channels and managing all aspects of the marketing funnel according to wreninteractive.com.
Implementing a digital marketing campaign should include the following based upon Blazing Kiss Media’s expertise in Business Development and the development and implementation of digital media marketing:
- Identify the right demographic and connect it to the right product and/or service is critical to the ultimate success of the marketing campaign- this was discussed in a previous Blazing Kiss Media blog: Targeting the Correct Demographic and Why It Matters in Business Development.
You must make sure that you understand who your demographic audience is and what they want to buy regarding your product or service. This is referred to as the buyer’s persona as identified in wreninteractive.com
The importance of understanding your demographic cannot be understated. Once you clearly understand and define who that is, you can target your digital marketing campaign appropriately. You can select the proper channels and tactics such as, targeting a particular website(s), geo fencing or using a certain social media platform with rich content that appeals to your audience. Having identified the correct demographic allows you to have confidence in the correct marketing strategy.
In our latest blog: Return on Investment in Advertising Campaigns and Calculating Simple R.O.I we said the importance of knowing your demographic is critical because it eliminates wasteful as spending.
- Choose the tactics you will be using for the marketing campaign. Targeting those that are most preferred by your audience will yield the greatest success for your ads. The most effective marketing campaign uses a coordinated effort among several sites and places commonly used by your audience. A multi-mix of tactics.
Tactics to be considered should have relevant information for your review such as: traffic, search engine placement, external linking, quality of current ads using your chosen tactics and what does the messaging look like. Again, these are channels that are most popular with your chosen demographic.
• You should also consider is your competition advertising there? a previous Blazing Kiss Media blog: Business Owner, Whom and What is Your Competition? • Your ads must stand out from your competition and be engaging, too. Knowing what the audience needs and wants is valuable information when developing your ads. Many businesses that are alike will use geo fencing because it targets your competition while showcasing your business- a previous blog: Business Owner, Whom and What is Your Competition? • Is the advertising a good fit for your business as it compliments what you do? It must make sense to your audience as well as fit your goals. • Are the ads totally unrelated to your business as well as to the intended traffic of the site? Business owners who are inexperienced in digital marketing are often exposed to this issue. Wasted time and budget is problematic. • Make sure your chosen tactic provides enough impressions for it to work. • Make sure you understand how and why a tactic works in a particular way, if you don’t understand the premise of how and why, you will waste time and budget.
The effectiveness of any digital campaign requires
targeting the correct demographic audience AND using
the correct tactics that meet the needs as well as,
the demands of the demographic.- Develop your budget accordingly: of course, knowing your correct demographic and tactics will help in establishing your budget. What does develop a budget accordingly really mean?
A typical budget on an annual basis would be 7%- 15% of your total revenue. Ideally, you would have this information in your yearly marketing plan. Knowing this information, will allow you take a portion of that budget and allocate it on the tactics used in each digital marketing campaign. The proper budget is critical for any business development strategy including digital marketing.
Our last blog: Return on Investment in Advertising Campaigns and Calculating Simple R.O.I we provided the formula for calculating ROI and explained it’s the common metric used to determine success of ad campaign.
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Identify the Goals of the marketing campaign and how you will achieve them as they relate to the preferences of your audience per the selected tactics in step #2.
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Creation of your Ad Content. By knowing your demographic, you can develop original and rich content that will appeal to your audience. It must be engaging content that is clearly resonates with the audience. It must fit with the chosen tactics.
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Make sure your website is working without issue, this allows for maximum optimization of your website. This most certainly includes making sure your website is mobile friendly. This is considered as optimizing your website.
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Include a Customer Service component so that any customer with a question can ask it and get it answered timely. This also speaks to efficiency in managing the campaign. Do you have enough man power to implement and monitor campaign? Customer service is an expectation of online consumers.
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Check and Monitor Benchmarks using statistical software. If you find you are lower than what your benchmark was set at, do an analysis and revise if necessary. Look at your content, is it engaging, or is flat? Is the tactic correct? Analytics will be very helpful in your monitoring abilities.
Our last blog, Return on Investment in Advertising Campaigns and Calculating Simple R.O.I we explained how to determine if the ad campaign was effective. Digital ad campaign is concerned with R.O.I. but also considered is ROAS- Revenue from Ad Spend as having some merit.
ROI is considered an Investment in marketing to grow your business and ROAS is looked at as a necessary cost of doing business. As time goes on, it is suggested that both metrics be looked at regularly for more effective outcomes of campaigns; with ROI being the ultimate metric to determine overall success of your digital ad campaign. Adhering to metrics in your analysis ensures effectiveness of your digital marketing campaign.
The success of your digital marketing can be realized if you adhere to these steps. KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE IS THE ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP, do not move forward until you are sure of your target audience.
At Blazing Kiss Media, we can dive into these steps without trepidation because our Business Development philosophy requires us to determine, develop, implement and monitor optimal business development strategies. We will ensure your digital marketing campaign will be effective. Click on the Contact Us section of Blazing Kiss Media website and set up your free consultation!
About the Writer:
Becky Blaesing owns Blazing Kiss Media. She loves being a small business owner and loves helping other business owners thrive. She has a vast amount of experience in Sales, Management and Business Development. She enjoys putting all those skills to work for her clients. She resides in Ooltewah, TN with her husband and 2 rescue dogs known to all as “the boys”.