The 7 steps of a digital marketing strategy

A digital marketing strategy is the use of various digital tools and channels such as online marketing, social networks, websites, search engine optimization (SEO) and email campaigns to promote a brand, product or service. Social networks are essential for interacting with customers and increasing brand visibility. Websites act as online shop windows, providing information on products and services. SEO improves visibility in search engines, while email campaigns enable personalized messages to be sent. By combining these elements, a well-designed digital marketing strategy can achieve company objectives, generate qualified traffic and stand out in the online world.

In this new digital age, it's essential for companies to invest in digital marketing. With the increasing prevalence of the Internet and digital technologies, it has become necessary to have a strong online presence to remain competitive and reach a wider audience. Digital marketing offers enormous potential for companies, whether in terms of increasing revenues or boosting brand awareness.

By using the various tools and channels available, such as social network marketing, websites, SEO and email campaigns, companies can specifically target their audience and communicate in a more direct and personalized way. This builds closer relationships with customers, enhancing their experience and building loyalty. What's more, digital marketing offers greater visibility and accessibility, enabling companies to reach international markets and exploit new growth opportunities. Digital marketing has become a must for companies wishing to thrive in today's digital environment, offering considerable potential for increasing revenues, boosting brand awareness and standing out from the competition.

In order to thrive in this dimension of marketing, we present the 7 steps of a digital marketing strategy:

Determining objectives is crucial in all types of strategy, including marketing. It influences most of the decisions you'll make later on. When it comes to defining marketing objectives, it's important to consider the company's current situation. What areas need improvement? How can we improve them through our marketing efforts? It's also essential to identify the most pressing marketing needs, so that resources and efforts can be focused on the most critical aspects. By answering these key questions, it becomes possible to define clear, achievable objectives that will effectively guide the marketing strategy and help achieve the desired results.

Brand awareness is essential if we want our business to reach a wider audience online. One of the main objectives of notoriety is to raise awareness of the company, especially for smaller companies looking to establish a foothold in the market. Social networks are invaluable tools for achieving these objectives, as they offer potentially massive virality. By using social networks strategically, sharing compelling content and interacting with users, it's possible to increase awareness among a wider audience.

Interest objectives are necessary to promote a company's offering and create interest among potential customers. They aim to highlight the product or service on offer, showing its unique features and the benefits it brings. To achieve these objectives, the website can be designed to attractively present the company's offering, providing detailed information and highlighting key elements. It also provides a platform for demonstrating the company's expertise and building trust with visitors. By implementing clear objectives of interest, a company can increase the chances of converting visitors into customers interested in its offering.

Action objectives focus on encouraging customers to take action, whether by making a purchase, subscribing to a service or trying out a product for free. The main objective is to increase the conversion rate, i.e. to turn prospects into real customers. To achieve these goals, various tactics are used, such as attractive promotions, clear incentives to action and convincing calls to action (CTAs). These elements are integrated into the various digital marketing strategies to encourage customers to take the plunge and take the desired action. By focusing on action objectives, a company can generate tangible results and increase sales.

When it comes to establishing your brand, it's essential to answer the fundamental question: "Who are we?". This encompasses several key elements, such as what the company does, its name, branding and graphic identity. Identifying these elements clearly and consistently is of paramount importance in conveying your message effectively. The company name must be memorable and reflect its identity. Branding must be consistent and represent the brand's values and personality. The graphic charter, meanwhile, defines the colors, typography and visual elements that will be used to create a strong visual identity. By clearly establishing these elements, a company can build a strong, recognizable and memorable brand, and communicate its message effectively to its target audience.

When establishing a brand, it's crucial to carry out a thorough analysis of the market and its positioning in relation to the competition. It's essential to ask how the company compares to its competitors, including whether it's considered a leader or not. It's also important to consider the online presence of other market players and understand what they're currently doing. Careful evaluation of these elements will enable the company to define its unique value proposition and find opportunities to stand out and position itself strategically in the market.

Accurately defining a company's value proposition is essential to establishing its brand. It's important to understand what the company offers its customers, as well as its distinctive competitive advantage. This point of differentiation must be clearly identified and effectively communicated. Whether it's the added value of products, exceptional customer service or constant innovation, it's vital to define precisely this unique proposition that will attract customers and encourage them to choose the company over its competitors.

In the process of establishing your brand, it's vital to assess your existing online presence. This involves analyzing whether the company is active on social networks and whether it has a website. In addition, it's essential to examine previous marketing initiatives and evaluate their results. It's also important to consider the number of followers or subscribers on social platforms, as well as the company's current reach. By carefully evaluating these elements, it becomes possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company's current online presence, in order to develop a solid strategy aimed at boosting brand awareness and reaching a wider audience.

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In the process of determining your target audience, it's crucial to ask yourself: "Who do we want to address?". It's important to assess whether the people you're currently targeting are the best match for your company's objectives. If the results are not satisfactory, or if the company wishes to extend its reach, it may be necessary to consider a change of target audience. This involves carefully reviewing consumer demographics, interests and needs to define a new, more relevant audience. By adjusting the marketing strategy accordingly, it is possible to optimize efforts to reach the right people and achieve better results.

When it comes to defining your target audience, it's important to look at your current customers. We need to analyze who currently buys the company's products or services, and assess their online presence. Are these customers already present and engaged on online platforms? Is it necessary to target them further to strengthen their commitment and develop the relationship with them? By examining these elements, it becomes possible to adapt the marketing strategy to better reach and retain existing customers, and thus maximize growth opportunities.

It's vital to identify the customers you want to attract. If the company is proposing a new offer with the aim of winning over new customers, it becomes essential to precisely define this new audience. Targeting new customers is essential to the company's growth. Moreover, by broadening your reach and targeting customers with a greater online presence, you can increase brand awareness and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital world. By clearly defining this target audience, the company can adjust its marketing strategy to effectively attract these new customers and achieve its objectives.

To define your target audience, it's crucial to use appropriate segmentation and targeting methods. This involves analyzing target audience characteristics such as demographic, behavioral, psychographic and geographic criteria. Understanding these aspects is essential to better adapt marketing strategies. In addition, it's important to assess the target audience's online presence, asking whether they are very active, not very present, or whether they use specific social networks. This in-depth analysis helps refine the marketing strategy by identifying the most effective communication channels and tailoring the message to reach the target audience in a relevant and effective way.

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When it comes to choosing communication channels, it's important to consider company-owned media. This includes accounts on social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as the company's website. Owned media offers direct control over the message and allows the company to communicate consistently with its brand. Social networks provide a platform for interacting with audiences and sharing engaging content, while the website enables detailed information to be provided, calls to action (CTAs) to be used and SEO to be optimized to improve online visibility. Online platforms such as Amazon and Etsy are also good channels for e-commerce companies to use as owned media and communicate their message. By making effective use of these owned media, the company can strengthen its presence and communicate effectively with its target audience.

When choosing communication channels, it's important to consider earned media. Earned media encompass the public's opinions and impressions of the company. They are reflected in the reactions, exchanges and shares made by the public on social networks. In addition, articles and editorials written about the company or its offering are also important acquired media. These media are influenced by the public's experiences and perceptions, and can exert a significant impact on the company's reputation and visibility. By taking these acquired media into account, the company can adjust its communications strategy to effectively manage its image and maintain positive relations with the public.

When deciding on communication channels, it's essential to take into account purchased media. This refers to the presence acquired by the company through online advertising efforts. This can include various strategies such as online advertising, including banners, videos and calls to action (CTAs), as well as sponsorship of publications. In addition, the use of paid advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads and purchased search engine optimization (SEM), can be effective in reaching a wider audience. In addition, campaigns run in collaboration with influencers can also be considered to reach specific audiences and increase brand visibility. By carefully considering these purchased media, the company can develop an integrated communications strategy to achieve its marketing objectives.

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When planning a digital marketing campaign, it's crucial to determine the allocated budget. It's important to define how much you want to spend based on the campaign objectives. This will help determine how the budget should be divided between the various communication channels. You need to decide how much to allocate to social networks, online advertising, SEO, email campaigns and so on. By establishing an appropriate budget breakdown, it becomes possible to optimize resources and maximize the results obtained. Budget planning is therefore an essential step in ensuring the success of a digital marketing campaign.

Several approaches can be adopted, depending on the needs and objectives of the campaign. A continuous strategy involves consistent efforts throughout the campaign period, ensuring a constant presence and regular communication with the target audience. A discontinuous approach, on the other hand, involves deploying tactics at specific times, such as during new product launches or special promotions. A pulse approach combines both approaches, with continuous efforts while including additional actions at key moments. The choice of timing depends on the campaign objectives and the best way to reach and engage the target audience.

Executing the marketing strategy involves the planned deployment of efforts. This includes setting up or modifying the website to reflect the campaign's objectives and key messages. Regular posting on social networks also plays a vital role in keeping the target audience engaged. Community management is also crucial, responding to comments, managing private messages and fostering positive relationships with subscribers. 

Advertising buys can be used to increase brand visibility and reach new market segments. It's vital to choose the right advertising channels and optimize campaigns according to objectives and available resources. Finally, it's essential to follow the established timetable, respecting key milestones, evaluating results and making adjustments where necessary. By executing these actions effectively, the company can maximize the impact of its marketing strategy and achieve its objectives.

Tracking and analyzing results is essential for assessing the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. To do this, it's crucial to determine relevant KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), based on previously defined objectives. Important KPIs include CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), which measures digital marketing spend divided by the number of customers acquired. The conversion rate is also crucial, as it indicates the percentage of customers who have made a purchase on the site. Page view, reach and impressions on social networks provide valuable insights into brand engagement and visibility online.

It's also important to monitor Google rankings to assess the website's organic visibility. The number of subscribers measures the growth of the online community. Finally, return on investment (ROI) is a key indicator for assessing the profitability of a marketing strategy. By regularly analyzing these KPIs, it becomes possible to measure performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make strategic adjustments to optimize results and achieve set objectives.

An essential step in this process is to analyze the results obtained and take action accordingly. When results fall short of expectations or are less than optimal, it's important to be ready to change or modify a tactic to optimize ROI. This may involve adjusting communication channels, revising content, modifying targeting parameters or reviewing the overall strategy.

By using the data and insights gained from tracking and analysis, it becomes possible to make informed decisions and make the changes necessary to improve performance. Agility and adaptability are key to success in an ever-changing digital environment. By paying close attention to results and making strategic adjustments where necessary, companies can maximize their return on investment and achieve more convincing results in their digital marketing strategy.

A digital marketing strategy has many advantages for businesses. It enables a wider audience to be reached through online channels such as social networks and websites. Precise targeting makes it possible to address specific audiences directly. What's more, measuring and analyzing results enables us to assess the effectiveness of campaigns and make decisions based on concrete data.

However, implementing a digital marketing strategy can be a complex task. In order to get through all these important stages, we strongly advise you to do business with digital marketing experts. You'll benefit from unrivalled expertise and professional methods in this field.