There are many reasons why having a strategy before attempting anything is important. This is especially true when it comes to marketing your business online. The digital environment is changing constantly and because of the never ending amount of information out there, business owners tend to try “random acts of marketing” or get caught up in “shining object syndrome”. 

There is nothing wrong with testing out new marketing strategies, but just doing the latest gimmick or hack being pushed by some online guru that has a course to sell, will not get you the long-term results you want. 

This article covers 5 reasons why a digital marketing strategy is important and should be the starting point of marketing your business online.

Identifying your target audience

A digital strategy helps narrow down your ideal target audience. Things like demographic, geographic and psychographic information. This will influence the important aspects of your marketing strategy, like the look and feel of your website, ad copy and creatives, your offer and where you choose to market your product or service.

Resource allocation

It would be great if all businesses had limitless resources to allocate to their digital marketing efforts but this is obviously not the case. We all have limited resources, so knowing where to allocate those resources to get the best results is very important. It’s the difference between failure and success online. For example if your product or service has high intent and search volume like a plumber, electrician or lawyer you might look to focus your efforts on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, but if you are marketing a gym, health product or clothing line you would lean towards using social platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Set and track goals

A good marketing strategy begins with setting achievable goals and targets, by looking at previous data and results. By doing this, goals are more realistic and you are able to track your progress. Like the old saying goes “what gets measured gets done”. Setting up Key performance indicators (KPI’s) gives you a numerical snapshot of how your marketing campaigns are performing.

Clarity

A strategy provides you with a plan or roadmap that you can follow. Instead of trying something new every week, you now have a gameplan with a timeframe that you can follow. If you have multiple team members implementing your marketing plan, a clear strategy get’s everyone on the same page and it is easier to work together.

Developing a success playbook

Having a clear strategy helps you see what works and what does not work. This information will be valuable to you in future and will ensure that you get better results with your marketing efforts. This allows you to make money by doubling down on what is working and to save money by stopping campaigns that are not bringing in the desired results.

Running a business definitely  has its set of challenges, and they seem to change and get more everyday. Having a well thought out digital marketing strategy gives you peace of mind that your marketing budget is not going to be wasted and that you are gathering data for the future.

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