Building an Online Marketing Strategy aka Digital Marketing Strategy right from scratch or redefine an existing one, the crux is to plan for the kill. Build an online strategy that will not only compliment its offline counterpart but also excel in building a solid foundation for the business to succeed and last long.
SAVAS, based on the years of experience in the industry, breaks down the Digital Marketing Strategy to ten interlinked strategies within Digital Media. We call it the ‘Ten Commandments of Digital Marketing Strategy’. Let’s go through them one by one.
Brand Marketing Strategy
Technically, Branding and Marketing are two different elements of any Go To Market strategy. Branding is at a Strategic level and Marketing is being tactical. But here, we merge both in terms of using Brand image for marketing initiatives. It covers on how you would want your Brand associates to see you as a brand and then leverage them for marketing benefits.
A Brand is something that will take a long time to build but it would take a lot less to get tarnished with a strategy gone wrong, especially when dealing with critical businesses such as yours. Not anymore, enter Digital Media, it is now the most effective PR tool available in the market. We no longer need to worry about what the paid media or the print media is talking about you unless you have to say something different. With the right Branding Strategy in Digital Media, we can create our audience the way we want. Gone are the days when people used to rely only on news media and had no other options to hear out the brand directly. We now can bring out our own targeted Newsletters through which we can keep our well wishers or associates informed about everything we want them to know about us regularly.
Web Presence Strategy
Defining the extent of presence on Digital Media is where it all begins. We also set expectations from each presence and define how it complements the system in achieving the overall business objective. A complete revamp or a facelift of the website may be necessary based on the overall Digital Marketing strategy.
Digital Media Asset Management Strategy
Preparing a list of Assets that will go with the defined Digital Marketing Strategy. Assets can be Websites, Social Profiles, Creatives, Info Graphics, Videos, QR Codes and any other copyright property that will be used across channels of Digital Marketing as deemed necessary based on the industry you are in and the audience you will need to address and get the much needed positive attention.
Content Marketing Strategy
Content is the heart of Digital Media and is therefore given the topmost priority. Development of new and fresh content, moderation of the existing one is the main priority. Content can be anything from a basic info Graphic to a complex research data. Use of relevant data on the right platforms can yield the best results and will therefore complement the Digital Marketing strategy effectively. Content is the key to convincing people that you are what you claim to be. This can be done through regular publishing of blogs, articles, newsletters, case studies, whitepapers, etc.
Search Engine Marketing Strategy
An online search is something that even a toddler can understand these days. Google has made it happen. Whatever your line of industry, whatever your product or services, there will always be people online, searching for products and services that your organization is dealing with. If you are not on the top of a search result, you are losing out to your competition on the market share. Making your digital assets search friendly so to be found by the search engines is of immense importance for any company who are beginning their entry into or relying on Digital Media.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
Ever since Social Media happened on the internet, the way people looked at internet changed. Social Media is one of the biggest reasons for the internet penetration to explode. People always like being social and that is why we are called social beings. You would be amazed to know that more than 75% of the internet users use Social Media. Being on Social Platforms is no longer an option for business enterprises, but a must these days. This in today’s world is probably the fastest way of communicating with the masses. The primary focus is to build a credible audience on the social platforms and forums who will consume, like and share content and actively contribute in spreading the much needed word in the market.
We at SAVAS have given Social a whole new definition for business enterprises unlike anyone else in the market. Please refer the blog ‘Social Media Simplified‘.
Reputation Marketing Strategy
Managing your online reputation is one thing and using that data for marketing purposes is another ball game all together. It is not only necessary to you build an online reputation but will also need to market it to achieve the business objective as defined in the Digital Marketing Strategy. People today are more dependent on the internet looking at reviews before making a purchase decision. This has extended from being localized only to electronics, books and gadgets; to commodities, products and services across all categories. Once you build a great reputation score, you will also need to build a good consumer friendly corporate culture as well. This way you will not only build reputation, but nurture it as well.
Email Marketing Strategy
This is one of the most misunderstood and inappropriately used strategies of all the elements in Digital Media. The US and the European markets see this differently compared to the developing world. Ever since spamming has been banned in the US, the email campaigns have only been restricted to the subscriber base only. Therefore, the data gathering companies started to crop organizations whose methodologies did not conform to set standards to grab one’s attention and get them to enrol onto the subscriber base. Email is not about spamming the recipient with marketing brochures; it is about maintaining a healthy communication channel built by trust and goodwill. There is a lot of valuable data that one can glean through effective email campaigns if used appropriately. This data if used wisely can change the state of the market share in your favour.
Integrated Marketing Strategy
Integrated Marketing Strategy is all about using quality Content, paid media, Social media, search elements, email marketing, offline channels such as events and conferences together. This combination of all the elements as one, compliments in achieving the overall business objective and also the sole intent of the Primary strategy. This is a perfect example of a marriage between ‘Bricks and Clicks’ or ‘Online and Offline’ however you would want to call it. This strategy when works will bring qualified leads at your finger tips and reduce the overall opportunity identification and closure time to the least possible.
Campaign Marketing Strategy
Every now and then there will be Marketing Campaigns activated as and when necessary to create awareness in the market. The awareness can be about industry related knowledge sharing or about some product or services that the company deals with. It might also be an initiative of driving promotional campaign to generate revenue. Whatever the nature of the campaign and whatever the means, be it online or offline, we will need to enable the entire set of Digital assets to complement the campaigns to the fullest potential and support our team to achieve the overall Business Objective.
