In the modern landscape, digital marketing acts as the heart and soul for most businesses. Most marketing strategies have become digital. The reason is simple- consumers, for both B2B and B2C companies, are online. If you have to reach out to the right people, you need to go digital.
Now, when we talk of digital marketing, the scope is immense. The ever-changing and evolving landscape of digital marketing can be overwhelming for marketers. Analyzing the right kind of strategies or determining the most appropriate campaigns; fine-tuning digital marketing seems like a big task for them.
So, the real question here is how to create an agile digital marketing campaign that not only fetches the right results for your business but will also be susceptible to changes?
Before finding an answer to this question, let us first understand the basic concept of digital marketing.
Also Read: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Marketing
Strategy or Campaign: Understanding the Concepts
When we speak of digital marketing, the first two terms to pop-up are “strategy” and “campaigns”.
Often, marketers use strategy and campaigns interchangeably. They opine that coming up with a digital marketing strategy is equivalent to running a campaign, or vice versa. However, these two are very different. For you to meet the objectives of your digital marketing campaigns, you need to create a perfect strategy.
In simple terms, your digital marketing strategy is the plan of action you intend to undertake. Your digital marketing campaign is where your ideas come to fruition.
Let us analyze each of the concepts of digital marketing strategy and digital marketing campaigns to have more clarity.
Despite the oversimplification of the term “strategy,” sometimes coming up with one that is synonymous with your campaign can be difficult.
Let’s further elucidate on what is a digital marketing campaign to add perspective to the entire concept.
Your marketing campaign is by definition an extension of your strategy. To fulfil your campaigns, you need to lay out a plan.
Let us look at some examples of digital marketing campaigns where the best strategies were employed.
Both examples show how effectively a strategy was used to meet campaign purposes. You need both campaign and a strategy to reach your goal.
You can have a campaign run for years; however, your strategy will keep changing. In other terms, numerous strategies can be clubbed together to contribute to a broader marketing strategy.
For instance, the campaign can be to increase leads, but the strategy can be to post content on social media. This one campaign can be a small part of a broader digital marketing strategy, i.e., to grow the business.
Also Read: The Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing
7 Steps to Create an Effective Digital Marketing Campaign
Crafting an efficient marketing campaign may seem similar to that of coming up with a strategy. But as mentioned earlier, there is an apparent difference between the two.
Now that we have got a necessary grip of what is a digital marketing strategy and a digital marketing campaign let us now understand how to create an effective digital marketing campaign in 2019.
Identify Your Company Objectives
Your campaigns are a reflection of your company objectives. Do you want to get more traffic? Or do you aim to generate more sales? Or maybe you want to create brand awareness? Whatever your purpose is, gets reflected on the basics of the campaign.
To begin with a marketing campaign, you first need to identify and define your primary goals. Your campaign gets built on the foundation of your company’s fundamental objectives.
For instance, if you aim to generate 30% more revenue for your business, you need to produce 60% more leads to your website.
Your goals give your campaign a direction. And only with the right direction can you proceed any further.
Describe Your Target Market
Okay. Let’s get real here. Not all digital marketing campaigns are made for all audiences. Even a particular section of your targeted prospects might not react to your campaigns the same way you expect them to.
This is a fact. The faster you become familiar with it, the better it is for you.
Without a niche market to target, all your efforts will be lost.
Study the different markets closely and find the one closest to your business. This will ensure that every campaign you run reaches the right prospects out there.
Establish Your Audience Persona
Talking about prospects, you need to find your target audience as well. Once you are sorted with your target market, move on to finding the right audience persona.
With a target market already in mind, it is easy to find your audience. For instance, if your target market is the fashion industry, you need to categorize who amongst all the people in the industry your campaign is for.
Various parameters are used to boil down to a particular buyer’s persona. You can categorize your audience based on their location, demographics, age, gender, personal preferences, challenges, goals, hobbies, interests, and even priorities.
Collect this data and create a rounded buyer persona to make sure that your campaign is targeted at the right people.
Outline Your Campaign Budget
Yes! You need to fix a budget. To run your digital marketing campaign smoothly, you need to have a fixed budget. Though it is the cheapest form of marketing, you still need to keep a tab on your spending.
Running an ad on social media platforms or opting for a paid search requires you to shell out money. These are reasonable as compared to the traditional methods of marketing, but with a budget set, it becomes easier for you to determine the profit margin.
Even if the campaign doesn’t work as expected, you will get a clear idea about the losses endured.
So, once you decide on running a campaign, calculate the cost and set a budget.
Pick the Channels Most Ideal for Your Campaign
Digital marketing is a massive world. It includes a vast number of channels like blogs, social media, search engines, mobiles and so on.
You have to decide which channel is most suited to run your content. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are some of the most popular social media platforms for B2B marketers. Email marketing still tops when it comes to connecting with the audience and generating quality leads.
You can also optimize your website to make your blogs stand out.
Utilize the marketing channel that you think will work best for your campaign before moving on to the next step.
Define Your Strategy
So, finally, you have your goals ready. Your target market and the audience is set. Your campaign budget is in place, and you have picked the channel already. Now what?
Well, now, you put your strategies to play. The convoluted landscape of digital marketing needs personalization. Strategies allow your campaigns to become more personalized and practical.
From picking your target audience to sorting out the channels, the kind of content you publish to the social media posts, every step requires you to strategize.
Even selecting the keywords requires you to brainstorm and pick the most appropriate ones.
Your strategies play a vital role in determining the outcome of your campaign. So, make sure you consider every aspect of it before letting your campaign out there.
Pick Measuring Tools and KPIs
Even after you have implemented the right strategies and the campaign gets going, you need to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Analyzing the result of your marketing campaign is, in fact, one of the most significant steps.
You need to measure every action using appropriate KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to know whether you are getting the ROI (Return on Investment) expected from the same. Knowing the results is a way of determining whether a particular strategy worked out or not. If yes, how can it be made better? If no, what else can be implemented for a perfect result?
Some of the most common KPIs include the number of quality leads generated, retention rate, total traffic, attention rate, bounce rate, click-through rates, page rank, conversions, and ROI.
Various types of analytical tools can help you get a detailed idea about the performance of your marketing campaigns. Google Analytics is commonly used by marketers to measure the effectiveness of campaigns.
Pick your performance measuring tools and use these abundantly for more focused growth.
To Sum it up
An effective digital marketing campaign can change the course of your business when done right. You need to realize that your campaigns and your strategies run hand in hand, but are not the one and same.
To get a successful marketing campaign, you need to be focused. Be it coming up with a fantastic strategy or measuring your results; get your digital marketing campaigns going by keeping the points as mentioned above in mind and allow your business to be at the epitome of success.
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