Guide to building a marketing strategy in 7 easy steps

1. Define your brand

In short, this means answering the question - Why does our brand exist? But this is not an easy and simple task. We have to dig very deep to find our unique salling proposal. When we know exactly what we offer to consumers, we can clearly and specifically define what needs are satisfied by our product, what problems it solves and so smoothly move on to the next step.

2. Build your buyer persona

Determining the perfect customer is not an easy task, but it is essential for our future digital strategy. Think about who you want to reach with your message online. Define a custom persona both by demographic characteristics and by motivation why to choose your brand, by needs and pain to relieve with your product. Depending on the specifics of the product, you may have several personas to whom you can direct your communications. There are many free online tools to help you build them.

3. Create your SMART goals

We advise you when setting your goals - short-term and long-term ones - to strive for them to meet the following 5 characteristics:

• Specific – set the most specific goals in detail;
• Measurable – it is important that each goal can be measured with accuracy;
• Achievable – your goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful;
• Relevant – ensure that your goal matters to you, to your company and aligns with other relevant goals. Ask yourself some questions - Does this seem worthwhile? / Is this the right time? / Does this match our other efforts/needs? / Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment? – the answers should be positive.
• Time-bound – your goals need a target date, a deadline to focus on.

4. Choose your digital marketing strategies

Focus on the techniques that offer the most value to your business. Not always the most up-to-date and modern strategies are profitable for everyone.

5. Set your digital marketing budget

Research the prices of marketing services in the market to predict a realistic budget for your future digital campaigns. Keep in mind that the advertising budget for each business area is specific and depends on many other factors - competition, market size, keywords, etc.

6. Brainstorm your strategy

Plan everything well – advertising costs, media planner, tone of voice – and discuss it with your colleagues. With so much creative and technical talent in an organization, it only makes sense to throw some of your ideas into the same room and see what happens. Two heads think better than one. What about five heads?

7. Launch your campaigns

Follow your plan and launch your campaigns across all channels. Make sure your channels have the appropriate tracking tool set up for your strategic goals. For example, your site must have a Google Analytics tracking code installed.

Bonus: Don’t forget to track your results! Remember to monitor and measure the effectiveness of your strategies, monitoring their implementation, and optimizing in a timely manner if necessary.

With these seven steps, your company can launch its first online marketing strategy. If you need help creating your online marketing strategy (or want to create the best one), consider online marketing services, like from DevScale.