Digital marketing is more important now than ever. Take steps to create, streamline, or optimize your digital marketing strategy (also known as internet marketing) today and safeguard your business against inflation
Where do you start if you want to develop a digital marketing strategy? It’s still a common challenge since many businesses know how vital digital and mobile channels are today for acquiring and retaining customers. Yet they don’t have an integrated plan to support digital transformation and business growth, and engage their audiences effectively online. Get the most professional assistance from the best affiliate management agency.
If your business doesn’t have a strategic digital marketing plan (also known as internet marketing) aligned with your business plan you will suffer from the ten problems I highlight later in this article and you will lose out to competitors who are more digitally savvy.
For each of the ten digital marketing examples, I will also recommend marketing solutions and next steps to help you optimize your marketing strategy in 2023.
Why is digital marketing more important now?
Inflation levels, globally, are rocketing. The US saw a four-decade-high of 9.1% in June, with July and August maintaining high levels of 8.5% and 8.3% respectively. The UK has seen the BoE base rate increase from 0.25% at the beginning of 2022, to 2.25% as of last week on the 22nd of September.
The impact of inflation can be felt in Europe and East Asia too, as the Financial Times tracker demonstrates. In fact, inflation knock-on effects can be felt all around the world.
So, critically, all businesses need to think about the impact of this international phenomenon on customers, production, services, staff, and more. And one crucial aspect of managing and optimizing your business that needs your attention more than ever is your digital marketing strategy.
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What is digital marketing? The six pillars.
Digital marketing must support your marketing and business goals, so in my book – Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice – I define Digital marketing, also called online marketing, simply as:
Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies and media.
This is the big picture which you need a strategy to support, but, as we explain on Smart Insights, to be successful in online marketing you also need mastery of the details to compete across the main digital platforms that consumers or businesses use to find and select products.
The algorithms used to power Facebook, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn and the publishers control your visibility and how much you pay, so to get visibility digital marketers need to get to grips with the latest techniques. It’s why my books on professional marketing run to over 500 pages, yet they can only touch on the best practices we detail on Smart Insights.
Before we review the different channels that make up digital marketing, it’s useful to simplify since business managers like the owners, finance or operations directors ultimately want to know what they need to invest in at a top level and the returns they will get. There will be a finite budget assigned to online marketing for the year and they want to ensure their team are spending time on the right activities and investing in the right types of media to get a positive return.
The six pillars comprising digital marketing
When training and consulting on digital strategy and as recommended in our free template, I recommend grouping digital activities in these six areas which each need someone responsible to manage them and improve results.
A focus on each of these is important regardless of the size of business. The pillars help show that success in digital marketing isn’t just about digital media and platforms, important as they are. Creating an effective digital experience, messaging and quality content to fuel your digital strategy are all vital too.
In today’s demanding digital landscape, there is internal and external pressure on marketers to continue to grow during inflation.
Structure your marketing plan around a funnel proven to boost performance. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member for instant access to our free digital marketing plan template to hone your skills and drive the results you need.
