Building a Successful Digital Strategy (How To Marketing)

Let's start with the foundations of an effective digital strategy (for ANY business) - setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and digital metrics. KPIs are essential for understanding how well your digital marketing efforts are aligning with your business goals.

What are KPIs and why do they matter?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help you gauge the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns. They provide clear insights into whether your strategies are hitting the mark or if adjustments are needed. Without KPIs, you're essentially navigating your digital strategy without a map or compass (you’ll get nowhere fast…)

Examples of KPIs

To give you a clearer picture, here are some commonly used KPIs:

• Website traffic - Tracks the number of visitors to your website, providing insight into the reach of your digital presence. Using GA4 (Google Analytics 4 should suffice if all is technically sound before starting).
• Conversion rate - Measures the percentage of visitors who take a desired action/conversion, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase or submitting a form.
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) - Calculates the cost to acquire a new customer, helping you manage your budget effectively, this is vital for any paid advertising, paid social or paid search.
• Return on investment (ROI) - Assess the profitability of your marketing efforts by comparing the revenue generated to the cost spent. Other costs can be calculated with this such as employee cost, tools used, and any ad budgets spent, however, this can get quite granular.
• Customer lifetime value (CLTV) - This estimates the total revenue expected from a customer over their relationship with your business, offering a long-term perspective on customer value.

How to set KPIs

When setting KPIs, it’s crucial to ensure they align with your overall business objectives. Using the SMART criteria can be particularly effective:

• Specific - Define clear and precise goals. For example, instead of aiming to "increase website traffic," set a goal to "increase website traffic by 20% - 30% in Q2".
• Measurable - Ensure you can track and measure your progress. This is why GA4 can be invaluable in this aspect of the KPI setting process.
• Achievable - Set realistic goals that are within reach. While ambitious targets are important, they should also be attainable (or you’ll end up being disappointed very quickly!)
• Relevant - Align your KPIs with your business objectives to ensure they drive meaningful outcomes, such as awareness focusing on engagement and reach, while conversions focusing on lead volumes and ROI.
• Time-bound - Establish a timeline for achieving your goals. Setting deadlines helps maintain focus and urgency.

By setting well-defined KPIs, you can ensure that your digital strategy is both measurable and aligned with your business goals. This clarity will enable you to make data-driven decisions and optimise your efforts effectively.

Defining business goals

Establishing clear business goals is fundamental to creating a successful digital marketing strategy. These goals will guide your efforts and ensure that every campaign, piece of content, and digital touchpoint is aligned with your objectives.

Importance of clear goals

Clear goals provide direction and purpose. They help your team understand what success looks like and allow you to measure progress effectively. Without well-defined goals, it’s challenging to determine whether your efforts are yielding the desired results.

Types of goals

Here are some common goals that businesses aim to achieve through their digital marketing strategies:

• Brand awareness - Enhancing visibility and ensuring your brand is recognised by a larger audience. This might involve increasing your social media following, boosting website traffic, or getting more mentions in the press (traditional or digital).
• Brand engagement - Deepening interaction with your audience. This can be measured through metrics like social media interactions, comments, shares, and time spent on your website.
• Lead generation - Generating leads that can be nurtured through the sales funnel. Distinguishing between Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) is essential for understanding where leads are in the buyer's journey and how to approach them.
• Sales and revenue - Directly impacting your bottom line. This includes increasing sales, improving conversion rates, and maximising the return on investment (ROI) from your digital marketing efforts.

Strategies to Consider

A digital strategy involves leveraging various tactics and channels to achieve your business goals. Here are some key strategies to consider:

Public relations (PR)

• Building relationships with the media - Developing strong connections with journalists and influencers can help your brand's message and enhance credibility within your industry.
• Managing public perception - Telling compelling stories and managing crises (ideally there are none…) effectively to maintain a positive brand image.

Organic social media

• Content creation and community management - Engaging your audience with valuable content and fostering a community around your brand. Many companies are currently not investing a lot of time into the community management aspect, however, it can be a valuable source of brand building.
• Engagement tactics - Utilising polls, Q&A sessions, and interactive content to increase engagement.

Paid social media

• Targeted Ads - Running advertisements on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to reach specific demographics and psychographics. Upcoming platforms such as TikTok and Reddit should be explored to see if your audience uses these platforms.
• Budgeting and bidding strategies - Optimising your ad spend to get the best possible return on investment.

Paid search (SEM)

• Google Ads and Bing Ads - Investing in paid search to capture high-intent traffic. All companies should test Bing at least once to gather data and understand if the platform is worth investing in.
• Keyword research and ad copy - Identifying the right keywords and creating ad copy to drive clicks and conversions.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

• On-page and off-page optimisation - Enhancing your website’s content and building backlinks to improve search engine rankings. Organic traffic performs well in terms of lead generation, MQLs, etc. Ensure you are targeting the right keywords for your business though.
• Technical SEO and content strategy - Ensuring your website’s technical aspects are sound and developing a content plan that resonates with your target audience and ultimately target industry.

Analysing and reviewing strategy results

Regular analysis and review are critical to the success of your digital marketing strategy. This ensures that your efforts are continuously optimized and aligned with your goals.

Importance of Regular Analysis

Consistent analysis (I normally focus on monthly optimise reviews) allows you to understand what’s working and what’s not. By reviewing your performance metrics regularly, you can make informed decisions and adjust your strategies to improve results.

Monthly review process

• Gathering data and performance metrics - Use tools like GA4, SEMrush, Ahrefs and social media analytics to collect data on your digital metrics.
• Comparing results against targets - Assess whether you’re meeting your KPIs and business goals. Identify areas of success and those needing improvement.

Optimisation techniques

• Identifying underperforming areas - Pinpoint the aspects of your strategy that are not delivering the expected results. This analysis should focus on gained results vs. KPIs initially set. This will help you understand which channels are working best (where to invest further) and those working poorly (finding ways to improve or decide on investing elsewhere).
• A/B testing for improvement - Conduct experiments to determine which changes can enhance performance. Split testing is always a must, especially when investing in Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.
• Adjusting strategies based on insights - Use the insights gained from your analysis to refine and optimise your campaigns. This might involve reallocating budgets, tweaking ad copy, or shifting focus to different channels.