Digital is becoming a major challenge for all companies. Chance has
no place here, a real digital communication strategy must be put in
place to make the most of this new trend.
1-What is a digital strategy ?
Before you even build your digital strategy, start with a bit of introspection about your business and thinking about the current state of the market.
Define your strengths and weaknesses but also the market opportunities and external threats to take into account.
Ask yourself the following questions:
How is your business doing in terms of sales?
How does it compare to competitors (market share, positioning, etc.)?
What is your image with the public? Good, bad, non-existent?
Does your offer meet a public need? Does she meet her expectations?
The better you understand the situation as a whole, the more easily you will be able to establish a relevant and effective digital strategy.
If you don't have time, you can also use a digital marketing agency.
Implementing a digital marketing strategy without clearly defining the target to be reached is irrelevant.
This could lead you straight to a resounding failure.
To help you, you can create a buyer persona, i.e. a typical profile of the consumer you want to target:
Who is he ? Age, place of residence, job, hobbies, income...
What are his needs?
What are his motives ?
How does he use the Internet? How many times a day and when? More mobile or desktop?
What social networks does he use? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn...
Accurately draw up his profile. You will know how to communicate with him, on any media and at what times.
5 - Define your web marketing budget
Implementing a digital strategy represents a cost for companies. You must therefore establish a budget, because it will at least partly determine the means you will use to achieve your objectives.
Digital is a real gold mine in terms of possibilities, each with its advantages and disadvantages, and above all with a distinct price.
Some means represent a substantial financial investment when other solutions above all require patience and subtlety, as is the case with an Inbound Marketing strategy.
6 - Define your digital communication strategy
You have identified your strengths, your weaknesses, your objectives, the target to be reached, and your budget to achieve it. You can now think about the means of communication that you will use to retain your prospects.
Depending on your needs, you can:
Invest in social media (social networks);
Upload videos to Youtube;
Launch a newsletter by emailing;
Develop a website or a blog that will serve as a showcase for your brand or support for e-commerce or m-commerce;
Create a mobile app...
Or why not all of that at once if it's relevant!
7 - Set up a content creation strategy
This point is directly related to the choice of the different digital communication channels used. Indeed, you do not broadcast the same content depending on the chosen channel. And you don't choose the same channel depending on the content to be broadcast. These two points are therefore inseparable.
Are you going to bet on an Outbound Marketing or Inbound Marketing strategy?
If you opt for an Inbound Marketing strategy, you will have to ensure the web writing of brand content content:
blog posts (blogging),
ebook,
white papers,
infographics,
etc
Outbound Marketing delivers quick results, but it's expensive.
Inbound Marketing is not expensive, but the results take longer to arrive.
This is a basic strategy that focuses on the medium and long term: produce content with high added value for visitors, which will in turn promote your products, your brand strategy and your values through the employer brand. .
The patience it requires is very well rewarded, so much so that this strategy becomes essential.
To make things easier for you, consider Marketing Automation which will allow you to optimize your productivity and your results.
Marketing automation is an emailing strategy allowing the automated sending of emails according to the actions carried out by your leads.
The boom of inbound marketing
According to the "State of Inbound Marketing 2017" report published by HubSpot in early 2017,
69% of marketers using inbound marketing believe it's an effective strategy.
They are also 38% think that outbound marketing is overrated and does not deliver the results promised.
8 - Measure your web performance
You have established a strategy on the net and it is now deployed. You now need to analyze the data using performance indicators.
Define the KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) that will allow you to effectively measure your performance. There are a lot of them, so you have to choose them carefully.
We can cite :
The traffic generated on your website;
The conversion rate;
SEO ranking (natural referencing);
The click rate;
The time spent on the site;
The ROI (Return on Investment).
Don't wait to analyze the data, because it provides you with essential insights into what works and what doesn't.
It is therefore an opportunity to adjust your web strategy as you go.
You now know how to build a digital strategy. It is both a work of introspection on your business, and observation of the market, opportunities, targets and competitors.
A job that will pay off if done well!
Key points to remember:
Analyze your strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats.
Define your objectives and targets to decide on the actions to be implemented.
Monitor your performance to adjust your overall strategy if needed.
To learn more about inbound marketing, do not hesitate to download our complete guide on this new methodology which will allow you to attract more traffic to your website and generate a maximum of incoming leads!