The term Digital Marketing refers to an online channel or network used to promote and market products and services. Pay-per-Click (PPC) Advertising, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are a few Digital Marketing Strategies, which most of the digital marketers across the globe leverage. We can effectively organize these strategies into the categories specified below:
1- Owned Media:
It refers to the online properties over which you have complete control, including your business website, social media accounts, engaging content on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, to name a few. Such strategies usually involve a long-term investment of time, money, and effort to diversify brand awareness.
2- Paid Media:
Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, or any other form of paid online promotion falls under the category of paid media. Paid online ads offer immense help in reaching out to your target audience via website tracking methods.
3- Earned Media:
It refers to the word of mouth marketing, including guest post contributions, backlinks, PR product or service reviews, and online mentions.
4- Social Media:
Social media are networks or channels owned by third-party organizations, which enable the creation of user-generated content. Widely-known social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat. These platforms hold immense potential for enhancing brand awareness and online visibility.
Go Ahead with Defining Your Digital Marketing Goals
Digital marketing goals are the ones that work towards keeping your marketing activities and campaigns aligned in achieving a common objective. They help in setting expectations and motivating a business firm or organization. Furthermore, they bring a clear picture to our minds corresponding to what is attainable and what isn’t based on the resources available. The harsh and bitter reality of digital marketing is that it takes a lot of time to bring in the best results. Hence, you should always set expectations and goals while paying due attention to long-term outcomes instead of quick-wins.
Understanding the Anatomy of a Digital Marketing Goal
At the time of planning your digital marketing goals, there is a need to consider a lot of crucial factors, such as staff resources, time limits, and tools, along with knowledge and expertise. A proactive digital marketing goal focuses on promoting positive outcomes and preventing negative ones. It should be precise, feasible, and challenging, and should envision the future state by analyzing the current state obstacles. Don’t forget to understand the purpose that your business serves to your potential customers before developing your goals.
Creating SMART Digital Marketing Goals
With smart digital marketing goals, you can clarify ideas innovatively, focus on your efforts diligently, manage time efficaciously, use resources productively, and enhance the chances of becoming the best in the industry brilliantly. Let us now discover a few ways of leveraging SMART digital marketing goals in your overall Marketing Strategy.
S – Significant/Specific/Stretching – It is imperative to make sure that you have well-defined and clear goals for increasing organic search traffic to your website.
M – Meaningful/Measurable/Motivational – Try to determine whether the goal is obtainable or not, along with how long shall it take to complete and how you will come to know that you have achieved it.
A – Action-Oriented/Achievable/Agreed-Upon – Based on your already existing qualifications and experience, you should determine whether developing the skills needed to enhance brand awareness is realistic or not.
R – Result-Oriented/Relevant/Rewarding – Remember, your digital marketing goal should be within the availability of time, resources, expertise, and knowledge.
T – Tangible/Timely/Tractable – It is critical to set a realistic time frame to achieve your final objective.
Identifying your Digital Marketing Strategies
After setting your digital marketing goals, it is time to identify the strategies you will use and implement for achieving those goals.
1. Content Marketing
If you are looking forward to growing an audience organically, then content marketing is hands down the best and most practical strategy ever. As per various reports and surveys conducted, 95% of the users or customers across the globe read 3-5 pieces of content on nonprofit websites before proceeding any further. It means that if you engage with your potential customers actively, then over time, they may take actions that shall prove to be favorable for your business. With high-quality and consistent content, you can improve your brand’s reach and make your business way more authoritative in the communities you serve.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If your goal is to increase and improve organic search visibility, then you should give topmost priority to SEO. By optimizing your content around engaging topics and relevant keywords, you can serve your target audience well and achieve pretty higher search engine rankings. Additionally, removing duplicate content, fixing slow pages, and avoiding broken links shall help the search engines in indexing your website adequately.
3. Digital Promotion
We always talk about creating useful and engaging content; however, we hardly give any attention to promoting the same piece of content. With the help of link prospecting, social media engagement, email campaigns, paid advertising, and industry influencers, you can promote your content in the best possible manner.