Digital strategy is an important marketing tool. Whether you’re an agency employee or a sole proprietor, either way you need to get out into the online world and do business under the new rules. There are over a thousand tools at work in digital marketing – and that’s no exaggeration. How not to get lost in the ocean of possibilities?
The answer is to put together a strategy that matches the tools exactly to your objectives. The chosen program of action is based on objective data about the market, competitors and customers and answers business questions. We offer a digital marketing manual with a detailed step-by-step description.
A good option would be to order a digital strategy from the experts. Branding agency KOLORO knows digital from A to Z!
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Digital Marketing Manual: Defining the company’s goals and mission
The first step in building a strategy is to answer the questions: what is the company being promoted, what values does it bring to society, and how does it differ from other similar companies.
What do consumers decide when they contact a business? That’s where the value of the company lies. Should explore: key areas of responsibility, client issues and what gets in the way of them dealing with these issues.
Dropbox is a cloud-based service for storing files. However, in a statement to customers, the company notes: “Helping you cut down on routine and focus on the important things.” That’s the way it is: thanks to the service, files can be accessed from anywhere, and some of the storage problems are eliminated
Who exactly does the company appeal to? The category of customers for whom the values identified in the previous step are important should be described. The market segment should be analyzed: what are the volumes, can it and the participants be clearly characterized.
Market segmentation for FMCG segment (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods)
Example: if you focus on price segmentation, you will get a different digital strategy for the low-price and premium segments. Often, when buyers are unsure of the actual quality, cost is the marker. At one time, Chivas Scotch Whiskey’s sales skyrocketed while outwardly unchanged – after setting the price much higher than its competitors.
Read also: “Legends of candy brands”.
Example of call-to-action (CTA) in a promotional material
Next, it is determined with whom the competition is competing – by product, by category and by chosen values. The choice of competitors determines what market position a company will take. Positioning is based on functional and emotional benefits.
- “First class is Michelob.” The company has positioned itself as a leader in the high-end American beer niche.
- “WLKW, radio without rock music” – radio explains the direction of the work and contrasts itself (at the time) with the trendiest current.
- Nescafe Classic instant coffee : quality and easy access (rationality); optimism, dynamism, youth as a state of mind (emotion).
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How to make a digital strategy: studying the target audience
You need to study your CA to understand how to properly engage with them. For this purpose, we investigate such parameters:
- consumer challenges and concerns;
- values and social status;
- channels of interaction.
Examples: the goal of a nail salon client is to look beautiful. Perpetual fear is the risk of contracting something. To eliminate this pain, you need to sterilize your instruments and talk about using completely sterile technique in your group or website.
Hannoush Jewellers is a jewelry company with an emphasis on family. This positioning is aimed at commonly accepted family values and status. After all, in general, still the status of a family man is higher than that of a single man.
Another curious market segmentation to help marketers is by archetype. In this case, this Jungian term is seen as a psychological portrait with certain needs, perceptions, and motivations. A pitch using an archetype can build a company up from the competition quite effectively.
Example: the approach through the “Creator” archetype means that the brand appeals to people with a high need for self-expression and creation. For example, a fashion designer of clothing collections suggests that customers “develop their own style” and get away from “mediocre vision.” Lego often refers to this archetype, consistently shaping the brand around the call to “Let’s Create.”
Digital Strategy in Kiev and Ukraine – one of the services of the specialists of KOLORO branding agency. We know what to seduce “rebels”, “heroes” and “lovers” with.
Example of design of promotional material in digital format
Create a digital strategy: define the moment “when to sell”
The job of marketing is to interact with the consumer when they are deciding whether to buy that product. McKincey has developed a model of customer behavior:
- Collecting an initial list of brands;
- evaluating and finding the best models;
- Acquisition;
- post-acquisition actions.
The process begins with a trigger: pleasure/discomfort, relevance, expectation, novelty, comparisons, interesting stories, significance, belonging, scarcity, and many others. The buyer then follows the pattern named above.
The trigger for buying a cocktail dress could be a New Year’s Eve party. The initial list includes expensive and cheap brands. After studying the market, the buyer will discard dresses that are too costly or too budget (depending on their social status). After knowing all the details, promotions, discounts, benefits and expectations, the buyer will choose this particular dress. The next time, he returns to the brand or turns to another, given his experience.
Read also: “Creating an online store, advertising and promotion strategy”
How to create a digital strategy: choosing what to talk about
Based on values, positioning, target audience the strategist chooses what to say. Here, the stage of choice in the buyer’s mind and competitors’ messages are also taken into account.
Example: an online yarn store is a business that works largely through visual information. Therefore, the best platform for it is Instagram. It’s just as important to be seasonal in it and choose carefully what to say to your readers. In March and April it is logical to make posts already about summer outfits, about cotton, linen and other lightweight threads. It’s too late to mention demi-seasonal yarn, because knitting is a relatively long process, and customers start preparing updates long before the season arrives.
A checklist for improving your Instagram profile
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Digital strategy: competitor research
How to effectively study your competitors’ digital strategy?
Procedure
- What networks are your competitors using? First, it’s worth searching for them by name. The first two pages of the search will drop down the social networks where your competitors’ profiles are located. Compare statistics: number of subscriptions, reach, views, etc.
- How do opponents position themselves? Use tools or manually review competitor profiles and descriptions.
- What kind of visuals are being used? Visit each competitor’s profile and consider what they take to design their pages. What covers, what avatars, what message in the images.
- How often do they post? Use tools or social media statistics to find out the number and frequency of posts. See what kind of interaction the competitors have. Analyze both metrics to find out where the audience responds best.
- What are they posting? Analyze the top content on each profile. Whether they post a photo or video, at what time and date.
- What trends are they talking about? Keep tabs on competitors’ profiles and blogs. Add rivals to your Twitter list, Facebook interest list, Youtube subscriptions, RSS feed list to keep up to date with updates. Instagram is important for B2C businesses.
- What do they say about competitors? Utilize “Mentions” for tracking on blogs and networks. Products and services must fill the gaps left by competitors.
- What social plugins are your competitors using? You can apply BuiltWith to find insights into topics: what type of social advertising other companies are using, what social analytics and shearing buttons are most active. Analyze why rivals use them and what benefit is gained.
- What groups are competitors joining? Use search by Facebook groups, LinkedIn profiles, etc. Observe other people’s activity or start posting yourself.
- Where is content being published? See where they post content other than their own sites – you can find new audiences that way. Find out the names of bloggers working for rivals. Google them and find where their sites are located. Set up Google Alerts by blogger names.
Read also: “Creating a website in KOLORO: easy and without nerves”
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Selection of digital channels
At this point it should be known:
- what kind of audience the project has;
- steps in choosing a product;
- how and what the user searches for in the steps described;
- what digital tools the competitors are using.
The channels of interaction vary depending on the audience and the company’s goals.
- Facebook: if you need to build a community/presence or get the attention of as many people as possible. It is a high interaction platform, predominantly it is used to connect with friends and family. More than 70% of online adults are active on Facebook.
- Twitter: suitable for fast posting of top news. Popular with young people, and 18% of online adults overall.
- LinkedIn: for B2B business, for business networking. Good for industry specific information. The network is actively visited by 22% of adult users.
- Instagram: businesses can be visualized. Here, interactions are 15 times higher than Facebook’s. Actively used by 17% of online adults.
- Search engine outreach, online media, conferences and opinion leaders – each channel fits a different venue.
The cost of a digital strategy also depends on the channels and platforms chosen.
By the way, it’s worth keeping in mind that social media is constantly changing. GlobalWebIndex has released its 2019 Trends Survey. According to their findings, networks are already less likely to be used specifically for socializing. Platforms are moving towards media: 40% of respondents in the study are looking for news in social networks, 36% are looking for entertainment content. Streams (live broadcasts, live streaming) are becoming more popular.
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Social media and online media strategy: what to avoid?
It happens that the developed digital strategy is not executed: it does not bring any benefit, money is wasted. Why does this happen and what should be avoided?
- Separation of departments. Divisions and specialists should not work autonomously and coordinate their actions not only with their supervisors but also with their colleagues.
- Unclear goals. You need to clearly define the goals of the strategy together with your clients: to get more profit, more subscribers or more customers from the right niche.
- Self Orientation. It’s a natural psychological mechanism to measure everything by yourself and assume that everyone else thinks the same way. But it isn’t. The more outside experts and research involved at the beginning, the better. Then the chances of a strategy written for the target audience, rather than for the project boss, are increased.
- Extreme: “being everywhere.” You don’t have to strive to be in all venues. The budget is more effectively utilized by focusing on only a few select platforms.
Our experts take into account all the subtleties. Order digital marketing services at KOLORO branding agency!
