Most definitions of digital marketing strategy, dive straight into the digital marketing tactics like organic and paid search and social media (it's still vital to invest sufficiently in these and follow best practices). For us, what is most important is how the strategy supports the business goals and is integrated with other offline marketing activities.
The six digital marketing communications tactics that the digital marketing strategy must specify investment in and improvements to best practices are:
- Search Engine Marketing.
- Social Media Marketing.
- Display Advertising.
- Digital PR.
- Digital Partnerships.
- Digital Messaging.
How is a digital marketing strategy structured?
As with other types of marketing strategies, an effective digital strategy needs a clear process to define the steps of creating and implementing the plan. It also needs a clear framework of digital marketing activities to 'cover all the bases' of the many digital marketing techniques needed to maintain continuous visibility through always-on marketing activities using channels like web, search, social media and email marketing.
The 5 stages of strategic digital marketing planning are: Plan - Reach - Act - Convert and Engage.
"A plan defining the future direction and investment needed to improve the contribution of digital marketing for a business. It should set SMART objectives for digital channels and prioritize strategic initiatives to harness digital media, data and marketing technology to increase engagement of audiences using digital devices and platforms. Its scope should include opportunities from both new business and revenue models and always-on and campaign communications integrated with offline media and interactions."
Raims
5 Stages
An effective digital marketing strategy will help you take the right decisions to make a company successful. A strategy process model such as RACE provides a framework that gives a logical sequence to follow to ensure the inclusion of all key activities of strategy development and implementation. We recommend businesses start by auditing their digital marketing maturity to identify how their current approach may be hampering their ability to compete.
