Are you part of a startup, a family-owned business, or a newly-expanding company? It’s exciting to do business in this digital age, what with so many new tools available and an ever-widening customer base.

All the same, it takes more than setting up a website or social media page with basic content and hoping your name gets out there. Your success depends on effective online strategy—and it’s best to start with your own digital marketing plan.

The importance of setting up a digital marketing plan

To begin, a marketing plan comprises your company’s marketing strategies; its goals over certain time periods (from weeks to months); and its needs in order to fulfill those goals, such as costs.

A digital marketing plan will act as a roadmap on how your business will move forward online. As your business grows and perceives new market trends, so must its plan be flexible, dynamic, and inclusive.

 What your plan must help you clarify

Smart Insights offers some practical advice on what your digital marketing plan should contain to help you see things clearly, namely:

• What your company’s goals are
• Who your target audience is
• Who your competition is
• Who your potential partners may be
• Success indicators for your business, such as sales
• What’s feasible and not feasible for your company.

Five ways to reach your digital market

The great advantage of digital marketing for your business is its cost-effectiveness. Gone are the heydays of high costs for flyers, billboards, and newspaper ads. Now your information will be for anyone to access—and it’s only a matter of them finding and engaging with you.

There are five main area of digital marketing: search engine marketing, local search marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. Each main area works differently, but all will boost your small business’s digital campaign.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the method of keeping your company’s name high in the rankings when your products or services are typed in a search engine. Local search marketing, on the other hand, uses tools such as Google Maps to make your address and contact details visible, easily at your customers’ disposal.

Content marketing focuses on detailed information from your company about its products and services, via articles, write-ups, news releases, and the like. Social media marketing utilizes interactive platforms to actively engage with your target market and stay on their radar.

Email marketing is a time-tested form of communication, and can be used to let customers and partners in on exclusive deals, or up-to-date with newsletters.

A digital marketing plan is a framework to ground your business’s creativity, growth, and potential. Hire a partner, then, who’s savvy in the digital world, and who’ll tailor-fit their marketing strategy to be just right for your business. We could be that partner. For more information on how we can help you to create a digital marketing plan (and execute it) get in touch today.