The digital marketing plan is an essential map to achieve the objectives of the brand. It is, therefore, a tool with which all the marketing teams have to work day by day. But just making a plan does not guarantee the results we seek. buy youtube views
To be truly effective, a digital marketing plan must include all the necessary information and be practical when it comes to guiding our actions. If we dedicate time, care and resources, the results will be worth it. So, let’s see how to make an effective digital marketing plan step by step . And if you need more help, do not miss our downloadable template!
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Why is it necessary to have a digital marketing plan?
The digital marketing plan is a document that includes, at least, the following information:
- The situation of the brand, both internally and externally.
- The objectives that are intended to be achieved and that will always have to be coordinated with the general business goals of the company. Some companies choose to include the online marketing plan as a section of the general plan and others work with separate departments, but it is important that they are always coordinated.
- The strategies and actions that we are going to carry out to achieve those objectives (temporary planning, description of the campaigns, tasks, etc.).
- How are we going to measure the results of the actions?
Having a well developed digital marketing plan brings multiple advantages to the company:
- Deepen the knowledge of the market and the target audience. A good marketing plan always begins with a research phase that will allow us to know what the situation is and how we can respond to it.
- Align digital marketing actions with the general objectives of the brand, so that all departments of the company are rowing in the same direction.
- Use the resources that are available in an efficient and organized manner, without unnecessary budget or staff time.
- Improve internal communication , since all team members can use the marketing plan as a guide to coordinate with each other.
- Improve communication with the client . In the case of marketing agencies, it is essential to develop the online marketing plan jointly with the client, to ensure that it meets their expectations and needs. Throughout the project, client and agency can refer to the plan to follow the evolution of the actions.
- Give an effective response to the crises, since we will have foreseen different scenarios in which the objectives are not reached.
How to make an effective digital marketing plan step by step
1) Analysis and starting point
To know where we want to go, the first step is to see in detail in what scenario we are. Therefore, an effective online marketing plan always starts with a research phase.
In this section, we need to answer the following questions:
- How are the products and services we offer? What is the unique selling proposition of the company?
- What have we done so far in our online marketing and what results have we obtained with it? Is there talk of us in the networks?
- How is our website ? Are there aspects that we need to improve?
- A Does who we want to go?
- What is the competition doing ? How does our brand compare and what can we learn from them?
2) Objectives
The objectives are the scale by which we will measure the success or failure of our digital marketing. To not give us a bump, I always recommend that we focus on the acronym SMART:
- Specific (specific) : the objectives must be detailed and concrete. Try to answer the basic questions of what, who, where, when, how and why.
- Measurable (measurable) : if we can not concretely measure an objective, it will be impossible to know if we have reached it. Therefore, you should think about what KPI you will use and how you will define success.
- Achievable (achievable) : little or too ambitious goals do not work for us.
- Realistic (realistic) : that is, that it takes into account our previous resources and achievements.
- Time-bound (in time) : finally, we will have to specify a deadline for our objective, in which we will establish a control to see if it has been fulfilled or not and why. It may be useful to divide a global goal into smaller objectives, in order to correct the course as we move forward.
Based on this basis, the specific objectives will depend on each brand and its situation. As is logical, we can include several objectives in our plan, but always looking for them to complement each other and not be incompatible with each other. Here are some examples of common goals of a digital marketing plan:
Increase brand awareness among the target audience.
- Reach new markets, either by location or by type of audience.
- Launch a new product or service.
- Improve the return on investment (ROI).
- Expand the market share with respect to the competition.
- Increase the profits of the company.
- Optimize the conversion funnel
- Attract new customers.
- Loyalty to existing customers.
- Increase sales.
3) Buyer person
The buyer person is a portrait of our ideal customer , which helps us to focus our product and service offerings and to guide all the segmentation of the brand. Sometimes it may be necessary to define more than one profile, if we have product lines for different types of users.
A buyer person should include:
- Demographic information: age, gender, occupation, income level, place of residence …
- The user’s online and work behavior.
- What is your current relationship with our brand.
- What are your aspirations and needs in relation to our brand.
4) Content plan
What kind of content we are going to create throughout the period to which the plan refers and how we are going to distribute it among our target. Here we can define different formats and create a content calendar to help us in planning.
At the time of raising the contents, my recommendation is that you think both the buyer person that you have defined before and in the different phases of consideration . The more the user has advanced in the conversion funnel, the more specific and focused on our brand may be the content that we offer.
5) Keywords
The keywords or keywords are behind the SEO and SEM strategy of the brand and all the content that we are going to create. Because of its key role in structuring the web and directing traffic to it, we need to dedicate a special section to it within the content plan.
When it comes to researching the key words on which we are going to focus, we have to take into account these parameters:
- The relevance of the keyword for our brand.
- The intention of the user searching for this keyword (at what stage of the funnel is it found?).
- The volume of searches.
- The level of competence.
6 ) Platforms plan
The world of social media offers many options to promote our brand, but it is always better to focus on those that are more adapted to the objectives and define well for what we are going to use each of them.
Therefore, in this section of the digital marketing plan I propose that you include the different social networks and other media that you are going to use and the objectives that you hope to achieve with each one of them.
7) KPIs and measurement strategy
Using the objectives that we have defined in section 2 as a reference, we are now going to “translate” them into key metrics or KPIs .
For each key metric, we can set a monthly goal (or with the periodicity that makes the most sense for our plan) and establish what controls we will perform to make sure we are on the right track.
8) Contingency plan
Finally, to close our marketing plan, we must answer the following question: what will happen if the objectives are not met?
For each of the KPIs that we have defined in the previous section, we need to think about a response plan to different scenarios, for example, what we will do if we do not reach the objectives by 75%, 50% or 25%. We can define different actions such as diversifying the platforms, opening new investment channels or even rethinking aspects of the plan that are not working as expected.
And ready! You already have everything you need to start working with your team and achieve all the goals you set for your digital marketing .
I hope that now you have more clear how to develop a digital marketing plan that responds to the needs of your brand. To make it even easier, we have created a downloadable template with all the slides you need to create a complete online marketing plan. You just have to fill in the template with your company information and you will be ready to get going!