Before Launching a Digital Campaign . . .

People usually know that they need a better online presence for their business but, given all the options, it's often hard to know where to start.  Similar to traditional forms of marketing, putting together a strategy takes a lot of planning and consideration.  Below are five important things to understand before developing a digital marketing strategy and launching a new campaign.

1. The Goals

Before developing a digital marketing strategy, one must know what they want to achieve for their business. This seems simple but there are several ways to market a product or service online and, in today's digital world, more outlets than ever through which to do it.  Different outlets are designed to meet different goals and the results will be evaluated differently.  Goals may include things such as getting content in front of a certain percentage of the target market, building a brand or converting a specific percentage of people into sales.  If you have a specific goal in mind to begin with, the campaign and strategy will often be built around that goal.

2. Your Market

Who do you want to reach? Knowing your audience is crucial. Before a strategy or any content can be created, there must be a target in place.  General information gathered should include demographic data such as age, gender and geography as well as psychographic information such as interests, lifestyle and buying habits.  After these parameters are established, a strategy and campaign can be formed around them.  If there are still questions about who the best target market is, testing should be performed to answer them.  Not knowing the market will lead to an ineffective campaign.

3. Defining Success

What needs to happen for the campaign to be considered a success?  There are various ways to measure success in the digital landscape. Whether your goals are tied to a sales number, response number, awareness or something else, that needs to be taken into consideration before the campaign can be put together. It's fine to have multiple goals, but, it's important to know what kind of measurements are available and understand that the measurements used will vary depending on the tools used.   Depending on whether or not you are looking to track conversions, impressions, interactions, etc., that might influence they type of promotions and platforms used.

4. Brand Values & Guidelines

How is the campaign going to affect your brand? Regardless of whether you are looking for your digital campaign is to build brand awareness, create buzz or drive a certain number of conversions, your digital brand image will be affected by the content you use. So, marketers must have an idea of what kind of content supports and strengthens their brand. Knowing the values that should be associated with the brand ahead of time will allow a strategy to be formed the enhances the brand image and identity and, ideally, brand equity as well. 

5. How to Build on Previous Results

In order to build on previous successes and improve on previous failures, any content previously used should be evaluated prior to putting together the next plan. This includes any previous print ads, digital ads, websites, logos, videos, flyers, etc.  As it is important to send the same message through all channels used, there should be a solid understanding about what is being done offline and what has been done perviously.  Any new content created will be based on your brand and the market you want to reach, but, there should be consistency between all marketing material. 

Taking time to think about and gather information related to the above five factors will lay a solid foundation on which to build a strong digital strategy. While there are more digital options available than ever before, the additional options can make things more challenging if the initial parameters are not clearly defined.