Welcome to the world of Digital Marketing Strategy

Throughout the duration of my last trimester at the Fashion Institute, I have been completing a course called Digital Marketing Strategy. This course has covered all the things businesses need to consider when undertaking a strategy for their brand.

So, what is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

By breaking down the concept, it is clear that the marketing part is based on promotion, whether this is a product, service or brand. Looking at the digital side, this can be seen through the use of technology/ies to engage customers and allow for interaction and, even further, the retention of these consumers. It is imperative as well to make sure the brands are well versed in who they want to engage so a clear goal can be set for those being targeted. It has become more and more common recently to shift the focus away from the product and what it should or needs to offer and, instead of this, create customer engagement specific to a unique product.

How do I know who to target?

This can be hard to understand and is incredibly specific when delving into the depths of those using your product and, moreover, the ones coming back for more. The buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on previous research on sales and even competitors in the market.

It is important as the first step to recognise the demographics of these individual/s. Gender, age, education level, socioeconomic status and even location are basics that can get you started in understanding the person you are trying to create. Further from this, their behavioural patterns, motivations, and goals are also needed to get inside the mind of their purchasing choices and why/why not their product works for them.

There are two ways to understand this; a customer persona profile and an empathy map. So, while the profile looks at the basics like demographics, background and even similar brand use, the empathy map looks at the thinking and feeling, seeing, saying, doing, hearing and the further pains and gains from this.

Example: Consumer Profile

Example: Empathy Map

As soon as this person is created as your ideal customer, it helps to ask what the value proposition of your brand is. Is the product or service going to alleviate a pain point or present a point of pleasure? Using the customer as the centre of your product service or brand means that they are at the centre of all things said and done and creates less risk for unsuccessful leaps.

How to reach your target consumer:

There are many aspects of content marketing that can be considered essential, and this can vary from digital outlets and social media channels. One of the main aspects of digital marketing is through both Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). There is a slight difference between the two.

SEO looks at improving the visibility of a site and its content organically within a search engine. Compared to this, SEM does the exact same. However, this is through paid efforts. This can be used to get the site to the top of the search results through bidding searchable keywords. Both can greatly affect the traffic gained on the website and digital channels and affect the bounce rate once a brand's site is viewed. These keywords generated on the ad can be known as pays per click or PPC.

So, while they both are similar in small differences, while SEO is generated organically and over time, SEM has the benefits of a higher reach, faster, highly targeted, and much more profitable. SEM also fall under paid media, and it is important to recognise this in comparison to earned and shared media which is much more relevant when looking at marketing and promotion through social channels.

However, it should be noted that different ads can be used in various aspects of the customer journey. So, while search engine ads are good for the consideration and conversion of customers, display ads (used through social media) are much more effective for that initial awareness and further their loyalty as consumers return to the brand. As well as this, many brands head straight towards Google ads for their SEM as this is the most compatible with most target consumers' search engines and is also easier to analyse through Google Analytics. See below for each stage of the customer journey.

Through the marketing of a product, service or brand, the consumer-centred approach also means that brands want to give the ultimate user experience (UX). This can be through physical or digital products and campaigns, making it easy, seamless, and useful to interact with. As an example, would it be more useful for honey to be in a screw lid jar, or would a better user experience mean consumers are able to buy it with a squeezy lid to use it easier and with a more seamless experience irrespective of their use for it.

Not only this, a UX can come down to digital channels such as social media and even website landing pages. This will greatly affect your bounce rates on the site, and this will reveal whether the navigation and layout of the website and socials are affecting your UX, and this can be a big factor in whether consumers want to invest in your product.

Recommendations:

As mentioned above, having objectives for a business is essential as to how this relates to and engages their consumers through all steps of the customer journey. In terms of metrics and analytics, by using tools to gauge consumer results, the outcomes for success are much higher. This can call for improvements and implementations where businesses need to do this.

Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) is one aspect that all businesses should consider for their product or service that provides metric results and the ability to analyse this. KPIs refer to the quantifiable measurements that look at overall long-term performance. This can greatly affect and aid in a company’s digital marketing strategy and can affect everything from strategic, financial, and operational movements, especially when looking at competitors. So, while qualitative measurements are invaluable to a company, having this in a measured way allows a company to analyse and make improvements specific to its situation.

As well as identifying KPIs, the SMART method should also be taken into consideration with a company’s objectives. Looking at the outline below, it is clear that objectives and even KPIs need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Having any of these without the other would cause uncertainty that a company would get the results they are after as well as attract the customer they are after.

Through digital marketing, it is extremely important to understand how to use this promotion through social media. There are three types of social media marketing, and they can all have a place in a company’s strategy. Paid, owned, and earned media are all different but work together irrespective of the different uses they have in the digital sphere. From looking below, the outline of each one is clear. Using this to target your audience and, in a way, organically gain traction is a way to analyse the traction and traffic your company is gaining for their service, product, or brand.

Self-Reflection

Role and Outcome in Assessment 2:

Throughout assessment two, I worked on a pitch deck with another member of my class. This was based on our first assessment. We looked at a brand individually and the basics of its digital marketing strategy. By the time assessment two came around, it was clear that the brand I focused on would be hard to delve deeper into due to how recent their launch had been. From this, I coupled up and worked on Muscle Republic with another teammate.

Coming into this without completing assessment one on this brand, I did feel out of the loop and was struggling to gauge what was expected and needed from me. It should be noted as well that this assessment was quite big and was set to take up a lot of time in a pair, let alone if I was doing it by myself. After talking with my teammate and delegating roles, I was set to do objective one of our recommended digital marketing strategies and, within this, the three tactics that went with the objective. And as well as this, the content calendar for social and digital media is based on our three objectives and tactics for each.

Personally, I felt my role in this project was minimal, and many aspects came down to this.

After working on a different brand on assessment 1, I didn’t have the background knowledge or information on the brand itself. Following on from this, more than half of the information needed in the pitch deck was taken and needed from assessment one. This meant my teammate could do this whole section based on her assessment, using and copying the same information.

Excerpts of my part for Digital Marketing Strategy Assessment 2:

Personal Recommendations:

If I had to re-create this digital marketing strategy, there are a couple of clear ways I believe I could personally improve on. One of these would be through my knowledge of Muscle Republic as a brand. I have always been personally aware of the brand; however, it was clear that completing a digital marketing strategy for them wasn’t enough. To have completed assessment one on this brand meant I would be well versed in what objectives would be most beneficial for them to seek customer awareness and retention.

To say I went into this blindly would be wrong to say but it also wouldn’t be far from the truth. By looking closely at the consumers and their profiles, as well as their social channels and competitors, I feel my involvement in assessment two would have been not only more energetic, but my involvement would have also shown through more.

Another way to improve this digital marketing strategy, if my teammate and I had to recreate it, would be through more use of innovation. Using the introduction of new and exciting ideas, I feel, would be not only more adventurous for the brand itself but also for customers who are now seeing something new from a brand they have possibly loved for a long time.

There is a diagram pictured below that is called the theory of ‘Disruptive Innovation.’ In basic terms, the model goes past a consumer need and then disrupts consumers out of their comfort zone in an ability to respond, and this ultimately flourishes. This, of course, is based on continuous innovation and certain timeframes; however, this concept, I believe, could have been more of a forefronted mindset when my teammate and I were looking into the brand objectives and tactics.

Overall, we know that digital marketing strategy is imperative to a company’s success. There are many factors and tools that can affect and aid a brand's promotion of a product or service. As a student looking into the professional sphere, it is a constant learning process and, of course, is going to differ from company to company. The tools needed will change, and the consumer being targeted will change. However, the basis of digital marketing strategy also remains the same. I am excited to see the advancements in marketing in the digital scene and where this takes me on my professional journey.