Planning a digital marketing strategy? What would be the five important items you would share?

Previously, I managed Airbnb properties and renovation projects. It was in the very beginning weeks of the Coronavirus pandemic, that I realized more than 90% of my Airbnb guests had canceled their bookings. Renovation projects also stopped. As I am an active person and can’t sit still, I decided to go back to school. I believe it is never too late to learn and improve my knowledge and skills. Here we go. I’m in the second semester of my Integrated Marketing program now.

I learned a lot of important facts about marketing and especially digital marketing in the first year. I would like to share a couple of the most important items I would want a potential client to know before you create a digital marketing strategy for them.

This first one is the business objective. Trying to create a marketing plan without any objectives is like trying to prepare for a vacation without knowing the destination. Should you pack a coat and gloves, or a bathing suit and flip-flops? Similarly, without any marketing objectives, it is impossible to optimize your plan to get the best results.

The second one would be the target audience. This is the group of people who are most likely to be interested in your company’s services or products. Target audience analysis allows you to identify the characteristics, needs, and preferences of these individuals, which enables you to create buyer personas and plan effective marketing campaigns.

The third one would be a big idea. It is the overarching message that underpins all elements of a campaign in order to resonate with the target audience. The big idea will need to be rooted in a piercing insight and linked to the campaign’s objectives to ensure it has maximum impact and relevance. The goal is to develop an idea that is joined up with all other relevant channels, rather than a series of separate executions that have a tenuous relationship with one another. This approach will put you in a stronger position to engage consumers meaningfully in the places that matter.

The Fourth one is the key insights for collaboration.

The 4 elements of successful marketing collaboration are:

1. Like-mindedness: your brands should have similar attitudes
2. Complementary products: the collaboration should make sense
3. Similar target markets: there is an overlap between your audiences
4. Complementary marketing goals: all brands gain from the collaboration.

And the last one, how to measure the results. Running a campaign — no matter how successful — is pointless if you don’t take the time to dig into how well it worked. This is important for determining the ROI of your campaign and helping you plan future digital marketing activities. So, you should identify KPI for this goal. Then identify the target metrics for this KPI.

I am interested in hearing about your opinion and the important elements for you!