You’ve heard of the term “digital marketing plan.” It’s a way to take all the ideas and strategies you have for your business, build them into something tangible, then execute them over time.
As a result, it’s a good way to increase your search engine visibility, generate more qualified leads, and even increase sales. But what should be included in this plan? In this guide, I’ll walk through each section of an example digital marketing plan (I’ve included one below) so that you can use it as inspiration and a template for creating or updating yours.
| Takeaway |
|---|
| A successful digital marketing plan should include: |
| – Clearly defined goals and objectives |
| – Identification of the target audience and market |
| – Selection of appropriate marketing channels |
| – Development of compelling and relevant content |
| – Implementation of metrics to measure performance |
| – Regular analysis and optimization of marketing efforts |
Executive Summary
The Executive Summary is a one-page document that describes the business, the problem, and the proposed solution. It should be written in a way that is compelling, easy to understand, and easily digested by all audiences (i.e., internal colleagues, investors, or prospects).
Building a comprehensive digital marketing report is essential for tracking performance and making informed decisions. Check out our guide on What Should Be Included in a Digital Marketing Report to create a meaningful and insightful report.
The Executive Summary Should Include
An overview of your business-what it does and where you are located.
An overview of your market opportunity-why this is an important space/industry at this time. Why now?
Your product’s unique selling point (USP)-why would customers choose you over competitors? What value do you add? How will they benefit from using your products or services?
Target Market Definition
When you talk about “the target market,” you’re referring to a few different things.
The target audience is the people who will be influenced by your marketing efforts. This could include your customers (who pay for your product), or potential customers (who don’t yet have a relationship with your business).
The target demographic is the group of people within that audience with similar characteristics and interests; it’s usually broken down into age groups or other broad categories like gender and ethnicity.
The psychographic profile is what separates one person from another based on their lifestyle choices, values, and behaviors. For example, A single 30-year-old woman may have different preferences than an empty nester couple in their 60s with kids who still live at home.
Crafting a successful digital marketing strategy requires careful planning and consideration. Learn more about the key elements to include in your strategy in our article on What Should a Digital Marketing Strategy Include to achieve your business goals effectively.
Organizational Chart &Amp Corporate Overview
The organizational chart and corporate overview are helpful ways to understand the hierarchy within your company.
A good digital marketing plan should include an organizational chart that outlines the functions of each department, as well as the role of each person in those departments. This section should also include an explanation of how all these people work together to achieve your marketing goals.
You need to understand how all these different team members fit into the bigger picture so you can plan accordingly!
Website Audit Report
A website audit report is a thorough assessment of your current website, including:
A list of all the problems with the site (i.e., SEO, UX/UI)
Recommendations for fixing these problems
Recommendations for improving your overall digital presence
Customer Profiling & Competitor Analysis
The first step to developing a digital marketing plan is to define the problem you wish to solve. This may be something as simple as “I need more customers” or something more complex like “We want to increase awareness of our brand while also promoting our new product line”.
Once you’ve clearly defined your goal(s), it’s time to start thinking about solutions. For these solutions to work, they need context and direction that’s where customer profiling comes in handy!
Customer profiling helps marketers understand their target audience and what motivates them by analyzing demographics, psychographics, and behaviors related specifically within that group (i.e., age range, gender identification).
Customer Personas are a great way for businesses who have limited resources at their disposal because they allow companies with little-to-no knowledge about their customer base (i.e., startups) to create profiles based on limited information such as location data from social media platforms such as Facebook Ads Manager or Instagram Business Manager
Mission Statement
A mission statement is a short, clear declaration of the purpose of your website. It’s important because it helps you stay focused on what you’re doing and why.
Your mission statement should be:
Short (2-3 sentences)
Clear and concise
Written in the present tense, as though you’re talking to someone who doesn’t know what you do
Marketing Goals and Objectives
Before you can create a digital marketing plan, you need to define your goals and objectives. You should set these before you start developing your strategy.
In our experience, it’s important to get a sense of what other people are doing too but don’t worry about them too much. You can’t out-Google Google! Instead, you need to focus on what matters most: the problems in your business that could be solved if only more profits were coming through the door (or people entering through the doors).
You want ambitious goals but realistic ones as well. If you’re an eCommerce store selling running sneakers and haven’t sold any pairs yet this year, it probably isn’t an achievable goal for next month either even though it may seem like an obvious thing for your business!
Let’s take this example further by saying that one of our clients is interested in increasing their revenue from their online store by 20% over the next three months (call them Joe’s Running Store). That would mean increasing sales from $50k per month to $60k per month with no other changes made; so we know what kind of growth we’re aiming at here: 20%.
Being a knowledgeable digital marketing manager is crucial for leading successful campaigns. Explore our tips and insights on What Should a Digital Marketing Manager Know to enhance your skills and drive outstanding results.
Marketing Budget & Amp Timeline
Having a budget and timeline in place early is important because it helps you plan how to spend your money and time. A good marketing budget should be based on the size of your business, so smaller businesses will have less to spend than larger ones. Also, if you’re working with a limited budget, you must make every dollar count.
You’ll need to decide how long you want your campaign to run before deciding on what kind of timeline makes sense for your particular needs. A short-term campaign might last only several weeks or months; however, this doesn’t mean that all campaigns need to last for a year or longer (although some brands prefer long-running campaigns).
The length of the campaign depends entirely on what kind of results you’re trying to achieve from it: if the goal is simply awareness-building among customers then maybe a shorter timeframe such as three months would suffice;
However, when it comes down to ROI there’s no reason why digital marketing shouldn’t be used as an extension tool into other areas like customer engagement over longer periods such as six months or even beyond 12 months!
Digital Marketing Strategy &Amp Execution Plan
A digital marketing strategy is a document that outlines how you plan to market your business through social media, content marketing, email marketing, and other channels. It should include what you’ll do and the goals you hope to achieve with each strategy.
The execution plan (or implementation) is the document that maps out in detail how all the parts of your digital marketing strategy will be put into action. In it, you’ll outline who will work on which project and what resources they’ll need; provide timelines for when things should happen; outline goals for each specific piece of work; discuss how results will be measured; etc
Social Media Strategy Plan
Social media is a great way to reach your target audience.
Social media is not just a marketing tool, it can be used to engage with your customers.
Social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Content Plan and Editorial Calendar for Blog Posts
If you’re looking for an effective place to start, we’d recommend starting with your content plan and editorial calendar for blog posts.
The first step is to focus on topics that are important to your audience. This can be anything from a specific industry or niche, to a certain type of product or service, or even just general business tips and tricks like how to make marketing plans work better. The more specific the topic is the easier it will be for readers to find it relevant.
Once this has been established, consider how many posts you’ll need per month (or quarter) to keep up with demand. It’s best not only because it keeps things organized but also because readers will get excited about updates when they see frequent new posts! If there aren’t enough blogs available then maybe its time to revisit some older ones too 🙂
Next comes promoting those blogs once they’re published; which means you should have planned so they could get posted at least once every two weeks if possible – otherwise, people won’t know what’s going on outside their bubble!
Hiring the right digital marketing agency is pivotal for your business’s success. Discover important questions to ask before making a decision in our guide on What Questions to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency to ensure you find the perfect fit.
Email Marketing Strategy And Automation Plan
Email marketing automation is the process of creating automated email campaigns that are triggered by a user’s behavior, preferences, and other factors. These automated emails are sent to your subscribers based on the rules you set up in your email marketing platform.
Automated emails can increase sales by providing relevant content to the right people at the right time. They can also help you collect data about which parts of your website or blog are popular among customers, which in turn allows you to create more content around those topics.
Email marketing automation tools: Campaigner (paid), MailChimp (free – paid), AWeber (paid)
Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign Plan
Before you start a PPC campaign, it’s important to define the problem. If you don’t know what your goal is, how can you know when you have achieved it? Set a goal that motivates you and gives your client an idea of how long it will take them to reach their desired results.
There are two basic types of goals
Short-term: These are things like increased traffic or conversion rates within three months
Long-term: This could be something like driving monthly revenue growth over six months
Mobile Marketing Campaign Plan
Mobile marketing is becoming increasingly important. It’s not just about apps, mobile websites, and advertising. Mobile marketing should be thought of as including all things mobile from push notifications to in-app messaging.
The first step to creating a mobile marketing plan is assessing your current state of affairs. What types of devices do your customers use? How often do they visit your site from their phones? What kinds of content are users viewing on their mobile devices most frequently (i.e., what are the top landing pages for phone traffic)?
Local Search Engine Optimization Strategy Plan (Google Places, Yelp)
Local search engine optimization is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing and can make all the difference between being able to get your business in front of potential customers, or not.
It’s also important to remember that local SEO is different than organic SEO and paid search engine optimization. While it may seem like they are all similar, they each have unique qualities that set them apart from each other.
Search Engine Optimization Strategy Plan (Keyword Research)
The Search Engine Optimization Strategy Plan is the second step in your Digital Marketing Plan. It includes a keyword research strategy as well as an SEO Audit.
Keyword Research is essential for any SEO campaign. Keywords are words used in search engine queries and Google AdWords campaigns to describe products, services, or ideas on the web. Understanding what type of keywords you should be targeting is crucial for making sure your website ranks well in search engines like Google and Bing.
The most common way to find keywords is through keyword research tools such as the Google Keyword Planner or Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool which help identify which keywords will have difficulty ranking high due to their saturation (how many other websites are using that same term) or difficulty (how easy it is for people to find this term).
Knowing the next steps in your digital marketing plan is vital for a seamless execution. Find out more about the Second Step in Digital Marketing and how to progress efficiently toward your objectives.
A Digital Marketing Plan Can Do A Lot For Your Business
A digital marketing plan can do a lot for your business. It helps you get your message out to the right people, in the right way.
A digital marketing plan is a great tool to help you reach your goals, whether they are increasing sales or getting new customers interested in your brand. They are also perfect for helping craft a cohesive strategy that will work for everyone involved with it from the CEO down to the interns on social media (and everything in between).
Conclusion
In summary, we hope you are now ready to start creating your digital marketing plan. We know that it can seem like a daunting task at first, but as long as you have the right tools and plan for success, chances are good that you will be able to accomplish everything on your list.
Remember that every business is different, so don’t worry if yours doesn’t look exactly like ours did! If one thing is clear from all of this and it should be evident by now it’s that having a plan in place when it comes
Further Reading
A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Marketing Plan Components: Explore the essential elements that make up a successful digital marketing plan and how to implement them effectively.
Digital Marketing Strategy: A Smart Insights Guide: Gain insights into crafting a robust digital marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals and targets your audience effectively.
Step-by-Step Guide to Structuring a Digital Marketing Plan: Follow this step-by-step guide to create a well-structured digital marketing plan that covers all critical aspects of your marketing efforts.
FAQs
What are the key components of a digital marketing plan?
The key components of a digital marketing plan include defining goals, identifying the target audience, selecting the right marketing channels, creating compelling content, and measuring performance.
How can I develop a successful digital marketing strategy?
To develop a successful digital marketing strategy, conduct thorough market research, understand your audience’s needs, set clear objectives, choose appropriate tactics, and continuously analyze and optimize your campaigns.
What are the benefits of having a structured digital marketing plan?
A structured digital marketing plan provides clear direction, maximizes efficiency, ensures consistent messaging, allows for easy monitoring and adaptation, and helps you achieve better ROI on your marketing efforts.
How do I determine the right marketing channels for my business?
To determine the right marketing channels, consider your target audience’s preferences and behavior, evaluate the channels’ effectiveness in reaching your goals, and test different platforms to identify the most suitable ones.
How important is content creation in a digital marketing plan?
Content creation is crucial in a digital marketing plan as it serves as the foundation of your communication with the audience. High-quality and relevant content helps build trust, engage customers, and establish your brand as an authority in the industry.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.