Many steps are involved in a digital marketing campaign, and are crucial steps in a successful campaign. I will be discussing the different steps of:
- Analysis
- Development
- Implementation
- Control
Analysis in the campaign is the first step in any campaign. Market research is a major part of analysis. By trying to understand the needs and wants of potential customers and users, makes it easier to deliver the service or product. And also keep communication to a good standard. Analysis helps to take full advantage of how and where a company/product/brand etc are positioned in the market place. It's important to test new or existing products before taking them to market. Analysis falls under many categories including:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Occupation
- Location
It helps in getting to know your market, follow different trends, and setting up goals and objectives you want to achieve in the future. Also by looking at the market size and the market competitors is essential. For example nickelodeon channel is aimed at children and adolescents aged between one and 15. The company should conduct analysis based on the SWOT platform (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
Strengths should be looked at from an internal point of view, and also from a consumer point of view.
What do you do better than other competitors?
What advantages does your company have?
For example if your competitors offer high quality products, then you should match or do better. Or a very good customer service for your company is a good strength and also offer good value for money to your customers.
For weaknesses it's best to be honest and realistic about what you and your consumers can see as a weakness.
What could you improve?
What can you avoid?
What factors lose you sales or potential future customers?
Are your competitors doing any better than you should be asked. An example could be little market presence or reputation because of it or unreliable cash flow problems in the early stages of the company.
For opportunities it's also very important to ask relevant questions.
What good opportunities can you spot?
What trends are you aware of?
They can be many things like, spotting changes in social situations, lifestyle changes, local events, spending habits etc. When looking at opportunities it's important to look back at your strengths and ask if these open new opportunities. and again by look at weaknesses and see if opportunities can open up by eliminating them. Examples can also be local government wanting to encourage or work with local business. Or your competitors been slow to adopt new technology trends.
Threats fall under different questions like:
What obstacles do you face?
What are your competitors doing?
Is changing technology threatening your position?
Could your weaknesses threaten your business/service or product?
Threats can come in the form of developments in technology that may change the the market beyond your ability. Or even a change in the focus of a larger competitor which could effect your market position.
Development
Development can also be known as the production stage. you should choose what tools you will use. Such as display ads, mobile, email and social media also. It's a very important stage and team work is very important in talking in meetings, e-mailing each other, and basically helping each other out when needed. In this stage many areas should be looked at. Look at your current performance of your website of visits, enquiries, online sales etc. Is your business optimised for search engines. Do you have quality content on your site or through your existing social media accounts. What social medias are you active on, and what others can you take advantage of. It's important to discuss about keeping social media updated regulary and are you posting interesting content to keep people coming back to read/ view or buy more. Research should be carried out in this stage. May it be a survey, poll or questionaire. The research will help to prepare for the next implementation stage discussed below.
Implementation
This stage refers to gathering the information you collected, and putting them into action. A schedule should be put in place, and it should be made clear what social media outlets will be used and how to launch them correctly. If working as part of a team, each person should be given specific tasks and assignments to work on. And work on the different social media platforms. It's about preparing the product or service that is about to be released to the public. Sufficient time and money should be put aside for this stage. This stage can be the most important, and also the most stressful time. As it will determine if the digital marketing campaign will be a success or if it will fail. The whole strategy needs to be integrated with the overall marketing strategy, so that the brand or product looks its best and for the public to have a good user experience of the digital marketing. This step is really only the beginning. This stage will greatly improve the online visibility while engaging with the existing client base.
Control
This stage is when you find out if your campaign was a success or failed. It is very important to share relevant pages, information and websites onto your pages. May it be on Facebook, Twitter etc. It's important to look at the actual performance of the strategy against the projected performance. To see what worked well, what didn't work as well, and what can be altered or changed. Analysis in this area gives a great insight into more specific areas like bounce rates, and the duration of the visitors to the various pages. Again in this area customer feedback will be crucial through polls or surveys. For example if a new logo was going to be launched, and customer feedback indicates it as not popular, then the logo should be removed from the marketing plan. Any changes in sales or profits could also be measured. Maybe if sales were down then further market research needs to be done, to see why the target market is not responding. The budget if any is used should be monitored carefully to minimize spending and maximize profits. You will find out in this stage if all the goals have been reached.
If these steps are not followed correctly then the campaign will not be a success. It's important to understand your online marketplace. To find a good balance between the digital and traditional marketing is a good start. After each step you should review and act upon the results and feedback.
Implementation
This stage refers to gathering the information you collected, and putting them into action. A schedule should be put in place, and it should be made clear what social media outlets will be used and how to launch them correctly. If working as part of a team, each person should be given specific tasks and assignments to work on. And work on the different social media platforms. It's about preparing the product or service that is about to be released to the public. Sufficient time and money should be put aside for this stage. This stage can be the most important, and also the most stressful time. As it will determine if the digital marketing campaign will be a success or if it will fail. The whole strategy needs to be integrated with the overall marketing strategy, so that the brand or product looks its best and for the public to have a good user experience of the digital marketing. This step is really only the beginning. This stage will greatly improve the online visibility while engaging with the existing client base.
Control
This stage is when you find out if your campaign was a success or failed. It is very important to share relevant pages, information and websites onto your pages. May it be on Facebook, Twitter etc. It's important to look at the actual performance of the strategy against the projected performance. To see what worked well, what didn't work as well, and what can be altered or changed. Analysis in this area gives a great insight into more specific areas like bounce rates, and the duration of the visitors to the various pages. Again in this area customer feedback will be crucial through polls or surveys. For example if a new logo was going to be launched, and customer feedback indicates it as not popular, then the logo should be removed from the marketing plan. Any changes in sales or profits could also be measured. Maybe if sales were down then further market research needs to be done, to see why the target market is not responding. The budget if any is used should be monitored carefully to minimize spending and maximize profits. You will find out in this stage if all the goals have been reached.
If these steps are not followed correctly then the campaign will not be a success. It's important to understand your online marketplace. To find a good balance between the digital and traditional marketing is a good start. After each step you should review and act upon the results and feedback.
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