Create a winning digital strategy

With the end of 2020 in our sights at last, Liniar’s Simone Sangha is looking forward to the year ahead, exploring ways to help companies create a digital strategy that makes a positive impact on their business.

Although research shows consumers now follow a much less linear journey when it comes to purchasing decisions, the basic stages still apply: awareness, consideration, research, enquiry, purchase.

No one rule fits every business; it depends heavily on a company’s target demographic.

Set Smart (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals. Marketing is no different to any other area of your business and setting Smart digital goals is vital to help to you track progress and understand what’s working (and what isn’t).

Here, I’ll highlight ideas for businesses to consider when setting out their digital strategy for the year ahead. (You should include offline channels in your strategy for a good mix; but I’ll focus on digital for this article).

Content is key, especially fresh content, so set goals around the frequency of updates and the digital coverage you receive.

Your website should be working hard to generate leads and enquiries, so in addition to content and design, consider how you drive visitors to it. Long-term, strategic SEO (search engine optimisation) should be integrated into every winning marketing strategy; ensuring your web pages rank highly within Google’s search result pages can help create brand awareness and massively boost the number of customers you could reach.

PPC (pay per click) advertising, such as Google Adwords or Bing, can be a highly effective ways of reaching customers. PPC ads reach customers searching for targeted keywords, providing companies with measurable and trackable leads.

Social media is ideal for spreading brand awareness and getting information out to followers quickly, as well as driving traffic. So, build in goals around your key social channels, in terms of posts, followers and engagement.

Think about voice search goals. Thanks to devices like the Google Home Dot, and Amazon Echo, voice search blends SEO keywords to bring products to customers in more conversational phrases.

Email and video marketing should both be covered in your strategy. Previous customers can be a good source of future leads, and video content is ranked highly by search engines.

As with any strategy, KPI setting is crucial. KPIs help you ensure you are on track to achieve the desired results while helping to understand the behaviour of your target audience more fully.

From fabricators and installers, to companies in entirely different industries, digital marketing can help transform marketing from mediocre to relevant. It can also be more cost effective and more accessible than traditional marketing.

It goes without saying, 2020 has been a challenging year for many of us, so planning ahead for a more positive 2021 will help end the year on a better note. Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas break.

Bonus tip: Revisit your digital strategy throughout the year and don’t fret if unforeseen factors influence some of the KPIs or metrics along the way. Analysing results and making adjustments throughout the year helps to ensure your communication is clear and that your digital channels are always optimised to their full potential.