Digital transformation is a hot buzzword in the business world these days – sometimes it seems like everyone is “pivoting to digital”. But what does that really mean for your marketing plan? And what’s the right way to guide your prospects on their customer journey? You need to build a digital roadmap that’s right for your marketing goals and your business to guide you through these changes.
Today’s blog post will talk about how to create this roadmap – and how to bring your marketing into the digital age in a strategic way.
Marketing Goes Digital: Find Your Roadmap to Success
More and more marketing activities, in every country and industry, are moving online. And really, that’s no surprise – since more areas of our lives are moving to online formats as well. We socialize online, we work online, we shop for groceries online, and so much more. Marketing is moving online because marketing is about meeting people where they are – so the transition to digital marketing is accelerating.
What does that mean for choosing business models and marketing options today? It means you can’t afford to ignore digital marketing any longer, even if you’re in one of the rare industries where traditional marketing is still effective. That’s because you want to stay ahead of the game – so start planning what your digital marketing will look like now for the long term. Digital technology is here to stay, so there is no point in hoping you can just hide from it for a few more years.
However, it doesn’t mean you need to give up on traditional marketing completely. You can start by just adding a little at a time for a gradual digital transition if you need to.
Why Your Business Needs a Digital Roadmap
Why do you need a digital roadmap for your business? It’s so easy to get started with some areas of digital marketing right now – you can set up a Facebook ads campaign or throw together a website in under an hour.
But to really get results, you should put plenty of strategic thought into what you’re doing before you take action.
That’s where your digital roadmap comes in. Here are three key things you need to consider when you’re creating your own plan for the future.
1. Clear Digital Vision
Whether your approach to create a digital marketing plan starts with doing it yourself or hiring a marketing agency, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve before you start.
This is especially important in digital marketing, because there are so many options available. You might end up by spreading yourself too thin if you try to take on everything at once.
Think first about the customer experience – how well does your digital experience delight or entice prospects who are interested in buying your products or services? This is where looking at your overall existing digital presence is a great place to start. Next, think about the journey you want to take the customer on from prospect to conversion to sale.
And not every approach will align with your business goals. If you’re looking to increase brand awareness, your roadmap will look very different from a business trying to increase sales in a certain region of the US. And this map will again look different from a business looking to increase conversions in international sales.
If you were trying to get to a specific destination, you wouldn’t just point your car down the closest road, or the one that’s easiest to access. You would plan out your route on a map first, so you can be sure to get where you’re going efficiently.
It’s the same with digital marketing – you need to know where you want to go so you can actually get there.
2. Approach Trends Strategically
In the digital marketing world, trends bubble up quickly. One minute no one knows what TikTok is, and the next you see a flood of articles telling you how to capitalize on marketing there. The fear of missing out is real, yet is ineffective for a solid marketing plan. Because if you’re hopping on the bandwagon of every new trend, you’re straying off course of your plan.
First, look critically at whatever trend is hot this week. Does it look like it would actually be effective for your business?
To continue the TikTok example, if your target audience is people over age 50 and you’re spending huge marketings dollars on that platform, that’s not a good plan. TikTok’s audience is mostly under age 24. Sure, you might get plenty of views – from people who are highly unlikely to purchase your product or hire your service.
Views are not the goal of digital marketing – sales are. Remember this when you think about going along with whatever the latest trend is to sell your products.
3. Plan to Readjust Along the Way
The world of digital marketing changes quickly. What’s working one week can become ineffective the next – or expensive. While a “set it and forget it” approach might have worked with some forms of traditional marketing (like billboards), with digital marketing you need to be able to adjust to succeed.
And to know when you need to make an adjustment, you need to be constantly monitoring your results. Your digital transformation strategy roadmap should include a consistent timeline of measuring your progress – are you committing to a weekly checkin on your latest digital campaigns, or automating reports to go to your email so you see them every morning?
Keeping an eye on things regularly lets you know when you need to make a change. And one of the great things about digital marketing is that monitoring and making adjustments is a lot simpler than pulling down a bunch of billboard ads.
Creating Your Business’s Digital Roadmap
The possibilities of digital marketing can seem overwhelming – but you don’t need to undergo a full-scale transformation when investing in digital marketing strategies.
And you don’t need to do it alone. Schedule a consultation with ContentFirst.Marketing. You’ll learn how we can help you design the right digital transformation roadmap for your business to lead to successful digital efforts.
We can help you find your ideal customer, speak to their needs, and convince them to become customers with the power of digital marketing.
Schedule a free business review here to find out how we help businesses grow. You can use these insights for inspiration, and let us do the marketing for you.
Sources:
https://www.cms-connected.com/News-Archive/
