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10 Simple Steps to Create the Best Digital Marketing Strategy

10 Simple Steps to Create the Best Digital Marketing Strategy

As a business owner, one of your key goals is to convert more customers. But before you can do that, you need to build the best possible marketing strategy to stack the odds of success in your favour.

But here’s where so many businesses go wrong: they throw money at poorly designed strategies that will never work in the long run.

If you’ve ever invested a bunch of money into paid advertising, boosted your social media posts, or bought email data without thinking about how the dots connect up after those touchpoints, you’ve already fallen into this trap. 

The inconvenient truth is that good things take time – and one of the greatest things is building your audience into a loyal following that knows, likes and trusts you.

To do this, you need to create a sustainable marketing strategy that accommodates your audience every step of the way. 

To figure out what specific actions you need to take, you’ll also need a strategy that’s built around a simple yet effective sales funnel – and to account for the cost of work that needs to be done in your marketing budget. 

Here’s the good news: with the right approach, it’s easier than you think – and can even lead to you generating income while you sleep.

Still don’t know where to start? Luckily, this article breaks down how you can build the best digital marketing strategy and a marketing budget that works for both your business and its customers. 

To help get you started on the right path, we’ll take you through the following ten steps:

  1. Clarify your brand message
  2. Create a website that works 
  3. Create a lead magnet to capture emails
  4. Create high-quality content 
  5. Build a strong social media presence 
  6. Network, network, network
  7. Get started with email marketing and automation
  8. Build credibility for your audience 
  9. Create a budget to support your activities
  10. Bring it all together 

 

Clarify your brand message

The best digital marketing strategies have one thing in common: they all have a clear and compelling message. 

If people don’t immediately understand what you do and how it will benefit them or solve their problems, they’ll disengage.

That’s why understanding how to clearly communicate your brand message through your marketing is crucial for engaging your target audience.

While keeping things clear and compelling sounds simple enough, it’s easy to lose sight of what works best when you’re working so closely with your businesses. 

If you want to avoid losing sight of what matters, it’s time to put yourself firmly in your target audience’s shoes and take the following actions:

Define the desire your customers have as it relates to your offering

By understanding your target audience’s desires (their wishes and expectations in relation to your offering), you can better accommodate their needs. This desire could be practical or emotional and will shape the way you market your product or service.  

Identify problems that you help your customers to solve

It’s your customer’s pain points that ultimately motivate them to seek out a solution. If you can demonstrate that you fully understand what they are and can go above and beyond in the way that you solve them, your target audience will be much more likely to choose you.  

Position your brand as the authority

One of the best ways to showcase your expertise and gain your target audience’s trust is to position yourself as an authoritative voice in your field. This includes publishing lots of value-driven content to help your audience understand how they can minimise their pain points and fulfil their desire. 

Give your customers a plan they can follow that alleviates their pain points

Before your audience has committed to investing in an offering from your brand, it’s important that they understand how the process works. By giving them a step-by-step plan to alleviate their pain points, they can begin the journey themselves before turning to you for the aspects they can’t do themselves. 

Create a clear call to action that leads your customers to a sale

Effective calls to action (CTAs) help your prospects navigate seamlessly through their customer journey. Just remember that the CTAs you use need to correspond with where your audience is up to in the sales funnel,  whether it’s “find out more” for the interest stages, “get in touch” for the engagement stage, or “buy now” for conversion, 

Illustrate what success looks like for your customers

Showcasing what your customers can expect after investing in your offering is an essential part of convincing them to convert into paying customers – but simply telling them from your own perspective isn’t going to cut it. Instead, use a mix of case studies and glowing customer testimonials as proof of your worth.

Describe what failure you are helping your customers avoid

A lot of the time, it’s a consumer’s fear of what will happen that drives them to make an investment. Whether it’s insurance, cyber security or a cosmetic product, there are genuine fears you can tap into without fearmongering. Then, present your offering as the remedy to that fear.

Identify an aspirational identity for your customers

Almost all customers are driven by aspiration. For example, you may buy a pair of Jordans because you aspire to be more like Micheal Jordan, but it doesn’t need to be an actual person. If you’re selling software as a service (SaaS), your aspirational identity could be as simple as someone who’s organised, efficient and stress-free at work. By describing who your customers could become by investing in your brand, you’ll encourage them to imagine their new and improved selves, making them more likely to convert. 

Develop your organisation’s one-liner to answer the question, “What do you do?”

Every business needs a compelling one-liner, but it’s easy to overthink it. If your strapline is too vague, you will not grab the attention of those you’re trying to reach. To make it as effective as possible, keep it short, to the point, and answer the question, “what do you do?”.

Refine your brand guidelines so that it stays relevant to your customers

Whatever approach you choose to take with your digital marketing strategy, keeping things consistent is key. That’s why taking the time to refine your brand guidelines is so important. Everything from your tone of voice to language and brand colours needs to be accounted for so that anyone working on your marketing hits the mark every time. 

Create a website that works

The best marketing strategies incorporate different channels, but most of those channels should ultimately direct your audience to your website.

This is because your website is where most of your conversions are likely to take place. It’s also where your audience will end up when they want to find out more about what you have to offer and whether it’s worth their investment.

So why put so much time and effort into your other marketing channels if you’re only going to send your audience to a site that isn’t up to scratch? 

This is why it’s so important to have a website that’s fit for purpose.

It doesn’t just need to just look slick; it needs to convey your message at a glance and incorporate seamless navigation so your customers glide from one point in their customer journey to the next.

If you want your website that achieves more conversions, follow these actions:

Include a clear and concise statement of what you offer on the header of the site

When a visitor lands on your site, they should know what it is you do immediately. This means that your header needs to be clear and to the point. This is all about making your audience’s life as easy as possible so they’re more likely to convert. 

Place a clear call to action (CTA) in the top right corner of the site

The top right corner of your site is prime real estate, so don’t waste it. Place a clear and obvious CTA here that tells your audience what you want them to do next. It could be something like ‘get started’ or ‘contact us’. But whatever you choose, make sure you’ve considered what you want the customer journey to look like and what will be a natural next step for your website visitors to take. 

Offer a lead magnet that captures an email address

A lead magnet is a great way to capture an email address before someone leaves your site. By offering something of value in exchange for their contact details, you’ll be able to nurture them further down the sales funnel and turn them into paying customers.

Display images that showcase what success looks like for your customer

Images are a powerful tool that can help to influence your audience’s decision-making, so make sure you use them wisely. Display images that illustrate what success looks like for your customer – whether it’s an image of someone using your product or service or a before and after shot – these visuals will help your audience evaluate if your offering is right for them.

Simplify your offering into a bite-sized breakdown

Your audience doesn’t want to be bombarded with too much information, so make things easy for them by breaking down your offering into bite-sized chunks. This could be a list of features or benefits for each product or service you offer. Or it could be a simple pricing structure that’s easy to understand. Either way, ensure the information is easy to digest so your audience can make a decision quickly and easily.

Give your customers a clear plan they can follow

Your audience wants to know what to do next. So give them a clear plan they can follow by including an easy-to-use navigation bar on your website. This will help them find their way around your site easily and ensure they don’t get lost along the way.

Include a value proposition that promises specific benefits you’ll deliver to your customers

Your value proposition is a statement that tells your audience what they can expect from your products or services. It should be clear, concise, and highlight the specific benefits you’ll deliver to your customers. This could be something like “we guarantee to increase your website traffic by X% within X months”.

Make the text on your site scannable

Your audience doesn’t want to wade through a wall of text. So make sure the text on your site is scannable by including shorter paragraphs, bold headers, and collapsible sections. This will make it easier for your audience to find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily.

Create a compelling lead magnet to capture emails

First impressions count, but they don’t make conversions. 

That’s why, after you’ve made a positive first impression, you need to continue to engage your audience with content that’s valuable to them. 

Sending resources, news and special offers via email is one of the most effective ways to do this, but first, you need to build up a list of emails.

This is where lead magnets come in.

Whatever lead magnet you choose to create, you’ll need to ensure that it offers significant value to your target customers. Then, offer it to them in exchange for their email address.

An effective lead magnet could be a free trial, an online course, a checklist, an eBook and so on. 

By creating something of value that’s highly relevant to your target market, you’ll be able to qualify the people that take the offer up as potential customers. 

To create your lead magnet, do the following:

Keep it evergreen

Great lead magnets take time and effort, so the last thing you need is for your asset to become out of date in a few months’ time. That’s why it’s so important that you keep it evergreen. This means that it will continue to be relevant and valuable in the months and years to come.

Offer the lead magnet on your website and in ad campaigns

When you’ve created your lead magnet, it’s time to start promoting it. The best way to do this is to offer it on your website and in your ad campaigns. You could also share it on social media and include it in your email marketing. Make sure you make it as easy as possible for people to find and sign up for.

Ensure your asset offers extreme value to your customers

Your lead magnet needs to offer extreme value to your target market if you want it to be successful. This means creating something that’s highly relevant to them and that solves a specific problem they have. It should also be something that’s not readily available elsewhere.

Include ways your brand can solve key pain points your customers face

Your lead magnet should also include ways your brand can solve key pain points your customers face. This will help instil trust in your brand and show your target market that you’re the best solution to their problem.

Use your lead magnet to create a sense of reciprocity in your prospects

Lead magnets are a super effective way to engage audiences and build a positive relationship with them. Once you’ve given your target market something of value, they’ll feel compelled to reciprocate by either taking up your offer or, at the very least, learning more about your brand.

Establish your brand as the authority in your area of expertise

When you create a lead magnet that’s full of valuable information, you’ll establish your brand as the authority in your area of expertise – so make sure you communicate your expert insight in whatever kind of lead magnet you create. This will make it more likely that people will do business with you when they need help with something related to your industry.

Give your asset a catchy title to increase the number of signups

Your lead magnet needs to have a catchy title that accurately reflects what it is and what it offers. This will help increase the number of people that download it and ensure that those that do download it are actually interested in what it has to offer.

Make the text scannable so people can easily read it and receive value

When people download your lead magnet, they’re not going to read it from cover to cover – they’ll skim it for the information they need. So, make sure the text is scannable by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and headlines. This will make it easy for people to find the valuable information they’re looking for quickly and easily.

Capture email addresses of prospects to qualify leads you engage with

The whole point of a lead magnet is to capture email addresses so you can qualify the leads you engage with further. To do this, you need to have an email capture form on your lead magnet landing page. This will also allow you to qualify leads and send them more targeted information in the future.

Create high quality content for your marketing channels

Alongside creating a desirable lead magnet, you’ll need to keep your digital assets up to date by producing fresh content.  

This will show your target market that you’re always producing high-quality, valuable content – making them more likely to do business with you.

Not only this, but by creating new and original content, you’ll be able to keep people engaged with your brand for longer. 

This is because they’ll always have something new to consume, whether that’s a blog post, video, or podcast episode.

Written content

Written content, comes in many different formats, including blog posts, articles, eBooks, and whitepapers. When creating written content, it’s important to keep your target market in mind and ensure that the topics you’re writing about are relevant to them. You should also make sure that the content is well-researched and well-written, as this will make it more likely to be shared and read by your target market.  To learn more, check out our top content writing tips

Top tip: to keep your older content up-to-date and Google algorithm-friendly, make sure to revisit your written content to update it every couple of years. 

Video content

With the rise of social media, video content has become increasingly popular in recent years. Video content is a great way to engage your target market and keep them entertained, and there are many different types of videos you can create, including how-to videos, interviews, and vlogs. When creating video content, it’s important to ensure that the videos are high quality and offer value to your target market. 

Podcasts

Another form of content that’s on the rise is podcasts. Podcasts are a great way to provide valuable information to your target market in an engaging and entertaining way. When creating a podcast, it’s important to ensure that the audio quality is good and that the topics you discuss are relevant to your target market. 

Images and infographics

Images and infographics are a great way to break up written content and make it more visually appealing. When creating images and infographics, it’s important to use high-quality visuals that accurately represent the information you’re trying to communicate. Plus, high-quality infographics are a great way to attract more backlinks to your site, which will help to give your SEO results a boost.

Other forms of content

There are many other types of content you can create you can incorporate into your digital marketing strategy. Some of these include webinars, eCourses, and templates. If you’re struggling to decide what type of content will work best for your business, take a look at what your competitors are doing and see what’s working well for them. Alternatively, you could carry out some market research to see what type of content your target market would find most valuable. 

SEO

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of optimising your website and digital content for Google search. This means using the right keywords, having well-written and informative content, and making sure your website is mobile-friendly. It’s important to make sure all the content you create is optimised for SEO. By doing this, you’ll make it more likely that your target market will find you when they’re searching for information related to your industry. To learn more, check out our top SEO tips and tricks.

Top tip: If you’re not sure where to start, check out AnswerThePublic and UberSuggest. These are free tools that will show you what kind of key terms your audience is typing into search engines. 

Build a strong social media presence

When you have your lead magnet and content, it’s not just your site where you’ll need to share it. 

You’ll also need to make sure you have a strong social media presence, as this will help you to reach a wider audience and generate more leads. 

When creating social media content, it’s also important to ensure that it’s high quality and engaging. 

You should also make sure to post regularly, as this will show your audience that you’re active and engaged. 

Choosing the right social media platforms

The most popular social media platforms for businesses are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. However, every business is different, so it’s important to make sure you’re active on the platforms that are most relevant to your business. For example, if you have a B2B business, LinkedIn may be the best option to generate leads. If you have a B2C company, Facebook may be a better option to reach your target market.

Types of posts to share on social media

There are many different types of posts you can share on social media, including blog posts, infographics, images, and videos. You should also make sure to mix up your content so that you’re not just sharing the same type of content all the time. But remember, it’s always a good idea to educate your audience. This could include content on how your solution works, what other people are saying about your brand or your perspective on a hot topic in your industry. 

Paid advertising

Another way to generate leads is through paid advertising. This is where you pay to have your adverts placed on social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Paid advertising can be a great way to reach a wider audience and generate leads quickly. When creating paid ads, it’s important to make sure that they’re relevant to your target market and that they lead to a landing page that’s optimised for conversion. For example, you may want to use paid advertising to promote your lead magnet.

Planning ahead

Social media marketing is one of those things that you need to be constantly thinking about. This doesn’t mean that you should be glued to your phone 24/7, but it does mean having a content calendar and planning your posts in advance. This will help to ensure that your social media presence is consistent and that you’re regularly sharing high-quality content.

Top tip: Use a social media scheduling platform so that you can create and schedule your posts ahead of time.

Engaging with your audience on social media

It’s not enough to just share high-quality content on social media. You also need to make sure you’re engaging with your audience. This includes liking and commenting on other people’s posts, as well as responding to comments on your own posts. By doing so, you’ll show your audience that you’re interested in what they have to say and that you’re willing to engage in conversation and nurture their relationship with your brand.

Staying aware of new trends

The world of digital marketing is always changing, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends. This includes new up-and-coming social media platforms, changes to algorithms, and new features that you can use to reach your target market. By keeping up-to-date with new trends, you’ll be able to adapt your digital marketing strategy to ensure that you’re always one step ahead of the competition. 

To learn more, check out our ultimate guide to social media marketing.

Network, network, network

The final building block to building a database to reach out to further down your sales funnel is networking. All of the best digital marketing strategies will only work if you have a database of potential customers to reach out to. 

LinkedIn lead generation

You can start building this by adding relevant people to your LinkedIn network. You can search for these profiles manually or use a paid tool like Sales Navigator, which lets you filter by job role, industry, and more so you can find potential leads quickly. Once you’ve connected, you can begin reaching out on LinkedIn messenger. By engaging with your new connections using conversational marketing techniques, you can begin to build a positive relationship and see if they qualify as a lead in the process. 

Other forms of networking

You should also make sure to attend relevant conferences and workshops so that you can meet new people and add them to your database if they’re interested in your offering. Remember, it’s not just about adding as many people as possible to your database. It’s also about making sure that you’re adding quality leads who are likely to be interested in your product or service.

Email marketing and automation

Once you have your emails from your lead magnet and networking, you want to create the best opportunity to convert your prospects into paying customers. 

This is one of the most challenging parts of the funnel, and a simple monthly newsletter isn’t going to cut it. However, it’s also one of your biggest opportunities to nurture a positive relationship. 

You need to follow an approach that nurtures them from the luke-warm lead they currently are to a place where they’re ready to invest in your solution. This is where email automation, such as a welcome series, can come in. 

To create your automation, do the following:

Draft an automated email sequence that delivers valuable information for free

The first step is to draft an email sequence that delivers free and valuable information to your customers. Each email should build on the last, providing more information and value to the reader. You can use this sequence to establish yourself as an authority, nurture your relationship with the reader, and ultimately sell them your product or service. 

Once drafted, you can build them into your email platform as an automation that sends automatically when an action is complete. For example, you could set up your automation so that it starts to send the emails in your sequence when a user has signed up to your lead magnet. 

Acknowledge your customer’s pain point and introduce your product as the solution to that problem

In one of the emails, you should acknowledge your customer’s pain points and introduce your product as the solution to those problems. This shows that you understand their needs and that you have a product that can help them. This email should be focused on the customer and how your product can help them rather than on you and your business.

Educate your customers on your offering, so they understand why they need it

Your email sequence should be focused on educating your customers on the product or service, so they recognise why they need it. You want to provide them with information that will help them understand the benefits of your offering and how it can help them in their lives. Remember, you’re not selling to them yet – you’re simply providing valuable information that will help them make a buying decision in the future.

Overcome objections that prospects may have to investing in your offering

There will always be objections that your prospects have to buying your product or service. It’s important to anticipate these objections and address them in your email sequence. By doing so, you can help overcome any hesitation they may have and increase the likelihood of making a sale. e.g., if you’re selling a fitness program, some objections might be “I don’t have time to exercise” or  “I’m not sure I can commit to a program.”

Deliver a “paradigm shift” email to compel a distracted audience

Most people subscribing to your email list will only read a small portion of each email. To capture the attention of these distracted readers, you need to deliver an email that shifts their paradigm. This means providing them with information that they weren’t expecting to receive. It could be a new way of looking at their problem or a new solution that they hadn’t considered before. Whatever it is, it should be something that makes them sit up and take notice.

Include elements of authority in the email sequence

As part of your email sequence, you should include elements of authority to help build trust with your readers. This could be in the form of customer testimonials or case studies. By including these, you’re showing that others have succeeded with your product or service and that you’re an authority in your field.

Use the nurturing sequence to establish reciprocity among your prospects

The email sequence should also be used to establish a sense of reciprocity among your clients and prospects. This means providing them with value first before asking for anything in return. Doing this makes you more likely to get something back from them further down the line. For example, you might give them a discount on their first purchase or give them access to exclusive content.

Close the sequence with an effective sales pitch to turn a prospect into a paying customer

The final email in the sequence should be an effective sales pitch encouraging the reader to buy your product or service. This email should be focused on the benefits of your offering and how it can help them in their lives. It should also incorporate an element of urgency and a strong call to action that compels them to take action.

Write regular newsletters

Email automations are obviously a great way to nurture your leads, but how are you going to keep them engaged when they’ve completed your automations? 

Whether they’ve become a paying customer or not, you can continue to nurture the relationship with email newsletters that keep your subscribers up to date with your latest content, announcements, testimonials and special offers. However, it’s important to segment your audience. 

For example, you may want to send a slightly different email to paying customers and those who are still only leads. Remember, the more tailored and targeted your messaging is, the more likely your subscribers are to convert. 

Build credibility with your audience

Even if you have the best digital marketing strategy in the world, it will not work unless you have the proof to back it up. 

This is essential to build trust in your audience and demonstrate your credibility.

And what’s even more powerful than telling the world how great you are? Someone else vouching for you on your behalf. 

That’s why it’s so important to use social proof in the form of testimonials, reviews and case studies to showcase to prospective customers what they can expect after choosing you. 

Once you have enough feedback from happy customers, you can share it with your prospective ones on your website, social media, email marketing and more. 

To build your catalogue of social proof, do the following:

Use testimonials to overcome resistance and reduce any hesitation prospective clients may have around engaging your brand

Collect reviews from happy customers and feature them prominently on your website and social media and share case studies that show the results you’ve been able to achieve for other clients. Doing so helps establish you as an authority and expert in your field.

Prompt current customers to talk about the problem your brand helped them resolve

You may have thousands of satisfied customers, but sometimes it takes some prompting before they’ll provide you with feedback. This could be an automated email that’s sent out a few days or weeks after purchase. Or, if you’ve built great personal relationships with clients, reach out to them with a more personal message.  

Have your customers describe what made them choose your brand as a guide

When you’re featuring customer feedback on your website or social media, go beyond the standard “I loved it!” type of testimonial. Instead, have them describe what made them choose your brand as their guide to help them through their challenge. This could be anything from the unique features of your product or service to the outstanding customer service they received.

Ask customers to describe what their life looks like now that your brand has helped them solve their problem

When you’re featuring customer feedback, ensure your customers describe what their life looks like now that your brand has helped them solve their problem. This could be in the form of increased sales, improved efficiency, or simply feeling happier and more fulfilled. 

Ask customers the questions that will prompt them to share how your brand helped them transform

By asking the right questions, you can get customers to open up and share how your brand helped them transform their lives. Some of the questions you could ask include:

  • What was the main problem you were experiencing before working with us? 
  • How did that make you feel? 
  • What was your biggest worry?

This will help you craft testimonials that showcase your brand at its best.

Develop a Budget for Your Marketing Strategy and Implementation Plan

The last step in creating an effective digital marketing strategy is to develop a budget for your marketing activities.

By doing so, you can ensure that you:

  • Control your spending
  • Understand your limits
  • Be more focused
  • Know what needs to be spent 
  • Achieve more financial certainty 

Your budget will depend on a number of factors, including the size of your business, your marketing goals, and the channels you plan on using. 

It can be a challenge to come up with an accurate estimate of how much your marketing will end up costing, but by putting in the work to break it down into smaller pieces, you can develop a clearer picture of where your money needs to go. 

In this final section, we’ll help you to get started with just that.

What is a financial model?

A financial model is a forecasting tool that businesses use to estimate future revenue and expenditure. It can be used to assess the feasibility of a new product or service or to predict the financial impact of changes in strategy. 

A financial model can take many different forms, such as a spreadsheet or an app, but all models aim to provide insights that will help inform decision-making. 

Defining you ROI

There is a principle in marketing that for every £1 spent on marketing that there should be an associated rise in sales. 

If this is the case, then your marketing strategy has a positive ROI. 

This can be expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing your total marketing spend by your total sales revenue. 

For example, if you spend £10,000 on marketing and this results in £100,000 of sales, your ROI would be 10%. However, if your marketing spend results in only £50,000 of sales, then your ROI would be 5%. 

To work out the potential sales from your marketing activity, follow this formular:

Marketing activity costs 

Multiplied by 

Conversion ratio

Multiplied by 

Average value of conversion

However, it’s important to note that your ROI is not always a true reflection of the success of your marketing strategy. Other factors also need to be considered, such as the lifetime value of a customer. 

Your budget parameters

When you’ve got a handle on your ROI, you can start to think about your marketing parameters. This is the process of allocating a budget to each marketing activity based on its expected return. 

Some of the parameters you’ll need to account for include:

  • Initial setup costs
  • Monthly activity costs
  • Systems and software costs (e.g. LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Hootsuite)
  • Advertising spend (e.g. Google, Adwords, Facebook, TikTok)
  • Conversion Ratio of spend to signups
  • The average value of a conversion

Conversion ratios

Your conversions ratio will differ depending on the marketing activity and channel being used. A general starting point would be to take your total marketing spend and divide it by the number of conversions you achieved in the last 12 months. 

This will give you a benchmark against which you can measure future performance. 

But it’s also important to consider your average order value when thinking about your conversion ratios. 

For example, if you’re selling a high-value product or service, then you’ll need fewer conversions to hit your sales targets than if you’re selling a lower-priced item. 

The average value of conversion can be calculated by taking your total revenue for the last 12 months and dividing it by the number of conversions achieved in that period. 

To improve your conversion rate, you need to ensure that you’re reaching the right people with your marketing. 

This means that your audience’s background, goals, personality, interests, challenges, fears, and buying behaviour should all be accounted for in the form of your buyer persona. This will allow you to finetune your marketing activities and optimise your spend. 

Typical marketing activities to account for

There is a wide range of marketing activities that you could potentially undertake. But not all of them will be relevant to your business or generate a positive ROI.

To help you focus on the most effective activities, we’ve put together a list of typical marketing activities that work when implemented as part of a whole digital marketing strategy: 

  • Web design and development
  • Search engine optimisation (SEO)
  • Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
  • Social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
  • Content marketing (blogging, infographics, eBooks, whitepapers, case studies)
  • Email marketing 
  • Lead generation campaigns  
  • Lead nurturing campaigns
  • Marketing automation 

These marketing techniques can then be broken down into different categories:

Assets – Website, Download eBook (These won’t produce any sales alone)

Advertising – Google & Facebook Ads (Can generate sales when used with an asset such as a landing page)

Promotion – Email marketing (Promotion is based on the volume of activity and not on the cost)

Activity – Search engine optimisation, PR, networking, conferences

(These are marketing activities that may produce results but is less predictable)

Each of the marketing elements also involves different types of cost:

Setup costs – e.g. Building a website

Activity cost with no ROI – e.g. Paying someone to manage an element of your marketing

Systems costs – e.g. Web hosting

Activity with an expected ROI – e.g. Cost per visitor/ cost per click

Dependencies

Your digital marketing budget will also be impacted by any dependencies that you have on other marketing channels or services. 

This may sound simple, but when you start to map out what your marketing ecosystem as a whole needs to function, you begin to realise just how extensive an effective digital marketing strategy is and the costs of implementing it can quickly add up. 

For example, if you want to run paid advertising on social media, you will also need: 

  • A strong social media presence
  • A website with a landing page to capture the traffic of users clicking the ad
  • Website development 
  • A site map
  • Content to populate your site with 
  • An automated email strategy to follow up with users that have clicked on your ad
  • Email newsletters to keep your new leads warm

The list goes on and on.

This is a prime example of why committing to just one or two marketing activities is never going to cut it if you want to generate a good, sustainable ROI for your business.   

Average sale value

The next question you need to ask is, ‘how much is an average sale worth to my business?’

This will help you understand how many sales you need to generate in order to make your marketing efforts worthwhile. 

To do so, you need to calculate the average sale order value to assign a value to what you typically might get when someone converts. This does not need to be an exact science. Use a number you are comfortable with.

This will give you a target to aim for when setting your budget.  

For example, if your average sale value is £500 and you want to make a 10% return on investment (ROI), then you need to generate at least £5,000 in sales from your marketing activities. 

This would mean that you could spend up to £500 on marketing without making a loss.  

How to define a marketing strategy and implementation plan

By now, you should have a good idea of what you need to consider when creating a marketing budget for your business.

However, when there’s so much to account for, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Luckily, we’ve made it easy for you by creating the Vision2Success app, which gives you everything you need to build an effective marketing strategy. On it, you can access our budgeting feature, which allows you to map out all your marketing activities and their associated costs.

Bringing it all together

As touched on earlier, your digital marketing ecosystem is not just made up of one or two activities – it’s an ongoing, complex system that needs a number of different moving parts to function correctly. 

By using the Vision2Success app, you can get a holistic overview of all the different components that make up your digital marketing ecosystem, as well as their associated costs. This will allow you to make more informed decisions about where to allocate your budget and how to get the most out of your marketing efforts. 

What’s more, the app also provides you with guidance on how to implement each element of your digital marketing strategy so that you can hit the ground running and start generating results as quickly as possible. 

So, there you have it – everything you need to know about how to create the best digital marketing strategy for your business. 

Trying to piece everything together on your own can be time-consuming and frustrating, but with Vision2Success, we make it easy for you. 

Get started today and see the results for yourself!

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