Introduction

A digital marketing strategy is a roadmap used by digital marketers to reach their ideal customers through online channels. These channels can include a website, social media accounts, paid advertising, and earned media. 

A digital marketing strategy is designed with specific goals in mind. The goal may be to achieve a certain number of sales for a new product, or to improve brand recognition by increasing your social media following. 

Here are some key components or steps you can undertake while creating a digital marketing strategy:
 

• SWOT analysis.
  

  Most of the digital marketing strategy formulation starts with SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis. It is a process that helps businesses test the viability of a strategy.
  
  

• Smart goals.

  Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-based) goals ensures your goals are attainable and will provide you with data points to analyze your results.  When articulating your goals, include both revenue and brand goals. Also, set short and long-term goals that align with your business strategy.
  
  

• Market segmentation.

  Market segmentation refers to segregating buyers into groups or segments for convenient targeting. The segmentation is based on the similarities they possess.
  This process helps devise a plan that matches the needs of the groups. As a result, it increases a digital marketing strategy’s effectiveness and helps it gain more traction.
  
  

• Buyer’s persona.

  Understanding the buyer’s persona is another step in creating a marketing strategy. This process helps understand the audience’s likes, dislikes, motivations, requirements, and more.
  
  

• Budget constraints.

  Managers must determine an appropriate budget to develop an effective digital marketing strategy. A successful marketing strategy depends on adequate and regular cash flow, and understanding the budget constraints helps formulate a plan unaffected by fluctuations.

The components of an ideal digital marketing strategy can fluctuate greatly from organization to organization. But by aligning multiple strategies and tactics with SMART business goals and segmented buyer personas, businesses of all shapes and sizes can enjoy the benefits of digital marketing.  Some of these strategies include SEO (Search engine optimization), PPC (Pay-per-click marketing), Content marketing, social media, and Video marketing.

As organizations grow, their marketing and advertising budgets typically expand in kind. Accordingly, the potential benefits from effective marketing tactics can increase exponentially through overlapping marketing, advertising, and public/investor relations campaigns. Add this all together, and organizations that dedicate significant budgets and resources to digital marketing can reap tremendous rewards.