Steps to a digital marketing strategy

Egypt Business analyses the digital marketing of the 500 most prominent Egyptian enterprises. This paper is #2 of a series of papers on digital marketing in Egypt.

A digital marketing strategy defines how a company can achieve its business goals through digital channels, platforms and mindsets. It sets goals, prioritises buying personas, identifies customer needs and behaviours, and goes into detail about channel usage and platform requirements.

In practice, the seven-step approach has proven effective.

Define goals
Growth, conversion and retention are the three big topics in digital marketing. In order to increase one's own reach, there are many possibilities online, some of them with minimal costs. To turn more prospects into customers, there is a whole range of tried and tested strategies and tools. This requires experience and extensive optimisation. Those who are better able to retain their customers need to invest less in acquiring new ones.

Select marketing tools
In digital marketing, in addition to one's own website, there are a number of platforms and techniques to choose from in order to achieve marketing goals. If you want to reach prospective customers, you need relevant content. Content marketing, in turn, is the basis for social media, email and search engine marketing. In addition, content should also be distributed on specialised portals such as Egypt-Business.com. In addition to publishing content for free, all platforms also offer the possibility to place paid advertisements.

Analyse existing channels
When deciding which of your channels and resources you should integrate into your digital marketing strategy, it can be helpful to categorise them accordingly:
    Owned Media: company-owned media such as website and email.
    Earned Media: Referrals on the social web and through search engines 
    Paid media: reach acquired for a fee.

Owned media are all digital resources that belong to your company and whose management is solely in your hands. This includes, but is not limited to, your website, social media profiles, blog posts and imagery. 

Earned Media is media exposure through word of mouth and referrals.   This is the recognition you receive for content such as guest posts on external websites, for the customer service you provide, as well as due to press relations. So this type of presence is created based on press releases, positive customer feedback and by sharing your content on social media.

Paid media is any paid resource or platform that you use to attract the attention of your target audience to your business. This includes Google Ads, paid posts on social networks, native advertising (such as sponsored posts on external websites) and any other medium through which you expand your online presence for a fee.

Determine target groups
Who do you want to reach? A prerequisite for any marketing strategy - whether online or offline - is that you know exactly who your target audience is. A digital marketing strategy is most effective when it is based on carefully crafted target group descriptions. The model of buying personas has proven itself. Buying Personas are generalised representations of your ideal customers. They are based on data from analyses and written and personal surveys of your customers. Since assumptions about your target group can quickly lead you up the garden path, you should create your personas on the basis of hard facts as far as possible.

Connect marketing channels
Create a modern omnichannel strategy by combining online and offline channels. Digital channels such as search platforms, web, social media and email have a stronger impact when complemented by offline advertising. Think of social media as a sales driver, not just a media or customer service channel. How can social media be used to achieve your business goals?

Think about the internet in a new way. Is your website positioned to attract, retain and convert leads? Are you effectively nurturing past, existing or potential customers with email or marketing automation platforms?

Identify resources
Use all the information above to determine what you need to implement in terms of this digital marketing strategy - including headcount, budget and your marketing technology system.

Assign responsibilities to your staff according to their skills. Create policies and guidance for staff, processes and tools. This is necessary so that people know their role and how they contribute to the success of the business. 

Create a roadmap
Organise and prioritise initiatives into a roadmap that will take you from strategy to execution. The timeframe should be between six months and two years. Be flexible with planning cycles. Change the plan when alternative scenarios become available. Organisational digital transformation can take time, but marketing should be the driving force and ready to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Egypt Business analyses the digital marketing of the 500 most prominent Egyptian enterprises. This paper is #2 of a series of papers on digital marketing in Egypt. See also:
#1: 5 good reasons for digital marketing
#3: Nine goals of digital marketing
#4: Growth marketing
#5: Egypt's 10 web woes
#6: Element of an Egyptian website