Are you locked into your old marketing strategy because you’ve already spent the money on planning and executing a marketing plan you were confident would work? With all this money and effort already invested, you can’t justify abandoning the process to try something new now, right? These feelings are often described as the sunk cost fallacy. If your investment didn’t work, you’ve wasted all that money, and you’ll continue to waste it if you keep using a plan that doesn't make you money.
It’s understandable that you’re hesitant to change your marketing plan when you already have one. But if you're not making money now, that won’t change until your plan does. If that sounds less than ideal to you, you might want to think about including a digital marketing strategy in your marketing plan because a significant number of buyers are making their purchasing decisions online. Digital marketing strategies put you ahead of your competition, making the money you spend on a new marketing plan well worth the investment.
Convinced? Let’s talk more about what a digital marketing strategy is and how it will boost your brand now and make your business more money in the long run.
Digital Marketing Strategy Basics to Switch Up Old Marketing Ways
You might have guessed from the multiple mentions of the word “digital” that this marketing strategy is online-focused. The key to an effective marketing strategy is using various digital channels to reach and engage your target audience, such as:
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Social media: focussing on the channels your customers use
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Search engines: using keywords and phrases unique to your business to create content
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Live chats: building connections with feedback and added personal information
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Email: reaching users who want to buy from you and willingly gave you their information
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Websites: building your brand in your defined place online where you can solidify your reputation and operate sales
Connecting all these channels – by using targeted campaigns to reach your ideal customer base – reaches a broader lead pool because people are online most of the day. When you can reach them where they spend time, you can drive actions that foster engagement and, ultimately, sales.
Let’s say you’re running a digital marketing campaign that can be accessed through your website. You focus on social media marketing and email marketing, through which you can reach all online users who want and need your product or service. That’s great – some people like to have their information right in their inbox, while others tend to react and share on social media. While your audience may have different digital preferences, the idea is the same: they’re engaging with your content on some kind of device. Regardless of the channel your ideal customer uses to get your information, keep your content on-topic, on-brand, and targeted to the same type of buyers.
That’s why effective digital marketing strategies start with understanding your audience. You have buyer personas, whether you’ve taken the time to flesh them out or not. Your sales and marketing people know who buys from you and have a good idea of the actions and content that trigger a positive result (a sale). Using this information, you can formulate a buyer persona backstory that lets you understand where they get their information and how they like to make their buying decisions. 
To develop your buyer personas, start by identifying who your target audience is, what they want, and where they hang out online. Work from this base information to build your personas, including: where they get their information; when they tend to be online; and how they respond to different types of connections like texts, phone calls, or emails. Then, use that information to choose the best channels to reach them.
Once you can delve into the demographics, preferences, and behaviours of your ideal customers, you can tailor marketing efforts to meet the specific needs of each new lead. Digital marketing strategies that include personalization are more likely to spur sales growth. When content resonates with your audience, you can promote more engagement and foster long-term loyalty.
Building consumer loyalty with an effective digital marketing strategy is a cornerstone of a larger sales growth strategy. This strategy aims to increase your business's revenue by improving all your departmental functions.
Digital Marketing Strategies When You’re Stuck Trying to Make a Start
Digital marketing strategies can be simple, but some effort is required. It’s possible to create an effective strategy based on a few key pieces of information, such as your buyer personas and your growth goals. However, while the concept isn’t too complex, you and your team still need to put time, energy, and creativity into the process. Luckily, your past investment in the marketing professionals who run your traditional marketing efforts will pay off: they can learn the new strategy and run the software proven to deliver higher sales results – software like HubSpot. After all, digital marketing strategies still rely on great marketing skills like content creation and design; the content just needs to be adaptable to different platforms.
A digital marketing strategy lets you meet the needs of all your buyers. It’s also easy to change course if a campaign isn't working, and it won't cost you any more money. If your focus is on all things digital, you can test opportunities in paid ads, unique content marketing, or SEO (search engine optimization).
You’ll need to start with clear objectives. If your goal is to increase website traffic, boost online sales, or enhance brand awareness, your entire strategy should be built to make that goal a reality.
Digital marketing strategies are most effective when they follow a SMART system. This means identifying specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that keep your efforts on track and give you the results you want.
Why are clear objectives so important to a digital marketing strategy? Here are three reasons:
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When you track progress and assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, you will know what to look for. This allows you to make informed adjustments when your efforts are not meeting your objectives.
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When team members know their responsibilities based on the objectives, you save on duplication of effort and ensure everyone uses their unique skills to achieve the common goal.
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Well-defined objectives help you and your team make better budget decisions and allocate marketing funds to strategies that will yield the highest return on investment and directly increase revenue.
Why Great Digital Marketing Strategies Rely on Great Content
The content you create is the common denominator when educating and engaging your audience. Core messages are designed to be delivered to the different channels where your audience members spend time online. The content message remains consistent across all these channels.
Start by creating content that is valuable, helpful, and relevant to your target audience. Establishing your business as a thought leader in your industry benefits your brand. Provide information that builds trust and credibility with your audience. Create landing pages, blogs, and content offers that are shareable and accessible to all readers.
Choose the social media platforms that offer you the best opportunity to interact directly with customers. This is where you can foster a sense of community and build brand loyalty.
You can then measure the effectiveness of your content and your social channel reach by using data analytics and customer feedback to get an idea of how your content is being received. Use the data results to refine the content and connections.
A customer-centric approach to a digital marketing strategy – and the content created for it – is a proven way to build strong customer relationships, increase conversion rates, and boost customer lifetime value (AKA repeat business).
How to Avoid Being Let Down By Your Digital Marketing Strategy
A digital marketing agency brings the expertise and experience you might not have in-house to the table. Access to these professionals makes your marketing easier and more effective because they’re well-versed in the latest trends, tools, and strategies across various digital platforms (so you don't have to learn them or try to keep up regularly). Knowledge like this means more effective campaigns, better reputation-building, and higher-performing websites that lead to increased revenue.
Digital marketing agencies also understand that when your client base starts to increase, you must be prepared to go big or go home. They’ll ensure your strategies are scalable and flexible for more users and customers. They’ll also use analytics to track performance (the importance of which we touched upon already)—activities like conversion rates, customer engagement, and website traffic—to determine what is working and what needs to be improved.
You won't be let down when you know you’ve used the best professionals and the right tools to generate your digital marketing strategies. Even better, you won’t waste any more money if you use your experiences to make a marketing change for the better. So, it’s okay to change your plans even though you’ve spent money so far. You’re better off cutting your losses and moving on to something that works better and brings more money.
Talk to a sales growth professional to relieve yourself of the sunk cost fallacy burden and start making money again.
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References:
https://hbr.org/2021/07/how-susceptible-are-you-to-the-sunk-cost-fallacy
