Tools to help lean into your digital marketing strategy

You’ve noticed that most of your competitors are doing some form of digital marketing, and you’re starting to realise that a marketing strategy is pretty important for marketplace survival. All successful campaigns are founded on a strategy – and a few tools that help along the way towards content production and successful campaign management. If you’re interested in making a real go of your marketing strategy, you’re reading the right blog article.

What makes a good strategy?

Before developing and implementing a digital marketing strategy, one must answer the why question. Why are we performing digital marketing? Is it to make more money or improve people’s lives (or both)? Your intentions for marketing will very likely influence your marketing strategy. Nevertheless, most successful digital marketing strategies should:

1. Take a customer-centric approach when planning and executing all digital marketing campaigns;
2. Include a customer journey roadmap so that all involved understand the individual strategy components.
3. Be adaptable to disruptions and challenges, and offer contingency procedures.

Once a strategy is established, the exciting work can begin. This is the creative phase of digital marketing, where the designs must be designed and the writing must be written. Marketing is about choosing a message, and optimising it so that more people listen to it. Tell your stories and grow your following across channels with these three categories of tools – seriously, they make lives so much easier (especially if you’re one of the many who are doing all of their business marketing themselves).

• Design software

A good piece of digital marketing content starts with an idea, which is then translated into an image. This image is a graphical translation of the message and serves as the first-contact between the message and the recipient (e.g. we notice the images attached to social media posts first, then the text which goes along with it). Design software, like Adobe Photoshop, is used by professional graphic designers to craft stunning content. But for self-marketers, online design tools like Canva and mobile-based Adobe Spark are great to get going with. They have thousands of editable templates, and designs can easily be downloaded or posted directly to social media.

• Listening tools

Important to keep in mind when crafting content for digital marketing campaigns is the will of the public. What do your social media followers engage with on social media? What are they typing into their Google search bars when scouring the web for solutions to their problems? Listening tools are for the digital marketers that want to satisfy the needs of their target audiences. For example, Answerthepublic.com is a free listening tool that shows what people are searching for around a specific word or phrase. Type in “socks” and you’ll unearth queries like why do socks go missing, what is the best sock in the world, and when is the best time to buy socks. If you’re planning on using social media a lot, Hastagify is a great way to see what topics are trending on Twitter and Instagram.

• Scheduling platforms

A final tool that should protrude from the belt of any digital marketer is a scheduling platform. Who wants to try and remember to post marketing campaign content every day, right? In the wise words of that lady that one time: “ain’t nobody got time for that”. Embrace automation in your marketing by using a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite. These platforms allow marketers to link up social media accounts into one space, and schedule posts for months in advance that will automatically post at a predetermined time and day. All you have to do throughout the campaign is watch engagement and start thinking about the next month’s worth of content.

Running marketing campaigns with small teams requires that those involved possess a holistic understanding of digital marketing.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

The accredited Digital Marketing Course from DSM gives students a sound understanding of:

1. Social media marketing
2. Digital marketing strategy
3. Mobile marketing
4. Email marketing
5. Digital copywriting
6. Content marketing
7. Marketing management
8. Search engine optimisation
9. Paid advertising (PPC)

Our accreditations and endorsements include MICT (SETA), CPD services body of the UK, SABPP, and the Digital School of Marketing is a proud member of the IAB. Contact us for more information about some of our digital marketing courses.