Whether you are just planning to start your business or have started a company with hundreds of employees, building a successful digital marketing strategy is one of your top priorities. Smartphones are literally in charge of our daily lives, and you can not imagine a person spending more than an hour without looking into their phone, laptop, or even watch.

So, naturally, this is the best way of getting into people's hearts and minds in order to build a successful business. Internet and social media have become game changers, especially for small businesses, due to the low cost of establishing online visibility on multiple platforms.

For the marketing efforts of your team not to go to waste, you must get a hold of a clear understanding of what must be done. So, let's get into the list of effective digital marketing strategies and break down what a digital marketing strategy is.

The Definition of Digital Marketing Strategy

To start working on creating and implementing your digital marketing strategy, you need to learn what stands behind this term and what are the specifics that make it important.

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan to increase a product's online recognition to reach its target audience, as well as achieve other business objectives. The main difference from the term 'marketing strategy' is that the promotion, ads, and research are made for digital channels.

One of the important things to keep in mind is that your digital marketing strategy is only a part of the general business plan. Does it play a key role? In the modern world of the Internet and social media, it surely can. However, its goal must align and support the entire marketing program created by your team.

With a rightfully implemented strong digital marketing strategy, you will be able to create new ways and opportunities to apply to potential customers and increase your business's visibility via the most engaging channels.

The Difference between Digital Marketing strategy and Digital Marketing Tactic

Most of the time, if we are talking about the topic of digital marketing strategies, several other termini might come up. One of them is a digital marketing tactic.

Without getting into the meaning of it, it might seem that marketing tactics and digital marketing campaigns are the same thing. Though they do always come in together, the difference is quite significant.

The digital marketing tactic is an action that consists of a digital marketing strategy. They are needed to reach a very specific smaller goal.

Usually, you need to implement many of them to get the desired results and strategy goals. Digital marketing tactics might include such actions as:

• Creating a social media post;

• Making a product survey;

• Posting a blog;

• Sending an email to the influencer;

• Creating a video for a social media platform.

The Difference between a Digital Marketing Strategy and a Digital Marketing Campaign

Another term that is essential for building an effective digital strategy is a digital marketing campaign. This one is after being confused with the strategy; however, the definition is more similar to the one of tactic.

We already mentioned that the digital marketing strategy is a plan that focuses on general business pursuits, such as converting leads into paying customers. The goal of a marketing campaign is to achieve a specific objective, which usually takes less time and is only a step toward the main goal.

Similar to the marketing tactic, it is a type of action, and the overall strategy usually includes implementing many marketing campaigns.

For example, your business might be focusing on a Facebook campaign or creating a Google Ads promotion.

Benefits of Implementing Digital Marketing Strategies

It is one thing to create a digital marketing strategy because you were told so, and another to understand the potential benefits. Everybody understands that online presence is important, but how can it actually help?

Here's the list of the main reasons why you need a digital marketing strategy:

• Making data-driven decisions

It is no secret that collecting data via various software is not only easier and faster, and there are almost no mistakes. Depending on what results you want to achieve, you can analyze already collected data and adjust your content strategy based on the actual numbers.

• Increase brand awareness

Whether you're a local business or an international company, making your company known is more effective via existing digital channels. The correct digital marketing strategy will help lead potential customers straight to your doorstep.

• Industry analysis

This is usually one of the first steps in any business. However, this type of analysis must be done every once in a while to adjust to the changing market and make the right decisions. Your perception of the data and existing customers might differ from the actual data. Thus, to avoid wasting time and money, you have to analyze and understand your niche.

• Stay relevant on the market

Today's market offers customers hundreds of alternatives. So, to get the desired results, you have to not only provide a quality product or service but also create the best customer experience. Brands are coming up with more and more ways to attract and retain clients. This is why you have to keep track of what is being introduced so as not to be left behind.

• Marketing budget planning

Money is always a hot topic. By implementing a digital marketing strategy, you will be able to plan and prioritize spending to avoid unnecessary or spontaneous money-wasting.

• Personalization and customer understanding

Digital presence gives you a lot of opportunities to gather customer feedback as well as stay connected to your customers. Various social media platforms are making it easy not to gather the statistics data but to ask your client directly about various aspects of your product and brand in general. This way, you can keep improving and adjusting your approach to attract and keep prospective customers.

• Creating clear goals

Understanding the company's goal will help your marketing team in different ways. They will save money on unnecessary tasks that will probably have no valuable results for the company. At the same time, implementing a digital marketing strategy will help determine weak spots to improve the final results.

Best Digital Marketing Strategies

There are many effective digital marketing strategies that you can implement. Your choices will depend on the product specifics, the amount of money you are willing to spend, as well as business goals.

In the beginning, you might not even be aware of your options. But don't worry - we are here to help. We have prepared a list of the best strategies for digital marketers.

Social Media Marketing

To no one's surprise, this digital marketing strategy is based on various social media platforms. More than 3.5 billion people are using social media, so there are several ways this strategy can be helpful.

Your main goal is, of course, to sell and advertise your product or service. With social media marketing, you can easily find your target market and make specific promotions.

Please keep in mind that this strategy does not include paid advertising from the platform. For example, you can create social media posts on your feed with ads for other relevant brands, but Instagram ads are a completely different marketing strategy.

Via social media channels, you are essentially building a presence for your brand, making it easier for people to learn about your product, reach out with questions, and make the purchase. With social media marketing, you can:

• collect and post reviews;

• create social media posts with valuable content about the product or service;

• establish brand esthetics;

• post ads for other brands or services;

• create funny posts with memes to entertain and attract the target audience;

• ease the reaching out process via DMs;

• show behind-the-scenes videos about the brand;

• involve the followers in decision-making.

One of the things to focus on is that most people are using mobile devices to access social media. You have to keep creating an online presence to attract new customers and stay in the minds of your current buyers as well.

This way, you will create a special bond and loyalty so that people can come back to you over and over again.

Email Marketing

One of the effective digital marketing strategies is email marketing. It is based on connecting with your current and potential customers. Though this is one of the earliest marketing strategies that were created, there can be some milestones when implementing it at the very beginning of your business journey.

To create an email marketing strategy that will provide you with the desired results, you would first need a list of emails, of course. It can be collected, for example, via a survey or when visiting a website blog as well as placing an order. Another way is to collect data automatically with the cookies to reach out to website visitors who have an interest in the product.

You should take the next procedures into consideration when creating your email marketing list. Firstly, it might seem like a good idea to buy a ready list based on your research on buyer personas. However, most of the emails sent to these emails will go straight to the spam folder.

Secondly, when collecting data via a fill-in form, make sure it requires more than just putting in an email address. This action will save you from wasting time and money on various bots.

It will take time to create a good list for email marketing. People will be unsubscribing over some period, which is totally okay. One of the best ways to expand your list and convert your leads into buyers is to dilute promotional emails with entertaining ones.

Email marketing can be used to :

• Promote your product or business;

• Build brand awareness;

• Creating loyal customers;

• Redirect people to the social media;

• Send special discount offers;

• Blog update;

• Collecting customer feedback;

• Create a seasonal promotion campaign.

Your current and prospective customers will appreciate useful information and special attention. But do not turn into a spamming account with unstoppable promotions.

There are various software that help you plan and implement effective email marketing campaigns. One of them is Bitrix24 CRM, which will not only help with creating a campaign from scratch but also store and analyze data to create segmented personal content for your subscribers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engines are still the number one place people go to find the information they need, whether it is a product review, a recipe, or a list of exercises for your spine. Over 90% of visitors will click on the links from the first page. This is where SEO strategy comes in.

SEO (search engine optimization)is a number of data-driven actions that help improve your website and make it appear higher in search results. This is needed to improve your website traffic and attract more customers.

There are several reasons why investing in SEO is important. As we already mentioned, user experience is one of the main selling points. SEO helps to only rank higher in the search results and reorganize your website as well. This way, you are creating better navigation together with the user experience. One of the other perks is making visitors spend more time exploring the blogs and products.

Another advantage is saving money on the ads on search engines and bringing organic traffic. When using proper keywords, you are more likely to attract users since you will be providing the exact thing they were searching for.

SEO strategy can be implemented via:

• Keywords;

• relevant images for the image search;

• Meta descriptions;

• Links;

• Data analysis.

SEO is a long-lasting marketing strategy. When implemented correctly, it will provide ongoing traffic without additional effort. It could take time to appear high in the search results. But the returns will be worth it, saving you money and creating a brand aesthetic in the process.

Paid Advertising

In the very beginning, it is hard to build your online presence with only organic traffic on existing digital marketing channels. This is where paid ads come in.

Digital ads can be found almost everywhere online and include:

• Social media ads
• Search engine ads (including Google Ads)
• Paid ads on other websites
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

This is how paid advertising works. As you may know, your data is collected almost everywhere online. For the search engines, it is done via cookies, and for social media platforms via analyzing the data you agreed to provide per terms disclosure.

All the collected data is categorized based on various parameters and used for the paid advertising digital strategy. Thus, there is a very high chance you will reach your target audience and draw buyers. This considered personalization makes it so attractive in comparison to other marketing strategies.

The first thing to do if you choose to implement paid advertising is to set the budget. Another advantage of this strategy is its availability to all business types, including small ones.

Based on how much money you are willing to invest as well as the target audience range to which your ads want to be shown, there are many options available. However, it can still be pretty pricey, especially when it comes to the first pages of a Google search.

Content Marketing Strategy

There is another way to promote your product as well as attract your target audience besides direct business or product promotion. Content marketing focuses on providing relevant, interesting, engaging, and valuable content to potential buyers.

The knowledge you provide should be useful and help people solve some problems that may be tied to your product. It can also be just entertainment content to help them interact with you more.

Probably, the most common type of content marketing is blog posting. If you sell office chairs as a business, you can write about curing back pain while at work and not just provide a chair description.

These people have not been thinking about investing in a special chair yet. However, it did not only provide a solution for the potential cause, but you already have a place in their mind when they will be considering the purchase.

To implement this online marketing strategy, you can:

• Post blogs;

• Create educational videos;

• Post book recommendations;

• Cast a podcast;

• Host a webinar.

Content marketing works best when implemented with other online marketing strategies. For example, you can use data from SEO to ensure higher ranking and reach out to more people in the digital space.

Video Marketing

Having quickly consuming and engaging content is one of the important parts of digital marketing. Long blog texts or social media post descriptions can be tiring and might not have the eye-grabbing effect you are hoping for.

This is where video marketing videos can come in handy. These can be used to create both informative and promotional content. It is always easier to watch a video or even keep it playing in the background than to go through long product descriptions.

Video marketing can also be used to create content for ad campaigns since it usually has a higher engagement rate.

Though it can be pricier, more time-consuming, and sometimes requires additional equipment, video marketing attracts more people, especially on social media. For many occasions, using your smartphone will be more than enough. Created content can be used for other channels like emails, stories, and blogs as well.

Influencer marketing

One of the ways to establish your online presence and gain customers is to work with the influencer. Influencers are people with a large number of followers, usually on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These include various creators as well as celebrities.

When chosen correctly, a collaboration with an influencer can bring you overnight success. To choose the person right for your brand, you must take into consideration the next factors:

• The number of followers - this is probably the first thing you will be looking at. Though it is important, this metric must come in together with the other ones on the list.

• Geographical location - if you are a local business or operate for a specific region, be cautious about where the influencer and the majority of followers are located.

• General brand relevance - look into the content as well as the message of the influencer. Make sure it aligns with your message.

• Engagement - check whether the influencer is engaging with the audience and reactions to the content.

• Payment method - there are several options to review. Some influencers work for a specific fee, while others are willing to promote the free products. Some may request both. So, plan your budget and options ahead.

Other than that, for a promotion, you can also collaborate with influencers to create a podcast, inviting them as a special guest. One of the popular tactics is to host a giveaway with a set of rules to increase your social media following as well.

Digital Marketing Tips

If you do not know where to begin or how to create the most

effective digital marketing strategy, we have some suggestions of what to keep an eye on. Here's a list of digital marketing tips that will help you get the best out of implementing various strategies.

Use digital marketing tools

New technologies are being introduced every day, and not using them to achieve your goal is not very smart. The amount of different software you can use to easily implement various digital marketing strategies is overwhelming.

Now, there is no need to gather pages of data to analyze the data. Various software, including Bitrix24 CRM, is equipped with all essential marketing tools to make data-driven decisions.

Chatbots keep on changing the digital marketing world. You can have a list of campaign ideas in a matter of minutes. Some CRMs have a pre-installed chatbot, so there is no need for additional spending. One of them is Copilot from Bitrix24 which has all the features of ChatGPT and even more!

If you do not have any experience creating videos, do not worry! There are dozens of free options with ready-to-use templates. This is more than enough to create engaging content at the beginning of your journey.

Understand your customers

Even if you think that you can understand who are your potential customers better than anybody, there's a high chance you are mistaken. For your digital marketing efforts not to go to waste, you must have complete knowledge of who are your customers, how you can help them, and what they need.

Here's a list of questions to ask yourself before choosing a strategy to create buyer personas:

1. What is the potential age of your customers?

2. What social media platform do they use?

3. What problem can your product solve for them?

4. Where do they live?

5. What cultural aspect must be taken into consideration?

Monitor the process

Before outlining the digital marketing activities of your strategy, you must establish what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success.

The best way to do this is to implement KPIs - key performance indicators (KPIs). These must align with your final goal as well. We take into consideration the most important metrics.

When introducing KPIs, the essential features include:

• Prioritize - you must be focused on the metric that matters and step away from the numbers that have no influence on your goals;

• Consistency - establish specific time periods to do the reviewing and analysis of the metrics;

• Adjustment - based on the analysis results, you can change the parameters for better outcomes;

• Error seclusion - keep track of the metrics that do not bring the planned results.

Conclusion

Implementing a digital marketing strategy is a must for any modern business. If you want your brand to have recognition and gain customers, keeping an online appearance is a must.

Here are several best digital marketing strategies to choose from. When choosing the ones suitable for your business, you must take into consideration not only your budget but your target audience as well.

There is no one solution to suit all businesses; analyze your market and your customer preferences and create something special that will lead you to success.