An effective digital marketing strategy should be detailed and include a schedule of what you’re going to deliver, when, and by whom. You also want it to be flexible enough to keep up with new developments in digital marketing, social media and technical advances. Change is constant, and we know that.
We had the pleasure of working on a digital marketing strategy for The Convention Centre Dublin.
1. Clarity on Business Goals
We set specific, objective, measurable goals. We considered where and how much of an increase in sales could be driven from digital, and where to focus attention on. The strategy document set out high level goals, included a timeline, but were also realistic and achievable given the market and resources available.
This will all feed into your digital marketing goals. Those also need to be specific, objective and measurable, and they also require a schedule. The whole point of your digital marketing is to help your business reach those goals.
The more precise your business goals are, the clearer your digital strategy can be.
Setting goals is an ongoing process. It requires regular review and assessment to see if what you are doing is actually bringing you closer to those goals. Your strategy needs to be agile so you can adjust it if you are not meeting those goals.
2. Know The Customer Persona
The Convention Centre has a really interesting mix of target personas. We dove deep into what factors would be important to them in selecting Dublin Convention Centre over others? What motivates them in general? We took time to understand their values, priorities and lifestyle and to think beyond just demographics and ideals. Their age, address, income and education still matter – but they are not enough.
We came up with a set of buyer personas, each one had content suggestions for the stage of the customer journey there are at.
This enables the team to fine tune marketing messages effectively and to ensure that the right people are being talked to using the right messaging all the time.
3. Platform Choices
Social media platforms, the influencers on each as well as media that performs well there are important factors.
Beyond just being able to reach them online, knowing which platforms your customer base prefers gives you more insight into their world view. Do they stick with the tried-and-true big channels like Facebook or Instagram, or are they eager to explore other options like Reddit or Pinterest?
4. Meaningful Content
Your content doesn’t need to appeal to everyone – just to the people who are likely to actually to buy from you.
It comes back again to your buyer personas and understanding what their content needs are, as well as their buying motivations.
This is deeper than just using language and images that catch their interest. You need to give them content that has real meaning and value.
What is meaningful and valuable content? It isn’t a hard-sell sales pitch. It’s about being useful and helpful, by sharing your knowledge if you’re in the B2B space, or by providing lots of interesting content around the subject, if you’re B2C.
Content definitely is not something to be published and shared the same way across every platform. People make purchases to solve a problem. If you can craft content that gives the right information at the right time, you're there.
5. Promote & Propel
There are some great tools available to help you capture your audience’s attention and get your messaging in front of them. You can use social media, search or a combination of both to help your audience find what they need.
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