As I work with students, clients, companies and individuals in the subject of digital marketing planning, almost every day, it’s time to share a template that I am using which really works.
To most people, a digital marketing plan is a rough idea of when it might be best to tweet or it could be a reminder to post the next Instagram photo.
To the more informed it’s a broad and deep programme of thinking, plotting and resourcing of both a mindset and a process. This is true digital marketing planning.
It’s about considering all the things your business needs to think about to ensure it can maintain the initial momentum of a campaign, promotion or launch. It’s also about the outside world. Not just the digital world but the wider things like trends in your marketplace, how your target customer is behaving, changing and thinking about products and services like yours.
It’s about your higher level dreams, vision, aspirations and goals. Not just tomorrow but deep into the future. Proper strategy is about thinking at least 3-5 years out, not just about hitting the year end financial targets. Yes these are vital, and digital marketing can help with those too, but it’s about how you want your business (or you personally) to be perceived by those who matter, in the future.
This means it’s about both future-proofing yourself and your business by publishing great content, positioning as current, relevant and informed in the eyes of your customers and of course using the digital content to build their faith and trust.
Digital marketing planning is about figuring out how you will add value, way beyond the competitors who are making so much noise and are constantly in the faces of the same people you want to attract and engage with. It’s not easy, but with careful planning there is a way to cut through this chaos.
Digital marketing is also about insights, those little and subtle outcomes that happen when you do something different. A tweak to an image, a change in tone of voice, or something surprising. It’s about learning what, why and when these things can make a difference and then doing things better next time and again the time after. Continuous improvement is at the heart of the very digital marketing planners’ agenda.
So here it is… a simple visual checklist for the things that really matter. If you need some help applying it to your own scenario… you know where to find me.
