SEO, SERP, KPI, SEM, PPC, CPC - what does it all mean? The digital landscape is ever changing and digital strategies need to adapt accordingly. At Blue Door, we work with clients everyday on developing their digital strategies and ensuring that they are considering all elements that are required to make a digital campaign truly successful. 

Here is a cheat sheet on some key things to consider while building your digital strategy. Here is everything we will go through: 

  1. Setting Objectives & KPIs 
  2. Website Design & Optimization 
  3. Social Media & Community Management
  4. Email Marketing & Data Collection
  5. Digital Advertising
  6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  7. Social Listening & Monitoring

Setting Objectives and KPIs

Before analyzing the tactical considerations that should be included in a digital strategy, it’s important to ensure these two elements are omnipresent:

  1. A clear and concise objective based on the needs of your business
  2. Measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will define the success of your strategy
  3. A budget that makes sense for your business

These elements should be carefully considered before analyzing any further. Ask yourself if the objective addresses your biggest pain point(s) and if the supporting metrics will guarantee accountability and success.

If you feel confident that the objective and KPIs are aligned with your needs, use this checklist to ensure that all parts of the digital ecosystem have been considered for your strategy:

Website Design & Optimization

A properly functioning and responsive website is the first step to any digital strategy.

Your website communicates your brand narrative and is typically the first touchpoint a consumer has with your company. Your website should be user friendly, on-brand, and most importantly - optimized for mobile. Up to 70% of web traffic happens on mobile devices and 80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies with mobile sites or apps that help them easily answer their questions. Mobile-friendly websites receive organic SEO benefits from Google, so ensuring all the pages on your website are optimized for mobile browsers is imperative to optimizing your website for optimal success.

Social Media & Community Management

Social media provides current and prospective consumers with a two-way method of communication with your business. They can engage with your content, reach out with questions, and stay up-to-date with your brand. Your industry and your goals will define the platforms that should be utilized. Facebook and Instagram should always be included due to their sophisticated advertising abilities. Facebook allows you to target your audience based on interests and behaviours and create lookalike audiences based on the people that have engaged with your brand. In addition, Facebook has recently introduced partnership integrations with platforms like Shopify, which enable you to track the entire customer journey and help understand your sales funnel. Twitter and LinkedIn are less sophisticated advertising platforms, however, they are perfect for B2B strategies as they allow you to easily connect with other brands. In 2020, an ad on LinkedIn can reach up to 12% of the world's population.

Email Marketing & Data Collection

Far too often, email marketing is overlooked, when in fact it should be at the forefront of all digital strategies because it is one of the most direct forms of advertising. In addition, email marketing consumers tend to be active and engaged, as they actively sought out your communications to get on your list in the first place. Creating stunning and strategic email marketing campaigns takes a great design mind and a good understanding of your company objectives. In 2018, 59% of respondents to a SaleCycle survey claimed that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. However, an email marketing campaign is only as good as your contact database. Ensuring you have an email submission form on your website is a good start, however, investing in Social WiFi will take your data collection to the next level. Other ways to collect user data online include social contests, downloadable resources, and more.

Social WiFi turns customers that sign into your network into contacts, giving you access to valuable information such as locations, birthdays, and anniversaries. All of this data can and should be used to deploy digital advertising and email marketing campaigns. This type of marketing allows you to track your customer journey, from walking into your establishment to finalizing their purchase. 

Does your email marketing strategy cover Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) Law? Ensuring your digital strategy distinguishes between implied and express consent is critical to ensure you are complying with the current communications legislature. Express consent means that a person has clearly agreed to receive a CEM, either in writing or orally (in other words, express consent must be obtained through an opt-in mechanism, e.g. signing up at your website). However, you may rely on implied consent for sending CEMs if it is done under certain conditions, as set out in section 10(9) of CASL. This may include having an existing business relationship (EBR) based on a previous commercial transaction with the recipient; or having an existing non-business relationship based on, for example, membership in your club, or if the recipient participated as a volunteer for your charitable organization; or where a person makes their email address publicly available by publishing it on a website.

Digital Advertising

If your product is in your online store and you aren’t advertising it, does it exist? A strategic digital advertising plan is the catalyst for any successful digital campaign. This includes creating eye-catching visuals that stop people from scrolling, capitalizing on advantageous algorithms, and A&B testing creative and audiences to ensure that you are targeting the right people with the right content. It’s also important to understand the path of your consumer, and the various stages that make up their life cycle with your company. Your digital strategy should have a clear and informed sales funnel, that will indicate which aspects of the campaign are designated to provide which relative value to your customer. Check out the example below to get a better understanding of what this should look like. Remember, no two campaigns are the same, so ensure that the plan that is developed for you is thoughtful and customized to your needs. 

Social Listening + Monitoring 

Once you launch your campaign, it is paramount that you understand how it is resonating with your audience. Social listening and monitoring is the perfect way to track customer sentiment and ensure that your message is being received in the way that it was intended by you, the brand. Blue Door uses sophisticated platforms such as Meltwater or Sprout Social to ensure every conversation and comment is tracked using keywords and boolean search queries to filter out unnecessary content. Social listening is critical for campaign optimization, as the opinions and values of your target audience must inform the content you are serving them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If your business relies on people finding you through a Google search, SEO is a crucial part of your digital strategy. There are many variables that contribute to good SEO including page loading speed, proper image tagging, usage of outbound links, site legibility, mobile optimization, and keywords. The top result on Google has a 33% chance of getting clicked and improving your SEO increases your chances of organically populating as the top result.

Want to learn more about digital strategy, as well as the other services that Blue Door offers? Check out our capabilities deck today.

If you are ready to start your digital advertising strategy, or are looking for feedback on one that you received email us today at hello@bluedoor.agency to get started.

 

 

About the Author:

Aaron Lieberman is our Digital Marketing Manager at Blue Door and helps strategize, execute, and report on all digital marketing campaigns on behalf of our clients.