In my previous article, I gave some examples of Digital Marketing Strategy that you need to know. I want to focus my attention on the Digital Marketing Strategy Framework in this article. I want to look at some of the templates that you can use when you are creating your Digital Marketing Blueprints. Before we delve into that, let me take time to explain what a Digital Marketing Strategy Framework is.
A Digital Marketing Strategy Framework is a set of plans and templates that allows you to organise, plan and execute your Digital marketing goals to achieve your Digital Marketing goals and Objectives. In this article, I am going to look at some of the frameworks and how you can use them to achieve your Digital Marketing Goals. Follow me as we will look at that together in this article.
A. The RACE Framework
This framework was developed by SMART Insights. With this Digital Marketing Framework, they break down the customer journey into four major steps that organisations can follow to achieve their Digital Marketing objectives.
#1 Reach
The focus of this stage is to reach out to potential customers and drive them through your customer lifecycle. Most time, you can reach your potential customers through SEO, SEM and Social Media Marketing, among others. It also depends on the specific methods that you have decided to adopt at the end of the day.
#2 Act (Interact)
The goal of this stage is to persuade customers to take the desired actions on your website. After you have presented your products to your customers, you need to convince your prospects to buy your products and services. This also has to be measured for an effective result.
Some of the metrics that can be used to measure your performance at this stage include bounce rate, time on site, as well as how many people take the desired action on your website.
#3 Convert
After your prospect might have been attracted to your website through your online marketing efforts, you will need to convert them from prospects to customers. You need to look closely at Conversion Rate Optimization and looking at your Sales funnel in order to understand some of the reasons why your prospects are not converting. You also need to look at email marketing and other lead nurturing efforts.
#4 Engage
At the engage stage, you are trying to build a long-term relationship with your customers. You have to build loyalty and increase the lifetime value of your customers. You need to create avenues for customer to give their feedback. You need to create a process and strategy that allows your satisfied customers to come back for repeat purchases and increase the profitability of your customers.
B. SOSTAC Framework
Another Digital Marketing Strategy framework that I will be talking about is the SOSTAC framework. Here are some of the things that it entails.
#1 Situational Analysis
At this stage, you need to assess your current situation to have a true reflection of the resources you have and what you can achieve. As a Digital Marketer at this stage, you have to make use of SWOT Analysis to have a proper understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
#2 Objective
At this stage, you need to define the goals that you want to achieve through Digital Marketing. There is a need for you to set a SMART Objective. That means your goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.
#3 Strategy
This outlines the overall approach that you will follow to achieve your goals and objectives. You need to take time to develop your strategy based on the amount of resources that you have at your disposal. You cannot give what you did not have.
#4 Tactics
Under tactics as part of your framework, you are going to define the channels that you are going to use in order to achieve your Digital Marketing goals and objectives. I do say that you do not have to be on all the Social Media Platforms before you achieve your Digital marketing goals and Objectives.
#5 Actions
After you might have come up with your tactics, you will need to create a detailed plan of action that explains how you plan to achieve your goals and objectives. This must explain the human capital and other resources that you need to move from where you are to where you want to be.
#6 Control
This has to do with establishing a system to monitor your performance and take corrective actions. Doing this will ensure that everything aligns from the beginning to the end. You will need to define metrics and implement strategies to utilise these metrics and measure your progress.
C. The 4Ps Framework
The 4Ps have always been the traditional framework for Marketing that has now been adopted for Digital Marketing endeavours. Let us now look at some of the things that it entails.
#1 Product
This has to do with you as a Digital Marketer deciding on the products or services that you have to offer. You also need to consider whether there is an ongoing demand for such products and services.
#2 Pricing
Apart from products, you have to decide on how you are going to determine the price for your products or services. Most times, this has much to do with your target audience and other modalities. You can go for dynamic pricing, subscription model, as well as special online discounts, among others.
#3 Place
After you might have decided on Products and Price, you also need to decide where you are going to sell your product. You can choose to create a website, develop an e-commerce website, use social media or an online marketplace, among others.
There are additional factors that you may also need to consider under this as well.
#4 Promotion
This has to do with how you have decided to get the message out and communicate with your target audience. You can decide to make use of a blog, use social media platforms or create videos around your content to reach out to your target audience.
#5 People
You need to consider how you are going to organise your team. You must consider the skill sets that you need, as well as deciding on whether you are going to perform some of the services on your own or you will outsource the skills to someone else.
#6 Process
This is also a need to design a blueprint that will show clearly how things will work. This also includes coming up with processes that ensure that customers are satisfied and they can get their issues ressolved.
#7 Physical Evidence
There is a need for you to show tangible proof of your services. You need to show evidence to prove to customers and prospects that you are real. You must be able to prove to customers that you are capable of meeting their needs. This includes physical addresses, testimonials, and social proofs, among others. This will go a long way in retaining customers and attracting new ones without much stress.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points raised in this article or disagree with some of the issues raised.
Please share your thoughts on the topic discussed. We would appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
