In an era where many consumers transact business on their mobile devices, a well-executed digital marketing strategy is essential for the success of any organization. A digital marketing strategy is a plan that describes how your company will achieve its marketing objectives through online channels, such as search and social media. It outlines what online channels and digital marketing tactics you will use, as well as how much you will invest in these channels and tactics. Achieving marketing objectives through the application of digital technologies and media requires a deep understanding of the algorithms used to boost visibility on Facebook, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn and other publishers.
To gain visibility, digital marketers need to familiarize themselves with the latest techniques. That's why professional marketing books are often hundreds of pages long, but they can only address the best practices that we detail in Smart Insights. Before reviewing the different channels that make up digital marketing, it's helpful to simplify the process for business managers who want to know what they need to invest in at the highest level and the benefits they will reap. A limited budget will be allocated to online marketing for the year and they want to make sure that their team devotes time to the right activities and invests in the right types of media to achieve a positive return.
It's important to focus on each of them, regardless of the size of the company. The pillars of digital marketing help demonstrate that success in this field isn't just about digital media and platforms, no matter how important they are. Creating an effective digital experience, messaging and quality content to drive your digital strategy are also vital. Many of the biggest brands in the world today, including digital platforms such as Facebook (Meta) and Google (Alphabet), are consumer brands, but when considering how best to use digital strategies, it's important to consider business-to-business brands as well. There are many B2B companies that often serve B2C brands. Smart Insights developed our RACE marketing planning framework to work equally across B2B and B2C markets.
This is because it integrates the digital experiences of its customers by interacting with brands through Reach, Act, Convert and Engage - the complete customer journey. As I mentioned, success in digital marketing requires mastering the details. In my book I explain how these 16 examples of different types of marketing technologies cover 6 digital media channels, as well as a range of paid media, own media and earned media options. A simple measure of the importance of digital marketing is how much money is spent on digital media. IAB's latest research on advertising spending and revenue shows that in the United States, more than three-quarters of media budgets will go to digital media.
We see similar IABS numbers in the UK and Europe, so this is happening globally. The IAB also gives an indication of the budget breakdown in digital channels. This is useful, as it suggests a combination of the type of marketing activities we should invest in. However, keep in mind that IAB data is based on data from larger publishers and platforms, making it less representative of smaller companies and downplaying organic search (search engine optimization), digital PR, and influencer marketing. The data shows that, as you might expect, social media marketing and search marketing are important investments in digital marketing. However, the data also shows that digital display and digital video are important.
Remember that this is more representative of the spending of larger companies that now use these channels to replace investment in television and print advertising. One in two of the main marketing jobs featured on LinkedIn belongs to the digital or media space. The fastest growing roles in the last six months - from highest to lowest growth rates - are media coordinators, search managers, social media coordinators, search engine marketing managers, media managers, marketing analysts, email marketers, search engine optimization analysts and digital media managers. LinkedIn reports that other highly requested roles include digital account executives, social media managers, digital marketing managers, copywriters and digital strategists. Not sure where to start? Access our dedicated marketing strategy solutions for business members and get all the tools you need to optimize your marketing strategy across 10 of the most popular marketing channels and strategies. Your plan doesn't need to be a huge report; a strategy can best be summarized in two or three sides of A4 in a table that links digital strategies to SMART objectives within our OSA Framework: Opportunity, Strategy, Action. As a business member we can help you get it right first time. I am sure that many companies in this category use digital media effectively and could certainly do great with their search engine optimization (SEO), email or social media marketing efforts.
Incredibly I originally suggested these 10 reasons to invest in digital marketing twenty years ago but they are still important which is why I have continued to evolve approaches to developing digital strategies in line with the latest trends. So if you don't have a strategy yet or perhaps want to review what business topics are important to include in a strategic review we've established 10 common problems which - in our experience - arise if you don't have a strategy. We recommend a 90-day (template) planning approach to prioritizing your activities through our RACE growth process which identifies 25 key activities you must continually refine by prioritizing those which matter most. As part of defining the scope of opportunity when using a strategic approach to digital marketing it's helpful to think about how improving online services interactive tools and audience interactions can improve customer service for your brand. Every company with a website will have analytics however many senior executives don't understand how their website traffic translates into customers or sales. To maximize ROI from your online presence it's important for senior executives to understand how their website traffic translates into customers or sales so they can make informed decisions about their budget allocations for different channels such as SEO PPC email or social media campaigns. It's also important for senior executives to understand how their website traffic translates into customers or sales so they can make informed decisions about their budget allocations for different channels such as SEO PPC email or social media campaigns. Finally it's important for senior executives to understand how their website traffic translates into customers or sales so they can make informed decisions about their budget allocations for different channels such as SEO PPC email or social media campaigns.
