Planning a digital marketing strategy and campaigns

Hello, and welcome to the session on planning digital marketing strategies and campaigns. My name is Hanne Knight and I teach marketing at the University of Plymouth in the UK. Some of the content is taken out of my textbook Digital Marketing in Practice: how to design, implement, and measure effective campaigns.

In this session, we will cover why a strategic approach to digital marketing is essential to be successful. We will review digital business models and cover the individual steps of a digital marketing plan. We will look into the difference between a digital marketing strategy and a digital marketing campaign and introduce unique features of digital technologies.

Any business should have a plan of where they are heading. This helps to set the direction and focus of the business for the future. A good strategy should clearly outline measurable goals to evaluate progress against. The rapid growth of the Internet has led to many businesses making ad hoc decisions about which digital marketing channels to use. It was essential to be represented on popular social media channels without knowing how and why it would help them and their consumers. Such rushed actions often fail to be aligned with the overarching business strategy. Planning is essential as it provides the following advantages. Any digital marketing strategy has to have clear overarching goals. These goals should be at the business level rather than the tactical operational level. A digital marketing strategy should be aligned to the overall mission and vision of the business. This ensures continuity of communicating the purpose and aspiration of the business. Setting aspirational goals requires planning for digital marketing strategies. Rather than thinking of short-term gains such as gaining more followers on Facebook, a successful digital marketing campaign has to have an overarching direction guiding every lower level decision. Digital marketing decisions should be rooted in data rather than based on ideas only. It has never been easier for businesses to access information and data, which helps to anticipate external and internal issues. One advantage of digital marketing is that it can save costs and businesses still often under the impression that a successful digital marketing campaign should not cost much. Yet, planning for sense of outgoings that are crucial to achieve the set goals is essential. We have reviewed strategic planning and its application to the digital context. We now need to recognize that varying business models contain different strategies on how a business plans to make a profit. A digital business model includes the application of