2021 is almost at our doorstep, as we bid farewell to our 2020 woes! If we could take one thing away from this year, it would be the indispensability of the digital medium. Even when the global marketing efforts slowed down to a standstill, agencies with full-fledged digital strategies and infrastructure were booming.

Devising a brilliant digital marketing strategy isn’t as simple as a button-click. With multiple platforms, different formats, and a sophisticated algorithm running each medium, it can get very confusing very fast.

What’s the need of the hour? A customized cocktail, stirring and shaking the best fits from many different aspects, to produce unique approaches and exemplary results. What we need is a bespoke yet apt, client-specific yet all-encompassing Digital Marketing Mix!

WHAT COMES UNDER A DIGITAL MARKETING MIX?

To have the most effective marketing mix for achieving your brand goals, it’s necessary to know the channels available. If you have a good understanding of the channels that are available and their basics, you will get an idea of what may or may not work out for your business.

SEO:

How to ensure your website is better visible when your target audience searches for your products on Google? Through Search Engine Optimization. It involves all the digital marketing practices that improve your website and its visibility on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). There are several ways to improve your site’s ranking in terms of SEO, for instance- keyword research, mobile optimization, site architecture, and more.

PPC:

Pay Per Click or PPC is a digital marketing channel where you can place an ad for your product or service on an ad platform and pay the ad platform host each time your ad gets a click. It’s where you want someone to click on your ad so that the visitor can be led to a place where a conversion can happen. PPC can help you achieve all your marketing campaign goals be it increasing sales, driving more traffic, generating leads, or increasing brand awareness.

DISPLAY ADS

A term that covers all types of visual ads placed on a website. Display ads are where you market your product or service using images or visuals like videos on websites where your target audience is likely to be found.

SMM:

SMM encompasses all the marketing efforts that one can try on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin etc. and includes both ways of driving traffic on your social media platforms- paid and organic.

CONTENT MARKETING:

At the end of the day, content is everything. It’s a marketing approach where you use content to get traffic from customers, use valuable, refined, and relevant content to provide them and retain them for the long run.

EMAIL MARKETING:

Email marketing is one of the most successful digital marketing channels out there where you send well-crafted emails to your target audience with the intention of promoting your brand and increasing your sales.

AFFILIATE MARKETING:

Here’s a marketing channel where an affiliate can earn commission by marketing other people’s businesses or products. As an affiliate, you find a product that you enjoy and promote it. With each piece of the sale, you earn a commission.

Optimising and combining these channels according to your budget and implementing the right resources can help you refine your digital marketing strategy and chalk out a great Digital Marketing mix for your business.

DECIDING THE RIGHT DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS

Before you decide to jump into the available channels, there are other essentials you need to consider. When it comes to choosing the right marketing channels, there is no one size fits all. Not all channels are meant for you or will work out for you. Before you invest in any of the mediums above, here’s what to consider-

DEFINE YOUR MARKETING OBJECTIVES:

What is your objective? Are you trying to maximize brand awareness? Are you trying to draw more traffic to your business? Or is it to maximise sales? Achieving any of these goals requires deep insight into your existing and potential marketing strategy all of which brings us back to using the right digital platforms to achieve these goals.

ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT MARKETING STRATEGIES:

Once you know what you’re exactly aiming at, look at your current marketing approaches. What digital marketing channels and platforms have you been using? Are you able to garner the right amount of traffic from your social media marketing strategy? Is your website SEO optimised? Are your PPC campaigns really fetching you the numbers or giving you a steady ROI? Check what’s been working out in your favour and what is not.

KNOW WHO YOU’RE UP AGAINST:

And what your competitors’ strategies are. Understanding your competitors doesn’t just give you a sneak peek into what you could do, but also settles all that you need to avoid. 

Checking what platforms and channels your competitors are using can set you off to a good start. Next is what channels, price strategies, ad campaigns, TG, etc. work best for them.   

Analysing what has been working out well for your competitors can give you ideas for what can work out for you as well. For instance, if you see that a lead generation ad has been running well for your competitor, then analyse the ins and outs of it. What strategies do you deduce when you click on their ads and are led to their landing page?

Study what has been working out for them online and their activities on digital marketing platforms for inspiration and direction.

REDEFINE YOUR MARKET

Knowing the nitty-gritty of your competitors and refining business goals are enough to make you redefine your market. They help you refine and specify the exact target audience you should be targeting, the platforms they’re active on, and the digital mix that can help you reach out to them. The clearer you are about your market, the better your marketing mix will be.

REWORK ON YOUR MARKETING MIX

Once you know where you want your brand to be headed, all you need to do next is rework on a redefined marketing mix where you can implement the 4 P’s of marketing i.e. the very fundamentals of building any digital marketing plan.

• Product: The best product always wins. Are you providing the best value, product, or service to your customers? How is it better than your competitors? How can you better what you are offering?
• Price: Is your product priced correctly? Is it priced at the best value compared to the market rates?
• Promotion: It’s all about strategizing your promotion and sales. Here’s how you set your budget and the details of how you want to run ads and market your products through your digital channels.
• Placement: Are you in the right place at the right time? Are you marketing your products in the right place where your target group is available?

We could go in detail, but these Ps are the starting point of any digital marketing mix and the clearer you are about them, the better and actionable your digital marketing plan will be.

MARKETING WITHOUT A PLAN?

That’s a recipe for disaster… especially during this time period when marketing trends have dynamically shifted, buying behaviour has changed, and enhancing customer experience is more crucial than ever.

As a fast-rising Digital Marketing Agency in the UAE, we understand how necessary it is that your brand’s objectives are in sync with the right marketing channels and vice versa. A well-planned digital mix, when communicated with your team, can streamline and refine all your marketing efforts. 

Having a clear marketing plan will help your digital team save your efforts, make the best of your budget, and adapt faster to modern-day marketing challenges.

Is your team maximizing the right digital channels? Let’s figure it out here!