A well-planned digital marketing strategy is essential for business growth in a digital age.
Digital marketing allows businesses to reach a targeted audience in a way that is both cost-effective and measurable. It attracts more customers for less money than traditional marketing methods, and it has guaranteed ROI. You may find yourself in a similar position as many other businesses — you see the value in digital marketing, but you're not sure where to start. We get it. Developing a digital marketing strategy feels complex and overwhelming. You're likely asking yourself:
- What should I do?
- Who do I talk to?
- How do I create an effective strategy?
- How will I know I'm doing enough?
- What are the best digital avenues to reach my target audience?
These are all important questions that need to be answered. Unfortunately, many businesses assume that investing in technology will solve this challenge for them. In reality, tools like HubSpot are just that, tools. Would you get a hammer and expect it to do the work for you? Probably not. But it will make banging that nail much easier. The same goes for digital marketing tools. They don't create a marketing strategy for you, but they help you execute it. If those who have HubSpot but aren't sure how to maximize it effectively, this article will tell you how to create a simple HubSpot digital marketing strategy.
1. Set Goals
Make sure you know what you want to achieve. And, no, simply saying "more revenue" isn't specific enough. You need to know where you want to go to create a clear path to get there. When we set our goals, we often look at year-over-year data. If you choose to do that, too, look at last year's website traffic, leads, and closed sales, then determine how much you want to grow. If you don't have all the details on last year's data, that's okay. Anything you can find to help you understand where you've been will help you set new goals and measure progress toward the goal. If you need more help setting goals, the article Are You On Track To Hit Your Business Growth Goals? will walk you through how to set goals using a template we've created.
2. Define Target Audience
Once you have your goals set, you need to determine who you are talking to, your target audience. The answer should not be "anyone." Your product or service probably serves a specific purpose and solves a particular problem. Take a few minutes to articulate exactly what problem your product or service solves and who would benefit from that the most. Consider why they would need your product, how your product or service makes their life/work better, etc.
Once you know what problem your product or service solves and who would benefit from it, write down all the attributes for that person or persona. For instance, if you're targeting engineers, what does a day in their life look like? What challenges do they face? What do they value? Where do they spend their time? Knowing this will help you create website, social, and email content that's relevant and helpful. If you need a template for this activity, here is a workbook that helps guide you through the process.
3. Determine Actions
Now that you know what we are trying to achieve, what problem your product or services solves, and who your target personas are, it's time for the final HubSpot digital marketing strategy step: determining what actions we need to take.
When we look at the HubSpot marketing hub, it can be somewhat overwhelming. There are lots of tools and lots of things you can do, so where do you start? This is where steps 1 and 2 can be helpful. Review your goals and identify your most significant gap. Do you need to bring in more traffic or convert more leads? The chances are it's a combination. This is where we start our HubSpot digital marketing strategy planning.
For instance, let's say we needed to increase the number of visitors to the site. We would look at the tools that would help us do that and think about how our target audience works. We may decide that blogging weekly and sending monthly emails will be our primary drivers for new traffic because our audience doesn't spend much time on social media. We would then include those pieces in our strategy.
While we may still choose to do social media, we may not focus on it as much as we would for one of the other two pieces. When determining your actions, keep in mind how you can best provide value to your customer. The goal is to communicate your product or service value to your target audience so that they make a purchase. So, don't forget to include offers, landing pages, and nurturing email campaigns.
Once you have all the actions figured out, you need to determine the cadence for when these things will go live. How many blog posts, emails, social media posts, offers, backlinks, etc., do you need to achieve your goal? If you have hefty goals, you may need to be more aggressive in what you need to accomplish.
One mistake often made and worth noting is that some businesses set goals that are unrealistic or unattainable. For instance, if you can't publish six blog posts per month, consider either: 1) How can you get that done if that is what needs to happen, or 2) are your goals appropriate for my resources (whether that's staffing, time, or money).
Once your digital marketing strategy is complete, create a system or processes to ensure the work gets done and keep a pulse on the results. If you are looking for a digital marketing plan template, we created one for you to use. Use the template in conjunction with the persona creation workbook and our growth goals calculator, and you’ll have a solid baseline for getting your HubSpot digital marketing strategy up and running.
Need Help Creating A HubSpot Marketing Strategy?
From blogging and content offers to emails and social posts, HubSpot is a robust and powerful tool for executing effective digital marketing strategies. But these tools lose their power when the right strategy isn't in place.
If you need a digital marketing partner, we’d love to come alongside you to help you meet your business growth goals using HubSpot. It’s time to start maximizing it effectively. Let’s do it together. Set up a free, no-obligation HubSpot digital marketing strategy consultation with our team, and we’ll provide next-step recommendations and a few tips for getting the most out of HubSpot now.
More reading:
- Is An Inbound Marketing Strategy Right For Your B2B Company?
- Marketing Strategy Example For Manufacturing Companies
- 4 Benefits Of Outsourcing To A HubSpot Agency Partner
- Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency For Your Manufacturing Business
- What Is Digital Transformation & How It Will Impact Your Business
- More HubSpot articles
- Inbound Marketing articles