Digital marketing strategy vs marketing plan – These are similar but very different concepts.
Marketing strategies have been shown to be more effective in recent times. Even more so now when everything is constantly changing.
And those who do not follow the transformation are left behind. Every brand wants to grow in its market, so the marketing team must always be up to date and present. It is fundamental to be ready to create good strategies that will help in the growth of the business. It was to help overcome this challenge that we created this article that will serve as a guide for the elaboration of a solid marketing strategy.
Are Marketing Strategy and Marketing Plan the same thing?
Marketing strategy is a set of proposed actions to publicize the strengths of the brand, positively contributing to better recognition and visibility. The goal is to place the organization in a prominent position in the market.
However, a marketing strategy is directly related to the marketing plan.
Although the concepts are similar – and sometimes confused -, the first acts as an instrument for the second to be fulfilled efficiently.
Therefore, good marketing strategies must integrate objectives, policies and the sequence of tactical actions to support the strategic planning of a business as a whole.
The concept of strategy is closely linked to the act of planning and structuring.
Normally, a document is generated, which is the marketing plan, aligned with the business strategies with the actions to be taken on certain dates.
This document serves as a guide for the marketing area to develop the necessary actions to achieve the proposed goals.
Therefore, to define the marketing strategy, it is important to know:
- What is the role of marketing in carrying out the company’s business strategy?
- What campaigns and projects must marketing execute to play its role?
- What is the target audience for the actions?
As already mentioned, a marketing strategy explains what the brand wants to achieve, what are its purposes and goals.
But these marketing actions need to be implemented and for that it takes a lot of study and planning.
This stage is the time to execute the marketing plan, but always after defining a marketing strategy.
Remembering that all planning must be directed by a goal.
Every strategy must be focused on goals, but remember they must be achievable goals. There is no point in creating a strategy with unthinkable goals to achieve!
If you want your strategy to succeed, don’t just focus on the data collection planning stage. The work will also require monitoring throughout the project’s execution. This means that you need to set clear goals and pursue them.
Choosing the priority objective at the moment is the first step towards a successful strategy.
Once this is done, you can focus your team’s efforts only on the actions that will help the company achieve it.
In addition, you can estimate the time needed to achieve such a result.
In short, a marketing strategy only works when it has well-defined objectives and, of course, shared by everyone in the company.
That said, it is now necessary to define which actions can help to execute the defined strategy.
Strategies to attract customers
E-mail marketing
Email marketing campaigns sometimes generate distrust.
Social media
In times of the internet and smartphones, it is important to maintain a digital presence in the customer’s daily life so that it helps you to know him even more deeply.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing seeks to attract and win potential customers through quality content.
Remembering that, for this content to add value to consumers, it must be specialized and segmented into your brand’s personas.
It must also be built according to all stages of the sales funnel.
Thus, you become relevant and, consequently, remembered.
SEO and Content Marketing
The term comes from the English Search Engine Optimization. Nothing but search engine optimization.
In other words, it’s a strategy for your website or blog to achieve better positioning on Google and other online search platforms.
The big challenge is that this positioning must be achieved organically and not through paid advertising.
You need to choose specific keywords that are frequently used by your personas.
Once that’s done, it’s time to start producing the content itself.
There is a range of best practices that can be followed so that your content marketing is well accepted by search engines.
It is worth remembering that content alone is not enough, as search engines also take into account the structure of your site, which must be optimized.
SEM
For those who still don’t know, its Google’s sponsored links system, better known as Google Adwords.
Unlike the SEO and content marketing strategy, which aims at an organic result, sponsored links are a paid strategy to advertise your product or service.
Okay, the goal is already set and the marketing channels needed to achieve it are already in use.
But, after all, how do you know if the strategy is working?
The answer is simple: constant monitoring and optimization.
We hope, however, that the importance of the marketing strategy and its planning has become clear. It is worth remembering that, more important than how you are going to achieve your goals, is why you decided to do it.
Start outlining your strategy today, so you can achieve positive results in 2021.
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