Digital Marketing Plan

Putting Together Your Digital MarketingPlan

Dr Ivan Surjanovic, ivan@ipowerlab.comCopyright by iPower Lab, www.ipowerlab.com

4. Strategies and Tactics

5. Implementation

6. Evaluation & Control

1. Vision

2. Situation Analysis

3. Objectives

Strategic Marketing Process

4. Tactics

5. Action

6. Control

1. Situation Analysis

2. Objectives

3. Strategy

Digital Marketing Plan: SOSTAC® Model

Sostac® Planning System by PR Smith

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Describe your key findings and recommendations regarding digital marketing. Write a short overview of your plan. This is best done at the end, once you are clear on your approach.

 1.1. KEY FINDINGS1.2. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

2. INTRODUCTION Describe the purpose of your plan here (e.g. to improve your overall business, to secure bank loan or to attract investors, to launch new products, etc.).

Provide background information about the company, its history, its offline/online business, its key products and services, customers, and about your overall marketing strategy.

 2.1. THE PURPOSE OF THE PLAN 2.2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

3. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Answer the first of three central questions for the planning process: WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Conduct 5C analysis of the environment and the company. Summarize your thoughts in the SWOT format. Create your website visibility report card and compare it with competition. Make sure to draw important conclusions from the situation analysis.

 

3. SITUATION ANALYSIS (continued)3.1. 5C ANALYSISCustomers: market segments, target marketContext: Social, Technology, Economic and Political factors and trendsCompetitionCompany: resources and capabilitiesCollaborators: distributors, partners, agencies, suppliers

3.2. SWOT ANALYSISStrengthsWeaknessesOpportunitiesTrends

3.3. WEBSITE REPORT CARD

3.4. CONCLUSIONS

3. SITUATION ANALYSIS (continued)

Website Visibility Report Card

4. OBJECTIVES

Answer the second of three central strategic planning questions: WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE?

In this section you are supposed to set S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable relevant and timely) objectives for your online marketing.

4. OBJECTIVES (continued)

Make sure to align your objectives: start with the desired key end-goals, such as specific increase in profit and sales, then work "backwards" and figure out how many online customers or orders do you need in order to achieve your sales and profit targets.

How much extra traffic on your site do you need in order to get target number of online customers? What level of website visibility and promotion will bring you the target traffic?

4. OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED)

4.1. PROFIT4.2. SALES4.3. CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND CONVERSION4.4. TRAFFIC4.5. WEBSITE VISIBILITY / PROMOTION OBJECTIVES4.6. OTHER OBJECTIVES

4. OBJECTIVES (continued)

For example, to increase your profit by $10,000 per year, you might need to increase sales by $50,000 (assuming that your profit margin is 20%).

Suppose that your average online order is $200: you will then need 250 new customers per year (250x$200=$50,000)

4. OBJECTIVES (continued)

What is your expected conversion rate?

Divide the number of new customers from the previous step (e.g. 250) by the expected conversion rate (e.g. 1%) to calculate how much extra website traffic you will need in order to achieve your profit and sales target.

In our example, your traffic objective should be 25,000 website visits (250/0.01=25,000).

4. OBJECTIVES (continued)

What level of website visibility (e.g. search engine rank, number of mentions or followers in social media, number of incoming links, number of social media posts, number of sent e-mails, number of visits from your PPC campaigns, etc.) will bring you the target traffic?

5. STRATEGY

Answer the last of the three central strategic planning questions: HOW WILL WE GET THERE?

Make sure to have a clear idea HOW you plan to create and sustain a competitive advantage and achieve your goals in the long run.

5. STRATEGY (continued)

Strategy defines:

1. How to achieve our goals

2. How to respond to opportunities and threats in the environment

3. How to outcompete rivals in the long run

5. STRATEGY (continued)

MARKETING STRATEGY IS ALL ABOUT STP:

SEGMENTING – TARGETING – POSITIONING!

5. STRATEGY (continued)

SEVEN KEY STRATEGIC DECISIONS

What are your market segments? Which segments do you want to target? What is your positioning strategy? Which of the four generic competitive strategies are you

going to use? What are your SWOT strategies? What are your product / market strategies? What is your revenue model strategy?

5. STRATEGY (continued)

5.1. MARKET SEGMENTS AND TARGET MARKET5.2. POSITIONING 5.3. COMPETITIVE STRATEGY5.4. SWOT STRATEGIES5.5. PRODUCT / MARKET STRATEGIES5.6. REVENUE MODEL 5.7. SUMMARY: KEYS TO SUCCESS

Market segmentation for online accounting software

Perceptual Map

Attribute 1 (e.g. great content on the site)

Attribute 2 (e.g. interactivity of the site)

Competitor B

Competitor C

Competitor A

Competitor D

Cost Leadership Differentiation Focus

Hybrid strategy (Best-value)

FOUR GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES

SWOT STRATEGY MATRIX Internal Factors

Strengths (S): Weaknesses (W)

External

Factors

Opportunities (O) BE AGGRESSIVE: Use your strengths to take advantage of great opportunities

MAX - MAX: Maximize use of strengths - Maximize opportunities

REDESIGN:Redesign your business, fix or neutralize your weaknesses in order to take advantage of opportunities

MIN - MAX: Minimize weaknesses - Maximize opportunities

Threats (T) DIVERSIFY: Use your strengths in new markets

MAX - MIN: Maximize use of strengths - Minimize threats

BE DEFENSIVE:Consider divestiture or liquidation MIN - MIN: Minimize weaknesses - Minimize threats

SWOT STRATEGY MATRIX (Example)

Strengths (S):- Effective, professionally done website- Innovative, high end products

Weaknesses (W)- Low visibility on search engines- Lack of e-commerce capability on the site- Lack of online marketing experience - Expensive product

Opportunities (O) - Growing offline and online demand for products - Growing online sales on international markets

BE AGGRESSIVE (MAX – MAX) - Advertise on Google locally and internationally

REDESIGN (MIN – MAX) - Optimize the site for search engines- Build e-commerce (shopping basket) capability on the site- Hire experienced web marketing professionals

Threats (T)- Emerging international competition with lower priced products

DIVERSIFY (MAX – MIN) - Build an online brand, build relationships with existing customers through e-newsletter marketing

BE DEFENSIVE(MIN – MIN) - Outsource part of the web work internationally- Partner with or acquire international suppliers

Product / Market Strategies Product Growth

Market growth

Existing Products New Products

Existing Markets

MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGIES

Use Internet to:- sell more to existing customers (better “stomach share”)- sell products to more customers - improve customer loyalty-improve customer service , convenience, add value - better inform and educate customers

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Use Internet to:- increase product range (introduce new, digital products)- add value to existing products (e.g. online manuals, online updates)- improve payment models (e.g. subscription)

New Markets

MARKET DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Use Internet to:- sell in new countries- sell to new customer segments

DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGIES

Use Internet to horizontally diversify into related and unrelated businesses

Use Internet for (forward and backward) vertical integration

6. TACTICS

In this section you should focus on “WHAT”.

What actions do you need to take to successfully implement your strategy?

6. TACTICS (continued)

6.1. ONLINE MARKETING MIX 6.2. WEBSITE CONTENT, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONALITY 6.3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION6.4. ONLINE ADVERTISING6.5. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING6.6. E-MAIL MARKETING6.7. MOBILE MARKETING6.8. OTHER TACTICS

6. TACTICS (continued)

Describe your online marketing mix (4Ps), and how it needs to change to successfully compete online: for example, you might want to market new products, open new distribution channels, or try new pricing models.

6. TACTICS (continued)

Think how you want to improve the content, structure and functionality of your website. Create a web site prototype, including a website map, website wireframe, and visual layout of your future site.

Home

LocationServices Login ContactAbout

Team Consulting

Projects Design

Site Map

6. TACTICS (continued)

Describe in more detail how you will promote your site.

To improve clarity, make sure to use visuals such as SEO tables, screen shots of recommended PPC campaign setup, etc.

7. ACTION (IMPLEMENTATION)

Describe how you will put this plan into action.

3Ms: MEN/WOMEN, MONEY, MINUTES

What kind of skills (job titles), organizational structures and systems do you need in place?

Who will be responsible to conduct each activity and / or to supervise the implementation?

7. ACTION (Continued)

What budget do you need for various activities described in the previous section?

What time frame do you need for each activity?

To improve clarity, make sure to use visuals (e.g. Gantt charts or tables).

Activity Start Complete Responsible Budget estimate

1. Website redesign (visual)

Nov ember 1 December 31 Graphic Designer (Anne)

$5,000

2. Writing new website content

December 1 December 31 Copy writer (David)

$2,500

3. Search engine optimization

January 1 January 31 SEO specialist (John)

$5,000

4. Running new PPC campaign

January 1 February 28 PPC Manager (Chris)

$2,500

5.

6.

7. ACTION (Continued)

7.1. SKILLS, STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS 7.2. BUDGET 7.3. ACTION PLAN (ACTIVITY SCHEDULE)

8. Evaluation and Control

Describe how you will track your performance over time in order to establish if you are making progress as planned.

8. Evaluation and Control (continued)

Create measurable KPIs (key performance indicators) to align against objectives and stay on track.

8. Evaluation and Control (continued)

Consider KPIs that relate to your key objectives and tactic, such as:

Monthly website traffic SalesConversion rateNumber of new customers per monthNumber of new social media connections per month Monthly advertising cost vs. budget.

8. Evaluation and Control (continued)

8.1. PROCESS 8.2. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Digital Marketing Plan

Putting Together Your Digital MarketingPlan

Dr Ivan Surjanovic, ivan@ipowerlab.comCopyright by iPower Lab, www.ipowerlab.com

Digital Marketing Plan

Thank You!

Dr Ivan Surjanovic, ivan@ipowerlab.comCopyright by iPower Lab, www.ipowerlab.com