Digital marketing is being seen less and less as a separate discipline to the rest of the marketing mix, and rightly so. If you are freshening up your marketing plan, or if you are writing a new one for 2015, how do you go about integrating digital marketing into the rest of the plan?
Use digital for each campaign
For every campaign that you embark on in 2015, you can use your digital channels to push it to a wider audience and to tell your customers about the campaign. If you are running offers, introducing new products, or expanding a certain part of your business, then you can use your social media channels, email contacts and website to tell the world, along with using any offline platforms.
Make use of 3rd party digital channels
When you are negotiating magazine or newspaper coverage, see if you can also make use of the publication\’s online channels. You may be able to seal the deal with some free coverage in social media, or on their website.
Combine your PR and SEO strategies
Every time you launch a PR campaign, ensure you have combined it with an SEO campaign. Getting media coverage for your business is fantastic, but you can earn yourself extra high quality links if you check that media outlets are also including your story in their online publications and if you alert influencers and bloggers about your news.
Open up your communication channels
If you are using social media be sure that someone is on hand to respond promptly to any communications from current or potential customers. If you are seen to be responsive then you will encourage more people to get in touch.
Keep your website up-to-date
Your website must be current, up-to-date and working properly. Ensure you are with a reliable website design company so that you can easily add in information and offers to your site.
Use digital to experiment
If you are looking at running adverts in newspapers or magazines, or doing some outdoor marketing, then you can use digital marketing to experiment and to decide on the best imagery and wording. Platforms such as Facebook Ads give you a great place to engage in A/B testing and give you accurate and detailed information about the success of each advert. You can do this very cheaply on many online platforms, before you run an expensive offline campaign.