With budgets under scrutiny across the board given the current global pandemic, now more than ever do we need to ensure that every dollar spent is bringing in revenue. Making sure your business objectives are clear and measurable and ensuring they translate into your digital marketing strategies is important in driving a business to success.The post below outlines 5 steps I recommend a business or marketing department go through in order to link your overarching business goals to your digital marketing strategy.
Many businesses have been known to use digital media as a last-minute solution when marketing budgets are tight. This has dramatically changed in the last 10 years, with many businesses starting to shift their thinking from traditional first to digital-first. Throughout the years, ad spend has significantly shifted toward digital with the IAB recording 53.2% of total ad spend attributed to digital in 2018.With more than 50% of total advertising spend across digital, it’s so important to be thinking digitally first. Smart Insights provide some great tips on why you need a digital market strategy.
Having clear and strong business goals to align to is key. Growth doesn’t happen overnight which is why it’s important to follow this goal-setting process.
Some examples of strong business goals within the digital space might be:
It’s very common for larger businesses to work in silo’s and often business objectives differ between departments. Whilst there will always be specific KPI’s for each department it’s important that these KPI’s reflect the overall business objectives. Monthly or quarterly meetings are encouraged between departments to ensure everyone is signing off the same hymn sheet in order to reach a common goal.
Sometimes it pays off to take a risk and other times it doesn't, however, planning ahead and allocating a small portion of your overall budget is a clever way to try something new. Even if it doesn't pay off, the learnings can be even more valuable.I recommend sticking to the 70/20/10 rule. 70% should be allocated to your BAU activity, you know it works, it’s constant, dependable and delivers results. 20% should be allocated to trialling something a little bit different than you might do sporadically throughout the year, this could be a new ad unit or targeting option within your current BAU channels. 10% of your budget should be allocated to trialling something completely new, knowing that it might not pay off, but if it does, it could be game-changing. A great example of a global brand taking a risk that eventually paid off is the Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign.
The final step to linking your business goals to your marketing objectives is being adaptable. The world is constantly changing and if you don’t change with it, you’ll get left behind.Take the current Covid-19 pandemic as an example, so many businesses have had to change how they operate in order to continue making a profit, whether it’s office workers working from home, restaurants offering takeaway options or beauty salons providing online facial tutorials, business need to be able to adapt and do so quickly.You should be looking at your business goals on a regular basis and amending your digital marketing strategies to reflect any changes. It’s so easy to just set and forget, but this approach will never achieve long term results.
