8 Bullet Proof Hacks for Enterprise Digital Marketing Strategy
1. Content
Content is the core to any digital marketing strategy. Invest in creation and curation of relevant and useful content. Maintain a ‘stock’ repository of white papers, product brochures, datasheets, the point of view, customer stories, infographics. It is an imperative that you also maintain an entire repository of ‘flow’ content – tweets, status updates and images that link the user back to your blog or your repository of stock content. (Related Article – Getting your Content Strategy Right)
2. Contacts (Database)
One of the key pillars on which the entire B2B strategy is based on is about maintaining a clean and actionable database – name, organization, email ids, titles, phone numbers – of contacts and prospects. Without a clean and actionable database, your entire strategy will crumble like a pack of cards. A good database of contacts and prospects is extremely helpful in analytics and maintaining targeted funnels
3. Communication/ Dissemination Plan
Communication in digital marketing is not a random act. Create a structure, content calendar (with clear plan on medium and frequency) of the ‘flow’ content – electronic direct mailers, blogs, webinars, online forums, LinkedIn, etc.
4. Execution is the Strategy
Execution of a digital marketing plan is as important as the strategy. Execution and evaluation of a planned campaign, day-after-day, each day, helps you identify trends to ride on and avoid expensive mistakes. The online medium, unlike an offline has much higher potential to for amplification and virality. It can also offer much better flexibility to do course-corrections, unlike an offline medium. You can be a hero or a zero, depending on your execution plan.
5. Lead Management
When you start doing campaigns online, leads can trickle in from anywhere. Your lead sources multiply exponentially – twitter, website, email, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn in addition to your standard phone calls. It can take shape of an enquiry or a complaint or simple click . Speed of response is an essence here. Unless you have designed a good lead and response management system that includes nurturing and analytics, you may well be wasting your marketing dollars.
6. Customer Council
It would be a good practice to build a ‘Customer Council‘ of say 12-20 top customer contacts and/or influencers who will act as your ambassadors of your brand. Their insights and inputs can also shape your content and communication strategy.
7. Viral Creators
Build your own set of influencers, Customer Council members, internal employees, who can help your posts go viral. The more people share the link of your content, higher would be the virality of your brand or product and higher the SEO rankings.
8. Measurement
Measurement metrics and KPIs in digital marketing era tend to be seem more complex than they actually are. The basic details like of ‘attendees’, ‘unique visitors’ and ‘clicks’ contribute the basic understanding of the audience. User engagement, response times, net positive score, virality, search engine rankings are some of the other factors. You can choose the right matrices that best represent your success.
Go ahead #GoDigital. Share your questions and feedback and I will be glad to respond. You may also want to refer to a related Article – Getting your Content Strategy Right.
