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Key Components of an SMB Digital Marketing Plan

By February 22, 2021March 31st, 2021No Comments

Key Components of an SMB Digital Marketing Plan

Digital marketing plans are created to reach your small to midsize business’s desired marketing goals. Having a digital marketing plan for your small to midsize business (SMB) will boost it to another level. It is important to work through all components of an SMB digital marketing plan in order to reach your goals. Now you may be wondering what components are key for a successful plan. Well, there are four components that will form a successful digital marketing plan. The four key components are branding, selecting your audience, choosing the right platforms, and creating a strong strategy. 

Branding

Once your business is created, it is crucial that you turn it into a brand. Branding means creating a positive perception of your business to the outside world. You want to make your business known. To create a brand you need to establish a brand voice and a brand identity. What is the difference between your brand’s voice and identity? A brand voice is the tone and way you talk with your target audience. It can be professional, relaxed, funny, sarcastic, etc. A brand identity is everything that helps consumers differentiate you from your competitors. So it includes the brand logo, colors, and design. These items will allow your business to create a presence and stand apart from your competition.

Selecting Your Audience

The audience you target is imperative in your SMB digital marketing plan. Selecting a target audience that will in turn perform your desired conversion—which is the end goal of any business. Your target audience depends on multiple demographics like age, gender, income, location, etc. When selecting a target audience, it is beneficial to create a buyer persona through research. A buyer persona is a fictional model of your brand’s ideal customer or buyer that provides details of demographics and behaviors. Finding the right audience can take some time. Throughout a digital marketing campaign, data is continuously collected to narrow in on the highest qualified audience.

Choosing The Right Platforms

Which platforms you choose to execute your digital marketing plan will depend on your brand and your audience. You must ask yourself two questions when deciding what platforms to use:

  1. Which platforms fit my brand?
  2. What platforms is my target audience using?

A digital marketing plan can be executed through multiple channels. Those channels include social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin, search engines like Google, email, and video. With an ever-growing presence online, digital marketing on social media and within search engines will help your business potentially reach new levels. Ads can be run through paid social media and paid search. A great way to connect with your target audience on a more personal level is through organic social media—utilizing various social media platforms. The right platform will make all the difference in reaching your target audience. 

Creating A Strong Strategy

A digital marketing plan won’t succeed without a strategy behind it. “Why” and “How” are great questions to ask while planning your strategy. Why are you creating a digital marketing plan? How will the plan be executed? Once those questions are answered, research needs to be applied to the plan’s strategy. As the digital marketing plan is executed, more and more data will be collected. With the additional data, you can draw different insights to adapt the plan’s strategy. It is important to be flexible with the strategy and listen to the data making changes accordingly. Sometimes it can be hard if you have your heart set on a specific strategy to then adjust it, but that is all part of the process of a successful SMB digital marketing plan.

Patience and flexibility are needed as your digital marketing plan is executed. Results may not happen overnight, but the more time a plan is in action, the more time there is to collect data and review the analytics. The data reflects whether the plan is succeeding or not. If the data isn’t showing what you want, this is where flexibility comes into play. Be willing to change your target audience, the platforms you’re using, or the strategy. An SMB digital marketing plan can help you reach your marketing goals successfully by branding, selecting your audience, choosing the right platforms, and creating a strong strategy.