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A successful digital marketing strategy involves more than just putting a message out there and hoping that users bite. If you leave everything to chance, youโre not executing a strategy but trying random tactics and hoping one will work. If this seems crazy to you, you are in the right place. This post will discuss the 4 pillars of Digital Marketing in understandable and easy ways to apply to your business.
The approach that we suggest for digital marketing is more focused. Our strategy is based on four pillars: your audience, their needs, campaign design, and the step-by-step process of putting all those elements together. Itโs also based on the hub and spoke strategy. A well-designed and well-built website is the hub for your online marketing.
Now letโs answer the burning questionโฆ
Itโs a crowded, noisy digital world. Every brand is vying for attention. The truth is, breaking through the noise isnโt just about being louderโitโs about being smarter. Thatโs where the โ4 pillars of digital marketingโ come into play. These pillars form the bedrock of a customer-focused strategy designed to help you break through the noise and connect with your audience.
If you were building a house, you wouldnโt start with the finishing touches; youโd lay a solid foundation first. The same principle applies to your digital marketing efforts.
By focusing on the four key areasโList, Offer, Creative, and Processโyouโre not just following the latest trends. Instead, youโre crafting a thoughtful, strategic approach that cuts through the noise and drives real, measurable results.
Each pillar is crucial, but the real magic happens when they work together. Miss one, and your strategy could falter. But when you get them all right, youโre not just in the gameโyouโre ahead of it.
In this article, weโll describe the 4 pillars of digital marketingโspecifically, the list, the offer, the creative, and the process. If that doesnโt make sense right now, donโt worryโit will in a few minutes!
If you want to market a product or service, it all starts by putting together a customer profile for your ideal audience.
We call this process the โlistโ because, in the vast majority of cases, you have more than one type of customer that you want to targetโin other words, youโre building an ideal buyer list.
To succeed when it comes to targeted marketing, you need to know the answers to questions such as:
Letโs say, for example, that you run an e-commerce store that sells flowers. Demographic data shows us that women are more likely to purchase flowers than men, although men spend more on floral gifts (less frequent but more expensive purchases).
Data also shows that Generation X customers (those born between 1965 and 1980) are the demographic most likely to buy flowers online. It also tells us that people typically buy flowers for their own use.
When you combine all that information, you start to get a rough idea of your target list. In this example, your ideal customer would be females between the ages of 40 and 55 who are interested in home decoration, floral arrangements, or similar hobbies.
That leaves you with only one key piece of information missing. You need to figure out why your target customer wants to buy flowers. Perhaps itโs to fulfill aesthetic needs, a desire to nurture something, or to feel closer to nature. For most industries, there are a lot of potential โproblemsโ that your audience may want help solving.
โThe aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.โ ~ Peter Drucker
Since you have hands-on experience in your industry, you might already have a very accurate idea of who your ideal customers are. However, with digital marketing, we never recommend relying on your gut alone. In todayโs data-driven world, you have access to a wealth of information about who your customers are โ all you need to know is how to access it.
If you want to have a full understanding of your online businessโ audience, then you need to resort to analytics. With these tools, you can gain access to demographic data about your websiteโs visitors.
Take Google Analytics, for example. This tool can provide you with information such as visitorsโ ages, genders, locations, languages, and more.
With most analytics tools, youโll only get access to demographics for a subset of your websiteโs visitors. However, if you have a large enough pool of data, that information can present you with a fairly accurate breakdown of your audience.
If you havenโt set up an analytics tool for your website yet, the best time to do so is now. Platforms such as Google Analytics take a while to collect enough data to produce usable results.
In the meantime, your best bet is to do some research about demographics for your industry in general and see if they match up with your experience. This research process might sound a bit too intensive, but itโs perhaps the most important component of a successful digital marketing strategy.
Once youโve found your ideal customer(s), you need to figure out how to reach them. There are dozens of channels you can use when it comes to digital marketing. However, not every channel resonates with every audience. To give you an idea of what works and what doesnโt, letโs return to our online flower shop example.
Letโs say that you want to run digital ads to drive traffic to your flower shop and want to use social media to do it. Right off the bat, we can tell you that purchasing sponsored tweets or LinkedIn ads isnโt likely to pay off.
Demographics research tells us that Twitter is more popular with men. While LinkedIn appeals to both genders, itโs geared towards Business-To-Business (B2B) marketing and professionals looking to network with one another and learn industry news.
In other words, most people on these platforms arenโt looking to buy flowers online. More effective and strategic options would include Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Letโs break down the thought process behind using each of these platforms for our hypothetical business:
Of these three platforms, focusing on Facebook would perhaps enable you to scale your ads the most due to its reach. However, it can also potentially be the most expensive option and it requires more precise user targeting.
However, running ads on all three platforms would probably drain your budget far too fast and you might not be able to gather enough data to determine what resonates with your audience and what doesnโt. Ideally, you should focus on promoting your brand on one social media platform, find an โofferโ (more on that shortly) that speaks to them, and then scale from there.
Itโs also important to note that youโre not limited to social media when it comes to digital marketing. Ideally, youโll combine paid approaches such as online ads with other more labor-intensive but budget-friendly methods, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content marketing, and email marketing.
Identifying your best customers and where you can find them is only the first part of the equation. You also need to understand what kind of offers will resonate with that audience.
Fortunately, you should have already made a lot of progress towards answering this question. After all, understanding your customersโ needs and desires is one of the key considerations when identifying those users.
โDonโt find customers for your products, find products for your customers.โ ~ Seth Godin
In the last section, we focused heavily on demographics and interests. Now, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Many businesses make the mistake of designing offers based only on monetary value. Offering your products at 50 percent off is fantastic, but it only works if people want those items in the first place.
Hereโs an example of how to develop an effective offer. In 2020, bikes became a hot commodity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since many people couldnโt use public transportation, they turned to bikes, scooters, skates, and other alternatives.
If youโre running an online business that sells bikes in 2020, your first thought might be to start offering small discounts to gain an edge over your competitors. After all, people are already looking for your product, so additional marketing efforts might seem unnecessary.
In this scenario, your audience needs access to a transportation method that enables them to socially distance themselves. Some people might not have thought about bikes as the solution, which provides you with another potential audience to target.
So, how can you stand out from other bike sellers during a boom? The answer is with a killer offer on the right marketing channel. Some ideas would include promoting your products as a safe transportation method and encouraging users to join the bike-riding movement using a hashtag such as #gobybike:
Although simple discounts can net sales, we always recommend that you look for ways to tap into your customerโs emotions and needs. If you can market your business as the solution to their problems, you have a potentially winning digital campaign on your hands.
If youโre not sure if youโve found the right angle, there are two questions we recommend you ask yourself:
Answering point number one is pretty straightforward โ your target audience will care if your offer solves a real-world problem they have. If you can identify that issue and offer a solution, the effectiveness of your advertising will come down to its copy and design.
So far, weโve focused only on research and planning. The creative pillar is all about the actual elements that your digital ads will include. In most cases, this comes down to two components:
Designing engaging ads with gripping copy is a skill that you need to hone (or outsource). Even if you understand who your core audience is and have a fantastic offer, that doesnโt necessarily translate to a successful campaign.
If you have zero experience when it comes to digital marketing, we encourage you to research successful campaigns and study their most essential components. These include their headlines, copy, images, and Calls To Action (CTAs).
Itโs important to note that weโre not suggesting you duplicate othersโ ads and simply substitute your own copy and visuals. Instead, strive to develop an eye for the structures that seem to resonate with consumers, identify what imagery users connect with, and which type of language seems most effective.
All of that information will point you in the right direction when it comes to creating your own campaigns. However, itโs entirely likely that youโll miss the mark with your first efforts. Successful digital marketing, in our experience, comes down to testing.
If youโre not seeing the results that you want, then start making changes to your campaign. You can tweak the adโs copy, try different types of images, or modify your CTA. In most cases, we recommend that you focus on one element at a time, so that when you relaunch your campaign you can identify which elements influence its effectiveness among your target audience.
โMasteringโ the creative pillar is all about developing a sense of what type of copy and design resonates the most with your audience. Once youโre confident in your knowledge, then you can start spending more time on small details.
Finally, you can have the right message for the right people, but if you donโt deliver it at the optimal stage of their customer journey, it wonโt be effective.
Letโs say, for example, that youโre promoting an ad that encourages potential customers to buy their first bike and gain access to a safe, healthy method of transportation during a pandemic. Thatโs a solid message, but itโs unlikely to help you increase sales if youโre target users who have already completed purchases at your store.
This is where you can introduce a process called โretargeting.โ Essentially, this strategy states you canโt use the same offer for new buyers as you would for returning customers. Each type of user is at a different step of their journey and the marketing funnel.
Letโs break down the three steps of the marketing funnel briefly:
Understanding how the marketing funnel works and what its steps or levels are is critical because it provides you with a framework to create different types of offers. If you focus only on targeting new users, youโll spend a lot more money than if you also foster relationships with and create unique offers for existing ones.
In most cases, convincing returning customers to buy from you again is significantly cheaper
than acquiring new leads. Returning buyers are also more likely to spend higher sums of money on your business, which makes them invaluable.
Any time youโre working on a new offer, you need to ask yourself what part of the funnel it targets and if it makes sense to focus on it at that stage. If you do that, youโre much more likely to build lasting customer relationships and effective campaigns.
Understanding the 4 pillars of digital marketing is all about knowing who your audience is, what they want, where to find them, and what to offer them. If you internalize these concepts, you will be able to tackle digital marketing much more successfully than if you design a strategy โby ear.โ
Letโs recap what the four pillars of digital marketing are before wrapping up:
Do you have any questions about the four pillars of digital marketing? Contact us, we would be happy to chat.
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Since 2010, James Hipkin has built his clientsโ businesses with digital marketing. Today, James is passionate about websites and helping the rest of us understand online marketing. His customers value his jargon-free, common-sense approach. โJames explains the ins and outs of digital marketing in ways that make sense.โ
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