Keith Bugeja

Taking the plunge into the digital marketing sphere is a step in the right direction. Business owners who embrace an online presence have taken a substantial leap forward thus allowing themselves to expand their business and increase their current customer base by finding new ways in reaching them.

With the ever growing increase in competition, obtaining a strong foothold online is paramount to the success of your business. However, shifting your business online does not only mean having a state of the art website. Your offline processes must equate to your online processes in order to have a smooth flow of operation. Doing so will increase your return on investment, increase your revenues while maintaining budgets and above all satisfy your target customers.

Satisfying the needs of your customers is paramount. Everyone from all age groups are information hungry and want it at the push of a button. According to a report by David Moth (www.econsultancy.com/) 60% of online adults in the UK make use of at least two devices every day. Can you imagine the amount of content, be it websites, e-mails, blogs, adverts, etc., that customers are exposed to?

A tailor made digital marketing strategy would therefore be fruitful for your business. Even more so would be an integrated one, a strategy combining both direct and indirect marketing channels that would generate favourable responses from your target audiences as well as profitable results for your business.

Maintaining a well-integrated digital marketing strategy is to have common business goals and objectives emanating from the brand strategy as well as the marketing strategy. The key determining factor here is that your entire marketing approach should be driven by your brand strategy and not by channel specific tactics. However these channel tactics must definitely not be an afterthought and the best possible way to do so is to integrate a digital marketing plan with your communications plan. Such tactics include SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), PPC (Pay per Click), Social Media and Content Marketing are a means of how to increase your brand awareness and recognition by your target audience.

Tips for Developing a Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Campaign

Just like a traditional marketing strategy, you must know your online target audience and what influences their purchasing decisions as this would allow you to budget accordingly and finding the right mix for your campaign.

Implementing and maintaining a balance between cost and resource allocation in your digital marketing mix would allow you to effectively manage your campaign and not to allocate too much resources towards one channel.

Testing the effectiveness of the campaign will allow you to gauge your success and to identify what needs changing or optimising in your digital marketing mix in order to achieve the desired results and meet objectives. Being proactive is important for continual improvements.

Overall, a digital marketing campaign is an effective means in reaching out to your target audience, generate a favourable response and convert them into prospective leads.

Keith Bugeja is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Alert eBusiness Internet Marketing Division. www.alertemarketing.com and www.alertcreative.com.mt