Chapter 1

Developing Your Overall Digital Strategy

IN THIS CHAPTER

Picking your key performance indicators (KPIs)

Catching customers with the Six Cs

Building product habits

Companies have recognized what their customers have always known. If they can't find the content that makes your product easy to use and enjoy, they are off to seek out your competitor. You've missed the opportunity to impress them or, in some cases, even get on their radar screen.

This chapter covers what goes into creating a digital marketing strategy. Without it, you can't get the traction you need to beat the competition. You also discover each of the "Six Cs" that you must include to make your strategy complete.

Understanding the Components of a Digital Marketing Strategy

To understand how the pieces of a digital marketing strategy fit together, the components are organized into a framework called the Six Cs. They are (1) company strategy, (2) customer experience, (3) clicking with artificial intelligence (AI), (4) content creation (5), channel promotions, and (6) check-back analysis.

Working with the Six Cs framework helps you cover all the bases as you create your digital marketing strategy and implement your plan.

Determining the company strategy

The first C is company strategy. To create a digital marketing strategy, you need to begin by looking at your company's business goals. The question to ask yourself and your team is, "What do we want the company to achieve and how do we make it happen?" Additional questions include:

• What do our customers need from us?
• What is the goal of this marketing strategy?
• How can we beat our competition?

You should direct your attention to your goals and business case for undertaking this effort. To that end, Book 1 covers the following topics:

• Creating a digital marketing strategy. Several components go into a successful marketing strategy. Keep reading this chapter to find out more as well as the subsequent chapters in this book.
• Getting and keeping your customers' attention. Marketers are fiercely competing for your customers' attention. Find out how to capture it in Book 1, Chapter 2.
• Understanding your business model and your brand. Find out about a variety of business models and how to determine what "job" your product does. You look at brand components in Book 1, Chapter 3.
• Deciding which marketing campaign to create. After you understand your goals, you can choose the right marketing campaign. See what to consider in Book 1, Chapter 4.
• Developing the strongest offers. You look at how to turn leads into customers by crafting winning offers in Book 1, Chapter 5.
• Planning for B2B campaign success. Discover which metrics to use when you want to measure your campaign success in Book 1, Chapter 6.

Uncovering the customer experience

The second of the Six Cs is customer experience, covered in Book 2. You need to learn what your prospects will think, feel, and do when interacting with your brand. The question for your marketing team to ask is, "Who are our prospects and how will we serve them as customers?"

You must define your audience and analyze the customer experience. You do this using the following approaches:

• Collect and analyze customer data. Before you define your audience, you need to evaluate the kind of data you will use. In Book 2, Chapter 1, you look at the benefits and challenges you may face when dealing with big data to analyze your audience.
• Create personas. You define the characteristics of your perfect audience by investigating several different types of information. Find out what actions you need to take in Book 2, Chapter 2.
• Develop the buyer's journey. You want to understand the journey your prospect takes, starting from being interested in your product to being sold on it. Book 2, Chapter 3 looks at the buyer's mindset and gives you a model to help you document your customer's touchpoints.
• Assist with sales enablement. Your sales team is facing an empowered customer. Find out in Book 2, Chapter 4 how your content can assist in making the job easier and more powerful. You can also determine where your company falls on the content maturity scale.

Clicking with artificial intelligence (AI)

The third of the Six Cs is clicking with AI, which is covered in Book 3. Using AI to deal with huge volumes of data is just the beginning of its value. You want to become adept at using it to help you understand and reach your customer in a more targeted way.

Chapter 1 in Book 3 takes you through these important topics:

• Concepts and use cases related to AI and marketing: You see the concepts that you need to know and learn what tools are available to help you meet this challenge.
• Utilizing AI with advertising: You see how you can use AI in advertising without having to be an expert.

Chapter 2 in Book 3 covers the following topics:

• Leveraging chatbots for conversational marketing. You can't afford to make your customers wait for answers that other competitors are ready to give them right away. You see how to provide your customers with the immediate answers they expect using conversational marketing.
• Developing content using AI apps. You know you need to create quality content on a very regular schedule, but sometimes you don't have the written content you need. The chapter also covers the development of AI content apps that "write" content for you.
• Deploying personalization. You need to make sure that your content is relevant to each of your audience members. That's a tall order.

Creating quality content

The fourth C is content creation, which is covered in Book 4. You need to focus on creating quality content (based on your story) that you know your customers want and need. The question to ask is, "How will we create quality content, who will do it, and what will that content be?"

You need to develop a strategy for content, define your messaging, and establish your systems and governance rules. The chapters in Book 4 show you how to do the following:

• Create a content strategy. You should have both a content plan and a content marketing strategy. In Book 4, Chapter 1, you see how to take an audit of your content to determine what you have and how you can leverage it to develop a true corporate asset.
• Develop content types. You want to ensure that you take full advantage of all the types of content available to you. Book 4, Chapter 2 covers various types including long- and short-form original content, curated content, and visual content.
• Know what your customers want. You learn how marketing funnels help you reach your entire audience. See how in Book 4, Chapter 3.
• Write and storytell. You have a story to tell that will connect with your audience. How do you incorporate it into your content? See Book 4, Chapter 4 to get a feel for the science behind why stories work and how to develop your own powerful corporate stories.
• Create processes and systems. You know that without a documented workflow and procedures, your content marketing efforts fail. Book 4, Chapter 5 spells out the roles and responsibilities of your content team and shows you the benefits of using an editorial calendar.
• Target content for each audience. Your company needs to build a resource library that customers can access without contacting you. Find out what you should put in that library in Book 4, Chapter 6.

Developing channel promotions

The fifth C of the Six Cs is channel promotion, which Book 5 covers in detail. To have your content make the greatest impact, you want to decide where and by whom your content will be distributed. The question to ask is, "How will our prospects and customers find our content so that they can choose us?"

You want to make your content easy to find and share. You need to know how to promote your content so that prospects can find it. Go to Book 5 to find out how to do the following:

• Use paid, earned, shared, and owned media for maximum reach. Making the most of all types of media is the only way to ensure that your brand voice will be heard. Look to Book 5, Chapter 1 to learn about the value of these types of media and why earned media is gaining in importance.
• Use search marketing. Although search marketing is constantly changing, you can't ignore its value. See Book 5, Chapter 2 to see what you need to know.
• Create sharable content. Sharing is key to any content plan. Book 5, Chapter 3 looks at using social bookmarks, as well as News and Share buttons to get your content read.
• Add an email marketing campaign. Everyone both loves and hates email, but it's still a very important tactic to use to reach customers. See what you need to do to use...