10 Reasons Why You Need A Digital Marketing Strategy

We all have big ideas and goals for our business offerings, but how are you going to execute them effectively, with ROI metrics in mind? Without a digital marketing strategy, how are you going to effectively monitor your efforts and know what and what isn't working?

You need a starting point. You need a base. The challenge most businesses face today is that they are beginning to learn how important digital marketing is, but they have no idea how to create the strategy for it. Instead of digging into how to create this, they often just throw their money to the wind and waste time. For a guide on how to create your digital marketing strategy, see our comprehensive guide here.

10 Reasons why you need a digital marketing strategy:

1. You have no direction
   Without this, without direction, you will have no way of efficiently analysing whether your efforts are paying off. If you have no idea what your overall goals are, be it leads or building closer relationships with your customers - you may divide your time and resources incorrectly.Ultimately, you would be wasting a lot of time and effort.
2. You will have limited to no understanding of your audience or market share. This is of the utmost importance.
   Understanding your place within your industry or market, as well as the unique search trends of your audience, assists in guiding your efforts.
   Without this, your leads will be of poor quality, and, again, efforts and time will be of no value.
3. Your competitors will be untouchable - for a while.
   Your competitors are creating well thought out strategies, and as a result will be leaps and bounds ahead of you if you don’t take this aspect of your marketing efforts seriously.
4. Your online value proposition will be boring - no unique identifier
   If you do not identify your unique offering, or differentiator within your industry - your current and potential clients are going to look for someone who does. You want to increase brand loyalty, and if you have nothing to offer, that loyalty will switch to a competitor.
5. What are your customers about?
   Without looking at the data available to you, and really drilling down to the gold nugget of consumer intent, you won’t know how to market to your customers, new and old.
6. Your business is not integrated
   All marketing channels should work together. There is no point in having them all operate within separate silos. Integrating with traditional media and response channels is a sure fire way to gain the traction your business needs with the necessary digital transformation.
7. You will lack allocated budget and resources
   Not taking into account the skill sets required to effectively manage your digital marketing plan and gain a competitive advantage, as well as a sufficient budget, could leave you unable to fulfil your goals.
8. Time and Money wasted through duplication
   If your efforts and resources are not carefully allocated with outlined tasks, you may find that your different departments are doing the same things.
9. Your Not Flexible Enough
   Not knowing current and upcoming trends, like the big online giants, you won’t be flexible enough to morph your digital offerings accordingly to stay ahead.
10. There is no optimisation
    Without planning, without insight, without focusing on the right goals - you won’t be able to locate the areas that are lacking and optimise them for better performance.

Other reasons why you need a digital marketing strategy:

1. Affordability
   Given its nature and numerous platforms - digital marketing is usually much lower in the cost department.
2. Mobile Accessibility
   Mobile users are increasing, and they need to be able to access your company offerings, products and services from their phone.
3. Reach your audience where they spend their time
   Your target audience uses Google and its search engine capabilities to find the products they want. They use it to compare these products and services. If your company is not available where potential customers are, you are missing out on a huge revenue stream.

Conclusion:
Ultimately you need direction. Without direction and well established goals, you are likely to waste money, time and resources on a digital marketing plan.