Digital marketing strategies are key for any business to grow in today’s ever-changing world. However, a survey by Daily Monitor reveals that about 66% of businesses in Uganda lack the skills and resources necessary for developing effective strategies.
As a small business owner, you may not believe it. You may wonder, “How? Is my business part of the 66%?” In this blog, I will explain why your digital marketing strategies fail. By the end, you will be able to tell the difference between good and bad strategies. You will also gain insights to develop competitive strategies for your small business.
Why Your Digital Marketing Strategies Fail.
First, you approach digital marketing with the wrong mindset. You don’t put in effort to learn how digital marketing works and use the same techniques that once worked in traditional marketing. You think it is a quick fix, and spend a lot of money on paid advertising, interrupting audiences only to realize that it isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Secondly, you mismanage social media by assuming that it works like TV and Newspaper Ads. Then, you set unrealistic expectations and comparisons. You compare yourselves to big brands and try to copy their strategies which only brings you disappointment because of the limited resources of your small business.
Lastly, you even claim to implement data-driven strategies, yet in reality, you focus on the wrong metrics for your analysis. Metrics such as follower growth and website traffic, without measuring conversion rates.
Good vs. Bad Digital Marketing Strategies.
Good digital marketing strategies deliver the right message to the right audience, at the right place and at the right time.
On the other hand, bad strategies interrupt. Even though most people can define digital marketing, unfortunately, very few understand its purpose and how it works.
Anyone can easily point out how it differs from traditional marketing. But on execution, most people do the same old tricks. Old tricks such as spamming people, interrupting people, and forcing people to do what they don’t want.
Instead of focusing on the smallest viable audience, you target everyone. No one listens when you target everyone. But, you can make people care by applying the following six tactics.
How To Develop Successful Digital Marketing Strategies.
1. Understand Your Audience.
An audience persona is a brief overview of your audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors. It helps your small business segment your audience as well as create content that satisfies their respective needs.
You can use this template to create an audience persona.
2. Set SMART Goals And Key Performance Indicators.
Smart Goals.
A smart goal is Specific, Manageable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For every goal of your content marketing strategy, ask yourself;
- Specific: What needs to be done?
- Manageable: Can it be measured?
- Achievable: Can it be done?
- Relevant: Should it be done?
- Time-bound: When will it be done?
Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
A good KPI will help you track your goals. Always define KPIs that are relevant to your goals. Focusing on key metrics such as social media followers alone is irrelevant. You need to assess how they bring value to your business.
Examples Of Good Key Performance Indicators.
If your goal was to “Increase the average engagement rate on Instagram posts by 20% within 6 months (from January to June 2024).” Then your KPI would be; “The average engagement rate per post within 6 months.”
Another KPI for the same goal would be; “Engagement rate by post format for the 6 months.” Tracking engagement rates for different post formats like images, videos, reels, and stories can help you identify which ones resonate best with your audience.
Note: You can have more than one KPI for each goal.
3. Make A Digital SWOT Analysis And An Action Plan.
Most small businesses use the SWOT framework in the early stages of setting up their business. It is a tool commonly used in feasibility studies to assess the potential business survival and growth.
Unfortunately, after the business has been set up, the SWOT framework is forgotten. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and it is a powerful tool in digital marketing.
A SWOT analysis for your digital marketing strategy gives you a 360-degree understanding of your business. This analysis serves as a strategic tool to identify gaps, mitigate risks, and enhance your return on investment (ROI).
By leveraging the insights derived from the SWOT analysis, your small business can gain a competitive advantage and grow.
Tip: Use the TOWS matrix along with the SWOT analysis to prioritize and develop your action plan.
4. Organize Your Strategy With A Content Calendar.
A content calendar/ editorial calendar is a tool that you can use to plan and track the progress of your content marketing efforts. It helps you stay organized as well as deliver your content on time.
There are many ways of making a content calendar. A general format of a content calendar should have at least, the title or theme of the content, the type of content, where it will be published, and when it will be published.
5. Create Content With Free Tools And Promote It.
This is the most exciting part of digital marketing. Here the photos are taken, blogs are written and graphics artworks are created. It’s distributed in various formats to various platforms.
Depending on your strategy and information from your audience persona, you will be able to select the suitable platform to reach out to your audience.
Tip: You can put your content calendar details in Google Calendar. That way, every team member will be notified at the right time and place.
6. Analyze The Results And Iterate.
Finally, small businesses should leverage data analysis techniques to measure the impact of their digital marketing strategies and make changes for better performance.
Various tools can be used to analyze your digital marketing efforts. Starting from insights the social media platforms and third-party tools like Uber Suggest, Hubspot, and other tools like spreadsheets.
To avoid drowning in huge data sets, focus on a few specific metrics that were defined in your SMART goals and KPIs. Metrics such as impressions, click-through rate, engagement rate, bounce rate conversion rate, and many others.
Data on those metrics can be extracted from the various media platforms. Furthermore, you can model and manipulate that data to predict future customer behavior.
Tip: When iterating, do A/B testing with your digital marketing strategies. Such experiments help you prove any hypothesis generated from the data.
Conclusion.
By adjusting your mindset and putting in the effort to learn how digital marketing works, you can achieve your digital marketing goals, and contribute to the success of your small business in Uganda.
Remember, digital marketing is a continuous learning process. Be patient, experiment, and adapt your strategies based on your data and audience.
Contact me when you need any help with developing and implementing your digital marketing strategy.
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