Top 20 Tips for Custom Digital Marketing Framework in 2021
Running digital marketing strategies without a previously-devised digital marketing framework or plan is dooming your efforts to failure before you even get started according to runrex.com. This is why it is important to devise a custom digital marketing framework before you get started. To help you out with this, here are 20 tips for a custom digital marketing framework in 2021.
Consider “Zero-Based” planning
Most marketing frameworks are usually iterative which means that the planning process starts with the previous year’s plan and follows a measure-and-adjust philosophy as covered over at guttulus.com. New goals and objectives are still set for the new year, but areas of focus and primary budget line items are established by reviewing the previous year’s ledger and making necessary adjustments. However, while this approach isn’t inherently wrong, it favors fairly consistent market conditions, which won’t work this year as 2020 was anything but a normal year. This is why, when crafting your digital marketing framework in 2021, you should take a “zero-based” approach where, instead of looking at the previous year’s plan, you should start with only the new goals and objectives in mind.
Develop your digital stacks
Given what we learned from 2020, the gurus over at runrex.com point out that 2021 should be all about developing and progressing our digital stacks, which should be part of our digital marketing framework. This means getting on board with marketing automation, sales enablement, and customer relationship management tools.
Better define and target your audiences
One of the first things you do when crafting a custom digital marketing framework for your business is to define your target audience. An important tip when doing so this year, as per the experts over at guttulus.com is to make sure that you include a target market/audience analysis as part of the process as this will allow you to better define and target your audience with your marketing framework.
Go beyond basic demographic targeting
Additionally, while you are carrying out a target audience analysis, it is also recommended that you go beyond basic demographic targeting and, instead, you go for more precise models such as persona’s and the buyer’s journey. This is because, these new models stem more from the world of sales and, therefore, focus more on purchase intent and propensity to engage, which in turn ensures that your marketing efforts are focused on audiences with a higher likeliness to take action.
Tools to help you create customer personas
Buyer personas are a term used to describe the ideal customer that can be defined by surveying and contacting the pre-defined target group. You should move on from basic demographic targeting to creating customer personas when crafting your marketing framework as mentioned in the point above. To do this, you can make use of online tools such as Persona Creator and MakeMyPersona.
Evolve your existing KPIs
2021 is the time to evolve your existing key performance metrics (KPIs), moving from them in favor of new ones that more accurately reflect the true ROI of your efforts. Focus on KPIs that are aimed towards conversions rather than vanity metrics such as likes, followers, page views, recall, site traffic, among others as outlined over at runrex.com.
Sales engagement tools
Also, when coming up with your custom digital marketing framework in 2021, make sure you include the use of sales enablement tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Freshmarketer, and many others, as these tools will help you with the ongoing measurement and review of your new KPIs as discussed over at guttulus.com.
Use the SMART approach
When you are coming up with your custom digital marketing framework, one of the first things you do is define your marketing objectives. When doing so in 2021, the gurus over at runrex.com recommend that you use the SMART approach, which means setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This approach will help you define a solid digital marketing framework that resonates with your business.
Make getting a website a key part of your plan if you don’t have one already
The COVID-19 pandemic affected massively the offline market, forcing many small and mid-sized businesses to move online or risk shutting down. This is why online businesses saw a staggering 68% increase in sales in 2020 compared to 2019. 2021 is set to see an exponential growth of online businesses, which means that if you still don’t have a website for your business, make this a priority in your marketing framework.
Be flexible
2020 showed us the importance of staying light on our feet and being ready for anything, and we should take this lesson to heart in 2021. This means that, as you put together your marketing framework, it is important that you also create a contingency plan that takes into account possible pivots to make sure you avoid any last-minute scrambling in case things change while also ensuring that you don’t miss out on any opportunities that may be on the way.
Think small and nimble
When crafting your 2021 digital marketing framework, rather than trying to plot out a full 12 months of marketing and budgeting during these uncertain times, you should think smaller. According to the gurus over at guttulus.com, this means creating a three- or six-month framework or using a rolling budget that you can constantly update. This will allow you to evaluate the current business environment at the time and make more strategic and informed decisions.
Understand your audience better
As revealed over at runrex.com, likely, the audience you had in 2020 may not be the same audience you have in 2021. The pandemic has resulted in a change in consumer needs and business models, which means that many businesses may have lost some of their customer bases and/or attracted new customers and prospects. Therefore, you should allocate funds for customer research to evaluate all of your possible customer segments in 2021 and then create buyer personas for each of them as already discussed. Keep in mind that, even if your customers have not changed, their needs probably have.
Don’t allocate every single dollar
Before the pandemic, marketers would allocate every dollar they could to secure the maximum ROI possible when crafting their marketing plan. However, this is something we can’t afford to do given the events of 2020. Keeping a higher percentage of discretionary funds in your marketing framework will allow you to tag the dollars without tagging exactly what they are being used for which gives you more time to plan the best way to optimize your budget for the best results.
Monitor ROI closely
Even though measuring the return on marketing has always been a priority, in 2021 the gurus over at guttulus.com point out that it will be even more important than ever. This is because marketing budgets are usually the first to get cut in the face of economic downturns which means that you will need to be able to prove the outcome of your efforts to make a strong case for why you need the funds.
Understand the evolved digital environment
Since many face-to-face interactions continue to remain on pause, digital marketing will occupy an even larger slice of marketing plan pies in 2021. However, just having a digital presence is no longer enough particularly since new technologies and trends are being added to modern marketing plans including SEO optimization for voice searches and AI technology like chatbots. Keeping up with these new trends is important when coming up with a marketing framework in 2021.
Figure out your spending cap
While it is important not to allocate every single dollar, maintaining a healthy discretionary fund kitty as discussed earlier, you must figure out how much you are willing to spend on marketing as discussed over at runrex.com. This will ensure that you don’t go over the budget, which is paramount in these tough economic times.
Omnichannel marketing
As the gurus over at guttulus.com point out, a customer sees a sales content eight times before deciding to buy it. The omnichannel approach, therefore, is important as it is about being present where your customers are and targeting them on all channels where they are. This means that you need to have accounts on all the big platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as the new and emerging platforms like TikTok. Make sure this is reflected on your marketing framework in 2021.
Storytelling
Customers nowadays are more interested in the “behind the scenes” stories of your brand. As explained over at runrex.com, emotions will play a major role in 2021 with the success of your marketing efforts being determined by the relationships you build with your customers. Your marketing framework should include plans to go live on Facebook or Instagram, engaging with your followers in real-time, and answering their questions.
Focus on blogging
Creating high-quality content is more important in 2021 than it has ever been. Blogging is one way to create quality content for a site and expand your marketing strategy. If you have a regularly updated blog that visitors find useful, then your website will be easily found through the search engines, which is why this needs to be a major part of your marketing framework in 2021.
Track your process
Finally, constant monitoring of your marketing plan should be provided to ensure that the strategies therein are working effectively. Make sure that you are tracking the right KPIs as mentioned earlier and that you learn from mistakes so that you can improve and get a better ROI.
Hopefully, these tips will help you craft a winning custom digital marketing framework in 2021, with more on this wide topic to be found over at the amazing runrex.com and guttulus.com.