Choosing your digital marketing tactics

5 min read

You should know by now that digital marketing is essential for the growth of your business and brand. Using the right digital marketing tactics places billions of internet users within your reach, but deciding which tactics to implement to convert them into leads and customers depends on several factors.

In this blog, we will discuss what factors you need to consider when picking digital marketing tactics to best suit you and your business.

What factors should you consider?

The world of digital marketing is rapidly evolving - methods that may have been successful at the start of the year can be outdated by the end of it. You want to make decisions on what tactics will work best for you based on data-backed insight, a distinct idea of what you wish to achieve, and an awareness of your customers and audience. 

Deciding on tactics without a clear understanding of any of the above could prove to be a waste of time and money. You may also need to be able to justify your choice in tactics to colleagues and stakeholders, so there must be an easily explainable thought process behind your choices.

Sometimes the terms strategy and tactics are used interchangeably. For the purpose of this blog, when referring to tactics we’re referring to quantifiable actions and steps that you can take to help you achieve your goals. These tactics and how they’re implemented are what make up your strategy.

Here are factors you need to consider when deciding which digital marketing tactics are right for you.

What is your goal?

Do you have a goal you’re looking to achieve? Marketing goals must tie into a business’ overall goals. For example, focusing on reaching local customers isn’t helpful when a company’s ideal customer is based overseas.

Goals are most effective when they’re specific and quantifiable, and when you set a specific amount of time in which to achieve them. Do you wish to hit a certain number of subscribers by the end of the year? Or do you want to see traffic increase by a minimum amount over the next few months? Make sure that your goal isn’t to produce marketing content for the sake of it - it must be for a tangible purpose.

With these parameters in place, it will be easier to decide which tactics will best help you achieve your goal.

Your customers

Knowing who you’re speaking to is essential for both tactics and strategy. Some digital marketing tactics, such as brand storytelling, rely on being able to connect with your customers’ emotions. Without knowing some key details about the demographic of your audience, your digital marketing tactics may be more of a stab in the dark than a precise strike.

It’s important to consider how people of various ages, backgrounds, and even professions interact differently with the internet. Do you have buyer personas available to work from when creating your strategy? If not, researching and creating a buyer persona for your ideal customer will allow you to select tactics more accurately. 

The channels to use

There are various digital marketing channels through which to implement your tactics. Different channels will each have their strengths and weaknesses, and some will make more sense for your business than others. Some examples of digital marketing channels include:

• Social media marketing - using social media to boost awareness of your business
• Email marketing - reaching out to customers and leads with tailored emails
• PPC (pay per click) - a form of online advertising where advertisers only need to pay a fee when their ad is clicked
• SEO (search engine optimisation) - increasing search engine rankings through processes such as keyword research and link building
• Content marketing - strategically creating and sharing content to engage your audience, often used in conjunction with SEO
• Video marketing - the use of video content, such as educational videos or webinars, to advertise your business or product

These are a few of the many options available to you. Your choice of channel will depend on your goals, audience, and budget. Some of these channels work well together, such as SEO and content marketing. You may need to test a few channels to discover which ones work best for your business - if you have the budget to do so.

Your budget

Some tactics cost more than others, and sometimes a reasonable investment is needed to produce any kind of results. 

When choosing tactics for your strategy, look at your budget and see if you can save money by utilising the skills of people already within your team. This will be cheaper than taking on new staff or outsourcing - though, depending on the resources available to you, sometimes outsourcing is unavoidable. You can also focus on using complementary approaches, which are proven to be more likely to provide a better ROI. It’s also important to understand what your paid, owned, and earned media assets are, especially when looking at places where you might be able to cut costs.

Ultimately you want to make sure that the cost of your chosen digital marketing tactics don’t outweigh your ROI. It may be that you only have a limited budget to begin with, but if your choice of tactics proves successful, you can justify a higher budget going forwards.

How will you track and analyse it?

One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing is how well it can be tracked and analysed. The only way to prove whether a tactic has been successful is to measure the results. You can also use the data you collect to influence how to proceed with your strategy, and whether any changes need to be made. 

Failing to interpret this data promptly means you risk overlooking successes, failures, missing trends, and ultimately wasting money. It is essential to enter into any digital marketing campaign with a plan for how you intend to track and analyse the effectiveness of your tactics and strategy.

In conclusion

So much thought goes into choosing tactics, formulating a strategy and launching campaigns - it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The main things to focus on are making informed, data-backed decisions, and ensuring that when you pick tactics it’s to serve a specific purpose and benefit your chosen strategy.

When you’ve put such a huge amount of work into the planning stages, you want the data you’ve earned to be rewarding and easily digestible. This is where Apteco Orbit®  can help. We’ve worked hard to make Orbit® an easy-to-use, intuitive application that can easily gather and analyse all of your customer data. This can help you with everything from visualisations such as charts and diagrams to identifying trends and new opportunities. Apteco Orbit® aims to empower users with the knowledge they need to create better customer experiences and work to their full potential.

Learn more and see how Apteco Orbit® can help you track your campaigns by booking a demo or starting a free trial.