How to create a results driven digital marketing strategy.

What does results-driven even mean?

Think of a results-driven strategy as one that engenders measurable progress by leveraging the insights provided by quantifiable metrics.

To make the most out of your results-driven action-plan, you should navigate your marketing efforts by:-

Setting S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based) goals.

Delineating sensible metrics to track your progress on those goals.

Being open to experimental ideas.

Using your failures to discover room for improvement.

Taking action based upon your learnings.

Brainstorm S.M.A.R.T. Goals

The full form of this acronym is not nearly as important as its essence. So, we’ll not entangle you with a letter-by-letter analysis of what S.M.A.R.T. goals are. Instead, we’ll focus on the practical implications inherent to this goal-setting framework, as well as the data that you should leverage.

By thinking within the box of S.M.A.R.T. goals, you no longer have the option to swim in the waters of vagueness.

As per the S.M.A.R.T. framework, it isn’t enough to strive for more sales than before.

You need to give a number to your ambition.
You need a number that you can track.
You need a number that you can realistically achieve.
You need a number that justifies its pursuit.
You need to tie that number to a well-defined timeline.

Some additional considerations:-

Industry Trends:- Don’t forget to account for industry trends like seasonality (how certain industries flourish during specific parts of the year and experience a slump in other months) while focusing on conversions. This will help you in keeping your S.M.A.R.T. goals relevant as well as realistic. Use tools like Statista and SimilarWeb to gather useful insights.

Historical Data:- Use Google Analytics to get an idea of your past performance so that you have some idea about what works and what doesn’t. Identify the correlations between website traffic and marketing channels. As exhibited in the S.M.A.R.T. goals example used above, insights gained from analytical data can help you in identifying channels that yield the best ROI.

Monitor the right KPIs

A pleasant after-effect of sticking with the S.M.A.R.T. framework for goal setting is that you automatically end up with the right key performance indicators.

Don’t overlook small details while focusing on the bigger picture

Tracking your big-picture goals is imperative to growing your business in the digital age.

However, it is also pertinent to ensure smooth functioning of the internal machinery that ensures the propagation of your digital marketing efforts.

For instance, if you’re trying to increase the organic traffic on your website, thinking from an advertising-oriented standpoint isn’t enough.

You also need to ensure that the internal processes that increase the face-value of your website are all nicely oiled-up.

This includes optimising for SEO-centric aspects like keyword-research, site-speed, UX-design, backlinks, and more.

Simply put, don’t get so engrossed in tracking your progress that you forget to keep a check on the building blocks on your business’ digital presence.

Dr. William Edwards Deming, a well-known management consultant, came up with something called the Deming Wheel or the PDCA cycle to help businesses continuously improve their products and services.

The acronym, PDCA, stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act. This model can also be leveraged by digital marketing professionals to continuously improve their strategies.

Plan:- As we’ve discussed above, start with creating S.M.A.R.T. goals to ground your progress in quantifiable terms.
Do:- Execute your plan in multiple stages to ensure that you don’t get stuck with a strategy that isn’t doing you any good. In other words, design goals for quarters instead of for the entire year.
Check:- Keep a track of the right KPIs to get reliable measurements of your progress. Periodically identify improvement avenues, and keep making relevant adjustments in your S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Act:- Now, once you perform the first three steps for a good number of times, you’ll most likely identify glaring errors in your digital marketing strategy, and stumble upon long-term solutions. Implement those solutions, and return to step one.

With data science and other novel developments in business analytics fostering large-scale customer research in a manner hitherto unimaginable, metrics have become an inseparable part of marketing strategies.

Thus, being results-driven is inarguably the sane choice for marketers in the digital era. However, it is also wise to address metrics with a healthy dose of scepticism.

We hope this helps. Please contact us for a risk-free online marketing consultation today!